Why doesn't Disney allow guests room choice and charge for it?

I think it would be a logistical nightmare with different people having different check-in and check-out dates.

What you are thinking of sounds like an airplane or a cruise ship...everyone gets on and gets off at the same time in those cases, though.

I worked in hotels and followed the hospitality industry for decades. (I also worked at Disney World, but not in any of the Resorts.) Your answer is the one I'd say is spot on.

Room assignments are done to maximize use and avoid having "orphan" rooms. The best analogy I've seen is the classic video game Tetris. Hotels assign rooms within booked categories in logical manner to ensure that tomorrow's reservations will still space within the same category.

While it's possible some people might pay extra to get some sort of guaranteed room, you also create a new way to upset guests. If a room has a maintenance issue, you just upset the guest expecting to stay in that room. If an in-house guest wants to extend her or his stay but can't because the room was reserved, you just upset that person.

It's an interesting idea. I'm almost certain that someone at Disney with a MBA has thought about it at some point in the past 10 years. But, logistically it's not an easy thing to do.
 
I feel disney already has enough room categories that you can effectively pay for the type of room you want. POR has 12 room categories. And if you think about it, all of those rooms are the same size, have the same bathrooms, and have the same general layout. The differences are in the "view," which is a little crazy since it's basically a motel and there's no balcony, the location, and the bedding/room decor.
 
Disney might need to block the room one or more nights before the guests stay. The appropriate charge wouldn't be $10. Maybe whatever 2 or 3 nights, rack rate, cost for your room as an extra charge.
 


I do have to add that on the DIS unplugged podcast, there was some speculation that the Star Wars hotel could work more like a cruise ship. I can see them being able to fill that hotel for quite some time even if you can only book certain stays like a cruise.
 
Can you see the new stress & complaint posts on the Dis? Look at how stressed people get about their ADRs & FPs. Got to get the perfect time, on the perfect day, at the perfect park etc, etc. Then all the checking & rechecking if not. Just one more thing for people to stress over. And complain about when they can’t book the exact room they researched as perfect for them.
 


At most any other resort in the country or even in other countries a guest can request a specific building, room location, floor, bed type etc. When I call to book I ask for what I want. If it's available I get it. Book early enough and I am able to know in advance where my room will be although not necessarily the exact room #.

At Disney all we can guarantee is room type, standard or preferred. Everything else is just plain luck of the draw. Can't even guarantee bed type in advance. Why can't Disney allow reservations on par with the rest of the hotel industry?
 
Or at the very least shower vs tub bath configuration.

We even got an accessible OKW unit with a roll in shower once years ago. At the time we had no need for that configuration and with young uns it was a wet mess and dangerous.

At Hilton Bonnet creek accessible room is a booking category or was the last time I stayed there August of last year.
 
I pick my room at some of the hotels I stay at and I appreciate that ........... but we are also talking about hotels with 300-400 rooms or less, and hotels that do business knowing most times of year they will not be sold out or close to aka incorporated into their fiscal projections.

Disney works hard at high, very high, occupancy year round. You are talking about Disney hotels that have 1000, 2000 even one with 3000 rooms. The smaller hotels at Disney have 600-800 rooms plus DVC rooms. It would be a logistical nightmare, a customer service nightmare and likely result in lost income for a variety of reasons that would tie to customers selecting rooms.

I vote no.


I worked in hotels and followed the hospitality industry for decades. (I also worked at Disney World, but not in any of the Resorts.) Your answer is the one I'd say is spot on.

Room assignments are done to maximize use and avoid having "orphan" rooms. The best analogy I've seen is the classic video game Tetris. Hotels assign rooms within booked categories in logical manner to ensure that tomorrow's reservations will still space within the same category.

While it's possible some people might pay extra to get some sort of guaranteed room, you also create a new way to upset guests. If a room has a maintenance issue, you just upset the guest expecting to stay in that room. If an in-house guest wants to extend her or his stay but can't because the room was reserved, you just upset that person.

