DVCNews Debates: Acceptable maintenance

[DVCNews]

Disney resorts make a concerted effort to get arriving guests into their rooms as quickly as possible. *Between the online check-in--which asks guests to specify their arrival time--and "room ready" assignment process, there is clearly an emphasis placed on getting guests settled as soon as villas are available. *But sometimes that eagerness results in necessary room maintenance being ignored and/or cleaning not being as thorough as it could be.

Topic: *Do you feel Disney does an acceptable job of preparing rooms for arriving guests or should more time be devoted to cleaining and maintenance before rooms are released?

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[DVCBDWK]

Thought all of my travels staying at various DVC Resorts and Disney Hotels I've only had one incident where the room was not 100% clean. We called Disney's maintenance crew and the issue was taken care of immediately. I believe Disney does an adequate job of balancing room sanitation and readyness for the guest.

[Disney4Me71]

Well I would say 95% of the time they are right on...I have had 2 issues in the last the year and a half...SSR we had to switch rooms since it was dirty...The kitchenette had dirty utensils and glasses. It was also missing a few items…The slider door was extremely dirty. You can tell it was a child with food on their hands that was rubbed all over the glass. It made us feel the rest of the room was dirty…

The other occasion was actually WL..We stayed in the concierge level ( I know not DVC) and the room was bad. Spider webs on the windows in the shower and the phone by the toilet was nasty..

I am not sure its Disney, as I think they contract out the cleaning. I think there should be someone from Disney that has to inspect all rooms before the rooms are released into the system for the front desk.

As far as waiting for the room from time of arrival..I never had an issue...I have had to wait, but we are always there before checkin time so I can understand a wait if you are early.

[athenna]

I guess I've been lucky I've never had a room that wasn't properly cleaned for my arrival.

[DiZ NeE 08]

When I used DVC before from my previous ownership I don't recall having a dirty room but I never really looked. I should look for it though even disney mousekeeping can make mistakes!

I believe about 1 1/2 years ago I woke up really early in the morning about 4am and I woke up wanting to go to WDW so I convinced my g/f to go (she really didn't argue with me. lol) so we left to wdw and I didn't notice it was the middle of spring break, Ahhhhh! we didn't find any hotel ressies other than in an knights inn on irlo bronson road and the hotel room was sooo nasty I called the front desk, they changed me to another room and that was also nasty, so they changed me to another. This all happened at the time wew came back from the parks at like 12:30am so we wewre tired. When they changed us to the third room it was still pretty nasty... I slept with my clothes on and in the morning I took a bath and checked out. we got 50% off of the nightly rate back and no resort fee either but wow! as long as Disney doesn't get to that level I think we are set because for me to get grossed out by something it has to be bad but my g/f was the one driving me up the wall the most. lol

[idratherbeinwdw]

I have never had a room that was so bad I needed to change to another room. But I have experienced things I wasn't happy with ie, a hair in the refrigerator, an unidentifiable stain on the side of the toilet, a glass or two that needed to be re-washed.

I seem to have more issues with missing items. The potato peeler has been missing more times than I have had it there. Once I had no cookie sheet (yes we make cookies when I bring my DD's, it is a tradition) and when I called to get it replaced they must not have understood me because they brought up bed sheets! The small paring knife is another item I have had to request on more than one occasion. I had a broken toaster once. I am sure there are more items, I just can't think of them right now.

None of this is major stuff, it's just a nuisance I wish I didn't have to deal with quite so frequently.

[bakerworld]

Never had a room that I thought was unacceptable however DH and DD are more 'detailed' than I and have told me that they felt could've been cleaner (corners w/ dust, etc.) and missing utensils from the Kitchen area.

DD stays at SSR more than us (she's my last minute "I wanna get away" person) and has felt they have placed her in rooms that, while basically clean, haven't been used for awhile - dusty and musty smell.

[consultgas]

We have stayed at most of the properties and have found that the properties are not kept as clean as when we first became members. Two years ago we had a two bed room at AKV and had to request a room change. there was popcorn on the floor, hand prints on the refrigerator, slider door and ends of cabinets and hair on the bathroom counter. The front desk said they would send someone up... an hour later the housekeeper showed up and rolled her eyes at my wife when she pointed these things out to her. Needless to say that did not go over well with the wife or me. It was the manager of Sanna who actually came to the rescue when he ran into my son at the front desk and asked if he could help. He worked with the FD to get us a new room, and credit. Later that night we had dinner at his restaurant and he comp'd us appetizers and pressed coffee after dinner. Needless to say we continue to eat at his restaurant and he always remembers us and stops by to say hello.

When they changed our room they were going to put on on the little savanna near the pool. Here to another Disney employee the bellman came to the rescue and called the FD and got us a room on the big savanna.

While the maintenance may have gone down MOST Disney employees are still the tops!

In other visits we have found the rooms at OKW not as clean as they once were.

[akvhutch]

I usually rely on my DW to keep the subject of "clean" noted. She is a stickler on bathroom cleanliness along with sheets & countertops. Thus far (out of about 10 stays), there have been a few that could have been better, but weren't anywhere near gross or filthy. I know of once the carpet wasn't that great, but shoes & sandals remedy that problem. So we haven't had any major issues with the cleanliness.


I had originally worried that not having maid service daily would be a problem, but we found that we like the idea that no one will be coming in other than the regular days.


The biggest issue for me has been the availability of rooms. I normally book an early morning flight so am normally in the hotel before noon. I can only think of once or twice where we could go right to the room. Maybe for different room styles it is different (like 2 bedrooms are easier than studios), but we seldom get into the room before 3 - 4 pm. I realize that check in time is 4, but I would think that there would be one or two clean studios available. It is, however, just a personal rant and I am really generally satisfied.

[Mr Terry]

I have never had any problems and the rooms have always been ready when released for our visit. Its 10 years this month since we became a DVC member.