A complaint: lack of housekeeping

[RamblingMad]

And where did you hear off site hotels are staffed up, cause they're not.

You have to treat your employees good. Have you been to an understaffed Costco lately?

The hospitality industry doesn't have the greatest track record of good employee relations. You get what you sow. Disney has a long history of not treating their employees well. That's why they had to unionize. We also don't have a solution for child care in the US. Again, we get what we sow.

 

[HopperFan]

And where did you hear off site hotels are staffed up, cause they're not.

Just a few posts above I posted my experience of EXCELLENT full service at a Hilton just outside Disney Springs. Hotel was full and there were no issues getting these SUITES fully cleaned top to bottom every day. Clearly their housekeeping was fully staffed.

Disney is paying the average for the Orlando area so the question is .... does Disney offer that much less in the way of benefits OR is Disney just opting to slowly bring back a service saving tons of money, just like they did with the trams.

I've been back to Disney World three times since re-opening, July & November 2021 we stayed in Marriott Vacation Club so there was zero expectation of housekeeping but our units were perfectly clean and well equipped on arrival. I could request extra supplies. Last month I stayed at Hilton Homewood Suites in Lake Buena Vista for a week (1 bedroom unit). Because Hilton has stepped away from housekeeping and left it up to individual hotels I expected nothing. I especially expected nothing because they are operating in a "tough to hire Housekeepers" city. WELL, our suite was perfectly cleaned top to bottom every day. Clean towels, replenished all supplies, floors clean, beds made ... seriously the best housekeeping I've had in 5 years. The hotel was full and I had no glitches. If they can clean my room, Disney can clean rooms. It's a choice Disney has made.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I like how people continue missing all of the posts saying that this is not JUST a Disney problem. This is a problem everywhere (staffing)…

But if you read all the posts it isn’t everywhere. Reports are some other hotels in the same area are able to successfully offer full housekeeping services. That makes it a Disney problem. The area has people willing to work in housekeeping- Disney just isn’t attracting them.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

But if you read all the posts it isn’t everywhere. Reports are some other hotels in the same area are able to successfully offer full housekeeping services. That makes it a Disney problem. The area has people willing to work in housekeeping- Disney just isn’t attracting them.

According to allears WDW has over 36,000 rooms (although I know not all are in service as in available to book pretty much you get the idea) and of course I'm not saying all are needing housekeeping everyday as not all are even booked. Any one location of a Hilton, Double-Tree, etc is not going to have that much. I'm not defending WDW here but they are not exactly the same as other places. While not fact-checked wiki points to Universal now having around 9,000 rooms.

I do think there has been issues in the past with housekeeping with WDW that existed long before the pandemic but I don't think we should ignore the size of WDW either. There are labor shortages and even attracting more and more housekeepers are going to still leave gaps in available individuals.

It's far too simplistic to say "if others can so can Disney" and paying more isn't going to correct the problem either (could help of course but not necessarily correct it). Many of these labor shortages are a multi-faceted issue anyhow.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

There is a huge difference between fully staffing housekeeping at a 130-room Hilton Homewood Suites versus fully staffing housekeeping for Walt Disney World’s 27,734 Resort rooms. They have 9992 value rooms, 7384 moderate rooms, 5322 deluxe rooms and 5036 DVC rooms. Even if we assume that they’re operating at 75% capacity for those hotels, that’s still 20,800 rooms to service on a daily basis. I’ll be generous and say it’s actually closer to 18,000 rooms to service daily as DVC only typically get full service on day 4.

Of course it’s easy to fully staff housekeeping for an offsite 130-room hotel. Disney needs more than 200 times the housekeepers to provide daily service to all of their rooms.

Just a few posts above I posted my experience of EXCELLENT full service at a Hilton just outside Disney Springs. Hotel was full and there were no issues getting these SUITES fully cleaned top to bottom every day. Clearly their housekeeping was fully staffed.

Disney is paying the average for the Orlando area so the question is .... does Disney offer that much less in the way of benefits OR is Disney just opting to slowly bring back a service saving tons of money, just like they did with the trams.

