Staying at AOA which has been fine, but we’re having a room cleaning issue. We have been coming home midday for a break every day. We were in our room from about 2:00-3:30 both of the last two days. The first day, when we came into our room at 2, we saw the cleaning cart five or six rooms away from us and it’s unclear if they hadn’t gotten to our took until after we left or if they came back, but the room was clean when we returned at 10 pm.
Yesterday, same break time. When we came to our room at 2 pm there was no sign of a cleaning cart on the hall. We went in and our room was not clean. We did hang the privacy sign between 2-3:30, but took it down when we left at 3:30. We came back at 10 pm to a room that had not been cleaned.
My husband called guest services this morning and was told rather curtly that if the cart goes by when we have the sign up, our room just won’t be cleaned that day, end of story. I called later and spoke to someone else who insisted that they have all the rooms cleaned in the morning and said “maybe you should leave a tissue on the floor to see if they clean while you’re out.” I was a bit incredulous. I mean, the unmade beds, gross sopping towels on the floor, and untouched Mousekeeping tip envelope should be enough of a clue that no ones been in there.
So - what to do?? I’m frustrated and this is the first experience I have had where I feel like they are giving us the run around. The cast members so far have been very accommodating and also the “system” as a whole has been great - but I am really dissatisfied with this and not sure how to escalate this.
Given the number of people on this board who have taken midday breaks and the way that the Unofficial Guide talks about it as a viable option, it seems to me that rooms must generally still get cleaned even if you take a midday break.
If I was in this situation, at this point, I would go to the front desk. (don’t bother calling - it goes to a central answering location)
Ask for the cleaning schedule. I would ask what the window of time is. In other words, if they clean from 7:30 - noon and you come back to a dirty room at 3pm, you won’t expect to see the cleaning crew.
If they say that it could be any time throughout the day, that simply cannot be true. A place that big needs to have a schedule for each building, each floor.
Last I heard, the cleaning staff was to be upgraded significantly. More staff & smart phones that allow them to communicate faster when there is a problem.
If speaking with a CM doesn’t satisfy the issue, escalate to the management, and then to @wdwtoday, That’s the official twitter account for guest services. They’re usually on top of problems fast.
I hope this all smooths out for you.
Right to the top. Go during regular hours (not night) and insist on speaking with the person in charge. Ask that person “I have X issues - are you the correct person to speak to to have them resolved” Have a WELL formulated list of exactly what happened - don’t go into too much detail to distract
Day 1 - room wasn’t cleaned
Day 2- room wasn’t X
Day 3 - room wasn’t Yand the person at the front desk was rude
Then follow up with what you expect. “I wish to be reimbursed X amount as I am supposed to have daily room cleaning and that hasn’t occurred” or whatever it is you want. If that isn’t to your satisfaction - note that you will call your CC company and contest that they rescind some of the bill as the hotel hasn’t provided the services they were to have.
I had the same situation at the SWAN and was reimbursed about $150 from my bill. They told me “we are under staffed” I said “that is your concern - you still charged me the same amount for the room and are not providing base level services”
If you do not get satisfaction from the front desk (do not call- the call center honestly just does not care- nor can they control what happens in a resort) also follow up with an email to wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com . Include your resort reservation number, room number and details of any/interactions with cast members and please report that call center response.
When it comes down to it. A value resort is still expensive. It is over $150 a night at least. Big deal there is theaming. The same room outside the gate is half or less. So WDW needs to “live up to the magic” that they want to sprinkle us with.
I agree!! Our last trip we had a problem that was not solved at the resort. When we got home I wrote a letter (Yes on Paper) to Guest Communications. I wasn’t long before someone called me to get the full storey. Of course they could not fix what had already happened, but they compensated us very generously. (Going to WDW again this year)
After my last trip I spent one day writing a number of emails recognizing everything that made my trip special. The next day I was finally able to write the email about a resort stay where I did not get the room I paid for and the details of what was said to me. I had a couple of phones calls (that poor woman- three weeks after my stay I still cried every time I started to talk about it) and I too received a generous certificate towards a future stay and a phone number to call so that they will ensure the same situation will not happen again if I decide I can/will redeem it.
I’m not sure if the number to call Housekeeping from your room also goes to a central location, but I always call Housekeeping when we arrive and ask to have our room cleaned early. They usually ask what time we will be out of the room by and it is always clean when we return for our midday break by noon or 1pm. If you do speak with someone about the issues you have been having maybe you could ask if it is an option to request your room to be cleaned early.
These days when you call from your room the call goes to an offsite location. Last April I was actually asked what resort I was at. The staff at these call centers do not seem to be getting a high level of training recently.
We had this happen last time we stayed at AKL. We left early (out of the room by 7:30) and returned around 2:00 and the room still as not cleaned - with wet towels where we left them and the tip envelope still there and sealed. It happened so often that when I went to make the mousekeeping tip envelopes for this trip, I still had several leftover I could use! And when I gave up trying to get someone in to clean and called for clean towels at least, I needed to call twice as they insisted they delivered the first time and we never received them. I had never experienced this before on property and was very disappointed.
Wow. Thanks for sharing, all. We will see if we can reach AOA specific housekeeping directly and if not then we will go to the front desk. Thanks for making me feel like I am justified in feeling a little out of sorts because of this. It’s not like It’s ruining my vacation or anything, but I feel like a clean room is a low bar that even Motel 6 can meet.
I had a BAD experience at the SWAN. We were out of the room all day most days. We keep a very clean room, but some things were noticeably in need of cleaning and I called several times about it. The kicker was my daughter was getting out of the shower and NO TOWELS. “Oh we will have someone up in 30 - 40 minutes” - NO - you will have someone up here NOW.
In the end these are all first world problems - however WDW is exceptionally expensive and you want what you paid for.
The phone in your room does not reach housekeeping. The reason I have a direct number to wdw communication if I decide to use my voucher is that there is no way these days for anyone to call a resort directly, even from inside the resort. I am sure it save wdw money but it is becoming a nightmare.
I guess I’ll have to hope to run into the housekeeper in the hall and let them know to clean our room early each day or I’ll be visiting the front desk.
On our last trip, we had to go secret squirrel and track down a mousekeeping cart in a hallway. After waiting by it for more than 20 minutes, no one returned to it so we liberated our own towels.
Same trip we also had a snafu with our luggage showing up after checking it in at bell services when we arrived in the morning. They told us it would be in our room later when we got back from the parks. (I now suspect that was misinformation by the bell guy. Who wouldn’t take a tip after unloading my truck with me.)
When we got back to room at 10PM: no luggage. As the wait continued I called a few times times, they kept telling us it was on the way. One time they forgot to mute themselves as they called bell to reconfirm and their side of the conversation sounded like they couldn’t find our bags. I walked over to front desk - “Yes it is on the way!” we were told. We sat around until well after midnight and I was walking out once again to go search for it myself when the guy showed up with the cart.
You’d think they’d have all of these things down to a science by now, but nope.
After reading these forums, I now know I should have followed up later - while neither ruined my vacation, those weren’t the activities I wanted to worry about.