Your Mission - Inspect The Room

[Simba's Mom]

In reality, it's kind of impossible to check everything right away. On our last trip, our coffee pot didn't work. Well, we didn't try out the coffee pot until the next morning, then waited 2 hours for someone to come and fix it. When we first got to our next resort (split stay), we turned on the refrigerator and it took until the next day for the freezer compartment to ice over and the freezer door not open. Then it took 3 phone calls, over 2 more days, before anyone fixed it. Occassionally, maintenance has been excellent, like the time engineering showed up 10 minutes after I called and reported a light bulb out, then rather than just hand me the light bulb, as I asked, he said "Oh, no-I'll change it. Our guests shouldn't have to do the work!" I thought that was so sweet! But unfortunately, sometimes maintenance isn't too responsive.

 

[crisi]

Not if it isn't bothering us - or is bothering us, but isn't worth the inconvience to us fix it on our time. I don't need maintence coming up to change lightbulbs I don't need to use. Or a drawer off its rail when I'd like to take a shower.

 

[com_op_2000]

I have always called immediately if the issue was severe enough. If it would not bother us during the stay we reported the issue on the last morning so that the next owner would not be disturbed.

 

[JimMIA]

With all due respect, if Mr. Lewis' housekeeping supervisors (if, in fact, there ARE any housekeeping supervisors) would do their jobs, you wouldn't see complaints like hair in the shower, lightbulbs out, and clock radios missing.

We have had few issues, and when we've called either housekeeping or maintenance has responded pretty quickly and effectively.

But some of the problems I've noted (PHONE MISSING...hello?!!) tell me clearly that nobody is checking on the cleaning staff's work. Nobody.

The housekeeping issues, IMHO, are not housekeeping issues. They are managerial nonfeasance issues.

 

[Deb & Bill]

With all due respect, if Mr. Lewis' housekeeping supervisors (if, in fact, there ARE any housekeeping supervisors) would do their jobs, you wouldn't see complaints like hair in the shower, lightbulbs out, and clock radios missing.

We have had few issues, and when we've called either housekeeping or maintenance has responded pretty quickly and effectively.

But some of the problems I've noted (PHONE MISSING...hello?!!) tell me clearly that nobody is checking on the cleaning staff's work. Nobody.

The housekeeping issues, IMHO, are not housekeeping issues. They are managerial nonfeasance issues.

You nailed it, Jim.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

I don't want DVC to put the responsibility of cleanliness on the members.

I don't mind doing my share to make sure everything is great...but IF we step up to the plate...then I want DVC and JIM LEWIS to stand up to the plate too!

I'm afraid this move by Jim Lewis marks the worsening of housekeeping...not its improvement.

 

[bumbershoot]

Does anybody do this currently? I'll be honest, I try not to look at the room too closely because I'm there to have fun.

I haven't read the latest, but we did already do this.

We're having a long split stay, and when we checked into our OKW 1 bedroom I remembered a problem in the 2 bedroom, and called Housekeeping to make sure they knew. (middle blind in the french doors wasn't working at all)

In this unit, the DVD player was in the bedroom, which is annoying for a family (I'm sure a couple would be happy with it). Since it seemed a bit complicated to move the big unit and set it all up, on our way back to the room after the parks, we stopped at the front desk (also needed to rent a few DVDs at the Community Hall and ask for a second high speed cable), asked if we should move it or if they wanted to...by the time we got back to the room, the maintenance guy was IN our room changing it over for us! And he had the extra cable. MOST excellent.

Am I wrong to expect that most of these things should be noted by mousekeeping, rather than waiting to be noticed and fixed by guests? We've been fairly lucky with maintenance and cleanliness issues, but I know that is not always the case. I don't mind making note of things that happen during my visit, but when I first arrive, I think the room should be ready to go. Where is the quality control here?

During our 2 bedroom stay, we had family with us. My aunt has done housekeeping at homes and hotels for decades. She had a job with a timeshare-type of place with units about as big as the 2 bedrooms, and they could clean FOUR units in one entire day. And that was working her tail off. She quit inside of 2 weeks because it was impossible. And that's just cleaning, not checking off how many forks are in the drawer or taking the time to click on the coffee maker. Housekeeping is a hard, awful, rotten job.

I'm happy to help them out by getting the garbage bags out and tied, putting towels in the basket, and making sure to note any problems for maintenance to fix/replace.

