Has anyone else noticed lately at OKW Mousekeeping isn't up to standard?

[sgtdisney]

I almost didn't write this post, because I really love OKW and enjoy our vacations there and didn't want to start a resort battle, but on our recent trip there last week and earlier this week it just didn't seem to be kept as nice as before. The first part of our trip we were in a Grand Villa which wasn't too bad. What did surprise me about that building (29) was that there was rust on the buildings and just a general state of things not being Disney 'perfect' as I tend to expect.

Then we moved into a studio in neighboring building, and it was just a little rough. First off there were dirty towels in the bathroom and on the kitchenette sink, which I called about, but the room just didn't seem all that clean. The carpets were pretty dirty as we could tell by how black our white socks got when walking on them after a while. The curtains looked a little shabby too as well as the furniture being all nicked up. Even the lights by the doors in the whole building didn't light up at night. Maybe we just got unlucky and were in a room that is close to a rehab this time and not before. I dont know what to think. I did mention my concerns to the manager upon checkout, and she said she'd look into it. But didn't have a reason for the dirty state of the room upon checkin.

I was just curious though if any members out there have noticed this before. It really kind of made me a little sad that things were as rundown as there were on this trip.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I love DVC, but I have always said since day 1...
It is my opinion that the weak link is housekeeping. Many times the rooms are surface clean, but there are still "crumbs under the toaster", if you get my drift.

I think housekeeping has never been trained properly on the differences of villas vs hotel rooms. Villas have kitchens, with food spatters, and so forth.
I'm also semi convinced they don't allow quite enough time for the housekeepers to do a thorough job.

On the other hand, DVC is trying to keep dues low, and please the Membership.
I say you get what you pay for, and I don't mind a raise in dues for better housekeeping.

Again, I love my DVC. I wouldn't unload it for the world, but in my opinion, this is "the weakest link".

MG

 

[Caskbill]

I've never found dirty towels or trash, and I doubt very much housekeeping would just leave them there.

I have seen reports where it was obvious housekeeping had cleaned a villa, but the guests came back in and used it again, before finally leaving. That may be the case you saw.

As to furniture getting banged up, I've seen some stains and such because some people just don't treat things with respect. Timeshares get harder use than a house does.

Whatever happens, though, housekeeping still needs to meet certain standards of cleanliness.

 

[jekjones1558]

During our recent OKW trip we were in our room during a "full cleaning." We tried to move out of her way. I hope that their procedures between guests are more thorough than what I saw. A quick squirt of cleaning spray here or there in the bathroom, for instance. I even had to move the chairs in the dining area since the mousekeeper wasn't intending to vacuum under them and we had little kids this trip. I ended up sweeping the tile area in the kitchen myself, since this was not done.
I thought that I read somewhere that mousekeeping was being considered for outsourcing. Anyone know if this happened?

 

[blizzard]

I don't consider myself to be a "picky" person when it comes to room cleanliness. I was a little disappointed in the studio we had in March. Not enough to complain about, but disappointed none the less.

I have a 2 1/2 year old son. Those with children that age, know that they like to throw their toys under the bed, and go get them. The amount of dirt & lint on his clothes after crawling under the bed shows me that they rarely, if ever, vacuum under the beds. There has to be at least 18" of space under those beds, so it shouldn't be too difficult to run a vacuum under. Also, on one of his trips under the bed, he came out with what at first I thought might be a pill. After inspection, I determined that it was probably a TicTac or similar candy, but I would appreciate if things like that were removed before we stay. Luckily, he did not put it in his mouth.

I have made 8 trips to OKW, and plan to keep coming back, so this isn't enough to deter us from staying, however I do have to say I was a little disappointed in the cleanliness. I realize there is a trade-off between immaculate housekeeping and member fees, and I also think that some people here overreact to minor issues. I believe my experience was a minor issue, not worth getting worked up about, but again I was disappointed this time.

