Check In Conversation

[lark]

We're pretty seasoned when it comes to disneyspeak, and understand that CMs by and large have to deal with hundreds of people all wanting stuff that's impossible to deliver, so I don't think we're particularly fussy when things don't go perfectly. Still, one circumstance on our recent visit really set me off -- still trying to figure out why it made me so mad.

It rained like crazy on Tuesday, right around check in time, so there were lots of people all trying to get their rooms as early as possible at the GC. I understand that disney does not like to assign rooms anywhere in the hotel to anyone and tries to keep certain people in certain areas -- e.g., to keep people checking on on the same day in the same wing in order to ease housekeeping and cut expenses. I'm ok with that in general, as long as it doesn't get excessive. But anyway, here's the conversation we had with a CM at 3:20, fully soaked, cold, tired, and wanting our room.

Me: We preregistered, and are ready for our room.

CM: [After asking name, pin number, etc.] Sorry, it's not ready yet.

Me: Do you have any idea when it will be ready?

CM: No, you'll have to check later.

Me: When, like 4:00?

CM: You can try.

Me: I thought check in time was supposed to be 3:00.

CM: No, the policy is ANY TIME after 3:00.

Me: [Laughing -- thinkin this was a joke.] You're kidding right? When you say, "any time after 3:00," that means WE can check in "any time after 3:00." Not that you can give us the room "any time" you want after 3:00.

CM: No, it means the room will be ready, "any time after 3:00," which can be later than 3:00.

Me: Come on, you're joking right? Are you trying to tell me the room might not be ready until 11:00?

CM: Yes, but there are lots of great things to do, like check out downtown disney. Have you done that yet?

Me: That's really absurd, if I showed up to check out at 3:00 p.m. and said, check out is "any time after 11:00," you'd charge me for an extra day.

CM: Well, you can check back later.

We eventually made a stink and got a room by 4:00 (after much hemming and hawing and acting like we were getting a favor), but I guess what bugs me is the part where she clearly went on script -- the part about how we could enjoy downtown disney. It just made me feel like they are programmed to say whatever they need to say to try at least to keep some people mollified so they'll just walk away. I guess even if "any time after 3:00" works on 30 percent of the people, that's worth it to them. That's really annoying in a way that's hard to explain and just flat out p-s me off. I don't know the first thing about Anaheim hotel law, and I'm sure it favors disney, but this simply can't be permissible, particularly when you've preregistered and they've actually charged your card.

Ok, sorry to vent. I need to just relax and let it go.

 

[TiggerCate]

You're kidding! I would have been a slight bit (i.e. very much) disgruntled at that point.

 

[safetymom]

The CM didn't handle it well but I have been at many resort hotels across the country and they won't let you into your room until after check in time.

 

[MoniqueU]

What do you mean by pre registered?

 

[lark]

What do you mean by pre registered?

At the GC (and I think the other 2 DL hotels), they let you "preregister," which means you can actually check in in the morning, get your keys, and get a "pin" number. You then can call or go back to the hotel and give them your pin number, and they give you your room number, and the keys work in that room.

As for the point that many hotels don't let you in at check in time, I travel alot and while it happens, it's pretty infrequent for me. Maybe I've been lucky. But as I tried to say in the post, I'm pretty understanding about the fact that sometimes it takes a while and you can't always get in right at check in time. I actually also don't really blame the CM here. My problem is that there is plainly some kind of script or training that the CM got to make it seem like it was my problem and that I was misunderstanding the policy.

 

[DisneyDotty]

Gotta agree with you, Lark. CM's comments seemed pretty snarky to me. And since when does "3:00 check-in" mean they can make you wait til whenever they are ready? Really, I've never heard of this policy, and frankly, would not patronize hotels that regularly did this. Anywhere I've been where the room wasn't ready upon check-in time offered some kind of compensation and a sincere apology. How un-magical for you!

 

[Amberle3]

Check-in time technically means the time that check-ins start, not the time that all rooms will be available for check-in. So yes, although the CM definitely could have been a little more polite they were actually correct. And there are some hotels across the country that hold firmly to the check-in time and will NOT let you check-in before 3pm.

The things you learn in Travel Agent school.

There are any number of factors that could come into play affecting when the room will be ready. For instance if a large number of people check out of the hotel on a given day, around the latest possible check-out time, then housekeeping has to try and get all of those rooms cleaned and ready for new customers as soon as possible.

 

[lark]

Check-in time technically means the time that check-ins start, not the time that all rooms will be available for check-in.

