Why won't they confirm connecting rooms?

[AC7179]

I don't understand why they won't guarantee connecting rooms. If they assign their connecting rooms in advance, then when they are sold out, they can quit guaranteeing them.

We are a family of 5. If we could get connecting rooms at POP, I would for sure book there. If we couldn't get connecting rooms there, I would book somewhere else. I would MUCH rather be at another resort that could fit our hole family than have two rooms at Pop that are not connecting.

Grrr....it is just frustrating!

 

[verticalchaos]

Most hotels will not GUARANTEE any requests like that because things happen sometimes ~ even if the rooms are "blocked". If your kids are little ~ like under 10 ~ make sure that's noted on your reservation. That will give you priority over a goupr of adults or a family with older kids traveling together.

BTW, bravo for knowing that the word for a door between the rooms is connecting. I used to work at a hotel and people would request "adjoining" and then get pissed when there was no door in between. I quickly learned when taking reservations to ask 'Do you mean a door between the rooms?' when someone requested "adjoining" ~ 9 times out of 10 the answer was yes.

 

[ConcKahuna]

There are 2 reasons why they won't promise you connecting rooms.

1) The people booking your reservation do not work at the resort. They don't work near the resort. They might have never even seen the resort. They have no clue what groups/events/rehabs may be going on to know what the room blocking looks like for any request.

2) Connecting rooms are not their own room category. This means if you book a garden view room, and you're not traveling with someone, you still might get a connecting room. Why? Maybe it was clean when you were checking in, maybe your reservation fits between 2 other reservations. Maybe the person who is in the room connecting with yours checks out the day after you check in, and you took the room they had been traveling with when those people checked out. That means no one can get those connecting rooms until you leave.

When a resort is full, making sure everyone has a room can be like playing Tetris. You have to peice together the reservations to make sure all reservations match end-to-end. So say you're blocked for connecting rooms, but the person in one of the rooms leaves a day before you check in. That leaves a one night gap. If there are no one-night reservations to fill that gap, and the resort is sold out, that means you have to loose your connecting rooms and be moved to rooms that wont cause a gap.

 

[Allison]

They don't assign the connecting rooms in advance (at least not as advance as the time of booking) so they wouldn't know when to stop "selling" connecting rooms.

 

[minnie61650]

As a mother of 4 (All grown now. My oldest is in her 30's and my youngest is 22) I often wished Disney had more options for larger families.
When the children were younger and we would go to Disney they did not have DVC or the family suites. In fact Disney did not have a Moderate until CBR opened in the late 1980's so if we wanted to stay onsite we either rented 2 rooms at a deluxe or stayed in the cabins.

I wrote to Disney many times over the years asking for more options for families so when I heard they were building the New Family Suites at All Star Music it just made me so happy!

In the late 80's I booked 2 connecting rooms at CBR for my family.
When we checked in there were no connecting rooms left but we were able to get rooms next to each other on the second floor.
Our two oldest were teens so I put them in one room and the 2 little ones who were 5 and 7 stayed with us. It worked for us because our older children were able to stay in a room without us but if they were younger DH and I would have had to split up.

Disney may say they guarantee connecting rooms but in reality Disney does not guarantee connecting rooms.

If there are 2 adults Disney can split the adults and children into two rooms that are not connecting. They try hard not to do this but it can and does happen sometimes. If however it is one adult with 5 children Disney should try harder to find connecting rooms since some of the children cannot be left in a room without an adult. But if you look at the threads posted below you will see that sometimes even Disney mixes up.


It does happen. Far too often IMHO.


Here are a couple of threads about guests not getting connecting rooms:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1095679

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=785797&page=1&pp=15

From this thread:

http://disboards.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=13528958

One of the threads that Linda posted a link to was my experience last March. I had many conversations with the higher-ups at Guest Services and was told that even if it says "guaranteed" it is not truly "guaranteed." It just has higher priority over the "requests." Because on a given day, there might only be 25 connecting room sets opening up, but 27 "guaranteed connecting rooms for families" ressies checking in. 2 of those families are not going to get their "guarantee."

I know, I was shocked that we had to fight so hard to get put in rooms that had just been fumigated for lice (they were taken out of the inventory, but re-opened because we insisted we needed rooms.) I sort of assumed that if they didn't have the rooms for us, they'd find rooms elsewhere on Disney property. For that stay, we were sometimes 2 adults and sometimes only 1. Now we will book offsite if we need to do that again. If there are 2 of us adults, we book connecting and hope for the best. Otherwise, we'll split the kids.

My point is to make backup plans if you are depending on connecting rooms.

That is one of the main reasons if my family were young I would choose a Suite over 2 connecting rooms or I would be prepared that I may need to split the family up and sleep in a different room than DH.

 

[disnut8]

This is one reason I don't want Disney World or any other hotel or resort or whatever to ever guarantee connecting rooms. If my mother-in-law was making the reservations, she would ask for connecting rooms with my husband and me. We don't need connecting rooms. They are two fully functioning capable adults. So are we. The only reason my mother-in-law asks for connecting rooms is for the slight convienence of just being able to open the door in the morning so she knows when we get up. That's it. We'd be fine with adjoining rooms. Hell, we'd be fine with rooms down the hall form each other.

So if my mother-in-law called before you did and was guaranteed connecting rooms, you could be shut out of that resort. And we'd have connecting rooms that, although nice, wouldn't really be needed.

 

[verticalchaos]

Yes, things will always happen, but if you make it clear when the reservations are made that the children are under teen years, that reservation should be given priority over groups with older kids/other adults. You need to make sure it's clear though. There's still no guarantee, but explaining why should help.

