Room ready frustration

[aoconnor]

When you check-in online, I believe it asks about your arrival time? Hopefully they are using that data to decide which rooms to clean first. People arrive at all times of day and they should be using that info to prioritize.

I'm ok with a 4 or 4:30 room ready time but I do think it's a little much to not be able to access your room until 6, 6:30, 7pm.

 

[crisi]

In 15 years we've never gone past 4pm for room ready. I think its a luck thing. We have never gotten a room request, but we are bus lucky and room ready lucky.

Prioritizing rooms isn't efficient - cleaning the rooms in order as they move down the hallway is. But since housekeeping arrives at 8 or 9, and checkout isn't until 11am, there are probably two passes down each hallway - the 8 to 11:30 before lunch pass (sometimes accompanied by knocks to see if you are ready to leave) and the post lunch "we stayed in our room late" pass. Since housekeeping doesn't have a lot of choice on who checks out when, they could finish their first pass early with a bunch of easy to clean studios and then face four very lived in two bedrooms in the afternoon pass. I'm sure they'd rather work their full day and be out of there at 4pm as well.

There probably are ways to make housekeeping more efficient and increase the chances everyone will be in their room by 4pm - but since they haven't done it in the fifteen years I've been paying attention, I doubt they see it as a problem with any priority.

 

[alltwelve]

One thing we've started doing- though I'm honestly not sure if it helps the operation or not, is call housekeeping if we have an early checkout. We last had an early checkout at Bay Lake Tower, as we had a 9am flight to catch. I called housekeeping when we were leaving the room (around 6:30am) to let them know we were leaving and the room was ready for cleaning, in the hopes this would help them get the room ready for the next guest checking in. Again, I'm not sure if it helped as I'm sure they have a daily plan in place, but I'm hopeful that they were able to use this info to their advantage.

We stayed at a hotel once that had this cool control panel at the front door that you could press to let housekeeping know you had vacated the room, either for the day or for checkout, and it was really cool! Most hotels only have the "do not disturb" (or "room occupied," in Disney's case), to let you know that you're in the room, but no way to let them know when you are out of the room.

I could imagine some of the larger villas, like the 2 and 3 bedrooms, must take a long time to clean, depending on how long the guest stayed there and if they took full advantage of the kitchen.

 

[k_hase]

Regardless of the language used, if they don't have a room, they don't have a room. Timeshares operate at or near 100% occupancy.

Anecdotally, I don't believe late room access happens very often. At least, not when you consider there are currently about 6000 DVC villas at WDW alone. We've gotten our room late once in 15+ years and my own circle of friends report similar experiences.

Staffing issues may play a role at times. However, there's no logic in deliberately understaffing when it only leads to unhappy guests and compensation payments. Oh, and DVC owners foot the bill for housekeeping.

More likely, the biggest culprits are maintenance needs which take several hours to resolve between guests. Could be something as simple as a carpet cleaning that takes time to dry. Or it could be plumbing issues, electrical, appliance that needs replaced, etc.

Someone above asked if we just waited around--no, we were at the pool, but historically I have not received the text messages about the room at all. Like ever, and we generally go 2 times a year (we did skip last year) and have owned DVC for 10 years. As such, I go to the desk, particularly when our trip is during hot weather (we're happier to be in our airplane clothes in, say February, then in August). Before you ask, yes, I've checked the number, yes, I've talked to people about it, no, it doesn't change.

My experience is roughly 75% of the time the room is not ready before or at 4, and is usually ready after 5:30, in one case 7PM. I'd like to reiterate I'm aware of the after 4 policy. My larger point is that I'm not understanding the releasing of rooms as they become available. Housekeeping is cleaning rooms simultaneously, but they are not cleaning EACH room simultaneously. So some rooms are ready, then the housekeeping staff moves on to the next room, right? That would make a room ready. Why can't the desk reassign room numbers within a category? I'm here, you saw me, so swap me with a one bedroom who is not here.

Or are they cleaning them ALL simultaneously and they complete ALL rooms at once? That seems not likely, but I don't know.

I just find it frustrating that there is no standardized room ready time; the after 4 thing means I could wait until midnight.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Part of the problem is that a supervisor must sign off on each room after it is completed. They have lots of rooms to check so I'd bet they wait for bunches in one area to be done before they head to check them.

 

[Chuck S]

Why can't the desk reassign room numbers within a category? I'm here, you saw me, so swap me with a one bedroom who is not here.

There may be several reasons. Realizing requests are not guaranteed, DVC resorts to seem to at least try to fill them.