Then I ask you the same question that I asked the CM. At what point must the room be available? 11:00 p.m? 1:00 a.m.? Never?

I think actually the answer to the question is set by law of the locality, and as I said, I expect Anaheim or California law is disney friendly. I think they must make a "reasonable" accomodation available to you. Again, though, as I said, none of that was the point of my post.

 

[JennyG999]

That is pretty crazy how "scripted" the response was!

I am sure a simple, "I am really sorry, but we had a large number of guests check out, and we are a little behind in getting rooms ready. I appreciate your patience, etc." would have gone a lot further!

I am pretty baffled that check in at 3pm means your room MAY be ready after 3. I assumed check in at 3 meant my room would be ready at 3. And if not right at 3, a reasonable time after that.

Did you speak to a manager either during or after? Did they give a better explaination?

Silly, unthinking cast member (who should be doing some other job...not solely interacting with guests!)

 

[jasonk5]

Yeah, I agree with all of the responses. I would have been upset too, for I figured check in at 3 means just that. 3 pm or around there you are elgible to check in to the hotel. No sooner.

On an aside (and not to discredit the original poster for everybody has a different experience), we just returned from our trip where we stayed at the Grand Californian and had a terrific experience. We (my wife, 1 year old son, and I) arrived into LAX about 11 am and got to the hotel at about 12:30. We knew the room wouldn't be ready, but wanted to drop our bags off. To our surprise, our theme park room view was ready and we could go to it (although she did try to say we booked a DD view room at first--an earlier ressie that was in my name and not cancelled.) Anyways, we checked right into our room, got changed and relaxed for a few and took off to DL. Our theme park "view" wasn't the best, but now that I know, hopefully there is a way I can request a better room next time.
Also, one day when we returned from being away from our room; we had a birthday package and balloons in it for our son's first birthday, and flower petals, bottles of water and slippers on the bed for my wife and I fifth wedding anniversary. Very nice treatment and something we will not forget!!! We will definately be staying at the GC for all visits to come (although I would like to try DL Hotel just once.)

 

[Amberle3]

Is there a time by which they MUST have you into the room? To be honest I've never heard of one. I suppose there might be, but as someone mentioned it's probably goverened by local law. I'd probably go with 6pm, as that's the cutoff-time for reservations to be held unless guaranteed by credit card.

I would say though that after waiting a reasonable amount of time (maybe an hour or two) I'd ask to speak with a manager and politely point out the length of your wait time and ask (again, politely) what they were willing to do to compensate you for it. Most managers will want to be accommodating and will offer a bit of a discount on the room or some meal vouchers.

The travel business is "fun" - there are several things especially with hotels that are listed as one way and assumed as one way by the general public but in reality mean something different. For instance you might book an "Ocean View" room and expect to have a lovely view of the ocean, but end up with a view of another building. But if you go out on the balcony, lean forward and look off to the side you can see the ocean. Therefore yes they can actually call it an "Ocean View" room. Some have taken to using "Partial Ocean View" to differentiate these. Another example is the difference between adjoining and connecting rooms - definitely not the same thing!

 

[lilstint]

Check-in time technically means the time that check-ins start, not the time that all rooms will be available for check-in. So yes, although the CM definitely could have been a little more polite they were actually correct. And there are some hotels across the country that hold firmly to the check-in time and will NOT let you check-in before 3pm.

The things you learn in Travel Agent school.

There are any number of factors that could come into play affecting when the room will be ready. For instance if a large number of people check out of the hotel on a given day, around the latest possible check-out time, then housekeeping has to try and get all of those rooms cleaned and ready for new customers as soon as possible.

So does check-out time mean the time check-outs start, not the time you actually have to be out of the room? That would only be fair - don't you think?

 

[Amberle3]

So does check-out time mean the time check-outs start, not the time you actually have to be out of the room? That would only be fair - don't you think?

No, because the check-out time is clearly stated as being the time you have to be out of the room BY. You can, however, check out as early as you want.

If any signficant number of rooms check out on any given day then there is just no way that all those rooms are going to be ready by 3pm, especially as the hotel industry keeps building larger and larger hotels. The only way for that to happen is to hire more cleaning staff, purchase more spare linens and install more washing equipment to handle doing all those loads of laundry all at one time. Of course that's going to mean your hotel rates are going to increase by a significant amount as well.

And that's why you don't see hotels guaranteeing that you can check in at 3pm. Just that 3pm is the time that, all going well, they should be ready to start processing people to check in.