(It's the same principal with hotels where there are smoking/non-smoking rooms. If you're allergic and state that WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR RESERVATION, you should be given prioroty over someone who just doesn't like the smell.)

 

[zaxmom]

We stayed at POP last week. When I booked the package, they said they would guarantee connecting rooms. There were only four of us, so two rooms were not required. That may be why they said they were guaranteed. In fact, I told them when I booked, if they were not, I would have to cancel one of the rooms. If DH and I had to split up, there would be no reason to have 2 rooms. I had called back twice to make the final payment, and both times they said that I had "Guaranteed Connecting rooms due to the ages of the children."

I know from what I have heard on here, they never guarantee them, but it was said three times and on the paperwork I received that it was guaranteed.

So, they can do it. Maybe they only do it when it means more money for them.

 

[jeanylaser]

Does the all star Music has connection rooms?

 

[minnie61650]

Does the all star Music has connection rooms?

Yes All Star Music has connecting rooms.
About 50% of the rooms are connecting.

However most of the connecting rooms are 1 standard and 1 handicapped acessible room so if a handicapped guest needs one of the rooms that room will be blocked off.
Then the other connecting room just becomes a standard room.

That is another reason that Disney cannot confirm connecting rooms.

 

[GinnyFavers]

There are a few offsite hotels now marketing themselves as guaranteeing connecting rooms. They obviously know there are families who are just as frustrated as you are.

Maybe if enough hotels do that, Disney will have to, also. It's definitely not that they can't do it -- they don't want to, because it might mean they couldn't fill up as many rooms and it would take more man hours to do assignments.
When people stop staying there, they'll change their tune, but since occupancy keeps rising every year, don't hold your breath.

I am heartened to hear that someone got guaranteed connecting reservations at Pop. This may be just with Pop, or it could be a new policy change afoot! I'll be watching this thread to see what's been happening lately.

Haven't heard anything formally announced about a new connecting rooms guarantee policy.

 

[sparklemom]

I'm feeling like an idiot because I assumed that since my reservation says "GUARANTEED CONNECTING ROOMS," I thought I had... guaranteed connecting rooms.

In the event that I arrive and the rooms are not in fact connected, can I refuse to accept the second room? I'd rather cram into the same room than be down the hall from each other, especially when $2200 is at stake. However, I know there's a 5-day advance cancellation penalty, so I don't know if I'd be charged for deleting an unconnected room. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Sammie]

I'm feeling like an idiot because I assumed that since my reservation says "GUARANTEED CONNECTING ROOMS," I thought I had... guaranteed connecting rooms.

In the event that I arrive and the rooms are not in fact connected, can I refuse to accept the second room? I'd rather cram into the same room than be down the hall from each other, especially when $2200 is at stake. However, I know there's a 5-day advance cancellation penalty, so I don't know if I'd be charged for deleting an unconnected room. Anyone have experience with this?

You can't refuse the room, if this puts you over the room occupany level.

If you are simply getting another room for comfort level, then yes they would probably let you cancel out of the other room at check if, if you don't get connecting.

 

[GinnyFavers]

I believe you your paperwork says that, if you say it does!

It's just something new as far as anyone here knows, that they promise connecting rooms to anyone.

I really hope this is a change in their policies and the way they handle these requests. They needed one, badly.

 

[HappyDznyCamper]

I'm feeling like an idiot because I assumed that since my reservation says "GUARANTEED CONNECTING ROOMS," I thought I had... guaranteed connecting rooms.

Did you book through a travel agent or with Disney directly??

 

[deej696]

I was a hotel manager for several years, and probably the most stressful part of my job was the constant puzzeling of rooms a week or more in advance. The AP's comparison to a game of Tetris is exactly right. Anyone ever "beat" Tetris? Well the hotel business is no different, no matter how good you are, eventually those pieces fall so fast its impossible to win!

 

[Allison]

It is indeed frustrating that you are told when you make your reservation that because of our family size and the number of children, we are GUARANTEED connecting rooms and my confirmation indeed says the same thing. I was told this by 3 different cm's on 3 different phone calls. I've read too much here and know the reality. They need to stop telling people this is a guarantee if they can't follow through.

The Tetris example is a perfect one to describe assigning rooms.

 

[sparklemom]

Did you book through a travel agent or with Disney directly??

Through Disney. Here's a cut & paste from the confirmation:

Resort Information:
RESERVATION INCLUDES ROOM AND TAX ONLY
CRIB GUARANTEED (NOT FULL SIZE)
CONNECTING ROOMS GUARANTEED FOR FAMILIES
AAA MEMBERSHIP CARD REQUIRED AT CHECK-IN FOR DISCOUNT
CHECK IN AFTER : 3:00 PM CHECK OUT BEFORE : 11:00 AM
DINE - ADV DINING ARRANGEMENTS CALL 407-WDW-DINE

The highlight is mine, but the wording is verbatim.

 

[BamaFan121s]

I really wish they would make it an option like the preferred locations that you can pay extra for. Luckily for us, we have never had a problem being able to get them each time. If and when that happens, we will then have to decide how badly we really want to stay at that particular resort.

 

[fakereadhed]

Yes, there is no guarantee. But they will do everything they can to keep families together and happy. I stressed about this before our last trip, as a family of 5. When I tacked on an extra day to the front of our trip for one room a few weeks before we left , I was told on check in that we would probably have to move rooms in the am. Nope, they just gave us the key to the connecting room. I think if you are polite and patient it goes a long way. I wouldn't hesitate to book connecting rooms again.