A large party may have 2 or 3 "traveling with" rooms and they want to be together.
The first rooms ready may be HA rooms, even if they are available and ready, many guests get terribly upset if they are given one.
At OKW, a resort with only 3 buildings with elevators, people may have requested an elevator room or ground floor room for medical reasons, but does not need a fully HA room.
Rooms may be out of service for repairs, as a landlord, I have a 2 bed 1 bath unit that's been down for over a month after the last tenants trashed it. It may be ready for new tenants next week.
People may have "self extended" for a late check-out.
A room that has been through a special cleaning for allergies, that really can't be reassigned.
Someone may have reserved a two bedroom lockoff, so that studio and one bedroom can't be assigned unless another lock-off pair are available at the same time.

 

[cruisin5]

But, they KNOW if someone is waiting at the pool for a room
OR
if someone is at a park with booked withe dinner at the at that park. etc.

Should the room go to someone at the pool who has requested the next available room, the answer is YES.

IMO, Disney/DVC will stop taking room location requests in the next few months. I'll leave out my next comments.

They KNOW, but they don't plan. AFAIK, the room ready "problem" is only on the DVC side.

 

[cruisin5]

There may be several reasons. Realizing requests are not guaranteed, DVC resorts to seem to at least try to fill them.

A large party may have 2 or 3 "traveling with" rooms and they want to be together.
The first rooms ready may be HA rooms, even if they are available and ready, many guests get terribly upset if they are given one.
At OKW, a resort with only 3 buildings with elevators, people may have requested an elevator room or ground floor room for medical reasons, but does not need a fully HA room.
Rooms may be out of service for repairs, as a landlord, II have a 2 bed 1 bath unit that's been down for over a month after the last tenants trashed it. It may be ready for new tenants next week.
People may have "self extended" for a late check-out.
A room that has been through a special cleaning for allergies, that really can't be reassigned.
Someone may have reserved a two bedroom lockoff, so that studio and one bedroom can't be assigned unless another lock-off pair are available at the same time.

With all due respect Chuck (a DIS legend!), the OP arrived at 9:15AM, and asked for the next available but didn't receive a room until 4:45PM.

I would expect someone actually waiting for the next room available to take priority over every request other than HA.

 

[DVCjj]

I feel your frustration as it’s happened to me at BCV and BLT. Usually one bedrooms.
I definitely feel that getting in a toon later than 4 should definitely have a corresponding later checkout.

I think the problem is when previous guests do not respect the next incoming guest and leave the room in shambles.

I purposely leave our room in very good condition leaving less work for housekeeping enabling the next guest to get in earlier. I know how much that means to me and I want to Pay It Forward.

 

[Chrisizzle]

I would expect someone actually waiting for the next room available to take priority over every request other than HA.

Should the room go to someone at the pool who has requested the next available room, the answer is YES.

Actually, no.

This would make the entire system “first come, first served” and anyone who wanted a room would have to wait in the lobby for it.

If you think someone waiting by the pool gets priority over someone waiting in the parks, then surely someone waiting by the lobby gets preference over someone waiting by the pool.
... and then you’ve got a line of people because rooms go in the order in which people wait.

This is not in defence of the system, but they can’t nullify people’s reservations (or advanced requests) just because someone showed up early.

Having said all that, the “after 4pm” check-in time is a cop out. From this discussion, it seems guests are just as likely to check in at 1pm as 7pm.

I think we’d all agree that “check-in is between 11am and 7pm” would be a completely unacceptable standard. I think we’d also agree that check-in past a certain hour is unacceptable even if it happens to be “after 4pm.” For me, I think guests should expect some recompense if a room isn’t ready by 6pm.”

Saying “after 4pm” is effectively “don’t bother us until 4pm”.

 

[cruisin5]

Actually, no.

This would make the entire system “first come, first served” and anyone who wanted a room would have to wait in the lobby for it.

If you think someone waiting by the pool gets priority over someone waiting in the parks, then surely someone waiting by the lobby gets preference over someone waiting by the pool.
... and then you’ve got a line of people because rooms go in the order in which people wait.

This is not in defence of the system, but they can’t nullify people’s reservations (or advanced requests) just because someone showed up early.

Having said all that, the “after 4pm” check-in time is a cop out. From this discussion, it seems guests are just as likely to check in at 1pm as 7pm.

I think we’d all agree that “check-in is between 11am and 7pm” would be a completely unacceptable standard. I think we’d also agree that check-in past a certain hour is unacceptable even if it happens to be “after 4pm.” For me, I think guests should expect some recompense if a room isn’t ready by 6pm.”

Saying “after 4pm” is effectively “don’t bother us until 4pm”.

Excellent points! I hadn't thought about the "first come, first served" problem it would cause.

 

[jo-jo]

Part of the problem is that a supervisor must sign off on each room after it is completed. They have lots of rooms to check so I'd bet they wait for bunches in one area to be done before they head to check them.

