"Special Room Request Procedure" statement by Disney...

[Janet2k]

Please forgive me if this has been posted before but I have been away from the Dis for a few weeks due to a health issue.

I was just on the Disney Vacation Club "members only" website this morning. I stumbled into the following statement:

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Special Room Request Procedure

As a reminder, the established procedure and appropriate time for making special room requests is when you make your reservation with Member Services. If you have any additional requests, or changes to your original request, call Member Services directly. Please do not call or fax the resort where you'll be staying. To be fair to all Members, the only information we use when trying to honor special room requests is that which comes from Member Services.

With so many Members having special requests, it's important that everyone follow this established procedure. As you can imagine, the number of Members asking for particular rooms, views, floors, and buildings makes it impossible to honor all of the requests. We do our best to honor your requests, but please understand that we cannot guarantee them.
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I always make my room request at the time I book my reservation; however, I know that some folks do FAX the resorts directly with their requests. I am wondering if Disney is going to apply this policy to all of their resorts, not just the DVC ones?

 

[DebbieB]

I talked to someone at DVC about this (Jackie). They are also not pre-assigning rooms by reservation date anymore. When you arrive, they will try to find a clean room that meets at least ONE of your requests. If you don't want that room, you can choose to return later to see what is available.

 

[BounceyOne]

I believe this is for DVC only. The earlier you book the better the chance for your request. We stay both DVC and regular rooms and we can request something for our regular room a week before and have a chance at it, with DVC you most likely wouldn't get it. Heck, with DVC you can request it 11 months out and not get it, just depends if your requested room is available when you are checking in.
I hope any of that made sense.

 

[erikthewise]

I think this statement is about controlling people's expectations. Apparently a high proportion of DVC members are (1) making special requests, and (2) complaining if they don't get what they want. Of course it's (2) that's the problem.

While they may have changed their room assignment procedures, this statement doesn't address that. (DebbieB is a fount of good information so I believe what she says.)

 

[WDW LifeLong Fan]

This policy "might" be coming to CRO as well.

Last week I made our Reservations at GF for September through CRO (Waiting for AP Rates) ... and made our usual 2-3 requests.

For the first time in 30 years of making WDW reservations...the CM asked me to prioritize my requests!

I thought it was a little strange...but I never thought about it again until I read this post.

 

[ead79]

I added a request to a reservation booked through Disney's group travel department, and the very polite CM also asked me which request is most important to me. (I was requesting one of the octagon shaped honeymoon rooms instead of one of the regular honeymoon rooms that has a jacuzzi.)

 

[SueM in MN]

Last week I made our Reservations at GF for September through CRO (Waiting for AP Rates) ... and made our usual 2-3 requests.
For the first time in 30 years of making WDW reservations...the CM asked me to prioritize my requests!

I thought it was a little strange...but I never thought about it again until I read this post.

I think that's because they were assumingbefore that people listed their requests in the order of importance and now they are trying to make sure they know the order. I've been told by CMs before that they tried to at least give one preference (hopefully the highest priority) if they could. If non-smoking was listed last, but was really the most important, it's more likely that the guest would not be happy.

 

[Joan S.]

I have to ask for NON-SMOKING for medical Reasons(my son has asthma) will this be my ONE request to be honored?? Joan

 

[eeyorefanatic]

Joan,

My guess is yes. With SO many people having various medical issues with smoke I can only think that they would treat this like any other request.

 

[Tiffany]

Originally posted by Joan S.
I have to ask for NON-SMOKING for medical Reasons(my son has asthma) will this be my ONE request to be honored?? Joan

Hi Joan,

I sent to you a PM. My husband has severe asthma also.

 

[SueM in MN]

I have to ask for NON-SMOKING for medical Reasons(my son has asthma) will this be my ONE request to be honored?? Joan

Make sure it is listed on your confirmation sheet as "Medical Request" or some similar phrase. They do fill the medical requests first before filling general requests for the same thing.

 

[DebbieB]

I think this all started because people were giving too many requests and expected them all to be filled. For example: non-smoking, boardwalk view, top floor, close to elevator, open balcony. When someone has that many requests, it's almost impossible to fill them all. So they are going to look at the rooms available at check-in and if there's not one that meets all the requests, try to find one that meets at least one. I'm not sure if they consider smoking preference as one but it maybe if there's not a room that meets any of the others. The DVC person I talked to said 96% of DVC rooms are non-smoking.

 

[n2mm]

OK, just to throw in my 2 cents here. Same with the medical conditions. I always get a "guaranteed non-smoking" room for medical reasons. Sounds easy enough!!! NOT. We went to the A/S Movies 2 weeks ago and had reserved our room 7 months earlier, paid deposit and the only thing we had required was a guaranteed non-smoking room (yes this was stated on our confirmation). So to my surprise when I checked in I was told that there was no room for us. YES, no room. Even though I had a guaranteed non-smoking room--it was not guaranteed (we need to check the meaning on guarantee). The staff at the A/S Movies had to move us to the A/S Sports. We were not happy campers at all, and I have sent a letter regarding this matter. No apology from management. So I only had 1 request.....but realize I really had 2. One was a ROOM, and the second was a NON-SMOKING ROOM FOR MEDICAL REASONS. Sorry, I'm still venting over this. I didn't care where I was, but did think I would at least be at the resort I reserved...

 

[Sammie]

Originally posted by Joan S.
I have to ask for NON-SMOKING for medical Reasons(my son has asthma) will this be my ONE request to be honored?? Joan

Very likely due to medical reasons it will be honored. But then you could get at NS room that has been heavily smoked in by the prior guest. This has happened to us twice recently at WDW.