The Great 'Throwaway Room' Debate

[DisneyKevin]

Apparently they can't find a room, that's what people are complaining about. So how do they take advantage if they can't find a room?

Sometimes, when I want a dinner reservation, I call the restaurant and find that everything is booked. In that case, I pick a different time or a different restaurant.

I don't doubt that it has happened, but I doubt it happens regularly.

I could say exactly the same thing.

You don't believe it happens regularly and I don't believe that there are hoards of sad families not coming to WDW because they can't get a campsite because of this.

Maybe it's not really all that common after all and this is blown out of proportion.

 

[DisneyKevin]

So in both cases, you were in fact physically using the room?

I don't see how this is a similar practice at all.

I didn't sleep in the room either time.

Paid for it and didn't use it for it's intended purpose.

This means that the family looking to string nights together might have been inconvenienced by my renting a room and not using it.

 

[SmithSmith]

I didn't sleep in the room either time.

Paid for it and didn't use it for it's intended purpose.

This means that the family looking to string nights together might have been inconvenienced by renting a room and not using it.

That's pretty common practice. People will book rooms just to use to get ready for an event (like a wedding) or a place to relax in between meetings while out of town or a company will host functions in hotel rooms. None of these are being used in a traditional way but they are physically being used.

 

[SmithSmith]

Sometimes, when I want a dinner reservation, I call the restaurant and find that everything is booked. In that case, I pick a different time or a different restaurant.



I could say exactly the same thing.

You don't believe it happens regularly and I don't believe that there are hoards of sad families not coming to WDW because they can't get a campsite because of this.

Maybe it's not really all that common after all and this is blown out of proportion.

Again you're comparing apples to oranges. There are dozens of different restaurants at different price points, it's not at all the same as a handful of hotels at a certain price point. Also, a vacation isn't going to be contingent on whether or not the vacationer can dine at a certain restaurant, but it would be if they need a certain hotel on a certain date.

 

[SmithSmith]

Sometimes, when I want a dinner reservation, I call the restaurant and find that everything is booked. In that case, I pick a different time or a different restaurant.





I could say exactly the same thing.

You don't believe it happens regularly and I don't believe that there are hoards of sad families not coming to WDW because they can't get a campsite because of this.

Maybe it's not really all that common after all and this is blown out of proportion.

I said I don't believe Disney reservationists suggest this practice regularly. I never said that I thought the practice of throwaway rooms was a common occurrence.

It very well may be blown out or proportion, but whether or not it is, wasn't the reason I joined this discussion in the first place.

 

[DisneyKevin]

If the dearth of campsites was of consequence to Disney, they would have expanded Fort Wilderness.

Instead, they sold the adjoining land to Four Seasons and are using more land for homes that start at a million dollars.

if and when this affects Disney adversely, they will change it.

 

[nugov2]

That's not what my point is it's someone who only books a room for one night and doesn't use it they take away that room for someone who wants to use it for more then one night. What happens if a whole resort gets filled up with throwaway rooms. It's the same as the people who book placeholder cruises until they move that cruise it takes away a room someone may want to use.



I only suggested that because most people go to their report before they go to the parks to see if there room is ready. Even when you do online check in you still need to pick up your riom packet and be told where your room is.

Most people planning a vacation(not all) have flexibility. So they look at their first choice and if they can't get it look at their next one. Few people say oh, well never mind we won't go on vacation. If their schedule is that they can only go one week out of the year they should plan right when booking opens up. What is the difference if it is truly a person only staying one night before a cruise or a person who just wants the benefits. Some people only stay one night, should they be locked out for those who want a week or are they ok b/c they spent 6-8 hours in the room Honestly, the percentage of throwaway is probably a very small percentage of people and is not the sky is falling scenario most are making it out to be.

 

[SmithSmith]

If the dearth of campsites was of consequence to Disney, they would have expanded Fort Wilderness.

Instead, they sold the adjoining land to Four Seasons and are using more land for homes that start at a million dollars.

if and when this affects Disney adversely, they will change it.

If the anecdotal evidence I supplied on the last page was any indicator, Disney has and/or does treat throwaway room as abandoned rooms. Just because Disney has yet to find a way to monitor campsites to catch offenders doesn't mean they never will.

I'm surprised that your suggestion is Disney should add on to Ft Wilderness instead of fixing the loophole. Building more campsites would be a waste of time, money, and space.

 

[kbelle8995]

If the dearth of campsites was of consequence to Disney, they would have expanded Fort Wilderness.

Instead, they sold the adjoining land to Four Seasons and are using more land for homes that start at a million dollars.

if and when this affects Disney adversely, they will change it.

