Advanced room assignments are a real thing now at SSR!

[Anal Annie]

Our next reservation starts next Friday and today I got an email from someone in "Operations Support" asking if we had any room requests among any of the 3 std view sections!! It said I could respond to the email OR call and it gave a number. I DID have room requests (actually a very specific roon number) so I called and the guy who sent the email answered. He said this is something only being done at SSR and it's only been for about a year. There are only 4 people doing it so with the size of SSR it doesn't go out to EVERY guest.

ANYWAY, I told him the villa number we'd like to have and he said it was already assigned - but to someone he spoke to yesterday who comes in the day before us and who had simply asked for that same bldg on the 1st floor so he was able to just move them 2 doors down and then give us our request!!! I was so happy! We never get our room requests! And I had never heard of this procedure happening before! He also told me to keep his number and that I could call him again 1 week before our next stay in January!!!

 

[adisneyaunt]

Lucky you! That's awesome. We ve been very lucky of late, being UPgraded ... talk about pixie dust,
Have a great visit!

 

[DVCRSheridan]

Whoa! That's awesome to hear!

 

[pangyal]

This is really neat. I wonder if they will eventually expand it to other resorts.

Congratulations on your pre-trip successes !

 

[jo-jo]

But I thought they kept your room number secret, so you're not sitting out in the hallway waiting for the former guests to leave????

I'm still waiting to be one of those people who get a room ready text before they get on the plane. We have never gone right to the room. We gone to late breakfast or lunch, to lobby, to pool side and then room, but that's not quite the same.

 

[Anal Annie]

But I thought they kept your room number secret, so you're not sitting out in the hallway waiting for the former guests to leave????

I'm still waiting to be one of those people who get a room ready text before they get on the plane. We have never gone right to the room. We gone to late breakfast or lunch, to lobby, to pool side and then room, but that's not quite the same.

Our rooms are never ready either - I always just plan on heading directly to a park upon arrival and storing our stuff with Bell Services if we've flown... Just because the guy said he could grant us the villa # doesn't mean it will be ready whenever we roll in. I would think that odds of rooms being ready early would happen in less busy times of the year when they're not fully booked up.

RE: keeping a room # a secret - he would not have told me the villa # if I had not asked for a certain room number. Who on earth would go sit in front of someone else's room anyway? Geeze Louise, what nerve that would take!

 

[Anal Annie]

Lucky you! That's awesome. We ve been very lucky of late, being UPgraded ... talk about pixie dust,
Have a great visit!

Whoa! That's awesome to hear!

This is really neat. I wonder if they will eventually expand it to other resorts.

Congratulations on your pre-trip successes !

THANKS!! I had never heard of them doing this before so I was totally thrilled!!

 

[jo-jo]

Our rooms are never ready either - I always just plan on heading directly to a park upon arrival and storing our stuff with Bell Services if we've flown... Just because the guy said he could grant us the villa # doesn't mean it will be ready whenever we roll in. I would think that odds of rooms being ready early would happen in less busy times of the year when they're not fully booked up.

RE: keeping a room # a secret - he would not have told me the villa # if I had not asked for a certain room number. Who on earth would go sit in front of someone else's room anyway? Geeze Louise, what nerve that would take!

We usually don't head right to park, DH usually wants a chance to rest a bit.

I'm sure there are some who would. You know the faster they leave, the faster it gets cleaned......

 

[bobbiwoz]

Gee, I was talking to a Member Satisfaction Team member yesterday, and she asked if I had any requests for our upcoming SSR stay. I told her it was the first time I have stayed at SSR since there was a standard designation and we have never stayed in Grandstand, but that is what we requested.

 

[Anal Annie]

Gee, I was talking to a Member Satisfaction Team member yesterday, and she asked if I had any requests for our upcoming SSR stay. I told her it was the first time I have stayed at SSR since there was a standard designation and we have never stayed in Grandstand, but that is what we requested.

