Treatment of DVC members

[jekjones1558]

I think the manager, Alfredo, went way out of his way to make us happy.

I have written letters after 2 separate stays at BWV regarding the excellent service Alfredo provides. He is the best CM we have encountered in all of our trips to WDW.

 

[robinb]

FWIW, there really are only a small percentage of HA rooms - it isn't even CLOSE to 50%. More like 3 -4 % of the total. The chances of any one of us getting one is actually very small.

I was looking for a picture of a HA room so I could remind myself what our room at BCV looked like. I came across an interview by the DIS staff with BCV's (then) General Manager Sam Pensula. The interview took place back when the resort opened. The full interview can be found here: http://www.wdwinfo.com/dvc/bcvillas/bcchat.html , but here's a snippet:

banzai : Will their be many rooms for people who are in wheelchairs and their families (for a family of four to stay in one room, for example)?

sam_pensula : Appx 10 per cent of our rooms at Beach Club Villas (29) are handicapped accessible, most with roll in showers.

The fairly high percentage of HA rooms would explain why it seems that more people are placed in HA rooms at BCV than the other DVC resorts.

My point is that it really isn't worth worrying about/making yourself crazy ahead of time. There's nothing you can do about room assignments now except request a tub on your reservation and then try to check in early in the day if you can.

ITA! There is really no use getting all worked up over something you have no control over. If the worst happens, you can move the next day.

 

[MG814]

I am sure Disney will find a way to fix this they are the masters. Hope you all
agree.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

I agree in general that Disney sometimes may be too generous in the compensation given to guests for minor inconvienicnes. However, it's been suggested that DVCers should not be compensated for mishaps because our dues pay for that compensation. Let's not forget that we are not just DVC guests, but WDW guests too. We have no idea how/if DVC dues even pay for these comps.
Happy guests spend their vacation money all over WDW, and unhappy ones spend less. Disney resorts (DVC or not) may have a separate "customer satisfaction" budget that absorbs these free comps (at huge huge huge internal discounts). After all, a free nights lodging costs vitually nothing to a resort (unless you have to displace a cash paying guest), and on most nights a DVC resort is likely to have an empty room or two. Whether someone is in the room or not, the resort is still going to be staffed with housekeeping, maintenance, etc. A free e-night ticket...nothing, and so on.

I'm not saying DVCers should seek or DVC resorts should extend compensation for a hair found in the sink, but for other things...maybe.

We've had one politely and professionaly handled incident at WDW where we received compensation. I'm glad it was offered, even though it was not expected. That resolution went a long way in making the vacation a more pleasurable one for everyone in our party.

 

[Sherri]

I agree in general that Disney sometimes may be too generous in the compensation given to guests for minor inconvienicnes. However, it's been suggested that DVCers should not be compensated for mishaps because our dues pay for that compensation. Let's not forget that we are not just DVC guests, but WDW guests too. We have no idea how/if DVC dues even pay for these comps.
Happy guests spend their vacation money all over WDW, and unhappy ones spend less. Disney resorts (DVC or not) may have a separate "customer satisfaction" budget that absorbs these free comps (at huge huge huge internal discounts). After all, a free nights lodging costs vitually nothing to a resort (unless you have to displace a cash paying guest), and on most nights a DVC resort is likely to have an empty room or two. Whether someone is in the room or not, the resort is still going to be staffed with housekeeping, maintenance, etc. A free e-night ticket...nothing, and so on.

I'm not saying DVCers should seek or DVC resorts should extend compensation for a hair found in the sink, but for other things...maybe.

We've had one politely and professionaly handled incident at WDW where we received compensation. I'm glad it was offered, even though it was not expected. That resolution went a long way in making the vacation a more pleasurable one for everyone in our party.

Can you please tell us which resort and what the circumstances were?
But if you say none of your business I certainly understand that to. And in no way would expect the same if the same situation arises with us. Its just nice to hear positive resolutions to problems. Haven't seen many i'm afraid.
Can you lift my spirits on this snowy day?

 

[SoCalKDG]

Wow, this one is like the thread on the other board as well.