Even as a travel agent, I just don't understand the problem. I've had to wait upwards of 2 hours for a hotel room before. It's not the best situation in the world, but you have to figure that whatever's going on behind the scenes that's causing the big delay is a bigger problem than you've got at the moment. If you're really upset then talk politely with the manager and see if you can get some meal vouchers so that at least you're spending some of your wait time in the restaurant instead of just camping out in the lobby.

Believe me, hotels do NOT like to have guests waiting around in the lobby. It's hard on the guests, and it's hard on the staff. It puts everyone on edge and in a bad mood. If your room isn't ready and you're waiting, they are well aware of the situation and want to get your in your room as soon as possible. It's what's best for you, and that makes it what's best for them as well and they realize that. But as a guest you have to realize that not everything can go perfectly smoothly all the time, and the more the guest whines, complains and makes a pain of themselves the more it increases the stress level of the staff and just makes a bad situation even worse.

 

[5infam]

I don't know about all the travel agent stuff, but I do know that everytime I have stayed at the GC, I have had to wait til 4:00 or later. My family and I have spent a lot of time in those rocking chairs watching Disney cartoons. This last year, it was so crowded in the lobby that they brought in characters to play with the kids. I really felt sorry for Chip and Dale that day - those kids were wound up pretty tight as it was raining hard that day and most of them had been hanging in that lobby for a long time!!! I think the hotel has issues getting the rooms ready in a timely fashion. They need to make check out earlier, or check in later, or both. I love an early check in, just as much as the next guy (I like late check outs even better) - but if they say 3:00, then I expect 3:00!! So the GC should just say 4:00, shoot for 3:00 and they will not upset as many guests.

 

[All Aboard]

Disney can spin the language all they want, but the bottom line is that nearly everyone reading the description of check-in and check-out times will assume that their room will be ready at 3:00 pm and they have to be out by 11:00 am. The phrase "any time after 3:00 pm" when told to a guest is going to cause the type of frustration felt by the original poster. It comes across as false advertising, even if it technically isn't. When the word "technically" has to be used, customer service generally suffers. Kind of like um...limited minutes. While I wasn't there, it doesn't sound like the front desk CM was apologetic or even noting that this was a rare or unusual occurence. Rather, here's the situation, now deal with it.

It's really a two way street, but in this case, it seems like Disney is assuming that it is one way - theirs.

 

[Amberle3]

I'm just saying that Disney is following the same procedures that every other hotel in North America follows. I don't know of a single one that guarantees that guests will be able to get into their rooms at 3pm. It's not how Disney is spinning things, it's how the hotel industry spins it. Don't blame Disney for following industry standards.

I do agree that the CM handled it badly though, there's no doubt about that.

 

[TiggerCate]

I would agree! If I am told the check-in time is 3:00, to me that means the rooms will be ready at 3:00 (regardless of the "technicality"). I've even had a hotel or two let me check in early when I was there early. If they do not have enough time to get the rooms cleaned, they need to change their policies- whether hire more people or change check-in/check-out times.

 

[All Aboard]

I'm just saying that Disney is following the same procedures that every other hotel in North America follows.

Don't blame Disney for following industry standards.

See, this is where our opinions differ. Disney wasn't founded as a company that "follows industry standards."

 

[Killer Fish]

See, this is where our opinions differ. Disney wasn't founded as a company that "follows industry standards."

But they do follow the standards and it is reasonable. I do agree that the Cast member did not properly handle the situation. An apology should have been extended with the cast member offering something as simple as an amenity. Disney will follow industry standards because it is what they need to do to maximize profits. Disney oversells their rooms just like every other hotel chain in the industry. People have to get "walked" to other hotels because Disney is trying to maximize revenue. While Disney might not have been founded to follow industry standards they will do what is profitable.

 

[lark]

I'm sorry to see what I started.

It also occurs to me that this is one of those issues that involves a bunch of nonlawyers talking about something that is, at its bottom, a legal issue.

After goofing around on the internet for a while to look at the California inkeeper's statutes, it appears to me that this is a much more complicated issue than anyone here realizes. The reality appears to be that -- nothwithstanding any "industry standard" (whatever that means, lol) -- there is California law governing this and it is actually consumer friendly -- at least if a credit card was taken or a deposit paid. But just as it wasn't my original intention to blast disney or anything other than the one particular comment by the CM, it's not my intention to turn this into a legal thread. So I'm happy to just let it go, if you all are too!