What would you have done?

[FredS]

At the 11-month window I made reservations for a two-bedroom villa at BWV, guaranteed Boardwalk view. Checked in at 10:00 am and told room not ready, check back. Okey dokey, we visit MGM. Get back at 3:00 pm and room still not ready, so we wander around until shortly after 4:00 pm. Room STILL not ready. I asked the CM how much longer she thinks it will be. She checks and then tells me that we have two units and one is ready but the other is not. Her guess is that they are still cleaning one of the units. She gives me our keys and tells me that we can go ahead to the one-bedroom section, but DO NOT attempt to go into the studio portion. (Actually, she initially told me that she could not tell me the room number of our second unit, but since I booked a two-bedroom, um, it wasn't going to be hard to figure out where the studio was!)

We make the trek to nearly the very end of the hall to the far end of the boardwalk to our room. We don't detect any motion or noise next door, but try to obey our directions to leave the room alone. By 5:30 pm we figured they had to be through cleaning and opened the studio. First thing I noticed was strong "cleaning" smell. My daughter rushes into the room but after a couple of steps, in her bare feet, tells me that the carpet is wet. It is SOAKING WET. They have cleaned the carpets and left the room closed with the air off. This carpet was still gonna be soaking the next day under these circumstances.

Okay, this is the "what would you have done?" part. Since it was mid-October, what are the odds that we will be able to get another boardwalk view two-bedroom unit? Little to none, we felt sure. The room is unusable as is, not only because of the very wet carpet, but because of the smell. We don't want to drop the studio because our kids are boy/girl and nearly adult size, so sharing that sofa bed is not a great idea.

I will tell you what happened, but am curious to get a few responses as to how you would have handled this situation.

 

[MrsToad]

If my heart were truly set on the boardwalk view, and no other rooms were available, I probably would have asked management to make sure all moisture that was possible to remove from the carpet was immediately vacuumed up with a wet/dry vac and then fans be brought in to dry the carpet overnight and throughout the next day while we were at the parks. I would ask for the point difference between the 2 bedroom and the 1 bedroom be credited back to my account and then I would have hoped they would comp a dinner for the inconvenience and frustration. I would have mom and daughter share the sofa bed while dad and son shared the "real" bed for that one night.

Now, if I had had the boardwalk view on a previous trip, was tired, and didn't want to alter sleeping arrangements as above, I would have let them move us to an alternate 2 bedroom elsewhere, asked for the difference in points to be credited (if the move were to a room w/lower points), and again, hope that they offered a nice meal to ease the disappointment.

 

[btrim]

I would call the front desk and let them know that I wasn't happy about the wait, the condition of the room, etc. Then if they couldn't do something about the condition of the second room, I would ask for a new room and ask to have the point difference credited back to my account. They should have offered you supper or something for the inconvenience also. Maybe you could do that and they could fix the room. I hope they helped you out in a Disney like manner and I hope the rest of your stay was a good one.

 

[Chuck S]

I agree with MrsToad. If we assume that you were assigned the last available 2 bedroom unit at BWV with a BW view, the only options would have been an "upgrade" to GV or regular deluxe accomodations, a transfer to a 2 bedroom at another resort, a downgrade to a standard view, or make do in the 1 bedroom portion until the studio could be dried. Obviously the previous guest made a mess and the studio room would have been taken out of service completely if another meeting your requests had been available.

An apology and point adjustment for the night (or whatever the difference would be for the new room) would have been in order, and a free meal, while not a necessity, would have been a nice guesture. At OKW we were comped a breakfast once (at Olivia's) for a front desk error, and a dinner (at Olivia's) once for a problem with the room---a leaky drain pipe above us when a bldg was "new" and the drain was not properly sealed flooded our bathroom when the unit above us used the bathtub.

 

[CarolAnnC]

I probably would have squeezed into the 1 bedroom for the night, told them to refund the points for the studio portion, and made sure the carpet was dryed before moving in the next day.

If someone were sick in there, for example, I would rather deal with a drying carpet as opposed to a smelly stinky one.

 

[AFMom]

All of those are great responses - but now I'm curious....... what did happen?!?!?!?!? You're keeping us in suspense!

 

[CharlesTD]

I would have called down to the front desk let them know about the carpet and had somone come up with a shop vac of wet vac and try to get some of the water/cleaner out of the carpet.

 

[nezy]

I don't think I would have wanted the room even after a wet/dry vac.
As others posted I would have asked for other 2BR, if not avilable then an upgrade, if not available then a IBR w/ points returned to account.

The part that bothers me is that there is no disclosure to the guest that there was an issue other than just typical cleaning w/ that room. If this room would otherwise have been closed off for more effective, efficient cleaning, then there should have been other options mentioned and discussed w/OP at check-in or at least at 3:00 or 4:00, when it was obvious that the room was not going to be ready.

Okay, Okay,--WHAT DID HAPPEN?

 

[Tinkmom]

duplicate

 

[Tinkmom]

They were cleaning the carpets in the hallways two weeks ago. It was a big mess.

 

[FredS]

We were told that the cleaning was routine and was done earlier that day after the room was vacated. I would have been more understanding if it was due to some circumstances beyond Disney's control, such as a destructive (or ill) occupant. Also, if there had been any effort to get the water out of the carpet prior to our complaints. The boardwalk view was important as it was my daughter's special request on what may likely be her last trip with us for some time. (It didn't really matter, though, as they told us that they had nothing else available.)