A few years ago, we were traveling with DS and family. Two studios. They got a room ready text on the ME bus about 10 am. We waited and waited. About 2 ish we asked at the front desk , they told us the room was clean, just waiting for it to be check, so should be soon. We still didn't have it at 4. We did get it shortly after 4.

Next trip, the next year with DS.......once again, he got room ready text on ME, we had to wait. But I don't remember our wait for that trip.

I'm guessing, the first trip it was raining cats and dogs, so we didn't go to park right away, so it sticks in our brain more.

 

[miksicnarf]

Flying in to FL from the West coast, we don't usually arrive until after 4:00 and our room has always been ready. The one time we took a red-eye and arrived very early, our room (OKW GV) was ready around 11:00am. My son and I are taking a red-eye again in Nov., hoping for the same or better luck!
I've had to wait past 4:00 at VGC. I've found that not requesting a location seems to help a bit, got in at 2:30 last time.

 

[DebbieB]

I've been a member 20 years and only once did I have a room not ready by 4:00. It was at VGC and it was around 5:00. They gave us a use anywhere fastpass as compensation.

Was there 2 weeks ago, got text at 3:45.

We usually have a room request and I prefer that to take priority over early room ready.

 

[tjkraz]

To the people who claim to routinely get late access to rooms, I'd be curious to hear the following details about some of those visits:

- Which resort was booked?

- What size and type of villa was booked (Standard Studio, Lake View One Bedroom, etc.)?

- On what day of the week was your arrival when problems experienced?

- What requests were listed on your reservation?

- Did you complete online check-in prior to arriving?

 

[TavieP]

Someone above asked if we just waited around--no, we were at the pool, but historically I have not received the text messages about the room at all. Like ever, and we generally go 2 times a year (we did skip last year) and have owned DVC for 10 years. As such, I go to the desk, particularly when our trip is during hot weather (we're happier to be in our airplane clothes in, say February, then in August). Before you ask, yes, I've checked the number, yes, I've talked to people about it, no, it doesn't change.

I almost never get the texts either - and yes, I check the number, and I've never been able to understand why. I think I've gotten one "room is ready" text over the years, ever (and I've visited at least annually almost every year of my life.)

I don't think they're sending them. I almost always have to call or go in person to the desk to see if the room is available only to find it is and no one's notified me. I don't trust the texts at all based on my experience with them.

 

[TavieP]

To the people who claim to routinely get late access to rooms, I'd be curious to hear the following details about some of those visits:

- Which resort was booked?

- What size and type of villa was booked (Standard Studio, Lake View One Bedroom, etc.)?

- On what day of the week was your arrival when problems experienced?

- What requests were listed on your reservation?

- Did you complete online check-in prior to arriving?

Usually OKW, SSR, BWV, or VWL. Usually a one-bedroom. Arrival days vary but usually mid-week. Usually do not have special room requests. Always complete online check-in prior to arriving.

I'm not saying that I get a 6pm room every visit, but it happens often enough to be noticeable and expected for us at this point.

 

[Madame]

To the people who claim to routinely get late access to rooms, I'd be curious to hear the following details about some of those visits:

- Which resort was booked?

- What size and type of villa was booked (Standard Studio, Lake View One Bedroom, etc.)?

- On what day of the week was your arrival when problems experienced?

- What requests were listed on your reservation?

- Did you complete online check-in prior to arriving?

The use of the word “claim” is unnecessary. Why would people lie? Are you attempting to prove the guest is responsible for the late checkin- cause that’s the vibe your questions are giving. I’ll refrain from answering in this case.

 

[adamak]

I think it's getting worse over the years. BWV studio, I used to be able to check in by 4 ish. Last 2 years, it's pushed back to 6, 7 pm. They should have a lounge for families to shower / watch TV (like the one in Aulani). Families with young kids may not want to spend whole day in pools / parks. International guests may have just gotten off a 12 hour flight. What if it's raining outside? We are paying for the room, and I lost couple of hours of relaxation in my room. I would rather they move the check out time 1 hour early (because that I can plan for).

 

[pineapplepalms]

Flying in to FL from the West coast, we don't usually arrive until after 4:00 and our room has always been ready. The one time we took a red-eye and arrived very early, our room (OKW GV) was ready around 11:00am. My son and I are taking a red-eye again in Nov., hoping for the same or better luck!
I've had to wait past 4:00 at VGC. I've found that not requesting a location seems to help a bit, got in at 2:30 last time.

Same, we never arrive until later in the day and have never had to wait for our room at WDW. At VGC our room has always been available around 4pm or a little later, but the parks and DTD are so close that it was never a big deal to us if we couldn’t get into our room until later. We just dropped off our bags at Bell Services and headed back when I got the room ready text.