If I follow:

HA rooms:

- Disney messed up and created HA rooms that could have been laid out better.
- This can't be changed. The rooms are built, they are here to stay.
- There are approx. 2-10% HA rooms.
- 1 bedrooms and above have guaranteed tubs and xtra space

Smoking rooms:
- What is the % of smoking rooms?
- Are they on the same floor? Are non-smoking rooms next to them?
- Second hand smoke and smoke residue are different things.
- Disney could go completely non-smoking
- What happens if someone smokes in a non-smoking room

Disney:
- They can't guarantee a room while maximizing occupancy while having different check in dates.
- CM's have less chance to give bennies for our discomfort.
- Some CM's lie

Me:
The smoking issue is much greater than the HA issue. You can't become sick from a HA. There is a work around for the HA room(1 bedroom or larger), there isn't one for smoking rooms. They should go non-smoking in all buildings. Possibly allow smoking on balconies. I'm not sure what happens if someone smokes in a non-smoking room, because this does happen frequently.

For CM's that lie, you can not worry about it or you can report them to their superiors. Berating them isn't our job.

 

[married@wdw]

I only read the first two pages of this thread, but I'm really quite shocked. My in-laws have been members since 1994 -- we bought ourselves in 1999. We usually stay at OKW, and we've really never had any issues and always find the CMs to be more than friendly and helpful.

We just returned from a big trip yesterday. Two studios for the first night, then six nights in a GV, followed by two more nights in two studios. The only requests were non-smoking, that the two studios at the end of the trip be on the ground floor (carrying souveniers!) and that the rooms be close together -- these were all accommodated. When we checked in (around 3 p.m.), our rooms weren't ready and we had groceries so they stored them. Well, they lost two of the bags with the milk and juice. I was nice about it and they supplied us with milk and juice from the General Store -- more than I'd originally bought -- but would have reimbursed us if we wanted specific brands from a grocery store.

Our GV had one dead TV remote (important with four kids!) and no sheets for the pullout (which my mom was sleeping on). Both were taken care of within 30 minutes of the call by a very sweet girl who looked to be about 16-years-old with lots of apologies.

The GV kitchen sink started to leak from the hot water faucet and I called on our last morning. They were there to fix it before we were gone.

On our last day, my sister had packed my neice's pin lanyard already when we went to the store get our last package. One of the CMs had a pin she really wanted and the CM gave it to her even though she didn't have one to trade! I would have bought a pin for her to trade if I'd known, but I was waiting on the other side of the store for the package. It was really very sweet!

They did lots of little things for us too -- printed our boarding passes, helped us upgrade our tickets (well, they tried, but we had to do it at the gate to keep the discount -- some computer glitch that was being worked on), fixed a dining ressie for me (it was incorrectly made for 2/05 instead of 2/25). Always with big smiles. We even ate at Olivia's twice with quick, fantastic service!

All told it was a great trip with lots of great service. Maybe we're just lucky, but in 11 years of using DVC atleast twice per year, I've yet to have a really bad experience!

 

[CarolMN]

married@wdw - I think your experience is much more common by far than some of those described recently. (Mine all match yours).

Not to say I don't believe the bad things didn't happen, because I do believe they happened. I just think people are much more likely to report bad than good. Posters here sure like to talk about the bad stuff much more than the good.

I suppose if everyone reported every DVC experience, we'd never even be able to find the bad ones, because they'd be so buried!

I hope all the new people are able to put some of these threads in the proper perspective.

Best wishes -

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Can you please tell us which resort and what the circumstances were?
But if you say none of your business I certainly understand that to. And in no way would expect the same if the same situation arises with us. Its just nice to hear positive resolutions to problems. Haven't seen many i'm afraid.
Can you lift my spirits on this snowy day?

