Why can't Housekeeping get this right?

[hakepb]

Just think of the money they could if the got it right.

Exactly. The resources spent on extra work and correcting quality issues could be enough to provide good service and save money.

As I just mentioned in another thread:
What if mousekeeping got accurate lists of service needed and
What if there were something like 3 different colored lights on a mini-hidden mickey at each door. 1 light=T&T. 2=Full cleaning. 3=done(logged by mousekeeper). Blinking=member still in room. It would be harder to miss a room, and it would be harder to give a room an extra-cleaning.

 

[mikeweider1]

We had a similar problem in June at BLT. On our day 4 they didn't do anything because my 6 year old son put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door before we left for the parks. The next day I called (now our day 5) to get the TT service but they said since we had missed it we couldn't get it now because it was day 5.

At that point I asked to speak to a manager because the seemed ridiculous and she said she would have the manager call me back. They never did but lo and behold they came by and did a complete cleaning within 2 hours of the phone call.

Has anyone else every heard that rule that if you miss your cleaning with the DND sign on the door then you won't get one at all?

 

[Tiger926]

We had a similar problem in June at BLT. On our day 4 they didn't do anything because my 6 year old son put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door before we left for the parks. The next day I called (now our day 5) to get the TT service but they said since we had missed it we couldn't get it now because it was day 5.

At that point I asked to speak to a manager because the seemed ridiculous and she said she would have the manager call me back. They never did but lo and behold they came by and did a complete cleaning within 2 hours of the phone call.

Has anyone else every heard that rule that if you miss your cleaning with the DND sign on the door then you won't get one at all?

It happens to us constantly. I think it throws off their schedule, but I'm not sure?

The thing is, they have a weird way of scheduling housekeeping services, and frankly, some of it makes no sense. We've had trash and towel on the 2nd day of arrival, yet we were staying for 8 or 9 days, and then when you try and correct it at certain resorts, all heck breaks loose.

Not sure what the solution is, but like I said, we do most of our own cleaning now, and we are extremely tidy and clean people, so when they come in our villa, they don't have to do much at all. But, as my hubby has pointed out, we are doing their jobs, but depending upon the resort we stay at, it's necessary due to all around confusion in the housekeeping department.

Tiger

 

[dmoore22]

Yes, and linked reservations seem to mess things up as well. We had a 2 bedroom for 10 days once, but it was a linked reservation. We never did get either T&T OR a full cleaning.

Our last visit was a linked ressie at our home resort. The hard copy confirmation that DVC mailed had the specific dates and type of cleaning listed. When we didn't receive our T&T we called housekeeping. They stated that since our ressies where linked they were considered separate ressies which changed the cleaning schedule. When the second ressie clicked in that would be considered day one again. Imagine staying 12 nights without a full cleaning. Well we thought we'd grin and bear it. However, when the first T&T never transpired I went to the front desk to explain the situation. She reported that according to her computer the scheduled cleanings where the same as what was stated on our confirmation. Since this was late in the evening she told me it would be tomorrow before it would be taken care of. It was. They gave us a full cleaning in place of the T&T and followed the schedule the rest of our stay. I kind of passed it off as "technology is wonderful --- when it works."

 

[LoveToDisney]

Simply put your "do not disturb" sign on the door when you FIRST arrive and only remove it on the days you WANT them to come into your villa. Works for us. I don't like being surprised either and truly enjoy NOT having maid service. We know how to clean up after ourselves and keep the place tidy just like at home.

 

[DisMN]

Simply put your "do not disturb" sign on the door when you FIRST arrive and only remove it on the days you WANT them to come into your villa. Works for us. I don't like being surprised either and truly enjoy NOT having maid service. We know how to clean up after ourselves and keep the place tidy just like at home.

This is how we do it and we use the sign on the days THEY designate that we're supposed to get the cleaning. It's listed right on your reservation/checkin paperwork. It still doesn't work for us. In our last 10 day trip we had ONE trash and towel day and that was it. Very frustrating.

I wonder how they can do a better job with scheduling? There has to be a way.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

Simply put your "do not disturb" sign on the door when you FIRST arrive and only remove it on the days you WANT them to come into your villa. Works for us. I don't like being surprised either and truly enjoy NOT having maid service. We know how to clean up after ourselves and keep the place tidy just like at home.

Obviously, it's not that "simple", judging by the posts here. It's not like their criteria is to clean rooms without the sign, and not to clean a room with the sign.

I "know how" to clean up after myself too. Housekeeping services aren't about tidying up...to me, tidying up implies not having stuff strewn around, and it's not their job to tidy up people's stuff. It's the cleaning. I have cleaning wipes for light cleaning of the counters and sinks, but I've yet to bring a toilet bowl brush on a vacation (and to be honest, I don't want to clean toilets on vacation...so there! ). I also DO want my bedding changed at least once on a 9 night stay. I wash towels along with my other whites constantly with DVC, but I choose not to strip down the beds, wash the bedding, and then make up the beds again, especially when what I WANT and SHOULD GET is better service from a timeshare that I'm paying good money for. It just seems like it shouldn't be that difficult to get it right. Especially with computers, and with Disney in many other ways functioning like a well-oiled machine.

