Self Extenders

[MdmMim]

That scenario would (OK, make that "should") never occur.

Disney resorts don't allow access to an incoming guest until the prior tennant has vacated and housekeeping has cleaned and released the room. As a practice they don't even give out the room number to the incoming guest until he/she is permitted in the room.

Unfortunately, this does happen, though probably not often. A few years ago, I checked into the BCV and my room was ready at 9 a.m. I was very happy and immediately went to the room, used my key, and opened the door to find a family sitting around the studio. We were all surprised!!

Now, twice I have gone to my villa, that I have been told is ready for me, only to find either it is still occupied or there is a housekeeper in there cleaning. Now, both those times the room has shown, on the computer, to be ready for occupancy. Why is that? How could a room be shown as cleaned and ready to go if the guests have not left yet?

At OKW on my first DVC stay, we were told our room was ready (after 4). Upon our arrival, there were 2 housekeepers in there, scrubbing away. They told us to have a seat. We just left. The place had been trashed, with bags and bags of garbage and leftover food, plus someone had taken chocolate frosting and decided to "paint" with it, floors, walls, in the room and the porch (1-bedroom). I did feel sorry for them, having to clean it all up. However, why say it was ready, when it definitely was not?

I do think there is a housekeeping problem, which is only made worse by those who leave after 11.

 

[tjkraz]

This is a huge deal. I have only gotten into a villa early one time...late Oct and it was a 2 bedroom, boardwalk view.

By comparison, we have always gotten into our room early. That's thru 10 DVC stays. The lastest we had access to our room was about 2:30pm. This past Feb we got into our 2B at OKW at 8:30am. In May we got our SSR Studio at noon.

But regardless of individual experiences, the resorts simply can't clean every room within the span of 2-3 hours. Those housekeepers are going to be working right up to 4pm, and probably beyond depending upon the volume of work management has given them to do and their own personal efficiency.

I have had to wait way past the 4:00 time on most occasions. Now, twice I have gone to my villa, that I have been told is ready for me, only to find either it is still occupied or there is a housekeeper in there cleaning. Now, both those times the room has shown, on the computer, to be ready for occupancy. Why is that? How could a room be shown as cleaned and ready to go if the guests have not left yet?

Sounds like some form of human error to me. Either housekeeping is releasing rooms before they are ready or the front desk isn't checking status.

The post I was responding to implied that incoming guests were given immediate access to rooms regardless of the departure / cleaning status. The implication was that incoming guests should just toss the prior occupants' belongings out of the room and call bell services to have them stored.

These sorts of overlapping occupancy / room assignment errors happen at all hotel chains. Are they more frequent at WDW? Are we arbitrarily deciding that the guests are more to blame than resort staff when it happens?

 

[Debbie H]

At OKW on my first DVC stay, we were told our room was ready (after 4). Upon our arrival, there were 2 housekeepers in there, scrubbing away. They told us to have a seat. We just left. The place had been trashed, with bags and bags of garbage and leftover food, plus someone had taken chocolate frosting and decided to "paint" with it, floors, walls, in the room and the porch (1-bedroom). I did feel sorry for them, having to clean it all up. However, why say it was ready, when it definitely was not?

I do think there is a housekeeping problem, which is only made worse by those who leave after 11.

I think if someone left a place in that big of a mess, they should be assessed a fee, just like other timeshares. When we first joined, they had real plushy peach towels and nice soft peach sheets on the beds. Unfortunately, through the years, people started taking off with them. Disney should have stopped the problems then and not tolerated it. In places we've stayed, they have robes for use either at the pool or for showers, if you do not leave the robe in the room, you get charged for it.

Can you imagine what these people homes look like? Yuck!

Well, some can come up with all the excuses they want for self extenders but it is still against the rules. PERIOD!!!! I find no excuses for it unless someone is ill. They should deactivate the keys at 11:05 to give people that extra 5, just in case they are still carrying suitcases, etc, and then be done with it. We go down approximately 4 times per year since we joined and I know it is getting worse. The last GV we were in was disgusting when we got into it.

 

[CarolAnnC]

Perhaps owners who leave their villas in a disgusting condition, or disrepair, should be assessed a full cleaning fee at the very least. That might offset the cost of hiring additional housekeeping staff which is apparently needed since this type of cleaning goes beyond normal checkout condition and would be far more time consuming than cleaning a unit left in a used but tidy state.