But if you read all the posts it isn’t everywhere. Reports are some other hotels in the same area are able to successfully offer full housekeeping services. That makes it a Disney problem. The area has people willing to work in housekeeping- Disney just isn’t attracting them.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

Sounds like we just made the same point at the same time

According to allears WDW has over 36,000 rooms (although I know not all are in service as in available to book pretty much you get the idea) and of course I'm not saying all are needing housekeeping everyday as not all are even booked. Any one location of a Hilton, Double-Tree, etc is not going to have that much. I'm not defending WDW here but they are not exactly the same as other places. While not fact-checked wiki points to Universal now having around 9,000 rooms.

I do think there has been issues in the past with housekeeping with WDW that existed long before the pandemic but I don't think we should ignore the size of WDW either. There are labor shortages and even attracting more and more housekeepers are going to still leave gaps in available individuals.

It's far too simplistic to say "if others can so can Disney" and paying more isn't going to correct the problem either (could help of course but not necessarily correct it). Many of these labor shortages are a multi-faceted issue anyhow.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Sounds like we just made the same point at the same time

We sure did, great minds think alike and all

 

[DodgerGirl]

I wonder now that Disney Resorts now have returned to having full housekeeping services again they will lower the prices of the hotel rooms? Because I think the lack of full housekeeping services really hurt Disney Resorts and by having light housekeeping didn't help one bit. Because when families go to Walt Disney World they always look forward to having a nice clean and tidy room and a bed with fresh clean sheets to relax and take a break and when this happened people thought that full housekeeping was a thing of the past. I know that some hotels started doing weekly housekeeping to save time. Take for example Residence Inn lets you have weekly housekeeping by coming every two weeks to clean your suite and change your bedsheets and put fresh pillows and pillowcases on your bed and Best Western now doesn't even do housekeeping in their hotels anymore and if you stay at a Best Western hotel they make you register your name for a room cleaning now. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney starts doing this at their resorts now because if they did people would be shocked. I happen to know a lot about behind the scenes at hotel chains because my mom was a hotel desk clerk before I was born and she would tell me a lot of stories about hotels and stuff. But now that housekeeping has returned fully to Disney Resorts as the saying goes "Everything's Coming Up Roses" for Disney and this news has made people happy with joy

 

[Disneylover99]

I wonder now that Disney Resorts now have returned to having full housekeeping services again they will lower the prices of the hotel rooms? Because I think the lack of full housekeeping services really hurt Disney Resorts and by having light housekeeping didn't help one bit. Because when families go to Walt Disney World they always look forward to having a nice clean and tidy room and a bed with fresh clean sheets to relax and take a break and when this happened people thought that full housekeeping was a thing of the past. I know that some hotels started doing weekly housekeeping to save time. Take for example Residence Inn lets you have weekly housekeeping by coming every two weeks to clean your suite and change your bedsheets and put fresh pillows and pillowcases on your bed and Best Western now doesn't even do housekeeping in their hotels anymore and if you stay at a Best Western hotel they make you register your name for a room cleaning now. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney starts doing this at their resorts now because if they did people would be shocked. I happen to know a lot about behind the scenes at hotel chains because my mom was a hotel desk clerk before I was born and she would tell me a lot of stories about hotels and stuff. But now that housekeeping has returned fully to Disney Resorts as the saying goes "Everything's Coming Up Roses" for Disney and this news has made people happy with joy

No. Rack rates aren’t going down. Once daily housekeeping is back at every resort, I’d expect prices may go up. Discounted rooms will be offered at certain resorts during traditionally slower times to fill up all the rooms if necessary. Business as usual.

 

[Dug720]

I'm not invested in this fight at all, but I do recall Disney putting out ads for employment in the Tallahassee area and that is definitely not near Orlando. So, I do think there is an issue with getting people for these particular jobs. Perhaps they don't pay well enough like other hotels that have better housekeeping or something like that - but it is true that the labor market has drastically changed over the last 2 years. There are a variety of reasons for that change. Perhaps that is part of this issue with housekeeping?

