Self Extenders

[Holly]

Last week when I arrived at SSR I was unable to get into a room until almost six o'clock.

I had checked in at seven that morning and requested a room in the Springs. The CM even gave me keys and circled the building the room was in- which lucky for me met all of my requests.

I called at four and my room was not ready. I called back 45 minutes later and they asked me to come to guest services at the resort. After a lot of hassle, a manager finally came out and confessed that they reason that my room wasn't ready was that its previous occupants had self extended their stay and they didn't have anywhere else to put me.

At quarter til six, after them actually telling me they had no rooms, they were able to scrounge one up in Grandstand (which met none of my requests, but at least it was a room) that they said they had just opened.

It was pretty upsetting, especially the minutes that ticked by when we thought we had NO room. We also missed our dinner PS

I would never self extend my stay. Of course, I don't know the circumstances of the people that did it, but I do know that their actions impacted my vacation and hope that it was for a good reason and not just because they didn't feel like leaving.

The manager was very nice and was as frustrated as we were. He said that this actually happens quite often.

Unless there is a sick person involved- Disney should throw them out.

I hate the thought of having to worry about whether my booked room will be available.

 

[ddhoeg]

So sorry to the OP! Vacation time is so precious!!

We had not the exact situation but related. We were at BCV a few weeks ago, playing in SAB. I was talking to a fellow DVC member as our kids were playing together around noon. She said that yes, they knew that check out was at 11 a.m. but they slipped the maid $40 so they could stay until 2:00 It hadn't occurred to me that this actually went on .

 

[Disneyhappy]

So sorry to the OP! Vacation time is so precious!!

We had not the exact situation but related. We were at BCV a few weeks ago, playing in SAB. I was talking to a fellow DVC member as our kids were playing together around noon. She said that yes, they knew that check out was at 11 a.m. but they slipped the maid $40 so they could stay until 2:00 It hadn't occurred to me that this actually went on .

Yikes! That is not good at all!

If the guests are DVC members and do not have prior approval to stay beyond the check out time (I thought it was 10 AM, not 11 AM) can DVC charge them points or an extra night on their credit card. If so, I think they should start enforcing it as it is not fair to guests waiting. We were at BCV last week and the heat was so unbearable. I would hate the thought of not getting a room until that late.

We checked in at BCV last week around 7:30 AM and headed to the Studios. DNiece 11 became ill, either from the RNR or the heat or both. It took me two hours to get her out of the park and back to BCV because she kept thinking she was going to be sick and wanted to be near a bathroom (although she never did get sick). I enlisted DH's to coe and help and we finally got her to a taxi to take us back to the BC. This was around 1 PM and our room was not ready. We were just glad to be out of the heat with a place for my niece to rest. DH spoke to the manager who said he would do what he could to speed up the room. Personally, I think my DN was a bit of a distraction to guests in the lobby as she was curled up holding her stomach, afraid to move. The manager probably wanted us out of the lobby asap. It was obvious she was sick and the CMs couldn't have been nicer. We thought of moving over to the BCV to wait but my niece had finally found a comfort zone and refused to move. We were so thankful our room became available at 2 PM. I still had to sit with my niece 15 minutes longer until she felt confidant enough to move. If I had been faced with waiting until 6 PM or not even having a room, I would have been ready to pull my hair out! After such a hot day, you just want a place to cool down and relax! As it turned out, my niece made a complete 180 in a matter of hours. I thought our evening plans were going to be put on hold but by 6 PM, she was bouncing around, driving us crazy. One CM in the lobby asked us if this was the same girl that looked like she needed a medic earlier!

 

[Deb & Bill]

We were supposed to move into our villa at OKW on New Year's Day. However, about 4:30 when we were finally told that our room was ready, we drove over to the building and found the housekeepers frantically trying to clean the villa which was a total disaster. The previous guests either did not answer their phone or door or had gone out to the parks and not vacated the resort. Until the manager finally told them they had to leave NOW. They did get charged points for an extra night's stay (hope they weren't renting from a member) and our room was ready by about 5:45. The housekeeping staff really hustled, especially since they were all supposed to be off at 4PM. And they had other villas in the same situation. I think the manager told me that they had at least 5 or 6 who had not vacated and the place was booked.

But for people who just choose to stay over, I'd tell them sorry, we'll help you try to get a room at whatever resort still has vacancy, either on points or cash, but you are moving out of that villa.