 

[tjkraz]

Well, some can come up with all the excuses they want for self extenders but it is still against the rules. PERIOD!!!!

(snip)

The last GV we were in was disgusting when we got into it.

Since I'm pretty much just repeating myself over and over again, I'll just make this my last post here and move on.

I have just two closing comments:

1. This thread began with a discussion of the impact of late departures on incoming guests. Over the subsequent 13 pages, some have taken to linking late departures to every reported instance of sub-standard housekeeping. That is just sloppy reasoning, in my opinion.

If there is a widespread issue of guests arriving to find dirty rooms, then address THAT problem for what it is.

2. Most companies that are regarded as customer-friendly are also known for bending the rules. Inflexibility is what alienates customers. It isn't difficult to think of dozens of examples of Disney turning a blind eye to its own rules in an attempt to improve the guest experience. For example:

• Guests arriving 5 minutes for a dining reservation are normally accommodated rather than being turned away because of their tardiness.
  
• DVC allows 5 guests in a One Bedroom villa and 9 in a Two Bedroom, both a clear violation of the written rules.
  
• DVC resorts have been known to actually deliver additional towels or leave an extra box of detergent behind for guests without charging the published fees.
  
• The theme parks allow guests to use FastPass tickets even after their expiration time.
  
• Theme park boats and busses do not require riders to present a valid park ticket or room key in order to board.
  
• Resorts typically allow guests to use the swimming facilities after posted closing time.

...and so on.

Disney has EVERY RIGHT to charge people for leaving late, yet they choose not to do so. In my opinion, that's a business decision on Disney's part. It's no different than letting people use the late FastPass ticket or dining reservation even though they have every right to say "I'm sorry but your time has passed--you knew the rules."

The fatal flaw in this entire thread (again IMHO) is that most are assuming reported issues with messy accommodations and late room entry will magically disappear if everyone flees the resort at 11am. I believe them to be two entirely different issues. Disney wouldn't have the housekeeping staff to clean the rooms any quicker even if everyone was gone at 11am. At the same time, open enforcement of the policy means lost revenue from guests who hit the road that much sooner bound for an outlet mall, the airport or 535 to head home.

The main problem that is in need of fixing here is housekeeping not late guest departures.

 

[JimC]

I acknowledge that Disney has challenges with central Florida labor shortages and guest compliance with rules. And overall, I think they work hard at providing a quality guest experience.

However, I have little sympathy for Disney's problems with late departures, trashed villas, or difficulties with adequate/competent housekeeping staff when some combination of those issues negatively affects arriving guests. We pay them well to manage and operate the resorts at a first class standard and we should hold them accountable to do so.

Checking out timely and not trashing the facilities are quite simply basic duties one person has to another.

 

[pcparamedics01]

Disney has EVERY RIGHT to charge people for leaving late, yet they choose not to do so. In my opinion, that's a business decision on Disney's part. It's no different than letting people use the late FastPass ticket or dining reservation even though they have every right to say "I'm sorry but your time has passed--you knew the rules."

The fatal flaw in this entire thread (again IMHO) is that most are assuming reported issues with messy accommodations and late room entry will magically disappear if everyone flees the resort at 11am. I believe them to be two entirely different issues. Disney wouldn't have the housekeeping staff to clean the rooms any quicker even if everyone was gone at 11am. At the same time, open enforcement of the policy means lost revenue from guests who hit the road that much sooner bound for an outlet mall, the airport or 535 to head home.

The main problem that is in need of fixing here is housekeeping not late guest departures.[/QUOTE]

I totally agree that it is two separate issues. Some are fleeing early and some are fleeing late but most of the consensus here is that check in are late and well after 4pm.

 

[Debbie H]

The fatal flaw in this entire thread (again IMHO) is that most are assuming reported issues with messy accommodations and late room entry will magically disappear if everyone flees the resort at 11am. I believe them to be two entirely different issues. Disney wouldn't have the housekeeping staff to clean the rooms any quicker even if everyone was gone at 11am. At the same time, open enforcement of the policy means lost revenue from guests who hit the road that much sooner bound for an outlet mall, the airport or 535 to head home.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and we have all posted ours. I don't see it as a "fatal flaw" for assuming the problems will magically disappear. I think if people start having to resume responsibility for their acts, things will slowly change. What I can't understand is why you think it is ok for some people not to leave at check out time. I don't know how many points you have or when you joined, nor do I care, however, we've been members since early 92, and have had our dues go up considerably over the years. We pay a lot for dues every month and we expect DVC to do their job of managing the resort. As JimC said, we pay them well to do this and to me, they are failing miserably. I also think the members need to take responsibility when they leave to clean up after themselves. We always put towels in the tub, take out the trash and recycling, start the dishwasher, and empty the fridge before we leave, no matter what time it is, plus we call housekeeping and let them know we are leaving. They do ask you to do that. If everyone would do that, they would be able to get to the rooms where people left early to clean and work from there. Perhaps if everyone did that, incoming guests would be able to get into their places faster and the ones well after 4 pm perhaps would be few and far between.