 

[jarestel]

I highly suspect if we were paying someone to clean our real homes, these "minor" issues wouldn't get overlooked for very long. Most of us would question why we have to clean up after the person who is being paid to clean in the first place. So even though we like to "pretend" DVC is our home also, and we do pay to have someone clean, most of us don't really care about the small things because we're busy with our vacationing and we're not there for that long anyway. So we tolerate shoddiness on vacation that we never would at home.

 

[rocketriter]

I suspect that the outsourced mousekeeping isn't so much "poor quality" as it is "uneven." We often check into rooms that are spotless (and leave a tip, even though we don't have to). But once in a while...phew! The problem is inconsistent supervision and execution, which is one of the dangers of outsourcing. If you take the time (and spend the money) to treat cleaning staff like cast members and train them in Disney customer service, they perform so much better than outside hourly workers.

 

[sgtdisney]

I didn't know that the mousekeeping was outsourced. That is interesting. We haven't been to OKW since 2004 (went to Disneyland last year) and I did notice a difference. As others mentioned not enough to throw up your hands over and have a hissy fit in the lobby, but enough to be a little disappointed. One thing new, I noticed was when we called for Housekeeping it was like we were calling somewhere away from OKW. It sounds like SSR and OKW share housekeeping now? I called for extra pillows and they never came so I had to call again.

Also, in an unrelated issue, the family came down with the stomach flu the last few days in the studio and my son got it really bad, enough to end up in the ER last Sunday night. Suffice it to say we had to request new bedding. When Mousekeeping finally came after we called them, they only handed my wife the sheets at the door. We had already stripped the bed and put everything out by the door. We had to call her back and say we needed all new bedding, she came back this time without a blanket. It was like a commedy movie, but it wasn't funny. Each time they just handed the bedding to us at the door. Just thought that was interesting. It just didn't feel like it was being handled like it used to be.

 

[kda]

We were just in a 1 BR in early March that was in excellent shape and very clean. The 1 BR last November was fine, but the mousekeeper hadn't reported the light out in the Bathroom and one other small problem (both quickly fixed, with a smile). We've stayed there 4 other times and had no major complaints --- kitchen counter was sticky and coffee table had cigarette burns.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I almost didn't write this post, because I really love OKW and enjoy our vacations there and didn't want to start a resort battle, but on our recent trip there last week and earlier this week it just didn't seem to be kept as nice as before. The first part of our trip we were in a Grand Villa which wasn't too bad. What did surprise me about that building (29) was that there was rust on the buildings and just a general state of things not being Disney 'perfect' as I tend to expect.

Then we moved into a studio in neighboring building, and it was just a little rough. First off there were dirty towels in the bathroom and on the kitchenette sink, which I called about, but the room just didn't seem all that clean. The carpets were pretty dirty as we could tell by how black our white socks got when walking on them after a while. The curtains looked a little shabby too as well as the furniture being all nicked up. Even the lights by the doors in the whole building didn't light up at night. Maybe we just got unlucky and were in a room that is close to a rehab this time and not before. I dont know what to think. I did mention my concerns to the manager upon checkout, and she said she'd look into it. But didn't have a reason for the dirty state of the room upon checkin.

I was just curious though if any members out there have noticed this before. It really kind of made me a little sad that things were as rundown as there were on this trip.

I'm so glad you mentioned your concerns to management. I had a similar situation on a recent trip to BCV. Rundown, tired, full of nicks in the furniture and stains in the carpet. I got ahold of the head of maintainence, and he took my concerns VERY seriously. I'd love to see that villa now-I have a feeling it looks great now! I know exactly what you mean when you say you still love OKW-I still love BCV (and OKW), but sometimes housekeeping needs a big reminder! Hopefully, they're doing a good job in 2 weeks!

 

[MagikMom]

Going for the first time to OKW this week! We are staying in a 1 bedroom. I have never had cleaning issues at the other resorts we have stayed at. I have to let you guys know how things went when we get back!

