Room ready frustration

[quandrea]

In ten years, maybe fifty stays, only had the room not ready by 4pm once. AKV Kidani. Didn’t get the room until 6 or 7. We were very upset as it was our Thanksgiving Day and our in villa dinner plans wereruined. Also, our home baseball team had a big playoff game that afternoon (4pm start, I think). Missed much of that. We got the almost ready song and dance, then a $250 Credit. Finally when my dh got really mad, our points for the night were reinstated.

 

[dvcer97]

3 different DVC stays in the last two years and not a single one was ready for 4 PM. My AKL and SSR stays were close to 6 PM, while my BWV stay was closer to 7 PM. Each stay was in a deluxe studio.

7pm room ready oh boy I hope I won't get that late a room ready for my May trip at BWV , I will not be happy.
Staying in a 1 bed unit

 

[lovin'fl]

Couple of things...
1) we had always had this issue with BWV but it has been better lately (and HHI has been bad)
2) now that our dues hiked so much to cover raises for housekeeping, they really should be tip top and get it done quicker (they are slow as I pay attention to when they do the lock off part we're connected to and I could clean those in 1/2 the time).
3) a family member is dating a former WDW worker and he said that MANY folks leave later than 11 on check out day and that holds up everything. I know once at Vero we had a 2BR and arrived around 12:30 and was told our studio part was ready so we took all our stuff up there and saw the folks packing up to leave from our 1BR part and they didn't get out until 1:00ish and then they had to clean. We got it around 3:30.

 

[brewcrew]

For those checkout out, remember that others are waiting to check in later in the day. When my family goes to DVC, we put the "occupied" sign on our door the morning of checkout until we leave. When we leave, we take the sign off the door and tell the house keeper that we are leaving. And we always leave by 11am. If people aren't checking out by 11am, DVC should enforce the requirement.

 

[lovin'fl]

We ALWAYS check out between 8-9am. Unless we have a split stay, then we leave closer to 11 since the next room is never ready until closer to 4. I always book a late breakfast or early lunch between. Next trip is a BWV/SSR split and on switch day I booked a noon lunch at Wine Bar George then can shop and buy time until our SSR room is ready.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

My daughter's preschool had to enforce a $1/minute late charge if you were more than 5 minutes late picking up your child. It worked and people starting picking up their kids on time. I'm not usually a fan of extra fees, but one like this for those who are breaking the rules could cover the cost of hiring extra housekeeping during that super busy 11-4 time so rooms are ready on time. However I imagine Disney would get raked over the coals for instituting a money grab so I doubt it would happen.

 

[TCRAIG]

One thing that helps me - I look at ‘Check In’ and ‘Room Ready’ are 2 different activities...Check In is at 4 - Room Ready is whenever they have it clean - preferably around the same time as Check In - but no guarantee.

 

[Ms.Minnie]

Let me say first that we have always been out of our room well before the posted check out time. I agree there should be a fine/fee paid by those who check out late. If you are only a few minutes late that is one thing but to be two hours past the check out time warrants a fee to be paid by the offending occupants.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We are always out of the room by the 11 am check out time. One trip, a number of years ago, we ended up booking a late flight on our last full day because the airfare was so much less expensive. We simply added another night to our stay so we could use the room through the afternoon of our departure day. We let the front desk know when we vacated the room about 6 pm to head to the airport, since it was going to be empty that night and could be cleaned first thing in the morning. Seems like we never have any extra points these days, so a repeat performance is very unlikely.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Logistically are they going to pay more employees to patrol all the rooms at 11 am to make certain every one is exited by that time? Since they don't have a single housekeeper for each room just waiting to go into clean then logistically the periodic group that leaves late is not going to halt cleaning and the expense of patrolling it would be more costly. And probably not mean rooms any earlier. That would take more housekeepers. I have no doubt there are groups that wander out mid-afternoon and that would delay but I don't see it being any different unless they put more funds towards more housekeepers.

 

[Ms.Minnie]

When staying at a regular hotel/motel you have to checkout, they could enact a checkout policy to snag the offenders. Not sure how many there really are, not sure if that's the real reason for delays in check-in times. Also I could see this creating a bottleneck at the check-in desk, they would have to have a separate window for checkout which would require more people power (keeping it politically correct and not say "man" power ) so not sure if this is a real solution, just a thought.

