Room Care -- Please

[dawngee]

So, we checked into BLT yesterday. WE arrived at 9:30am and to our utter surprise and amazement our room was READY. YEP that's right ready. Ah but don't you worry your pretty heads any. Remember the phrase "never look a gift horse in the mouth".

So we get up to our room, walk in and WOW what a view. We are in a room with a better view than anticipated, where we can see the lagoon and the MK--Hallowishes fireworks were spectacular.

We then look at the island counter--dirty. The stainless fridge, dirty. The cocktail table/storage bench--dirty. A coffee spill the size of a grapefruit on the carpet by the lamp in the front window. The countertop in the kitchen, stove top, etc etc.

We called housekeeping, and they quickly took care of it all. Even gave us a credit on our account for dinner. Not necessary but appreciated.

My biggest gripe is this. I looked at the kitchen table and banquette. The table top has approximately 30 puncture marks in groups of three. Yes, you guessed it. Someone sat there with the fork and literally "forked the table top".

Folks, please do you do this at your home. If it is your children, respect the others who share with you and let's not increase our dues to fix and repair a resort that is open for two months. What the heck are you thinking. I am truly disappointed as a owner (effective tomorrow) that someone would vandalize property like this. TOo bad DVC doesn't keep track of what a room looks like when they check in and if there is damage, charge you for it.

Anyway, off my soap box for now. Please think twice about letting the kids doing something you think is cute.

dawn g

 

[Sheriff Woody]

idiots.

 

[Halle]

OKW experienced the same type of damage when it was brand spanking new. I think it's the CRO inventory.

 

[StreamMaster]

This is why we sold after 10 years of DVC. As long as DVC rooms are rented out to cash guests that have NO vested interest in DVC or the resort, I'll have no more to do with DVC. With our home resort being Boardwalk and staying there 99% of the time, we saw far to many just plain TRASHED rooms. Broken furniture and amenities. I'm just not stupid enough to continue to pay dues to maintain a resort being trashed by non-members. I'm sure this holds true for other DVC resorts also.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm sure there is a good number of members that do thier share of damage, but a good number cash guests seem to think that Disney makes HUGE amounts of money and can affort to fix any abuse they wish to deal out.

 

[Chuck S]

How do you know it wasn't a member, or someone that rented from a member? Why do you simply assume it was a CRO guest?

I've ssen members melt down at the front desks because thy paid $XX,000 and deserve special treatment...so I think it is just as likely a DVC Owner who causes damage.

 

[DVCGeek]

I hate that people do that sort of thing. One spot, accidents happen I guess. But more than that and it's intentional and/or stupidity! Assuming it was kids, why don't parents teach them to respect property, be it theirs or someone else's????? And if it was adults, that just makes me sick that people damage and destroy things for the sake of doing it.

 

[crisi]

Yep, some of them do that to their house. And not always are they "meaning to mistreat their house."

In our house, its a once beautiful cherry end table, a rock and a three year old....I can still work up wanting to strangle my son. He did manage to live through it though....

 

[ua1992]

Have you ever watched the show "Clean House" ? It's unbelievable what folks will do to a good home.

 

[monkeyknuckler]

... Too bad DVC doesn't keep track of what a room looks like when they check in and if there is damage, charge you for it.

dawn g

Thats a good idea. They do that with rental cars. Why not a hotel room?

 

[Chuck S]

Thats a good idea. They do that with rental cars. Why not a hotel room?

Likely the cost to have a supervisor inspect every room after every guest would be cost prohibitive, the larger resorts would need several such managers daily, unless you want to wait even longer to get into your rooms.

And that cost would be passed along as a dues increase, which probably would cost more than fixing the rooms that are damaged.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

About the rental car thing.....

We travel a lot - so much that we can be in and out of a rental car 6 times in one month. We are careful with the cars we rent (just as we are our home and DVC units), but I now avoid the rental companies as much as I can who hold customers responsible for previous damage. I expect to point out big dents or something, but I hate being responsible for going over the car with a fine tooth comb when I pick it up, knowing that the rental company doesn't necessarily note damage as they should and I might be held responsible if I miss the previous renter's dings. (Have had to fight this once and it was no fun at all.)

So I don't know what to do about clods who let their kids take forks to tables, but I'd prefer not to have the burden of walking through the unit noting every scratch and ding, worrying about missing something. I do always call to have big things fixed (partly for the next person's comfort as well as ours), but I don't want to be Disney's official quality control.

 

[disneynutz]

BLT for the short time that it has been open, seems to have an exceptional amount of damage reports. Is it possible that the quality of materials use in construction are less than what has been used in the past?