It would be interesting to know how many people call housekeeping to tell them they are leaving. I bet not many do it. I don't understand why some do not look at DVC as their home and feel that they can trash the place.
I not only think it is just a housekeeping problem, but also an owner problem!

 

[CarolAnnC]

There have certainly been some widespread and interesting points of view on this thread. The topic is "Self-Extenders" and while that remained the focal point, some introduced the idea of Housekeeping flaws as being responsible for some of the issues introduced here. Therefore, it was pertinent to the conversation.

Since the idea is of the law protecting those who choose to stay beyond checkout time and even beyond checkout day, this does give an explanation as to why check in time is now later and rooms seem to be ready later than in years past. With DVC occupancy running close to full, it is an impossibility to expect people to be allowed to stay beyond checkout time and then have all villas cleaned and ready for occupancy by 4 pm. You just can't have it both ways.

The information in this thread would appear to make the idea of just homesteading in your room instead of leaving an option. When you cannot book that last day with MS (or with an owner who rents out points), apparently it is viable to just squat in the room and stay without vacating. Unless there are ramifications to this which are enforced, I would think it would become more and more rampant as word gets out, just like parking at the resorts and visiting the parks all day was in years past. It was never right to do that either, but people did it until they started to enforce it..

Perhaps bringing this to the attention of DVC both through individuals voices as well as via this thread, may result in action being taken in the future. It will be interesting to see how this develops now...

 

[pcparamedics01]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and we have all posted ours. I don't see it as a "fatal flaw" for assuming the problems will magically disappear. I think if people start having to resume responsibility for their acts, things will slowly change. What I can't understand is why you think it is ok for some people not to leave at check out time.

Hey Debbie,

Please, I am not judging. I definately can sense some fustration. However, he did say it was a housekeeping issue and he agreed it was not always from late check outs. Moreover, two issues. I went to SSR on the 4th of July week. They told me I had a great room directly looking at Fulton Crab House. We did not get into our room until. 6ish. It was dirty. So they came again unannounced one day and we were gone.. They did not tell us they were back in to clean. We had no idea!!!

Housekeeping is an issue whether it is self extenders or early check outs. We saw some leave at 6am. There rooms were not even touched when we went by there rooms at 10am.

 

[Debbie H]

Hey Debbie,

Please, I am not judging. I definately can sense some fustration. However, he did say it was a housekeeping issue and he agreed it was not always from late check outs. Moreover, two issues. I went to SSR on the 4th of July week. They told me I had a great room directly looking at Fulton Crab House. We did not get into our room until. 6ish. It was dirty. So they came again unannounced one day and we were gone.. They did not tell us they were back in to clean. We had no idea!!!

Housekeeping is an issue whether it is self extenders or early check outs. We saw some leave at 6am. There rooms were not even touched when we went by there rooms at 10am.

I don't understand what you are trying tell me. I know housekeeping is a problem, but the guests who left at 6 am, do you know if they notified housekeeping that they left? I don't see how housekeeping can go into rooms until after 11 if they do not know they were vacated. We had a similiar problem not getting into a GV until after 5 and it was dirty. We had management there and they sent someone in to clean it immediately. That is a housekeeping problem. If housekeeping has no clue whether or not a room has been vacated, then I call that a guest problem for not notifying housekeeping that they are leaving.

 

[Sammie]

Perhaps bringing this to the attention of DVC both through individuals voices as well as via this thread, may result in action being taken in the future. It will be interesting to see how this develops now...

With DVC and Disney in general, even though they read many Net forums, Only contact from members and guests personally will ever change anything. They see anything discussed here at best as unofficial rumors.

So if anyone truly wants things to change put your real name, address etc. to the message and contact them personally either through email or regular postal mail.

