Room requests at dvc? A dying notion?

[hmmerr02]

We have been DVC members for 9 years and love every minute of it. Over that time we have stayed multiple times at each resort. One of the few complaints I have over most recent stays is the lack of attention room assigner seem to pay to room requests. When we book extra trips through Disney direct they seem to pay much more attention to it than DVC. Does the room assigner just ignore it anymore? I would love to hear others ideas or experiences who have owned for a while

 

[bumbershoot]

When doing online checkin, there has always been a choice or two depending on what resort we're checking in to. Now there are more choices, at least in my experience checking in (well before the old 10 days...now it's out to 60 days, but currently you have to do that through the main WDW website after linking your DVC reservations to your WDW account). And every time we have gotten exactly what we checked off while doing online checkin.

So I have definitely had different experiences than you have had!

 

[disneynutz]

There are multiple factors that determine the success of room assignments. Number of rooms matching the request, resort, number of requests made and their order, DME, check in time, VIP, number of check outs, number of guests making requests, and the person assigning.

It is well known among CM's who takes their job seriously and tries their best to match requests and who just wants to go home.

 

[Anal Annie]

I still can't figure out the need to check in 60 days out (or 10 days out) and have never used the online check-in option. I have never found the wait to check in at any of the the resort desks all that bad. I always ask the CM checking me in if any of my requests can be met and they usually try to assign us a room as best they can with regard to our requests. So far so good with our requests. I'm sure our luck will run out and the day will come when one simply can't be met tho. (Likely this summer with our VGC reservation since it's so small.) Because I usually DO have some sort of room request I will likely never use the online check-in. I just don't see the benefit if I can talk to a real live person (and have the ability to "remind" them that we had a request). I prefer that.

 

[disneynutz]

I still can't figure out the need to check in 60 days out (or 10 days out) and have never used the online check-in option. I have never found the wait to check in at any of the the resort desks all that bad. I always ask the CM checking me in if any of my requests can be met and they usually try to assign us a room as best they can with regard to our requests. So far so good with our requests. I'm sure our luck will run out and the day will come when one simply can't be met tho. (Likely this summer with our VGC reservation since it's so small.) Because I usually DO have some sort of room request I will likely never use the online check-in. I just don't see the benefit if I can talk to a real live person (and have the ability to "remind" them that we had a request). I prefer that.

Disney created online check in to reduce their costs and number of employees buy eliminating the wait at the Front Desk and reducing the number of room requests.

Bill

 

[Anal Annie]

Disney created online check in to reduce their costs and number of employees buy eliminating the wait at the Front Desk and reducing the number of room requests.

Bill

I still don't see the need to DO it tho.... I'll stick with what works....keep the humans employed....

 

[DebbieB]

We have been DVC members for 9 years and love every minute of it. Over that time we have stayed multiple times at each resort. One of the few complaints I have over most recent stays is the lack of attention room assigner seem to pay to room requests. When we book extra trips through Disney direct they seem to pay much more attention to it than DVC. Does the room assigner just ignore it anymore? I would love to hear others ideas or experiences who have owned for a while

I stayed at BLT last month and made my requests through e-mail to member services about a month before arrival. I requested even number room, north side. Got exactly that. I did online check-in but did not indicate any requests there because what I wanted was not a choice.

How do you know that they ignored it vs it was just not available on your arrival date?

 

[disneynutz]

I still don't see the need to DO it tho.... I'll stick with what works....keep the humans employed....

You don't need to do it.

It is a Disney product for cash guests staying at the regular resorts. They find it beneficial when the line at the Front Desk is 30 people deep. DVC is using their software on the DVC website because it is next to free. That's why the room requests in the software seem so weird for DVC stays, they are meant for cash stays through CRO.

Bill

 

[Murron]

I still can't figure out the need to check in 60 days out (or 10 days out) and have never used the online check-in option. I have never found the wait to check in at any of the the resort desks all that bad. I always ask the CM checking me in if any of my requests can be met and they usually try to assign us a room as best they can with regard to our requests. So far so good with our requests. I'm sure our luck will run out and the day will come when one simply can't be met tho. (Likely this summer with our VGC reservation since it's so small.) Because I usually DO have some sort of room request I will likely never use the online check-in. I just don't see the benefit if I can talk to a real live person (and have the ability to "remind" them that we had a request). I prefer that.

Same here. I never use the web site for reservations nor will I use on line check in (did it once only). I'm far from technology impaired....rather, I just don't have any trust or confidence in Disney IT. Unless the IT services get significantly better, I will call member services for my reservations and I will do a live check in. That being said, I may just be lucky, but over the years I've only had one request at BCV that could not be fulfilled.

 

[CarolMN]

My understanding is that the 60 day check in is related to FP+. Once that gets fully up and running, you will want to check in at 60 days to take advantage of the ability to reserve Fast Passes in advance of your arrival. Until then (or if you don't plan to reserve FPs in advance), there is no need to check in so early.

 

[hmmerr02]

I stayed at BLT last month and made my requests through e-mail to member services about a month before arrival. I requested even number room, north side. Got exactly that. I did online check-in but did not indicate any requests there because what I wanted was not a choice.

