We’re adding new search criteria to the Hotel Room Finder so you can find the best hotel room faster.
I’d like your help in organizing the new drop-down menu options.
We want the new drop-down menus to update dynamically based on the preferences you’ve already given us. (Why? It avoids the frustration of showing you combinations that don’t exist.)
For example, if you’re at Caribbean Beach and have booked a Preferred Room with 2 Queen Beds, we know that those rooms only have these three Secondary View options:
Courtyard View
Garden View
Standard View
So when you select “Preferred Room / 2 Queen Beds”, the Secondary View option will automatically change to show only what’s available with the option(s) you’ve already chosen.
We want to show these options in order from “Most Used” to “Less Used”.
The question is: what order is that?
Here’s a list of the menu items we’re going to have. The ones labeled new are going to be added.
For me personally I would rank them as follows (most important to least important):
Room Type & Beds
Secondary View
Theme
Location Preference 1
Location Preference 2
Floor
Distance To Lobby
Features
Accessibility
Sound Level
Distance to Transportation
Pet Friendly
Question: for you and for the crowd - does anyone use the Rack Rate feature for the room finder? Do many people use the room finder before booking a room? I have only ever used the room finder after booking a room. I never thought of doing it the other way until this very moment. But even then I don’t know that I would use Rack Rate because quite honestly I’m almost never booking a rack rate but instead using some kind of discount.
I use the following and they’re all about equal importance to me: room type, view type, location (far from elevator and stairs), and high floor. Those last two are really about quiet but I’m not sure I trust the noise level category because I don’t know who measured it or how.
Location Preference 1 (would add that I would treat location near/far from elevator as it’s own category, akin to distance from lobby/transport. This is particularly true for folks with strollers or mobility concerns.)
Location Preference 2
Features
Floor
Sound Level
Distance To Lobby
Theme
Accessibility
Pet Friendly
Agree with OBNurse: always use after Ive already booked, so rates are not a factor.
I never use the “floor” option when using the room finder. I look at room type primarily, then once I’ve dialed in to find that, I will choose the floor I want. Also never search by rack rate.
I know that this is not what you asked, but I would suggest you re-evaluate how the resorts are listed as well. Having separate entries for the DVC and non-DVC sections of arguably the same property (i.e. Polynesion or Boardwalk) has always caused confusion for me. I think it’s easier to make them listed as a single property and then categorize the rooms separately.
I think that sound level is one of the top choices that I usually use but also am always curious how accurate it is because most rooms seem to have the same sound level.
Ok. I also exclusively use this after booking. I’ve always wondered what the rack rate option is about…
Here’s how I would prioritize:
Room type/beds (sometimes this confuses me with options that don’t really seem to exist? Maybe for value rooms with king beds it’s worth marking that they’re accessible-assuming that’s true)
View (primary vs secondary?) - it would be helpful if the view categories align with the new Disney ones
Location preferences 1 and 2
Distance to lobby/elevators - this is pretty different at different resorts, no?
Distance to bus/boat
Features
Accessible (for the people who need this it’s probably pretty high priority) part of me would put this at the top as a “do you need an accessible room?” Yes/no. It would filter out a lot of other options if it’s a yes. If it’s no, shouldn’t overly impact other choices. Maybe top, even since it impacts what beds are available at some resorts.
Like you, it’s (clearly, from my list) not a priority for me today but that could change at any time and eliminating anything that would simply not be available if I were prioritizing accessibility would be a very smart thing to do!
For me I would only really use room type, secondary and features. I’d love an option to filter by connecting room and non connecting room. We always request non connecting so I filter by connecting and take screenshots and then choose those not selected. We are a family of 5 and have found non connecting are somewhat quieter and they often include a bench which we utilize when eating in room. We also have been choosing ones at end of hallway near stairs to only have one neighbor so honestly I use the maps the most to help choose.
Accessible is becoming important and could be here too soon
.
Room Type & Beds
.
Distance to Transportation
.
Distance To Lobby
.
Floor tho only in towers or elevatorless buildings otherwise relegated to bottom
.
.
.
Location Preference 1
Location Preference 2 possibly these two here, maybe
.
Features
Secondary view
Sound Level
Theme
Pet Friendly these 5 are essentially the same priority which is not at all
We walked around each resort with a sound meter. As you can imagine, high-traffic areas, such as pedestrian walkways and pools, are loud for lower-floor rooms.
That’s a good one, actually. I’m almost always looking for non-connecting and find myself hunting/pecking to find those while a filter would be way more efficient
When I search, I typically only look at 1 and 2. Adding 3 would be nice.
Room type and beds
Secondary view
Location preference 1
Distance to Lobby
Distance to transportation (*see note)
Theme
and then all the rest.
I personally don’t ever use “Distance to transportation” in my filters because this varies when you stay at a resort with more than one mode of transportation, eg skyliner and bus, boat and monorail, bus monorail and boat, etc. I always assumed the distance was measured by room to bus stop but I typically stay at resorts with more than one mode of transportation.
When distance to transportation is considered, it would be nice to know: distance to bus, distance to Skyliner, distance to boat, distance to monorail but that may be getting too complicated.
Floor (as someone who’s trips usually revolve around RunDisney, I usually need to weigh the pros and cons of climbing stairs and avoiding foot traffic noise past my room)
Sound Level (see above)
Distance To Lobby
Distance to Transportation
Secondary View
Location Preference 1
Location Preference 2
Features
Theme
Accessibility
Pet Friendly
I’d also love to have an option that shows the few remaining rooms that have tubs compared to shower stalls.
I just did it for my next trip to see what I really do. I use almost none of the drop downs. I literally only looked by Room Type. Every other option I kept as Any.
I think I would use the Theme and Features too if added.
What I would LOVE to see is to filter by ones with user comments. I pick every single room that matches when I’m looking to see what other liners liked and didn’t like about a room. Most seem to not have comments so it takes some time.
I agree with the suggestion about combining DVC with their hotel counterpart. I call them all the same. I never say I’m staying at GFV, but just GF. It often takes me a minute to put it together why I can’t find a 1 bedroom for example. I think I even made a help ticket once about it without realizing I was looking at the wrong resort. And liners have asked on chat for help finding their DVC room when looking at the hotel side instead. (not often but we had one just last week - maybe a couple of times a month.)
And the request for non-connecting only is great. I’d also like a request for non-accessible. So starting with accessibility might be a great idea.
My order is:
Accessibility (if a no answer gets rid of those rooms)
Room Type and Beds
Secondary View
Connecting (if a no answer gets rid of connecting rooms)
Features
Theme
Has User Comments
The following I would skip personally as I don’t care about them but the order I might suggest would be:
8. Location Pref 1 - the location ones don’t matter to me as I enjoy the walking but I know people do.
9. Location Pref 2
10. Distance to Lobby
11. Distance to Trans
12. Pet Friendly - Might be important to people with allergies
13. Sound level - I go to the top floor so it doesn’t matter
14. Rack Rate - Agree, I’ve never used the room finder prebooking