Grandstand is our other fav. section to be in...especially in one of the bldgs by the pool. First bus stop so 1st on, 1st off!

 

[jo-jo]

The concept is good. Something
more than just checking a few boxes.

Last trip at Kidani, we had checked close to lobby, close to elevator and lower floor.......We got halfway down the bow, fourth floor and next to the pool. For a savanna view, worst room ever. If this had been our first trip to Kidani, we would never return.

To be able to voice what you are seeking is so much better.

 

[Dean]

This is more the way every other timeshare systems I' own with do things. They put real effort into the wait list and try to make everyone happy as much as possible, usually with a priority order. At one time DVC did so as well as a system. I've been corresponding with one of the resorts I own at for an upcoming vacation where we'll have seven 2 BR villas. I got an automated email which I responded to, then a return email and I've gotten 2 additional emails from that same person. This is exactly how it worked the last time we stayed at this location and near the end it was the front desk manager I was corresponding with since we had a fairly complicated situation (7 villas, some owned directly and some exchange with 2 different view types and different start days).

While our situation is a little complicated, ultimately we're a relatively easy assignment partly because I understand the intricacies of what's reasonable and appropriate. But they stick to their process so I'll explain it a little more for those that might have interest, if not, this is a good time to quit reading. 7 villas of which 6 are owned and one is an internal exchange using Marriott Destination Points (their timeshare points system), 4 are Ocean Front, 3 Ocean Side with 4 Saturday and 3 Sunday start days (all 7 nights). This is one of the busiest weeks of the year at the resort. They have 10 buildings of which 2 are OF only, 6 are OS only and 2 have OF and OS both. They actively work requests and use a formal priority in the order of owner using owned weeks, cash guests, Marriott exchangers then non Marriott exchangers with those have multiple concurrent or consecutive weeks taking priority within each category. Thus only 2 buildings will work. Our requests are to be all in the same building, best view possible and as close together as possible. In reality that will almost certainly mean 6 villas over 2 floors on the 3rd, 4th or 5th floor and one villa one floor 1 or 2. That villa will be likely separated because doing otherwise would violate their prioritization rules. Someone else might be upset it's 2 or 3 floors away or even if it were in the next building, not us, we'll be thrilled and I'm convinced they'll do their best even if it doesn't work out exactly how I would prefer it.

 

[jimmytammy]

The concept is good. Something
more than just checking a few boxes.

Last trip at Kidani, we had checked close to lobby, close to elevator and lower floor.......We got halfway down the bow, fourth floor and next to the pool. For a savanna view, worst room ever. If this had been our first trip to Kidani, we would never return.

To be able to voice what you are seeking is so much better.

Same for us at Kidani in May. Our 1st stay a few yrs ago got us about as far as you can go from the lobby. So for May, my 2 specific requests were this, near community hall(very close to lobby, I was told to ask this way, not near lobby), 2nd request, high floor. Here is what we got, 2/3rds of the way down the long hall (haul ), 2nd floor, both requests, shot down. And we arrived at 11am, was told this was all that was available, and probably the only thing that would open up for the day. We were kind and accepting about it. In the end result, the 2nd floor was actually very good as we could see the far off animals very well without obstruction of high tops of trees. The haul wasn't as long as it was previous. The CM at front desk was really selling it too! I am on vacation, no sense in making a scene or getting bent out of shape, but its still disappointing when you can't get at minimum one request even close to what you ask for. Oh well!

 

[Anal Annie]

The concept is good. Something
more than just checking a few boxes.

Last trip at Kidani, we had checked close to lobby, close to elevator and lower floor.......We got halfway down the bow, fourth floor and next to the pool. For a savanna view, worst room ever. If this had been our first trip to Kidani, we would never return.

To be able to voice what you are seeking is so much better.

Yeah - I was tickled to death! He said he didn't know if this system would eventually get expanded to other resorts or not. Maybe SSR is so complicated with having 5 sections AND std & preferred views now?!