Maybe next trip, I'll just harass them daily with phone calls. "Today I don't want TT or a full cleaning..." or "Today I want..." I guess on the "Do not clean days...", the "Do Not Disturb" sign will work (or so one would think), but we never had one; I did mention it to the young woman at the front desk, who said I needed to get one from Housekeeping, and I just didn't get around to calling them about THAT. (Funny...I thought several visits to the front desk and phone calls to Housekeeping would solve the problem. ) We used the 2nd bedroom's one day, but I have my doubts that using it on the 1 bedroom door would have kept them out of the 2nd bedroom if that was the day they arbitrarily decided to come.

 

[iluveeyore]

I have only tried to change it when they don't show up when I thought they were supposed to - we were there last Christmas for 12 days, after the first week, nothing and we needed some items - called for some dish soap/dishwashing detergent/tp/paper towels (2 bdrm), and someone just brought them to the door and handed them to me. Second week, got a trash and towel (this was 9 days after check-in). Called and said we still hadn't had a full clean, so they said they'd do it the next day (Dec. 23) - we were out all day, came back to nothing different. Then, Christmas Eve at dinnertime when we're having our family Christmas with 16 of us, they show up at 3pm to do a full clean!? Told them to just leave supplies, we were kind of busy and there wasn't room for them to come in. We're going in October, and we're in a 2 bdrm for 7 days, then a studio for 4. I'll be surprised if anything gets done when it should - I've learned to just wash the towels daily as we need them, and we take out our own trash and recycling. If they show up with supplies, I just consider that a bonus!

 

[MinnieMart]

I just wish they would give us clean towels every day just like a regular resort room gets. esp in the summer when you may shower more than once a day. We pay enough dues for this common clean thought. I don't mind throwing out my own garbadge and i don't care if my bed is made!BUT, I do not want to do wash on vacation, I do enough wash at home! Will this ever change? what does everyone think?

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I just wish they would give us clean towels every day just like a regular resort room gets. esp in the summer when you may shower more than once a day. We pay enough dues for this common clean thought. I don't mind throwing out my own garbadge and i don't care if my bed is made!BUT, I do not want to do wash on vacation, I do enough wash at home! Will this ever change? what does everyone think?

See now, I LOVE having a washer and dryer. It's one of my favorite parts of DVC, and it's what I don't like about the studios when it's just DH and me on vacation. I don't want to do laundry on vacation, but I definitely want clean clothes. We were just there for 12 days, in hot sweaty summer weather...no way was I packing for that and not plan to do laundry. The towels actually help give us a full load of whites. And then I just toss the towels in the laundry basket for everyone to grab as they need. Really not much work; no folding them, like at home. (Actually, now that the "kids" are adults, that's pretty much how I deal with their clothes too...they can fold, or not fold their own.)

But I want the refills of coffee and dishwasher detergent especially, and I want my toilet cleaned...by someone else!

 

[disneynutz]

I just wish they would give us clean towels every day just like a regular resort room gets. esp in the summer when you may shower more than once a day. We pay enough dues for this common clean thought. I don't mind throwing out my own garbadge and i don't care if my bed is made!BUT, I do not want to do wash on vacation, I do enough wash at home! Will this ever change? what does everyone think?

If you don't want to wash then you can try to get extra towels from the Mousekeepers or pay for some extra towel packs. Most members would object to paying additional dues when maybe they don't want or need daily towels.

Bill

 

[dianeschlicht]

See now, I LOVE having a washer and dryer. It's one of my favorite parts of DVC, and it's what I don't like about the studios when it's just DH and me on vacation. I don't want to do laundry on vacation, but I definitely want clean clothes. We were just there for 12 days, in hot sweaty summer weather...no way was I packing for that and not plan to do laundry. The towels actually help give us a full load of whites. And then I just toss the towels in the laundry basket for everyone to grab as they need. Really not much work; no folding them, like at home. (Actually, now that the "kids" are adults, that's pretty much how I deal with their clothes too...they can fold, or not fold their own.)

But I want the refills of coffee and dishwasher detergent especially, and I want my toilet cleaned...by someone else!

I totally agree on all counts! I really hate not getting clean sheets when we are there more than 7 nights too.

The part I can't understand is what changed to make these schedules not working anymore? We used to never have to worry about when we got T&T or full cleaning. They seemed to always happen on the days we were scheduled to get them. Now they seem to NEVER happen on the right days.

BTW, did you ever get back on schedule during your trip, MaryAnn?

 

[Sammie]

Love, love having a washer and dryer. It's only a few minutes to load it and go and when we get in the dryer they go while we relax and watch some TV or read.

Also like that it allows us to pack less and go home with clean clothes.

 

[n2mm]

I've tried to switch my schedule too by calling housekeeping but it doesn't work and you either get skipped or just the regular schedule. We stay 12 nights often and we get a FC/TT/FC. The last FC is our last night. It seems like a waste to change our sheets, only to have to strip the beds down the next day. This year, the cleaning schedules have been totally off. We find with "segmented" and linked stays and since the last computer upgrade, our housekeeping visits are completely off schedule. Housekeeping doesn't seem to know if you're coming or going now.