It's an interesting idea. I'm almost certain that someone at Disney with a MBA has thought about it at some point in the past 10 years. But, logistically it's not an easy thing to do.

THIS^

Because no matter the extra fee you are willing to pay, Disney would lose so much money from not being able to maximize occupancy.

I do have to add that on the DIS unplugged podcast, there was some speculation that the Star Wars hotel could work more like a cruise ship. I can see them being able to fill that hotel for quite some time even if you can only book certain stays like a cruise.

This would make sense except for one thing ...... the hotel has been rumored to have no windows, only simulation views. If category were the only issue, what difference does it make to pick a room? The "view" is what matters on the ship, but if there is no view? I don't get why it would be an option. The hotel is not moving, so deck, aft, forward don't matter. Now I could see if you booked "imaginary" views/themes but that goes back to category or maybe category then a theme within that category. If your choice is booked then you pick another choice.

If they are 3 night or 4 night experiences, like a cruise, then it would be a very similar perk to offer and easy enough to do - just don't know why given the supposed structure.
 
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On smaller scales it works like at Hilton and other hotels where you can pick your exact room in advance but at a large place like Disney it would just be a logistical nightmare.

I can understand the thought process behind it but eventually you get down to priorities. I think service would end up suffering because of staff being spread too thin. They already put out flames when they can and it would add another fuel just waitng to burn.
 
At Hilton Bonnet creek accessible room is a booking category or was the last time I stayed there August of last year.
At Disney you do this as well:

upload_2018-11-8_10-27-28.png


Now if you're getting an accessible room without booking it then it may be that that was all that was available with your requests or that someone in error put you in there. A stop at the front desk would likely answer that question.
 
At Disney you do this as well:

View attachment 363966


Now if you're getting an accessible room without booking it then it may be that that was all that was available with your requests or that someone in error put you in there. A stop at the front desk would likely answer that question.

Maybe so but it was one of our first on site stays, first at a DVC. We did not know the rules. Now I know!!
 
I am a hotel GM for a major brand. My hotel has the ability to pick your room online. That said I have less then 125 rooms.

It is a pain with that many rooms. Disney with full occupancy and the sheer number of rooms would be even worse.

They have too many variable to use it without guest blowing up and being frustrated
 
When I think about the other places I travel to, I'm always impressed that picking a room is even a thing at Disney. They're to be commended for trying to honor as many requests as they apparently do. I can think of no other place where I would expect that they would, or where I'd even ask unless I had very special needs e.g. handicapped-friendly room or I was a frequent visitor to whom they wanted to cater.

Maybe I'm just not very picky, but it seems to me there's not a bad room in the mouse house.
 
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Can you see the new stress & complaint posts on the Dis? Look at how stressed people get about their ADRs & FPs. Got to get the perfect time, on the perfect day, at the perfect park etc, etc. Then all the checking & rechecking if not. Just one more thing for people to stress over. And complain about when they can’t book the exact room they researched as perfect for them.

My gosh, this is exactly what I was going to say. Can you imagine the absurd level of bellyaching that would happen on these boards? A few people already get emotionally wrecked when much smaller things go wrong, but not getting the perfect room will absolutely destroy some people's vacations.

After all, this is the first time my 5-year old has ever stayed at the XYZ resort. I can't believe I paid $X and when it came to my 60-day room window, there were no more south-facing balconies available even though I woke up at 7am EST to log-in, and clearly they were available the day before. Now every time I open my resort window over five nights, I will be reminded of how awful Disney IT is. Also, I promised my little niece that she would get to see the garden from her room, and now I'm going to have to break the news to her that her vacation is absolutely ruined.
 
Disney is selling a product. Either you want to buy it, or you don't. I don't get to "customize" most of the products I buy. I buy them either because they are what I want and I can, somehow, justify their cost OR the compromise between what I want and what I can get, again, allows me to justify the cost. It's a business.
 

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