I don't want DVC to put the responsibility of cleanliness on the members.

It's a timeshare. We have a responsibility too.

 

[Sammie]

We have always done it as soon as we get in the room.

I do however agree, we should not have to do this.

Hopefully someone will bring this up at the meeting tomorrow.

 

[Mickey'sApprentice]

It's a timeshare. We have a responsibility too.

Allow me to clarify...I don't mind having SOME responsibility...but I don't exactly want to bring my own sheets and towels, paint, repair toilets, etc.

That is why I pay DUES!

My concern is that as we are COMMANDED to take care of our rooms, that DVC will take less care...and not more. I like the idea of DVC asking us to take care of our investment. I do not like the idea of DVC shifting the responsibility of upkeep to the members.

Further, ok...I take care of my room...do you think everybody else will? NO!! Will renters? NO!! Will CRO customers? NO!!

I do not want to own a dump!

 

[crisi]

It's a timeshare. We have a responsibility too.

I have a responsibility to pay my dues. I have a responsibility to not trash the unit (and if I did, I'd assume I'd have a responsibility to pay for the damage). I have a responsibility to make sure that if something goes horribly wrong during my stay - the toilet overflows, the ceiling starts to drip from the unit above, that the problem is promptly reported so the damage can be controlled. I don't have a responsibility to make sure the door handles don't have too much jiggle (frankly, that's almost every room I've been in), or to see if a toaster I'm not going to use works. Coffee maker, I'll notice.

If a light bulb we need is burned out - we'd call. If we flip the switch for the nightstand and discover his side is burned out but mine works, we'll live with one. Frankly, we only discover this three minutes before crawling into bed and have forgotten completely when we wake up - until the next time we crawl into bed.

 

[PrincessV]

With all due respect, if Mr. Lewis' housekeeping supervisors (if, in fact, there ARE any housekeeping supervisors) would do their jobs, you wouldn't see complaints like hair in the shower, lightbulbs out, and clock radios missing.

We have had few issues, and when we've called either housekeeping or maintenance has responded pretty quickly and effectively.

But some of the problems I've noted (PHONE MISSING...hello?!!) tell me clearly that nobody is checking on the cleaning staff's work. Nobody.

The housekeeping issues, IMHO, are not housekeeping issues. They are managerial nonfeasance issues.

YES, YES, YES! How did no one notice a latch completely broken off the door frame and sitting on the kitchenette counter when they cleaned?! I didn't mind calling about it, and was pleased with the quick response, but that's something that really should have been caught and rectified before giving us the room in the first place.

 

[lugnut33]

Interesting, Jim Lewis just mentioned at the annual meeting that the goal is 100% cleanliness and guests should "call resort and report problems when discovered".

 

[TisBit]

YES, YES, YES! How did no one notice a latch completely broken off the door frame and sitting on the kitchenette counter when they cleaned?! I didn't mind calling about it, and was pleased with the quick response, but that's something that really should have been caught and rectified before giving us the room in the first place.

I agree with Jim that the there needs to be more supervision of housekeepers (checking behind them after they work to see if the rooms are clean), but these are the things that I have to say, we really don't know what has happened.

Here is my example, housekeeper goes in, finds the broken latch and calls maintenance (maintenance has lots of calls per day, I presume that guests calls come first and routine repair calls/internal calls come next) and in the meantime the housekeeper moves on. You get called the because the housekeeper has logged the room as "clean". The alternative is to take the room out of service for the simple maintenance issue, but there isn't enough inventory to do that. So, when you arrive, you find the latch and call it in, maintenance gets the call (the second call in a matter of hours), it appears the housekeeper didn't do anything, but in actuallity, it was already in queue with maintenance when you took the room.

I don't want to wait for them to fix minor things like latches and bulbs before I am allowed to check in to my room. Numerous times while in a room, maintenance has come to fix things I never called for, so they were already noted by another guest or a housekeeper.

Now, for the record, I do realize that there are some housekeepers that don't do this, but there are some that do and to lump them all together is just wrong (at work we call it the 10%'s, they make the good ones look bad).