What they did you to, Holly, was just wrong.

 

[jco_direwolf]

First off let me say, people shouldn't stay over. I always the first person to say people should be following the rules. The rules aren't just for other people, when I hear people say things like that it just drives me crasy.

But on the other hand...I could see people here making the same post from the other point of view. This is MY VACATION HOME, the DVC where such jerks about ordering me out of MY VACATION HOME. I have no idea what the FL Inn keeper laws are, but often tossing someone out is hard. I also don't know how TimeShares differ from the Inn rules.

I've only been a DVC member since February but I've already gotten 2-3 notices from DVD that checkout time is 11am, you need to vacate the room by that time. But I would love to see DVD start really charging the members when they do things like "Self Extend" I really feel having rules with penalties you have to enforce the penalties.

johno

 

[Simba's Mom]

To call these people "self-extemders" is much too polite-I'd call them rude, selfish, and lots of other (unmentionable) words. How can they just do this with no consideration of others? And you checked in at 7:00 am? Obviously you didn't get "room ready". How horrible-hopefully that was a very, very rare occurence.

 

[theoarn]

This is just my opinion.
If a person decides they would like to extend then they should request an additional night. If there room is already booked for another guest then their request should be rejected. If they refuse to leave then they should be evicted in all circumstances but an emergency.
If the management allows them to stay and then a customer arrives with a valid reservation then that customer should be found a suitable room of equal or better room. Even if it means giving a person with a suite reservation a grand villa or giving a person with a grand villa, 3 suites in the Grand Floridian.
A customers reservation is like a contract. If I don't cancel within the alloted time frame I will be charged. If the hotel doesn't provide the room that it contracted for they should pay as well, they violated the contract.
Theo

 

[theoarn]

Hey
Lets get together and all call the SSR manager that was on duty that day and complain all at the same time.
Do you know who the manager was?

 

[AKV707]

This is a terrible situation to be in. People really should be conscious that their actions can hurt others. I know that we are all owners, but it is shared ownership and we should, ideally respect each other and the system. Disney should not make the guest who is being inconvenienced suffer due to Disney's inability to enforce their own rules. The guest should be the priority. An upgrade is in order!

 

[tomandrobin]

This is a terrible situation to be in. People really should be conscious that their actions can hurt others. I know that we are all owners, but it is shared ownership and we should, ideally respect each other and the system. Disney should not make the guest who is being inconvenienced suffer due to Disney's inability to enforce their own rules. The guest should be the priority. An upgrade is in order!

I am all for charging members for not checking out of thier room by 11 am. You can leave yout luggage with bell service if you have a late flight. If someone wants to exrend thier stay, Disney better verify they have room before they grant the request. The OP should have been compensated for the hassle of being bumped around.

 

[3DisneyKids]

Yikes! I am so sorry to hear about these situations. We are always out relatively early since we travel a long distance...our flights always leave MCO by noon so that our kiddos are not screaming bloody murder on an evening flight (from being so exhausted).

We are checking in in 2 weeks and this is the first time we are getting in late...should hit the resort at 7pm-ish. Obviously, at that hour, I don't expect to have a hard time getting a room....

 

[Debbie H]

Yikes! That is not good at all!


We checked in at BCV last week around 7:30 AM and headed to the Studios. DNiece 11 became ill, either from the RNR or the heat or both. It took me two hours to get her out of the park and back to BCV because she kept thinking she was going to be sick and wanted to be near a bathroom (although she never did get sick). I enlisted DH's to coe and help and we finally got her to a taxi to take us back to the BC. This was around 1 PM and our room was not ready. We were just glad to be out of the heat with a place for my niece to rest. DH spoke to the manager who said he would do what he could to speed up the room. Personally, I think my DN was a bit of a distraction to guests in the lobby as she was curled up holding her stomach, afraid to move. The manager probably wanted us out of the lobby asap. It was obvious she was sick and the CMs couldn't have been nicer. We thought of moving over to the BCV to wait but my niece had finally found a comfort zone and refused to move. We were so thankful our room became available at 2 PM. I still had to sit with my niece 15 minutes longer until she felt confidant enough to move. If I had been faced with waiting until 6 PM or not even having a room, I would have been ready to pull my hair out! After such a hot day, you just want a place to cool down and relax! As it turned out, my niece made a complete 180 in a matter of hours. I thought our evening plans were going to be put on hold but by 6 PM, she was bouncing around, driving us crazy. One CM in the lobby asked us if this was the same girl that looked like she needed a medic earlier!