I never understood that. The Four Seasons is lovely but it is for a certain well off individuals. Four seasons I get but the Million dollar homes? How many wealthy people say. "To heck with the South of France, we need a home in WDW." Apparently some of them do if Disney's building million dollar homes.

Man I need to win the Lotto. The only wealthy people I knew lived in Palm Beach and they made a big deal about Living in "Palm Beach." Maybe it's location, location, location.

 

[SoarinSC]

I don't like it, but it's not hurting Disney where profits are concerned so why would they fix it? If on-site booking dips and people say it's because of the "throwaways" then it'll be dealt with. But does that seem likely?

 

[DisneyKevin]

If the anecdotal evidence I supplied on the last page was any indicator, Disney has and/or does treat throwaway room as abandoned rooms. Just because Disney has yet to find a way to monitor campsites to catch offenders doesn't mean they never will.

I'm surprised that your suggestion is Disney should add on to Ft Wilderness instead of fixing the loophole. Building more campsites would be a waste of time, money, and space.

Anecdotal evidence is not fact... so no...it's not actually an indicator.

The fact that Disney has not stopped this is fact...and that's an indicator. There's a huge difference

Also, I don't think you read my post correctly.

I did not suggest Disney build more campsites. I stated that if the lack of campsites were an issue, Disney would have done something about it.

Again, there is a huge difference

 

[babalou]

I’ll freely admit to booking a throwaway room, and it was strictly for financial reasons. One night at a FW campsite was $55. For that amount, Disney chooses to provide a list of services including free parking on check-in/check-out day, Magic Bands, EMH, FP+, ability to reserve BOG FP for lunch, and of course access to a campsite plot. If I pay for it, how I choose to use any or all of those services is up to me. And we all have the same opportunity to reserve the campsite. I won’t apologize for planning ahead.

My extended family of 9 stays offsite in a 4 bedroom vacation home for a week, which is significantly cheaper than all of us staying on site. Without the throwaway room, we would have paid $34/day for two cars on check-in/check-out day ($68 total) and we would have bought 4 Magic Bands for the kids ($52 total). So for $55/night I’m saving $65. That’s not even counting the FP+, BOG FP and EMH benefits (which we aren’t using since some of the family haven’t bought park tickets yet) and the Magic Bands for the adults (which we wouldn’t have bought otherwise). So while booking a throwaway room may seem like a lot of work to some of you, I’ve done a lot more to save a lot less in the past.

Even if Disney closes the FP+ loophole, it would still be worth it for me. I’m sure as soon as Disney starts losing a significant amount of money on throwaway rooms, they’ll address it. But for every time someone can’t book a full week because a throwaway room, there’s another time that Disney makes money on a throwaway room that would otherwise be unoccupied.

 

[nugov2]

I was right it was this board:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3267978

So to whomever believes the anecdotal evidence of Disney promoting this, then here's some anecdotal evidence of Disney prohibiting this.

People have been using throwaway rooms for a while and this is the one and only report I have seen of someone being checked out. I think this would be reported a lot in the throwaway thread if this was in fact happening. One report in almost a year IMO is not proof they are prohibiting it. Not that I am saying that poster is lying, but I have seen lots of people report they have had something happen or their friend had something happen to discourage people from doing something they don't agree with.

 

[SmithSmith]

Anecdotal evidence is not fact... so no...it's not actually an indicator.

The fact that Disney has not stopped this is fact...and that's an indicator. There's a huge difference

Also, I don't think you read my post correctly.

I did not suggest Disney build more campsites. I stated that if the lack of campsites were an issue, Disney would have done something about it.

Again, there is a huge difference

So only one of us gets to use anecdotal evidence to support our claims, got it.

I did not misread your post, you made that suggestion in this weeks podcast, then hinted to the same thing by posting that Disney chose to sell the property instead of expand Ft Wilderness. That is why I brought it up.

 

[SmithSmith]

People have been using throwaway rooms for a while and this is the one and only report I have seen of someone being checked out. I think this would be reported a lot in the throwaway thread if this was in fact happening. One report in almost a year IMO is not proof they are prohibiting it. Not that I am saying that poster is lying, but I have seen lots of people report they have had something happen or their friend had something happen to discourage people from doing something they don't agree with.

This is the second post of the first thread I read that addresses this issue. It literally took 2 seconds to find. If I had the desire to look for more reports I could find them. Disboards is not the only forum discussing this.

 

[famy27]

This is the second post of the first thread I read that addresses this issue. It literally took 2 seconds to find. If I had the desire to look for more reports I could find them. Disboards is not the only forum discussing this.

But that is sort of different than a one-night throwaway room. How would they check you out of something you aren't using? Since FPs are tied to tickets, you shouldn't lose those.