It had to do with the linking of a cash stay through CRO followed by a points stay through MS and the desire to remain in the same room. We understood that under this type of reservation, a "same room" stay is not guaranteed. We were assured by both MS and the BCV front desk upon check-in that we if changed our points reservation to a dedicated (we requested a lock-off), we could check into an inital room for the first night, then move the next day into another 2-BR for the rest of our length of cash/points stay. So, we did that. Several days later we had to check-out and move again (once our points stay started). One trip two moves. OK if you have it planned, but we didn't find out we had to move the second time until the housekeeper wanted to clean our room. BTW, it was also Sunday and MS was closed.

I don't want to list item by item what BCV did for us (some gestures were offered and we knew about, and others were a surprise), but I was very appreciative, and it did ease the misery of moving the contents of the 2-BR twice. We suspect that the compensation was more generous because we were actually CRO guests first (4 days CRO cash) and DVC guests second (6 days DVC points).

 

[MinnesotaChill]

I'm not positive, but I think that if you have a physical reason for requesting non-smoking, you have to be assured that you will receive one because of ADA laws. I've read that here before. Someone recommended a dr note if it is that important. The flip side is, you might wind up with HA, since those rooms are designed to meet with ADA standards. I am no authority, it's just what I've picked up here. Since I have asthma that might or might not act up, I always request non smoking for medical reasons. I have my inhaler with me if there are questions. If I am given a choice between HA and smoking, I will ask to check out the smoking room to see how bad it is. Surprisingly enoough, many times you'd never know it was a smoking room, because many people who smoke seem to not want to smoke in the space where they live.

 

[jmminarik]

Surprisingly enoough, many times you'd never know it was a smoking room, because many people who smoke seem to not want to smoke in the space where they live.

I'm not arguing with you, but as the number of smoking rooms continually dwindles in the world, those that do exist just concentrate the lingering effects. But your advice is worth noting.

 

[elfbo]

Well I sent a email to MS today to express my concerns over non guarentees of S/NS and H/NH on reservations, also noted that all member materials and rooms shown, show a tub in every room. Maybe if enough people express their concerns they will get a change in the works.

One can only hope.

<-- love the dancin' bananna

 

[sarhenty]

Sending my email out right now...

 

[Epcotkids]

GOOD JOB! Until they change the policy, I am not intrested in buying back in and my brother and brother-in-law are holding off on buying DVC at all. We all have to fly to Orlando and we all have young children, which means late arrival. It's just not worth the risk for the money.

 

[lenshanem]

I think it is feasible to guarantee up to a certain number of rooms for these requests and then have the rest as a huge margin of error. At least then we'd have the option to take our chances or try for a different resort or dates.

 

[Sherri]

It had to do with the linking of a cash stay through CRO followed by a points stay through MS and the desire to remain in the same room. We understood that under this type of reservation, a "same room" stay is not guaranteed. We were assured by both MS and the BCV front desk upon check-in that we if changed our points reservation to a dedicated (we requested a lock-off), we could check into an inital room for the first night, then move the next day into another 2-BR for the rest of our length of cash/points stay. So, we did that. Several days later we had to check-out and move again (once our points stay started). One trip two moves. OK if you have it planned, but we didn't find out we had to move the second time until the housekeeper wanted to clean our room. BTW, it was also Sunday and MS was closed.

I don't want to list item by item what BCV did for us (some gestures were offered and we knew about, and others were a surprise), but I was very appreciative, and it did ease the misery of moving the contents of the 2-BR twice. We suspect that the compensation was more generous because we were actually CRO guests first (4 days CRO cash) and DVC guests second (6 days DVC points).

Its so nice to hear the positive. I really can't wait to go and hope I come back with something good to say. I am starting to feel a bit better. My husband did remind me that there must be some good stories as well. I'm searching other threads for them. Thanks for sharing something that turned out good in the end.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Well I sent a email to MS today to express my concerns over non guarentees of S/NS and H/NH on reservations, also noted that all member materials and rooms shown, show a tub in every room. Maybe if enough people express their concerns they will get a change in the works.

One can only hope.

<-- love the dancin' bananna

That's great to hear that you sent them an Email. Hopefully they'll add it to mine, where I Emailed about CMs not telling someone if the assigned room was HA (even when asked). They responded to me, but in a very vague "Sorry" way. I hope they see the number of people concerned.