How do you know that they ignored it vs it was just not available on your arrival date?

Just the number of times it has not been done. If I look back over the last 3 years I would take a bet that we are at about 30% request granted rate. Sometimes it seems like they have gone to the extreme opposite to give us the room that would be as far removed from our request as it could get. I have just personally seen a decline in the attention to this detail.

 

[Anal Annie]

Same here. I never use the web site for reservations nor will I use on line check in (did it once only). I'm far from technology impaired....rather, I just don't have any trust or confidence in Disney IT. Unless the IT services get significantly better, I will call member services for my reservations and I will do a live check in. That being said, I may just be lucky, but over the years I've only had one request at BCV that could not be fulfilled.

OH I DID just use the online reservation system recently and loved that feature. We were trying to get both a studio at VGC and an OV studio at Aulani at our 7 month window for this summer & I needed that online booking advantage. I was glad I used it for both as they were both gone almost instantly when I went back & checked the availability after I got my confirmation. If I had waited for the phones to open at 9:00 I'd have been waitlisting instead of booking.

My understanding is that the 60 day check in is related to FP+. Once that gets fully up and running, you will want to check in at 60 days to take advantage of the ability to reserve Fast Passes in advance of your arrival. Until then (or if you don't plan to reserve FPs in advance), there is no need to check in so early.

Oh boooo, hisss!! I am one who's not looking forward to this new FP system. Too much scheduling. I already hate having to deal with planning our ADR's 5 or 6 months out. I'm really not looking forward to the over planning this will cause.

 

[DebbieB]

Just the number of times it has not been done. If I look back over the last 3 years I would take a bet that we are at about 30% request granted rate. Sometimes it seems like they have gone to the extreme opposite to give us the room that would be as far removed from our request as it could get. I have just personally seen a decline in the attention to this detail.

Just wondering - what are you requesting? Is it something general that could have more availability or something specific that is limited availability?

 

[Murron]

My understanding is that the 60 day check in is related to FP+. Once that gets fully up and running, you will want to check in at 60 days to take advantage of the ability to reserve Fast Passes in advance of your arrival. Until then (or if you don't plan to reserve FPs in advance), there is no need to check in so early.

Very very true -- but the key word is "up and running" ... once they get all the bugs out of the system, I'll be happy to do it on line like everything else!

 

[hmmerr02]

Just wondering - what are you requesting? Is it something general that could have more availability or something specific that is limited availability?

We are at boardwalk this week and I request near elevator (very common request) for a studio. I booked it almost 6 mos out and was out in the second building down.

We booked AKL studio. Request near lobby. We were in a room so far away I had a blister in my foot. The building dead ended with our hallway.

Those are just a couple of examples

 

[twinmom108]

I'm sorry to hear that you've had less than success with your room requests. Here's some pixie dust for your next trip in hoping you will get a room you really enjoy at WDW!

We seem to almost always get something we requested in room location.
When we stayed at VGC I was hoping for 1 of two different rooms & made 3 requests that would include those rooms. Didn't ask for any by room # because that's nearly impossible to get as a request. All of our requests were granted and the room was actually 1 of the two rooms we wanted.

The most amazing room request granted was on our last WDW trip in Nov/Dec 2012. We were staying in a 1 bdrm for 14 nights and there was one particular room I really wanted to stay in at VWL. I made our requests and included the room #. Imagine my shock when the text with our room # on it came & it was the exact room # we requested. That was amazing pixie dust for sure. I'm positive it's very rare that actual room # requests like that ever come to fruition due to all the extinuating circumstances that have to happen in order for that room to be available & the CM to actually assign that room to the requester.

Incidently, we were also at VWL the night before in a studio & had the dumpster view. One night with that view wasn't bad especially with the view we got for the next 2 weeks.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We booked AKL studio. Request near lobby. We were in a room so far away I had a blister in my foot. The building dead ended with our hallway.

Those are just a couple of examples

Sometimes I think that AKV-speak for "near elevator" or "near lobby" is "to haycks and back" (as my grandmother used to say). Last time I checked in to AKV, the front desk CM even said "Oh, I see you requested a room near the elevator, so we'll give you this one, definitely not that one!" Well, I was so far out there, I really wondered why she didn't give me "that one"-it certainly couldn't have been any further away than I was.

 

[oneprincessjo]

Anytime I book a trip through DVC I send an email immediately to ask them to notate my room request at the 11 month window and so far I have always gotten what I have asked for.

 

[oneprincessjo]

Anytime I book a trip through DVC I send an email immediately to ask them to notate my room request at the 11 month window and so far I have always gotten what I have asked for.

Also I should mention we always stay a BLT

 

[Deb & Bill]

We are at boardwalk this week and I request near elevator (very common request) for a studio. I booked it almost 6 mos out and was out in the second building down.

We booked AKL studio. Request near lobby. We were in a room so far away I had a blister in my foot. The building dead ended with our hallway.

Those are just a couple of examples

Okay, I get the problem at AKV. But BWV only has one building. What is the "second building down"?