 

[goldilocks_63]

and if you are concerned, mail to DVC so they are addressed.

An option, Goldi

Put room #, dates, etc. so they can follow-up.

Goldi

***

 

[abeyst]

We had problems with our studio in 2006. It had dirty floors and mold growing around the bottom of the windows and onto the carpet.

Housekeeping isn't cleaning our rooms every night, don't forget that.

 

[OneMoreTry]

GV 2 weeks ago was well-cleaned. Top to bottom. I just wish they'd polish the leaves on the fake plants. We saw nary a bug.

 

[texdisneygal]

We didn't have too much of an issue with cleanliness, but random items of ours were put in drawers and the remote control from the tv was gone after mousekeeping came.

 

[Maleficent13]

I don't know if this is mousekeeping, technically, but last fall we were in a GV and one morning in one of the upstairs bathrooms the ceramic soap dish fell right off the wall while one of us was in the shower. Those things are HEAVY. It bruised her foot. We called and they said they would fix it.

We came back after a day in the parks and they had DUCT TAPED it to the shower wall. And I mean they used like half a roll; it looked like a crime scene in the shower. I have pics...while the incident itself was not really funny, the "fix" was hysterical.

It was obvious to us that our GV had not yet been rehabbed (not just the soap dish but also other issues); I'm sure by now all the issues have been taken care of. We've been members of OKW since 1992 and are so spoiled now it's tough to stay in "just a room".

 

[dianeschlicht]

Actually, the duct tape was probably used to hold it in place until the epoxy set up. My bet is that they removed the tape the next day. I'm sure they would have had to tell you not to use the shower if they hadn't used the duct tape.

 

[ashleydoc]

We stayed at OKW end february to mid march .firstly in a studio and then in a one bed,and found mousekeeping of the standard we would expect and DW is fussy about cleanliness.We stay there quite a lot ,and in the past there has been the odd issue,but not this time.So our opinion is that the standard of Mousekeeping hasnt changed.

Incidentally we have found the standard of some hotels (non disney ) has fallen over the years ,even four and five star hotels.

Ashley and Karen

 

[Dina]

We were supposed to get a special cleaning (I think they called it a VIP cleaning) because of my son's life threatening peanut/treenut allergy and asthma--- we just wanted to make sure counters and tables were wiped down before we got there, because if kids were eating peanut butter sandwhiches etc. he could have a reaction. Anyway, I don't really think they did anything special. But anyway my little boys were playing on the couch, and one of the cushions was pushed out of place-- my 6yo started yelling. When my husband went over, guess what was under the cushion?? Peanuts. Luckily, we cleaned it up, and washed my son's hands, and he didn't have a problem. The room definitely wasn't filthy, but I thought the cleaning left a little to be desired, especially in the bathroom. The previous poster said "Crumbs under the toaster"--- I think that's great example. When you walk in, it doesn't look bad, but just don't go around inspecting everything--- or else you might not be happy. I come with my clorox wipes, my swiffers, and I'm glad there's a vacuum. I also agree about it not being unique to OKW or even DVC---- I've been in some rooms in Disney resorts that were a little lacking (like when my 2yo crawled under the bed at CBR, and when I pulled him out, he had a half-eaten chocolate pop tart that wasn't ours). I don't know why we (the food allergy people) always seem to find food in our rooms--- but it almost never fails.

 

[jemiaule]

Over the years we have found Mousekeeping to be far from stellar both at the regular resorts and at the DVC resorts we have stayed at. (ASM, POR, CR, WL, GF, BC, BCV, BW, BWV, SSR, OKW).

It seems the Mousekeeping has been reduced to a "spit and shine" service the past few years. Maybe WDW mousekeeping now has:
1) less staff
2) has to do more rooms per person/per shift
3) has less time to do a room

Who knows.

Compared to other hotels we stay in through the year for business and non-Disney vacations it truly seems the Disney cleaning touch ain't so magical.