But I have to say, BLT has the worse housekeeping. We've stayed there 3 times over the last 15 months and when they come for T&T that is all they do. They don't replenish anything afterwards. I actually didn't realize that replenishing was part of the required T&T duties, but saw it on the DVC website and now it bothers me that I don't get replenished. I do at BWV and OKW, but the other resorts are spotty. We tried to call housekeeping during our stay there last week and got put on hold and finally just hung up. We should not have to go down the hall and find the housekeeper to get our supplies replenished. While this happened to us in May 2010 and Nov 2010, I thought, well they're not use to the DVC rules yet, but we were just there last week and nothing has changed. I will be dropping an email to MS about this just for some clarification.

 

[Tiger926]

Simply put your "do not disturb" sign on the door when you FIRST arrive and only remove it on the days you WANT them to come into your villa. Works for us. I don't like being surprised either and truly enjoy NOT having maid service. We know how to clean up after ourselves and keep the place tidy just like at home.

As already stated, this doesn't work for many of us. If it were that easy, this thread wouldn't have been started.

See now, I LOVE having a washer and dryer. It's one of my favorite parts of DVC, and it's what I don't like about the studios when it's just DH and me on vacation. I don't want to do laundry on vacation, but I definitely want clean clothes. We were just there for 12 days, in hot sweaty summer weather...no way was I packing for that and not plan to do laundry. The towels actually help give us a full load of whites. And then I just toss the towels in the laundry basket for everyone to grab as they need. Really not much work; no folding them, like at home. (Actually, now that the "kids" are adults, that's pretty much how I deal with their clothes too...they can fold, or not fold their own.)

But I want the refills of coffee and dishwasher detergent especially, and I want my toilet cleaned...by someone else!

I totally agree on all counts! I really hate not getting clean sheets when we are there more than 7 nights too.

The part I can't understand is what changed to make these schedules not working anymore? We used to never have to worry about when we got T&T or full cleaning. They seemed to always happen on the days we were scheduled to get them. Now they seem to NEVER happen on the right days.

BTW, did you ever get back on schedule during your trip, MaryAnn?

Love, love having a washer and dryer. It's only a few minutes to load it and go and when we get in the dryer they go while we relax and watch some TV or read.

Also like that it allows us to pack less and go home with clean clothes.

to all responses. We love doing laundry on vacation too! It makes packing and unpacking so much easier, and it allows for a more efficient and organized vacation for us.

A home away from home does include laundry, cooking and chores for us. Would like to be doing less cleaning chores, but as this thread shows, DVC seems to be having issues at all resorts in this department.

Tiger

 

[rlduvall]

And another thing about the full cleaning: I love finally getting it because after 7 days of me making the bed with those unfitted sheets . . . it is starting to look horrible. And I need a tidy made up bed to make my day complete.

 

[dzorn]

I totally agree on all counts! I really hate not getting clean sheets when we are there more than 7 nights too.

The part I can't understand is what changed to make these schedules not working anymore? We used to never have to worry about when we got T&T or full cleaning. They seemed to always happen on the days we were scheduled to get them. Now they seem to NEVER happen on the right days.

BTW, did you ever get back on schedule during your trip, MaryAnn?

Maybe the problem is members that want it re-arranged and Disney IT does not have the capacity to change the schedual in the computers. So notes get lost and rooms get forgotten. Given that some of the mousekeepers may have limited communication skills in English telling them not today may mean not at all.

Denise in MI

 

[rlduvall]

Maybe the problem is members that want it re-arranged and Disney IT does not have the capacity to change the schedual in the computers. So notes get lost and rooms get forgotten. Given that some of the mousekeepers may have limited communication skills in English telling them not today may mean not at all.

Denise in MI

That may be the case in some instances, but in my situation my written confirmation from DVC had T&T and FC listed accurately- I never requested any changes. It was a segmented reservation only due to the fact that a couple of waitlists came through making it a total of 9 nights all linked - same reservation number. BUT, apparently internally at AKV they can't process linked reservations and they kept showing up on wrong days. In fact, I even received a survey while there thanking me for my 'recent' stay even though I still had 3 nights left to go.

 

[dzorn]

That may be the case in some instances, but in my situation my written confirmation from DVC had T&T and FC listed accurately- I never requested any changes. It was a segmented reservation only due to the fact that a couple of waitlists came through making it a total of 9 nights all linked - same reservation number. BUT, apparently internally at AKV they can't process linked reservations and they kept showing up on wrong days. In fact, I even received a survey while there thanking me for my 'recent' stay even though I still had 3 nights left to go.

Yep Disney IT strikes again.

Denise in MI

 

[hakepb]

Riduvall, Awesome!

(Working in IT, I love it when other people's systems do fun stuff like that !)

And your comments really enforce my opinion that many of the "mousekeeping" issues are problems outside mousekeeping's control.
Does the mousekeeping manager get a schedule from room assignments a month ahead of time, makes the staffing plan, then the day of cleaning get a list of 100 extra rooms to clean (due to segmenting) then members wonder why their room is not ready on time, or a cleaning was rushed?