At this rate, the members who purchased BLT for its low dues will soon see a 20% increase.

Bill

 

[Pootle]

Yep, some of them do that to their house. And not always are they "meaning to mistreat their house."

In our house, its a once beautiful cherry end table, a rock and a three year old....I can still work up wanting to strangle my son. He did manage to live through it though....

Yep, almost identical story here only the table was pine and the implement a piece of pottery I had made - and my son also survived

As usual, ITA with Crisi. Those ten or so strikes with a fork could have sounded like the child playing with a toy before a parent realised what was happening.

No excuse for the poor housekeeping though, but we read it about every resort at sometime or another. They haven't yet managed a 'Magic' DVC that is immune from 'overlooked' cleaning issues.

 

[StreamMaster]

How do you know it wasn't a member, or someone that rented from a member? Why do you simply assume it was a CRO guest?

I've ssen members melt down at the front desks because thy paid $XX,000 and deserve special treatment...so I think it is just as likely a DVC Owner who causes damage.

simple, I listen to the conversation of the group as they walk down the hall with thier child dragging a hard plastic toy down the wall as they walk to the elevators. Really don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out over a 10 year period.

As far as DVC "entitlement ", that's another issue altogether.

But really, I think most owners will agree that they are aware that damage will come out of thier dues and most guests know that the damage will come out of members dues. The rest is human nature. ( at least now days ).

 

[Chuck S]

If it is true that you'll have no more to do with DVC because they rent to cash guests, I guess that means you have very, very few, if any, other timeshares to choose from, as they all pretty much rent to cash guests. Many even give huge discounts if your a cash guest and take a sales tour.

Do you propose that DVC stop all cash guests, and therefore, all trades outside the DVC system to other Disney locations? Or hire special CMs to check each and every unit between guests, possibly upping dues more than the isolated instances of damage costs to repair?

 

[StreamMaster]

If it is true that you'll have no more to do with DVC because they rent to cash guests, I guess that means you have very, very few, if any, other timeshares to choose from, as they all pretty much rent to cash guests. Many even give huge discounts if your a cash guest and take a sales tour.

Do you propose that DVC stop all cash guests, and therefore, all trades outside the DVC system to other Disney locations? Or hire special CMs to check each and every unit between guests, possibly upping dues more than the isolated instances of damage costs to repair?

I will let my statements stand on thier own Chuck. I don't recall makeing any comparisons to other timeshares nor did I see a need to. Likewise, it's not my place or my intention to offer up Fixes to the situation.

As a ex 10 year owner ( BWV ) , I was just offering my input to the OP. Sorry if I offended you.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

How do you know it wasn't a member, or someone that rented from a member? Why do you simply assume it was a CRO guest?

I've ssen members melt down at the front desks because thy paid $XX,000 and deserve special treatment...so I think it is just as likely a DVC Owner who causes damage.

You pose an interesting question... with a twist, if I may.

So who pays for the repair? CRO or DVC?

 

[Chuck S]

You pose an interesting question... with a twist, if I may.

So who pays for the repair? CRO or DVC?

Likely DVC, if CRO doesn't bill the occupants for damages, which they may, just as owners are held responsible for their renters. Remember, if a renter leaves an unpaid balance, the members account is frozen. That ius assuming the resort is fully sold. At BLT, where a substantial portion of the resort is not owned by members, the costs would be shared like any other resort expense.

 

[kayla87]

BLT for the short time that it has been open, seems to have an exceptional amount of damage reports. Is it possible that the quality of materials use in construction are less than what has been used in the past?

I had the same thought regarding construction materials. They seemed to be awfully "residential" feeling. Residential quality materials don't hold up to the abuse hotel rooms receive. I've been meaning to ask my husband if he agrees, since he is more knowledgeable than I am about that kind of stuff.

However, no matter what quality carpet you have, when people spill something it's going to stain if it doesn't get treated. We believed our room had an inordinate amount of wear and tear for being open for such a short period of time, and I'm sad to see this is the case more generally in the resort.

Although, I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that the blue wall in our bathroom was painted so shoddily that I could see the specks of white all over it. That is rushed construction and poor punching. No excuse for that other than "We don't have time, so leave it," or they simply didn't have the time or man power to look closely enough.

 

[SimmerBaggins]

I do have to say, although the state of a room after so many guests might be disappointing, a bad paint job or shoddy workmanship is worse. If I saw this was the case, I probably would have put in a comment -- not that I would expect they would rush in and fix it, but so that they may take appropriate action at the right time.

We thought about buying BLT after we got to view it, but for now I'm glad we didn't. We enjoy AKV -- sturdy workmanship and (it seems) great attention to detail.