 

[lovin'fl]

Well they could make us check out. They could even have it on TV or something. To let them know we are outta there. And then the ones not done by 11 would be pulled up by desk person on computer. Taking a second to do. Then they charge a late fee. Should be like $150. That would disuade folks. The guy I know who used to work at WDW says that was a big problem...folks strolling out late whenever they wanted.

 

[Ms.Minnie]

Sounds like a plan to me!

 

[beccasmom]

Beach Club and BLT have given us our longest waits for rooms fairly consistently. In the 5:30-6PM range. Not always but often enough.

This has been our experience too, although mainly with BCV.

 

[Dean Marino]

Deleted.

 

[kangamangus]

Our one experience with after 4pm check in was quite stressful for our family of 8 but also looking back could be seen as understandable.
We were at OKW in a grand villa arrived Thanksgiving morning. We had left our home in Maine at 330am for a 6 am flight out of Manchester and by arriving at OKW at 11am we were exhausted and in dire need of some quiet time with 6 kids.
My husband and brother took a rental car to purchase groceries and of course Walmart was packed with Thanksgiving frenzy shoppers.
By 3pm I felt like crying and underestimated how exhausted me and the kids would be in the lobby waiting.
At 4:30 when our room still wasn't ready and my husband had returned with groceries for 10 days for 8 people (a large load to say the least) we then had to have bell-hop store everything.
I started to make deals with the front desk ( I'll clean the villa myself! LOL).
At 5:15pm the room was ready. They delivered the groceries and I cried from exhaustion.
Looking back it was a storm of events-
I was unprepared ( no bathing suits in carry on)
I under estimated what I could handle on travel day with 6 kids
It was Thanksgiving Day (very busy travel time at Disney).
We are returning to OKW this January on a later flight, with bathing suits packed and a better plan of meeting another family so that if needed I have help with little kids and clothing changes, getting food and snacks and since this family is arriving on Thursday they will have a room if needed for a minutes peace.
We do have a reservation at T rex at 6pm so I'm hoping that the room is ready by 4pm!

 

[js]

GV aside. How much longer does it take to clean a 2-bedroom vs. 3 studios? I have no idea, but I'm sure Disney/DVC does. Why can't they plan to have sufficient staffing to turn over those rooms?

I don't have the answer to your question but know that when we checked into GFVs on September 5, when we arrived, I had asked for my room to be changed (got the room number while on ME and went on dis and was an awful view). Anyway, they found me a new room and said that it was currently being cleaned. I had a dedicated two bedroom at GFVs and the concierge told me it takes 2.5 hours to clean. Not sure if that is the standard answer or if someone is in there that long but our room was immaculate.

 

[Sandisw]

We’ve been very lucky and only twice in all your DVC times has my room been delayed beyond 4. Once was about 4:20 but the other time it was about 5:20. For that one, it was BLT, and they ended up comping our meal at Poly since we had 6:30 pm reservation and knew we wouldn’t have as much time to get ready.

The earliest was this summer for a studio at SSR...got the text at 8:30 am. Wasn’t even flying out till 1!

I think that if the room isnT ready by 4:30, then guests should be compensated in some small way as suggested, even if it is a FP.

If someone has to wait past 5:30 pm, there should be some sort of comp given, We pay for housekeeping as part of our dues and I think that the budge for that should be enough to ensure that rooms, barring an emergency, should be ready close to that 4 pm time, if it means a slightly larger expense, then I am in favor,

I also think it would be great if there was a better way to notify them if you are leaving the room earlier than 11. Maybe even something like the room occupied sign that says. Room ready for cleaning. My past 3 trips, we have been gone by 4:30 am!

 

[Bullseye]

Beach Club and BLT have given us our longest waits for rooms fairly consistently. In the 5:30-6PM range. Not always but often enough.

Yes same here. BLT and Beach club have always made us wait the longest. Never have gotten a room before or at 4 pm at either resort. On most occasions it is 5:30-6:30 pm before we get a room. Once at BLT it was after 7PM, so they comped us a TS meal which I thought was generous!

 

[suemom2kay]

July BWV room ready at 2:24pm. Kidani 3:47pm. This past Saturday my room at Dolphin was ready at 3:25pm. On Thursday we moved to Poly studio with room ready at 2:20pm. Typically my DVC rooms have been ready mid to late afternoon.