 

[Sherri]

That's great to hear that you sent them an Email. Hopefully they'll add it to mine, where I Emailed about CMs not telling someone if the assigned room was HA (even when asked). They responded to me, but in a very vague "Sorry" way. I hope they see the number of people concerned.

Did they give any type of exlpanation with the vague "sorry"? I wrote to them once about mis information on dining plans and although I did also get a "sorry" for the wrong information type thing, I didn't quite get an answer.

 

[ColoradoBelle1]

I loved hearing about Alfredo...cause if my ROFR passes, BWV will be my new home resort...lucky me.

I also like hearing that you all have been very proactive in letting Disney know that you have concerns about nonsmoking rooms (and rooms with a tub...I call bathtubs 'my mental health therapy').

THanks to Johnny Fedora for noting that it is quite possible that DIsney absorbs the cost of 'comps' in its own ledger as opposed to the DVC dues ledger. Most of the 'complainers' who complain about those who complain (and are then actually complaining about themselves) seem afraid that 'complaints' make the cost of ownership go up. I am definintely tired of reading posts from 'secondhand complainers' who are posting only to flame the people who (IMHO) are proactively trying to make the Disney experience easier, happier, more magical for more people by trying to 'fix' some fixable problems.

I really do believe that DIsney WANTS to make their system better, especially if it results in increasing bottom line profits. I think pleasing more of the people more of the time and having more efficient means of meeting requests actually INCREASES the bottom line in the long run.

Colorado Belle

 

[disneyberry]

[SIZE=+0]Wow, okay I finally got around to reading this long thread. My thoughts:

First, I'm shocked by Simba Mom's and Shan's experiences where the CMs appeared to have lied about whether the room was HC or not. I'd really like to give the CMs the benefit of the doubt that maybe they truly didn't know the rooms were HC... just because it's so appalling if they really were flat out lying.

My personal experience is that the very first time I ever stayed at any DVC resort - BWV specifically (I'd rented from a member... I was not yet a member myself at that time), I had done a little research on this board, and was aware that there was such a thing as a HC room w/ no bathtub. It didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time because I'd never actually seen what a HC studio looked like. Anyway, I believe I'd only requested Non-smoking and Upper Floor that time. When I checked-in, I didn't bother to ask any questions about the room that was assigned to me. The CM did not volunteer any info either. I got to the room, and it was a Smoking, HC studio! Talk about bad luck. Anyway, I took a look around, and realized, "Oh, now I understand what people didn't like about these rooms," and decided that the room was less than ideal for me. I went back down to the front desk and let them know that the CM who checked me in (weirdly, she wasn't there anymore) didn't inform me that my room was a HC room w/ no bathtub. This second CM just apologized and reassigned me to a regular studio, no change fee, and no attitude.

So, thinking back on that, it's hard to say if the first CM truly didn't know my room was a HC room, or if they were just withholding the info in the hopes that maybe I'd be willing to just stay in it.

My other comment is that I was setting up some room requests for a renter. She's bringing a toddler so I suggested maybe she request a bathtub.

So I called MS today and when I tried to add the bathtub request, the CM paused and said, "But all rooms have bathtubs, what do you mean?" I explained that I know some studios are handicapped accessible and have only roll-in showers, so I wanted to request a room w/ a bathtub. Her next reply was, "Oh, okay. I see. I can put in a request for Non-Handicapped then." To which I said, "But I don't want to use the word 'Handicapped' because it's possible for someone to misread that as a request FOR a handicapped room." She then insisted that lots of people request Non-Handicapped, and that it's usually put in the system as "Non-Handicapped Accessible" request (which, in retrospect seems weird for her to say since she'd acted so confused earlier about the bathtub thing). I ended up giving up and letting her use that wording. It still makes me a bit nervous though... Oh well.

Personally, for me, after my last BWV stay, all I care about is a clean bug-free room. *sigh* But the problem is, how do you go about putting in a room request like "Clean room please" or "No bug-infestation please". It'd seem crazy to MS. Ugh. Anyway, I've spoken about this elsewhere, I won't go into it again.[/SIZE]