Had to call housekeeping/engineering for numerous things when we checked in to OKW

[Sammie]

That makes me more than a little nervous to hear that. It seems we can expect things to get worse before they get better. Thanks for the info Sammie!

I don't mean to make anyone nervous but facts are the staff is short and over worked. It is easier to do a quick clean of a standard resort room than a DVC one and two bedroom villa. Also I think Disney rehabs their resorts sooner than DVC. I know many would say, well any more often and dues will go up. Well they go up anyway and I think there is a lot of waste of money in other areas.

I am sure some on these forums well be surprised to hear any critism from me about Disney, just suffice it to say that I think Disney has some of the best middle management anywhere, in Housekeeping and Maintenance Managers, GM at the resorts, Managers at Food and Beverage but right now I am not impressed with the higher level of management at DVC. I think they are more concerned about being in the limelight and making a name for themselves than the product that has already been built. And yes some of the frustration comes from knowing how middle management is being treated at Disney right now.

All the GMs have two jobs. For example the GM at one of the deluxe resorts is also over the college program. That is two huge jobs. The staff at Pop and CBR is shared as is the staff at SSR and OKW. I think therefore alot is getting about half done at each location. All the GMs have two jobs that used to be jobs for 2people.

I know when we are on vacation we hate to deal with maintenance and cleaning issues but when I find my accommidations less than acceptable I make a phone call to the super on charge and ask for a reclean, not just a quick vacumn and clean.

Also I think the rush to get guests into a villa prior to 4pm really hurts the ability of the cleaning staff. I will gladly wait until 4 for a cleaner room.

 

[MELSMICE]

That would be a good way to ensure some sort of quality control for the next guest. It's a good idea, but I think a lot of people just don't want to waste time on vacation dealing with housekeeping/maintenance issues they feel they can live with. Unfortunately, the issues one can live with varies from guest to guest.

Ideally, every issue, big or small, should be reported and resolved. You can bet if housekeeping is called back to re-clean rooms 2 or 3 times, eventually someone in management will take note of all of these unnecessary return trips and begin pushing for higher standards.

But as I said, this all takes up vacation time and many just aren't willing to make this trade off. So we clean up ourselves and fix the things that we can, ignore stuff that doesn't impact us too much and leave it to the next guest to "take care of it". Not a good recipe for long term success.

For us, we don't see it as wasting time. Many times we'll make the phone call when we're on our way out the door & they'll make the repair or whatever needs to be done while we're gone. I would assume there are some guests that want to be there, but we don't see a need.

I do wish that more people would call in the things that need to be done. If they were continually getting phone calls & having to send staff out for what is usually a minor thing then maybe these things would be taken care of on a regular basis.

 

[diznyfanatic]

I don't mean to make anyone nervous but facts are the staff is short and over worked. It is easier to do a quick clean of a standard resort room than a DVC one and two bedroom villa. Also I think Disney rehabs their resorts sooner than DVC. I know many would say, well any more often and dues will go up. Well they go up anyway and I think there is a lot of waste of money in other areas.

I am sure some on these forums well be surprised to hear any critism from me about Disney, just suffice it to say that I think Disney has some of the best middle management anywhere, in Housekeeping and Maintenance Managers, GM at the resorts, Managers at Food and Beverage but right now I am not impressed with the higher level of management at DVC. I think they are more concerned about being in the limelight and making a name for themselves than the product that has already been built. And yes some of the frustration comes from knowing how middle management is being treated at Disney right now.

All the GMs have two jobs. For example the GM at one of the deluxe resorts is also over the college program. That is two huge jobs. The staff at Pop and CBR is shared as is the staff at SSR and OKW. I think therefore alot is getting about half done at each location. All the GMs have two jobs that used to be jobs for 2people.

I know when we are on vacation we hate to deal with maintenance and cleaning issues but when I find my accommidations less than acceptable I make a phone call to the super on charge and ask for a reclean, not just a quick vacumn and clean.

Also I think the rush to get guests into a villa prior to 4pm really hurts the ability of the cleaning staff. I will gladly wait until 4 for a cleaner room.

Sammie, as always, thank you for the information. What is interesting to me, as I noted in a recent trip report, is our recent experience at BWV. Although we had some maintenence issues that we reported, the management staff of D.J. and Jackie were hands down, and head and shoulders above, any other management that we have encountered at any WDW resort. To be fair, that is probably because there was no immediately discernable way to know who the management were at any other resort such as what occurs at BWV.

At the BWV, D.J & Jackie were in the lobby nearly every time we passed through, introducing themselves and greeting and assting guests and CM's. We even received a handwritten thank you note from them! We also encountered an extremely helpful and friendy housekeeping CM who provided a replacement pillowcase.

I've never witnessed such a hands-on, involved approach as experienced at BWV. Additionally, every other CM we encountered from check-in to Bell Services, all remarked at how happy they were at BWV and commented that it was due to how things were being run there. In fact, they could probably be used as the training standard, we were that impressed.

Conversely, the worst experience we had was with the extremely rude housekeeping staff at SSR and it wasn't even about a cleanliness issue. We were simply trying to get a sheet that was missing for the pull out sofa. Ultimately, we requested to speak with a Supervisor and it was taken care of immediately and professionally. Otherwise, we loved our stay at SSR and will definitely return.

How do you suggest members go about voicing their DVC concerns so that issues such as housekeeping and maintenence (as well as any others) are given the prioirty that is needed and noticeable improvement is made?

 

[MELSMICE]

How do you suggest members go about voicing their DVC concerns so that issues such as housekeeping and maintenence (as well as any others) are given the prioirty that is needed and noticeable improvement is made?

We were told the best thing to do is write a letter. I thought my husband was given the address to do this, but he said they were going to call him with it (not sure why).

Anyway, when I get that information I will post it here.

 

[castleri]

I don't mean to make anyone nervous but facts are the staff is short and over worked. It is easier to do a quick clean of a standard resort room than a DVC one and two bedroom villa.


Also I think the rush to get guests into a villa prior to 4pm really hurts the ability of the cleaning staff. I will gladly wait until 4 for a cleaner room.

As I was reading these are exactly the things I was thinking. I have had great response from maintenance on the couple of times I have had to call them for some minor problems.

 

[bmalonef45]

I hate to pile on here but we have stayed at OKW twice in the last year and have had to call maintenance both times. The first time we had a extra dining table leaning up against the wall outside our door. They are round and heavy and with kids this was pretty dangerous. It took two calls and almost a day for it to go away. We had our table so I'm not sure where it was from. The last stay we had a studio and the air was not cooling properly. I called before we left for the parks and when we returned it was fixed. JUST LIKE MAGIC!

I will say while we were playing golf at LBV course. There was a crew repainting a couple of the buildings. Looked like a total fresh coat not just a touch up. I totally understand that things get warn down, especially in the oldest units but I also expect with the dues we pay that should be taken care of as quickly and reliably as possible.

Even with the little problems it still beats the Days Inn I stayed at on 192 a couple years ago!