Gee, I had a member of our party sick and I was blasted because we had asked for our room to be rushed along if possible. It was after 5 before we got in. I'm glad it all worked out for you.

 

[tjkraz]

If memory serves, in August Disney was upgrading people from both POP (overbooked) and AKL (construction) to SSR.

I don't want this to sound like a cash guest vs. DVC rant, but I can envision a scenario in which people booked POP or AKV on cash and had a different set of expectations than DVC members. For instance, from what I've heard late check-outs are often permitted at cash resorts. Either that or perhaps they simply decided keep their SSR Studio (or 1B) another night for the $80 POP rate.

I also think the resort would have been much more hesitant to evict a cash guest than DVC...particularly one who was already inconvenienced by the switch in resorts.

 

[zumbergc]

We've been in the situation where DH got the stomach flu, and then the next night I got the stomach flu, I was up all night, not a fun memory.

Well, that night my husband stopped by the front desk, to find out if it was possible to stay another night because it wasn't a good idea to move me, I was still contagious, and would have gotten people sick in the airport, airplane etc.

The following day when we needed to extend, they were telling my husband that there wasn't anything available. There was no way I was moving, I think I slept when I got the drugs from the dr who visits the room, to get me to stop puking.
He had to get a manager involved to get to stay another night since i was sick and couldn't be moved. Well, it would have been stupid to move us to a different room, as then they would have had to decontaminate 2 rooms instead of one. We left a note for mousekeeping warning them we had a stomach flu, just to hope that the mousekeeper or those following wouldn't get sick.

 

[Doctor P]

We had this happen at another resort in Florida a few years ago and were told that Florida law does not allow a paying guest to be evicted even if someone else has a reservation for the room. If they choose to stay, we were told, they could not be forced to leave, although they could be charged. With DVC, they could take action against the member with respect to future reservations even if this were the case.

 

[Mississippian]

People should get what they pay for and pay for what they get.

If guests want to stay late, they should be required to pay, in points or cash, to do so. Part of the money should go to cover added housekeeping costs, and the rest should go to compensate guests who are forced to check in late.

 

[uicbear]

I don't think a one night charge of points would deter people, plus that wouldn't affect renters or obviously anyone non-DVC. I think it would have to be a serious cash penalty charged to the credit card on hold for misc charges, and it would have to be greater than the rack rate for whatever size room is being occupied.

It's a shame that people would just leave all their stuff and disappear not having any consideration for the guests that might be waiting for the room behind them. It's also a shame that this is a common occurrance.

 

[Fitswimmer]

If Florida law says that Disney can't evict and can only charge-we're stuck with that. For many people the charge is worth it for the extra convenience of having another day. Unless WDW makes that charge actually punitive-more than the cost for a regular night's stay, people will continue to self-extend.

 

[tomandrobin]

If Florida law says that Disney can't evict and can only charge-we're stuck with that. For many people the charge is worth it for the extra convenience of having another day. Unless WDW makes that charge actually punitive-more than the cost for a regular night's stay, people will continue to self-extend.

If they can't evict, can they relocate?

 

[Mississippian]

I don't think a one night charge of points would deter people, plus that wouldn't affect renters or obviously anyone non-DVC. I think it would have to be a serious cash penalty charged to the credit card on hold for misc charges, and it would have to be greater than the rack rate for whatever size room is being occupied.

It's a shame that people would just leave all their stuff and disappear not having any consideration for the guests that might be waiting for the room behind them. It's also a shame that this is a common occurrance.

A one-night charge of points might not deter people, but I can assure you that plenty of people would be willing to check in late in exchange of a reduction in the point cost. So everybody ends up happy and the world is a better place to live for everyone!

Example: The late check-out person gets charged a 24-point fee for checking out late. The resort "pockets" half the fee to recoup costs. The other half is given to someone who has to check in late. The first guest gets a few more hours to pack. The maids get some overtime. The new guest gets a room discount. What could be better?

Have you ever noticed the line of people volunteering to be "bumped" at the airport? It because you get paid to be bumped. Make people pay for checking out late, and use the proceeds to salve the wounds of those who are injured as a result, and the system will work just fine!