I will say that I booked a throwaway room in October 2013. I booked it at one of the All Star resorts (I think it was Music). There was plenty of availability, so nobody lost out on anything because of my throwaway. I actually stayed onsite at AKV, but my SIL and her family were at the Dolphin (which at the time didn't have 60-day FPs but now does. Go figure.). We wanted to make sure we'd all be able to use FPs together. I called Disney to ask if there would be any issues with booking a room and not staying in it, and the CM assured me that it would be fine. We did the online check-in as she suggested and had no issues.

So, I don't know that it's always CMs suggesting it to people. It may be that guests ask if it's an acceptable practice, and the CM confirms that it is. I know the frontline CMs on the phone aren't 100% reliable, but the fact that they told me I wasn't breaking any Disney rules was sufficient for me.

 

[DisneyKevin]

So only one of us gets to use anecdotal evidence to support our claims, got it.

I did not misread your post, you made that suggestion in this weeks podcast, then hinted to the same thing by posting that Disney chose to sell the property instead of expand Ft Wilderness. That is why I brought it up.

Again, I think you misread what I wrote.

Earlier, I said I didn't necessarily believe your anecdotal evidence and you suggested you didn't believe mine. Then you suggested your anecdotal evidence was an indicator. I disagreed and stated it wasn't fact.

The facts are that Disney doesn't seem to be doing anything about this and that's an indicator.

I also don't believe that I said anything about Disney selling property on last week's show. I also never suggested that Disney should do this.

You seem to be trying to twist my words or misrepresent what I'm saying. I'm not sure why.

 

[nugov2]

This is the second post of the first thread I read that addresses this issue. It literally took 2 seconds to find. If I had the desire to look for more reports I could find them. Disboards is not the only forum discussing this.

I tried searching this topic and used a bunch of different wording an the only thread that pops up with a report is the one you posted(and that thread you posted is only one page long ) I even google searched it and the only information that came up was that thread you posted that related to it. So for grins I called WDW and asked how many days of inactivity on a room before you get checked out and he checked with a supervisor and said as long as the room is being paid for you never get checked out b/c of inactivity on a room. I said if I was booking a room for a week, but had family in the area so I am not 100% sure if I am going to stay in the room, but want it just in case would I get checked out if on day 3 or 4 still hadn't been to the hotel and only did online check in. He put me on hold b/c he wasn't aware of any policy on this to speak with a supervisor and came back after some time and that was the answer I got. Obviously CM's are notorious for misinformation so take it or leave it. Either way nobody is going to be checked out and lose their perks on a one night stay for not showing up in person so it IMO is a moot point.

 

[DisneyKevin]

If the dearth of campsites was of consequence to Disney, they would have expanded Fort Wilderness.

I know it's weird to quote yourself, but I think you can see that I am not suggesting Disney expand Ft. Wilderness.

I simply stating that if this were an issue, Disney would have addressed it.

I'm sure you can see the difference.

 

[famy27]

I tried searching this topic and used a bunch of different wording an the only thread that pops up with a report is the one you posted(and that thread you posted is only one page long ) I even google searched it and the only information that came up was that thread you posted that related to it. So for grins I called WDW and asked how many days of inactivity on a room before you get checked out and he checked with a supervisor and said as long as the room is being paid for you never get checked out b/c of inactivity on a room. I said if I was booking a room for a week, but had family in the area so I am not 100% sure if I am going to stay in the room, but want it just in case would I get checked out if on day 3 or 4 still hadn't been to the hotel and only did online check in. He put me on hold b/c he wasn't aware of any policy on this to speak with a supervisor and came back after some time and that was the answer I got. Obviously CM's are notorious for misinformation so take it or leave it. Either way nobody is going to be checked out and lose their perks on a one night stay for not showing up in person so it IMO is a moot point.

That's two of us who got the same answer on this issue.

On a related, but slightly different note, we were in WDW in late September. Unfortunately, we got stuck at O'Hare in the Great Radar Fire of 2014 incident. I had to call Disney to push back our dates by one day, as my Friday flight was cancelled, and we weren't able to get out until Saturday. The phone CM was nice as could be and rebooked me for the next day. Well, I get to Yacht Club on Saturday afternoon, and they become befuddled. I had done the online check-in for the Friday weeks beforehand (as recommended by Disney), so even though I never checked in and had called to move my dates, the system still showed me as staying at the resort, even though I wasn't. They had to completely cancel my old reservation and rebook a new one. So, it really seemed highly unlikely to me that they are going around cancelling people's reservations for failure to open a door.

The exception may be if the room isn't fully paid. I can't remember, but if you are on a Room Only, does it charge you the balance when you check in online or do you physically need to check in? If your room isn't fully paid, I can totally see how they would cancel it. If you've paid 100%, I just don't see why they would.