Or perhaps because Disney has a LOT more rooms across their many resorts than those other hotels that have a much smaller number of rooms in one location? It's much easier for a hotel with even 1000 rooms to get enough housekeepers than for Walt Disney World with over 36K rooms.

 

[jo-jo]

I don't understand the thinking of say hilton has a 1,000 rooms and it's easier to maintain then disney with X thousands .

Why isn't All stars music thought as one resort, All Stars sports thought as one resort.....etc.

So if Disney just had 25 hilton hotels, they would be easier to maintain?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I don't understand the thinking of say hilton has a 1,000 rooms and it's easier to maintain then disney with X thousands .

Why isn't All stars music thought as one resort, All Stars sports thought as one resort.....etc.

So if Disney just had 25 hilton hotels, they would be easier to maintain?

They're not easier to maintain long term if both are fully staffed. The problem is coming out of COVID, when staffing levels were greatly reduced due to layoffs, furloughs, and resignations. The larger property is going to take a lot longer to staff back up to full levels.

 

[rangerxenos]

Just a few posts above I posted my experience of EXCELLENT full service at a Hilton just outside Disney Springs. Hotel was full and there were no issues getting these SUITES fully cleaned top to bottom every day. Clearly their housekeeping was fully staffed.

Disney is paying the average for the Orlando area so the question is .... does Disney offer that much less in the way of benefits OR is Disney just opting to slowly bring back a service saving tons of money, just like they did with the trams.

Bingo!

 

[lowlight]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/11/travel/coronavirus-hotel-housekeeping.html
This is from early in the pandemic, but it gives the housekeeper point of view. Surprise, it’s to save money.

 

[snappy]

Follow the money.

 

[jo-jo]

They're not easier to maintain long term if both are fully staffed. The problem is coming out of COVID, when staffing levels were greatly reduced due to layoffs, furloughs, and resignations. The larger property is going to take a lot longer to staff back up to full levels.

But didn't disney open up with 1/3 of the resorts open, then 1/2 of the resorts, etc. Shouldn't disney keep some resorts closed if they can't have find the staff. It's like having 10 buses filled with people but only 7 bus drivers.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

But didn't disney open up with 1/3 of the resorts open, then 1/2 of the resorts, etc. Shouldn't disney keep some resorts closed if they can't have find the staff. It's like having 10 buses filled with people but only 7 bus drivers.

I thought that myself but we all know the answer to that. Do you really think people would accept Disney keeping hotels closed indefinitely? No way in a million years could they do that. People expect to have their choice of hotels and demand it. At some point during this pandemic people wouldn't accept holding back of reopening with exception to extensive enough refurbished. If you keep someone's favorite resort closed indefinitely they'll complain and tell you "not my problem get it open at these rates we pay you should have it open,etc" just like you're seeing with these comments. Then will come the "but if Hilton can, if Universal can, etc then Disney can have them all open" we all know that to be the truth of what people would say.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

But didn't disney open up with 1/3 of the resorts open, then 1/2 of the resorts, etc. Shouldn't disney keep some resorts closed if they can't have find the staff. It's like having 10 buses filled with people but only 7 bus drivers.

Demand for the rooms is still there even with limited service.

If demand is 100 and staffing can support 60, you have to chose whether to give all 100 people 60% service, or to give 60 people 100% service. They're chosing the former for now.

Don't forget, 100% satisfying the 60 means you're leaving 40 people out in the cold. They can't get a room at all.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Last warning - several posts have been removed and infractions given with no points. If people want to continue to veer towards being argumentative and disrespectful, points will be given and/or this thread will be shut down.

Thank you.

 

[jo-jo]

Demand for the rooms is still there even with limited service.

If demand is 100 and staffing can support 60, you have to chose whether to give all 100 people 60% service, or to give 60 people 100% service. They're chosing the former for now.

Don't forget, 100% satisfying the 60 means you're leaving 40 people out in the cold. They can't get a room at all.

But it sounds like Disney is giving a 100 , 40 % of service.

Before covid , some resorts had the 'skip housekeeping and get X amount". I wonder how many people took that option. Would it be cheaper for disney to offer that again, then have lots of complaints.

Just to note, we have DVC, so we always got reduced cleaning.