A recent post about a room request got me thinking about this. We talk about the best ways to get the room that you want (using the Hotel Room Views tool to help find the room you want and the get exact words to give Disney to request a specific room, using the Room Request feature to automatically fax your request, etc.), but I’m not sure how effective these strategies are. I see plenty of posts when people get the room they wanted, but I don’t have any idea the number of times it didn’t work.
Therefore, I’m starting this post as a sort of tracker to see how effective our strategies are, and to see what types of requests are more likely to be granted. Please post your room request experiences (good or bad) in the following format:
Resort
Class of room booked
Method used (e.g. fax request, note on reservation, on-line check-in, etc.)
Room requested
Additional circumstances (anything that may have affected your request)
Result
I’ll kick things off:
Resort: Villas at Wilderness Lodge (old school, before all this Copper Creek nonsense)
Class of room booked: 1BR Studio
Method used: Request through Member Services
Room request: “An odd-numbered room from x531 to x563 on as high a floor as possible, or an odd-numbered room from x505 to x521 on as high a floor as possible”
Additional circumstances: Rented points, so the owner had to log the request for us
Resort: WL Class of room booked: Standard View Method: TP Fax Request Room requested: Highest floor possible (5th or 6th) with a view of Cinderella’s castle. Additional Circumstances: I always put something personal in the request on this one I said something like “Thanks very much for considering our room request. We’re so excited about staying at WL” or something like that. Result: We ended up with room 5012 which is a nature view bunk bed room with a perfect view of the fireworks, though the castle was a little obscured by a cluster of trees.
Resort-POR
Class of room: Standard
Method TP fax
Room requested-Tried to look it up and couldn’t figure out how to look at room requests from old trip. If anyone wants to tell me how I would love it!
Additional info: It was a corner room. We got the building that was closest to the royal rooms where friends were staying,
Result-We got our exact room!
Resort: AKL Jambo House Class of room booked: Savannah view, 2 Queen Beds or one king, one daybed Method: TP Fax Request Room requested: Room 3427 and I asked for 3rd floor, view of the Arusha savanna, 2 Queen beds, and close to the lobby. Additional Circumstances: This was our first trip to WDW so I put that in the room request. Result: Room 3417 which was 3rd floor, view of the Arusha savanna, 2 Queen beds, and about 30 seconds from the lobby.
I had responded to the thread here regarding the Room Request Fax Service so I just went back and looked at my posts. I made them right after arriving home when my memory was fresh! I couldn’t find a way to look at past requests on the dashboard?
Additional circumstances - I wrote a nice note saying how excited we were to stay on property for the first time and mentioned that building 4 was our preference for proximity to all facilities as DH has mobility issues.
Room requested - 1325 or similar top floor room in building 1
Additional circumstances - I wrote a nice note saying how much we loved POFQ having stayed there 6 years in a row (this one was on behalf of a friend) and having had this room the year before, would love to stay in it again because it was so peaceful.
Result - 1325, a POFQ jigsaw and a card welcoming them back to the resort.
Room requested - 1325 or similar top floor room in building 1
Additional circumstances - I wrote a nice note saying how much we loved POFQ having stayed there 7 years in a row (on behalf of the same friend) and having had this room the year before, would love to stay in it again because it was so peaceful.
Result - on check in she was assigned a room on the second floor in building 1. She asked if there was anything available on the top floor as it was quieter, and was given a river view room, I think it was 1331.
Poly — standard — fax — named building — assigned room had nothing in common whatsoever with my request. I should have asked for them to change it having seen it, but I didn’t think to do so and I’m still bitter nearly a year later
YC — standard — fax — named rooms, nice view — assigned room had amazing view and was super-happy.
Pop — pool view — fax — named rooms, nice view — I asked on check-in what kind of view the room had, was told it was blah, asked if they had something nicer, they gave me something awesome and I was super-happy
@len - Is there a way for people to look up their old fax room requests? Also, as an additional feature, it would be cool if the system would automatically send out a follow-up e-mail asking what room they got. That way you could start building up some data on which requests were the most effective.
All Star Movies
Preferred
TP fax
Room 755 or other on that same floor & side (755-764)
Additional: I wrote a note about how my husband and I had loved staying at ASMo twice previously that summer and were excited to bring his mother for her first trip in over 30 years. I noted that she had significant mobility issues and proximity to the main lobby and a 1st floor room were the top priority. We specifically requested the Toy Story section because at the time those were some of the only refurbished rooms.
Result - 755
Method used (e.g. fax request, note on reservation, on-line check-in, etc.) TP Fax
Room requested
Additional circumstances (anything that may have affected your request) very busy time—just after New Years
Result **mixed results…which probably had more to do with the busy time period. Did online check in with a 6 am arrival…didn’t get the room ready text until well after 3 pm…CM at the desk said there were no notes regarding room requests and the room we were assigned was no where near what I told her we requested. In the end we just begged for a room that was ready and she did some switching around and we got a room in the building we requested on the floor we requested but not the view we requested **
Resort: Grand Floridian
Class of Room booked: Standard View, Club Level Access
Method used: Fax request via TP
Requested a Marina View (can’t remember specific number requested)
Result: Got a room directly above requested room, so basically what we requested
“9247 or similar”. Crossing fingers