 

[n2mm]

Wow, I hadn't realize that people actually do this. I've stayed at DVC resorts 8 times in the past 2 years and have never gotten a room before 4:00PM. My most recent trip (last week) we did not get into our rooms until 4:00PM or after and that was a split stay at OKW and BCV. It would've been nice since we were traveling with a 11 week old baby and a 2 year old, who all needed naps. On our checkout from both resorts I had my group out by 11:00AM. I would've love to stay a couple of more hours, at least for the babies, but knew it was not possible. When I've stayed at a regular disney resort, I have asked for an extended stay and have had it granted, but have never done that as a DVC member.

 

[kdzgon]

.... I also think the members need to take responsibility when they leave to clean up after themselves. We always put towels in the tub, take out the trash and recycling, start the dishwasher, and empty the fridge before we leave, no matter what time it is, plus we call housekeeping and let them know we are leaving. They do ask you to do that. If everyone would do that, they would be able to get to the rooms where people left early to clean and work from there. Perhaps if everyone did that, incoming guests would be able to get into their places faster and the ones well after 4 pm perhaps would be few and far between.

It would be interesting to know how many people call housekeeping to tell them they are leaving. I bet not many do it. ...

I, too tidy up a room (DVC or hotel, doesn't matter) before we leave (and DH teases me every time, but I cannot do it any other way...).

I never realized they ask you to call when leaving, and do not do this routinely, but I will start doing so in the future. I do leave the little door tags
when provided but do not call. Key tags might be a simple addition to help the situation if indeed lack of knowledge is contributing to delays in room availability.

I honestly don't know how often our room is not ready until after 4 pm, as if it is not ready when we arrive we go to the parks etc and usually don't return until after dinner or later.

 

[pcparamedics01]

I don't understand what you are trying tell me. I know housekeeping is a problem, but the guests who left at 6 am, do you know if they notified housekeeping that they left? I don't see how housekeeping can go into rooms until after 11 if they do not know they were vacated. We had a similiar problem not getting into a GV until after 5 and it was dirty. We had management there and they sent someone in to clean it immediately. That is a housekeeping problem. If housekeeping has no clue whether or not a room has been vacated, then I call that a guest problem for not notifying housekeeping that they are leaving.

Good point! No I do not know if they notified housekeeping. I do not notify housekeeping when I check out. I just check out. Like I would anywhere else.

 

[Debbie H]

There use to be a thing in the room that said to call xxxx upon leaving your room for check out. It was housekeepings number. Tell you the truth, I don't even know if it is still in the room. I will have to check. I just got so used to calling them that it became habit.

 

[pcparamedics01]

There use to be a thing in the room that said to call xxxx upon leaving your room for check out. It was housekeepings number. Tell you the truth, I don't even know if it is still in the room. I will have to check. I just got so used to calling them that it became habit.[/QUOTE


Hi Debbie,
I am not aware of that at all. I just officially check out. However, you have been around a lot longer than I have. So I do not know the protocol.

 

[JimC]

The standard everywhere I travel is to notify the front desk when you check-out. When they enter it into the system, housekeeping is notified. Is Disney not able to communicate between its front desk and housekeeping?

 

[Debbie H]

The standard everywhere I travel is to notify the front desk when you check-out. When they enter it into the system, housekeeping is notified. Is Disney not able to communicate between its front desk and housekeeping?

From some of the posts, apparently not. I just remember a card in the room or something asking to dial an extension on the phone when leaving your room upon check out and it was housekeeping.

 

[fishermouse]

The standard everywhere I travel is to notify the front desk when you check-out. When they enter it into the system, housekeeping is notified. Is Disney not able to communicate between its front desk and housekeeping?

Funny I travel a lot for work amd play and was unaware of this "standard", I always use express checkout. Which means I just leave on the morning of checkout, there is no need to notify anyone, house keeping starts cleaning the rooms at whatever time they start and leave the rooms being vacated until after checkout time. This works well everywhere I go, by checkin time most rooms are cleaned and ready to go. Occasionally someone checks out late, if the hotel is booked solid this may inconvienence a few arriving guests but is not the norm. The only time I've had to wait at DVC is if I wanted a specific room or location, there has always been something available. Maybe I'm just lucky or maybe the whole situation is being blown way out of proportion???? Maybe someday I'll have to wait and have a rude cm then get a dirty room and I'll understand what all the fuss is about, until then I'll just have to go on being HAPPY