After a trip to the front desk we were told that they would get someone there to try to extract some of the water from the carpet and would get high-powered fans in to help. They also comped dinner for us, but to be honest I still felt a bit shortchanged. The carpet was still slightly damp at bedtime, and the smell ended up giving my daughter a migraine.

I know that sometimes things happen, but this really should not have turned out as it did. If they had cleaned the carpets early, used the extractor and fans right away it might have been fine for us. Instead we were given a room which was not really ready for guests, and it definitely took away some of the magic. Not a disaster, but still annoying.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I would have called the front desk and asked to speak to a manager. Then made arrangements to get another room.

 

[ErinC]

I think I would call DVC and ask for the points for the studio to be refunded. you recieved a room that you couldn't use. I know these are large resorts, but if they would just communicate with you about what is going on intstead of acting like it's all top secret info. "Mr. XXXX , were so sorry, but we are going to have to deep clean this room and you won't be able to occupy it until later this evening, here's a free dinner on us for your inconvienience." The attitude would be so much better about the whole situation. As it is, I'd call DVC and ask for the points refund for a least the one night. JMHO

 

[Cinderella]

This is a strange one - when they need to do things like carpet cleaning, why on earth don't they do them on days when the room isn't occupied, or would that cause even more problems with DVC rooms. Not sure what I would have done, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to stay in a unit with soaking carpets.

If WDW used a reputable carpet cleaning company like Rainbow International, the carpets would have been dry within two hours!

 

[scootert]

We were at BWV this May - arrived around 10 a.m. and were surprised that our 1 bedroom villa was ready. We went to drop off our bags and found a CM hard at work cleaning the carpet in the living room. I'm not sure who was more surprised -- him or us. At any rate, we told him no problem, we'll just drop off our stuff and go. We returned later in the day and found the carpet clean and dry -- no need for additional fans, no strong odor, etc. DH has asthma and is pretty sensitive to chemicals, soap, etc so we were relieved that everything was fine.

I can't understand why they would leave a room that way, (no fan on, etc)maybe if they weren't fully booked, but not when the house is full. So sorry about your daughter's migraine -- not fun at all.

 

[FredS]

I don't know how often they usually clean the carpets, but even if it was every few weeks you would think that they would try to coordinate doing it when it was empty, or make sure to do it as early as possible in the day, and use a system to have them dry within a few hours.

That was what got me, that the problem seemed preventable. At 4:30 pm they knew the room was not ready, and you would think that someone would have realized it wasn't going to be ready, left soaking with no air movement, for a couple of days. This can't be standard operating procedure for the resort. Really weird.

 

[Patty3]

I am really sorry that this happened to you, I would not be happy either. We have a 2 bedroom unit, BW view, booked for December, thanks for the warning.

 

[SSR-CM]

The REAL Story: Anyone at the counter gets a vacant room - choice is another matter. If we have paying guests, they might be assigned more envied rooms. Between paying and DVC Members, paying wins out. If there is an upgrade to made, paying gets it. DVC Members don't get point upgrades, except in DIRE circumstances. If there are complaints, paying guests get $$ compesation pretty quickly. Paying guests have a better chance of getting their room requests.

 

[tjkraz]

I don't know how often they usually clean the carpets, but even if it was every few weeks you would think that they would try to coordinate doing it when it was empty...

Given the things I've heard about demand for the Boardwalk View rooms, I suspect there are few times that those rooms are EVER unoccupied...short of their scheduled rehab cycles. And that's particularly the case during the Food and Wine fest when the resort is booked solid for 2 months

...or make sure to do it as early as possible in the day, and use a system to have them dry within a few hours.

Given the lack of ventilation, it may well have been cleaned at 11:01am and remained wet all afternoon. Whatever the case, it seems clear that someone used poor judgement and/or was forgetful somewhere along the way.

Realistically, these things have to be done. In an earlier post you basically said that you'd have been more understanding if there was an urgent need for the cleaning. Remember that the same carpet you think can wait another week might have another guests at the front desk ranting about the poor condition of his/her room.

The purpose of this sort of preventive maintenance is to keep problems (like ridiculously dirty carpets) from occurring in the first place.

This can't be standard operating procedure for the resort.

I'm sure it isn't, but mistakes happen. Sounds like the resort stepped up to the plate nicely by picking-up dinner for your family as a way of apologizing for the inconvenience.

If it had happened to me, by now I wouldn't even remember it. It would take my wife retelling the story for me to pipe in "oh, yeah, our carpet was wet when we got to the room....but we got a free meal out of it!!!"

My $.02...

 

[dianeschlicht]

This is a strange one - when they need to do things like carpet cleaning, why on earth don't they do them on days when the room isn't occupied, or would that cause even more problems with DVC rooms. Not sure what I would have done, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted to stay in a unit with soaking carpets.

If WDW used a reputable carpet cleaning company like Rainbow International, the carpets would have been dry within two hours!

It isn't always possible to do them ahead if the previous occupant is the reason the carpet needed to be shampooed. We have gotten into a 2 bedroom at OKW late with carpets still damp too, but I understand that the previous occupants were less than stellar in how they left the kitchen/living room. It wasn't a problem for us, because there was no smell, and the living room carpet was dry by bedtime.

If you couldn't use the second bedroom that first night, I would have asked for a refund down to the 1 bedroom points for that one night, but I would have done it at the moment, not afterward.