VWL Dirty room, UPDATE 12-20-03

[frank2271]

Hello,

I need to blow off a little steam. My wife and I took our son to the lodge for a one night stay so that we could all go and enjoy the Halloween Party. (which was great)

When we got to the lodge and checked in the CM asked us if we would like an "upgrade" to the concierge level "free of charge". (We were supposed to be in a studio and had dinner and breakfast ressies.) I explained to the CM that since we wouldn't take advantage of the free food that we would like to stay in our studio that I booked seven months prior. She said "ok" and then walked away and through a door. A few moments later she came back and asked if we would accept the "upgrade" if they refunded our 12 points? So I asked her if I had a choice and she basically told me no.

So reluctantly we accepted. To tell you the truth, I (not my wife) was a little excited to see what this "upgrade" was all about.

When we got to the room, I wasn't impressed. But ok, it was free. The first thing I did was take a shower. There was still a used bar of soap and an empty bottle of shampoo in it. But ok, it was free. We all got ready for the party and left. We had a great time, came back to the room and went to sleep.

The next morning I wanted some ice for a drink. I took the lid off the ice bucket (that I hadn't touched at all) and there was an empty milk bottle floating on the top of, what I thought was, some water. When I grabbed the bottle I found out that it was floating in milk. YUCK, I don't care if the room was free, this is not OK.

I went out to the concierge desk and told the guy out there and he acted very shocked and said that he would send a manager to the room right away.

Well I went back to the room and got ready for our breakfast ressie. The time came for us to go to breakfast. We stopped by the desk and told the concirge that a manager hasn't come by yet. He said that one was on the way and he would send him down to the restaurant right after he remedied the problem.

Well as you can guess the manager never came to the room and never contacted us.

My wife, who as you can remember didn't want the so called "upgrade" to begin with, wrote a letter to Disney and also filled out the online survey telling Disney about how unhappy we were with the condition of our room. She still hasn't gotten a response.

Which brings me to this post. I know that it has been over a month since our stay, but I wanted to give Disney the time to try to rectify the situation and they haven't.

Now we have ressies for two studios at the lodge next week to bring my son and my parents to the Christmas Party. My wife is really worried that this kind of thing might happen again. But I'm sure it won't, RIGHT??????

Thanks for letting me blow off some steam,

Frank


*****************update***************************

Had a great stay at VWL this week. The rooms were SPOTLESS. Thank God!!!!!

Thanks to all for your kind words and have a Merry Christmas.

 

[spiceycat]

sounded like they ran out of VWL studios and upgrade you to the WL - (they were surpose to upgrade you to a 1-bedroom or a 2-bedroom on the VWL side) Now if the VWL was completed filled up - then I could see putting you on the WL side - but only if the VWL was completed filled - I think I would ask....

write to Jackie and see if she can determine what went wrong and hopefully this will not happen again.

 

[Keggy]

We have gotten upgraded at the VL as well. Our experience was much better than yours. We had booked a regular room with the FL Res discount (not using points) and when we checked in they upgraded us to a one bedroom at the VWL. We were excited and it was a great time.

In my opinion you get better service from a manager when you are at the resort. After you go home Guest communications is less likely to do anything about it. Also those electronic surveys that you do are for Research I don't know if they pass those problems or concerns along. I have a friend who is a manager in research I will ask him and find out.

I hope they do remedy this for you. The whole thing is just disgusting! I will keep my fingers crossed for your upcoming stay.

Kelly

 

[LIFERBABE]

would you please clarify for me? Was the room you were given in the Wilderness Lodge? or The Villas?

Doesnt make it excusable, just a little confused.

 

[spiceycat]

he tried to check in to the VWL - but all they gave him was the WL concierge - no DVC resort has concierge.

 

[LIFERBABE]

So his title should read Dirty Room at WL!

Not splitting hairs, but I think it's absolutely terrifying to receive a CL room that has not been attended to! That is totally unacceptable.

 

[spiceycat]

if he had posted that - it might have been moved - thinking it was a resort (not DVC) discussion.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

Frank - upon checkout or in the morning, did you go to the front desk and as to speak to the manager or supervisor on for that day??

I think after I saw the used soap, I'm not sure I would have stayed in that room, how did you know that the bed linens were clean??

 

[frank2271]

DIRTY BED LINENS!!!!!!

Now that is a scarey thought.

Does anyone know if any WDW upper management read these posts? I hope so.

 

[kweaver]

I'm so sorry you had to deal with a problem like this during your vacation.

The condition of that room was unacceptable...and the fact that the CM at concierge couldn't get a valid response from a manager to take care of the problem is inexcusable. Add all of that to the fact that you didn't receive the room you reserved...well...I'm impressed that you didn't let it ruin your vacation (At least they gave you back your points.).

Disney is obviously having some serious issues with housekeeping. I realize that this has been discussed here at length and many people feel that these are just isolated incidents. While I agree that the dirty room stories we read here are just a very small percentage of what we assume to be sufficiently clean rooms, there was a time not long ago where stories like this popped up once or twice a year rather than once or twice a month! I also don't buy the good help is hard to find line. If you accept a job, whether it's cleaning hotel rooms or managing the entire place - the job should be done right the first time. If it's not, then you owe it to the guest to make up for the problems.

I do agree with Keggy, though...you will get a much better response if you have a face to face with a manager. It's tough when you are trying to get out the door for a PS. After having a not so great stay, the last thing you want to do is ruin your breakfast plans. That said...after not getting a response from the management, I would have been at the front desk complaining politely but loud enough for the the whole crowd to hear until the situation was rectified.

Once we checked into a very nice hotel in Atlanta late at night after a Christmas party. We were upgraded to a concierge room and went to the lounge that night for some snacks and drinks before bed (the door happened to be open). The next morning, our keys wouldn't work for the lounge and the poor woman at the front desk who told me we were never upgraded had to deal with my 4 month pregnant, extremely hungry, increasingly hormonal self who was late for a trade show. Needless to say, we got the concierge breakfast.

 

[goldilocks_63]

Several years ago, before we bought into DVC.... We had no kids, and both jobs, so used to fly out Friday nights late after work. By the time we would get there, it would be midnight.

We checked in one time as All Sports, and after trying to give us a room, finally gave us one. We lugged all our stuff there (so late, no bellhop to be found), and when entered the room, found a family fast asleep!

We backed out quietely, and I don't think there were even aware that we had entered their room.

Went back to the front desk, and took another hour to find a room. No compensation offered, however, we did get an apology.

The next day, I realized I still had the activated key to the old room; nobody had asked for it back.

****

Now, I always throw the safety latch on at night