 

[Lost in Neverland]

When I read this message from Jim Lewis I could not believe what I was reading. Yes as DVC members we should report items that are not up to par in the villas but to ask that we take time from our hard earned vacation to inspect the villa for issues is going just a little too far. Yes we do the bed bug thing and a once over but a detailed inspection no way.The thing that concerns me about this request is that if the members assume the responsibility for villa inspections and the issues are not reported then all JL has to say is that if the members did not report it then everything is ok. It just removes the responsibilty of maintenance from DVC and shifts it to the members which is NOT acceptable. JL needs to revisit the structure of his houskeeping and maintenance departments to allow for quarterly inspections of each unit. I work in a hospital and each quarter we do facility inspections that are just maintenance related. DVC should be no different. JMHO.....

 

[Deb & Bill]

...JL needs to revisit the structure of his houskeeping and maintenance departments to allow for quarterly inspections of each unit. I work in a hospital and each quarter we do facility inspections that are just maintenance related. DVC should be no different. JMHO.....

I agree. We don't make our patients do our maintenance inspections for us. I'd be embarrassed if I got a call from a patient telling me a ceiling tile was stained and their room was dirty.

 

[PrincessV]

Here is my example, housekeeper goes in, finds the broken latch and calls maintenance (maintenance has lots of calls per day, I presume that guests calls come first and routine repair calls/internal calls come next) and in the meantime the housekeeper moves on. You get called the because the housekeeper has logged the room as "clean". The alternative is to take the room out of service for the simple maintenance issue, but there isn't enough inventory to do that. So, when you arrive, you find the latch and call it in, maintenance gets the call (the second call in a matter of hours), it appears the housekeeper didn't do anything, but in actuallity, it was already in queue with maintenance when you took the room.

I don't want to wait for them to fix minor things like latches and bulbs before I am allowed to check in to my room.

ITA, that's very likely to have been the case. However, no, I absolutely did NOT want to check into a room with a faulty lock! Were it a burned out light bulb or another minor inconvenience, sure. But at a bare minimum, I expect to be able to use all available security measures to ensure my safety within my hotel room - had they not quickly fixed the situation, I'd have had to start all over with another room, which is a major inconvenience to all involved. They need to put procedures in place that prevent a room awaiting maintenance from being issued for check-in in the first place.

It just removes the responsibilty of maintenance from DVC and shifts it to the members which is NOT acceptable.

Very true.

 

[Brandis]

On our last stay at VWL we had a funny encounter with Mousekeeping.

Arrived at WL in the evening straight from the airport at around 8PM, I did online check-in so everything was ready when we got there. I had asked for a pool view and close to elevator, we got close to elevator but not pool view. OK

So we went to the room. I was surprised that there was a mousekeeping cart blocking the door, usually you don't see them around in the evenings. I squeeze around it (those things are heavy) and open the door. There were 2 ladies sitting at the table, apparently eating dinner. When they noticed me, one of them just said "Room not clean".

I told my friends to wait in the villa lobby while I went back to the front desk. They were surprised that housekeeping still would be in the room and said that the room had been marked as cleaned earlier in the day. We then got a new villa which was a bit further from the elevator, but had a great view of the lake. The first room would have faced towards the bus stop, so I was happy this happened

 

[jmpurdy]

We have had gross surprises entering a DVC and in fact our Grand Villa bathroom was disgusting with long hairs all over and it was obvious that they had not mopped properly. It was rectified immediately when we called. Should it be clean? Yes of course. Is it always? No, it isn't. I don't like seeing toothpaste splatter on the mirror in the bathroom, but I almost always do. It's gross. But I'm not going to call Housekeeping over it either. I wash it myself. Maybe I should?

 

[Garthilk]

Hmm,

I was thinking about this very issue departing GCV yesterday. If there are two things I'm suprised members don't already have are:

• Check In Inspection Checklist
• Departure Helpful Tasks List

Specifically, for check in. I cannot imagine that there is not an internal inspection checklist used by management and maintinance to throughly go over a room. If there isn't, I'm suprised DVC members haven't created one yet. Again, this would be something for those whom are interested in it and in no way obligitory.

Secondly, I am suprised that there isn't a checking out checklist. A list of tasks that can be completed to ensure the room gets turned over quickly. A small list of tasks that make it easier on housekeeping to turn over a room. Yes, I know it is not our role to turn over the room, I was simply thinking of a pay it forward series of tasks to make things better.

 

[Safari Queen]

We always report any problems right away. Mousekeeping is intent on turning the rooms ASAP, so they're not turning lights on and off or opening cabinets, etc. We all need to help each other out by making a point of reporting anything that's not right. If we all do it, resort management is more likely to make maintenance a priority. Squeaky wheels and all that...