Aggressive DVC Housekeeping Checkout Day

[SL6827]

I was alluding to the fact that Disney could be making money off our dues and obscuring it with the fact that housekeeping services is all under one umbrella. If they say, “well DVC is 10 percent of the rooms at this resort so we will take our housekeeping budget and assess them 10% in their dues”, but they really come in way under that due to short staffing, they are making money. Unless housekeeping is, in fact, two different divisions for resort vs DVC. We can’t get rid of Disney housekeepers and they don’t have a financial incentive to hire more.

This. I brought this up before as well. If you are paying housekeeping dues based on a full housekeeping crew, where is that extra money going to that they are not having to pay out?

 

[BeachClub2014]

I am not saying that you suggested it, but I just don't agree this is a problem that needs solving. Again, many of us have not had it happen, nor would be bothered with a knock asking us to share when we might be gone, especially when that results in some rooms getting started earlier, which means some owners getting in clean rooms earlier in the day.

Okay, we can agree to disagree on whether this annoying and unnecessary practice is a problem. Many of apparently do believe it to be so.

 

[BeachClub2014]

Workers are knocking on doors at 9am when they don't have anything else to do. Adding even more people to the 11-4 block, with some overlap before or after, means even more idle workers during the non-peak hours.

So maybe they should start at 11:00 if they have nothing to do at 9:00 and thus must disturb sleeping guests in order to find something to clean.

 

[Sandisw]

This. I brought this up before as well. If you are paying housekeeping dues based on a full housekeeping crew, where is that extra money going to that they are not having to pay out?

Owners have the right to look at the actual budget expenses by making and appointment and visiting the offices of DVC.

I just don’t agree they are going to do that with financial aspects as audits happen all the time.

The budget each year is an estimate for the following year and if actual costs are less, they are required to put it into the capital reserve funds.

In 2020c with the closure, DVC decided to give owners a refund instead..they didn’t need to do that. It could have simply followed things and put it into the capital reserves budget.

 

[New Mouse]

It's all about the occupancy level. At this point I can't tell if you're not understanding the difference or choosing to ignore it. But occupancy levels are THE critical difference between a hotel and timeshare.

Average hotel occupancy rate in the US is 65%. That means a 200-room hotel has--on average--70 rooms sitting vacant each night. This means 2 things:

- Each morning the hotel already has 70 rooms sitting empty, waiting for new arrivals
- There is little-to-no pressure to clean rooms that are being vacated because SEVENTY of them will not be needed that night for new arrivals

In the case of DVC, particularly resorts like Poly, VGF and Beach Club, every single room being vacated must be flipped by 4pm. It's a world of difference between how a hotel operates. Occupancy is EVERYTHING to this discussion.

Occupancy isn't relevant in this discussion. Pay enough to hire enough staff. Problem solved.

 

[SL6827]

Owners have the right to look at the actual budget expenses by making and appointment and visiting the offices of DVC.

I just don’t agree they are going to do that with financial aspects as audits happen all the time.

The budget each year is an estimate for the following year and if actual costs are less, they are required to put it into the capital reserve funds.

In 2020c with the closure, DVC decided to give owners a refund instead..they didn’t need to do that. It could have simply followed things and put it into the capital reserves budget.

Hopefully your right. And probably so. But with them unsuccessfully trying twice to cook the books with inflated point charts I won't put nothing past them.

 

[lowlight]

Hopefully you’re right. And probably so. But with them unsuccessfully trying twice to cook the books with inflated point charts I won't put nothing past them.

For things like room furnishings, it is pretty simple to see allocations and usage and keep resort and DVC separate. For housekeeping, which is shared between resort and DVC side, how is it delineated? Are there two separate job codes and management teams, or is housekeeping one unit which splits labor across both sides? If so, it’s very easy to take from one side and give to the other without leaving a paper trail. If Disney is down 20% housekeeping staff, are they obligated to refund us 20% or are they obligated to keep the DVC side fully staffed? Which has ever happened? Sure when the resorts closed they refunded dues because that’s an easy route to prevent lawsuits. They didn’t do it out of the goodness do their black coal hearts.

 

[71 Truck]

Occupancy isn't relevant in this discussion. Pay enough to hire enough staff. Problem solved.

The question is how much is enough, and remember we pay for it with our dues.
Right now on the Disney career sight they have listing for housekeepers with $1000.00 dollar bonuses.
The starting pay is $17.00 an hour and goes up from there the longer the person is employed. So the average housekeeper with several years of service is making over $40,000 thousand dollars a year plus benefits.

 

[lmbcdb]

I wake up grumpy. They start banging on my door early on checkout day, I'm going to leave a lot of work for them when they finally get in at 10:59.

Don't hesitate to email guest relations when you get home. We've had so many issues the last 2 years... But before that not so much.

Currently at Art of Animation. This is the second time here, and both times (so far, now I'm scared I said this) this has been the best housekeeping we've had. Wilderness Lodge being the worst.

We are staying at AoA in a few weeks. How often do they service the rooms? And what do they do? We visited back in October of 2020 and received absolutely no service while we were there. (yes, height of Covid, but it was our 20th anniversary, and that's what we wanted to do!)

 

[New Mouse]

The question is how much is enough, and remember we pay for it with our dues.
Right now on the Disney career sight they have listing for housekeepers with $1000.00 dollar bonuses.
The starting pay is $17.00 an hour and goes up from there the longer the person is employed. So the average housekeeper with several years of service is making over $40,000 thousand dollars a year plus benefits.

Starting salary is $35k. Annual raises are 3%. It would take 6 years of employment to reach $40k. Most are not employed for 6 years as $40k is not a living wage for a family of 4 In that area so your turnover rate will be huge.

DVC members could be willing to pay for more staffing, but Disney would never allow DVC recruitment to outpace the normal resort recruitment and staffing. At the end of the day Disney does not have the memberships best interest at heart really when it comes to anything, so in this case I don't think it even matters whether members would be willing to pay more.

 

[71 Truck]

Starting salary is $35k. Annual raises are 3%. It would take 6 years of employment to reach $40k. Most are not employed for 6 years as $40k is not a living wage for a family of 4 In that area so your turnover rate will be huge.

DVC members could be willing to pay for more staffing, but Disney would never allow DVC recruitment to outpace the normal resort recruitment and staffing. At the end of the day Disney does not have the memberships best interest at heart really when it comes to anything, so in this case I don't think it even matters whether members would be willing to pay more.

I see your point however not everyone is a family of four.

With two people working lets say housekeeping, that's $70,000 to $80,000 thousand dollars a year plus benefits. That's pretty good money for a job that is important however requires no detailed technical skills. By the way these are what the unions negotiate and the cast have to vote on it to approve it.

When I lived in New Jersey many years ago both my wife and I worked. We both worked a full time job each and at a minimum an additional 20 hours a week at a part time job. That's what we had to do to live in New Jersey.
Disney Cast members do not need to find a part time job because they can pick up over time at time and a half right on property.

A a DVC member I think I already pay enough in membership fees. My wife and I have owned for coming up on 26 years. I remember when our dues were less than $900 dollars a year now they have way more than doubled.

I do not post this much, however back in the late 90s I worked at Disney World. Back then starting pay for most basic jobs was $6.10 an hour. In 20 years it has tripled or more in some cases, have the guest experience triple?

I will say what I said before, bring back the do not disturb sign, problem solved.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

This may be an unpopular view but not all jobs are meant to support a family of 4. If someone earns $35k/year with one 40 hour/week job they will probably need to work a second job, or have a partner to make life more comfortable. $70k for a family of 4 (2 people working) is pretty good. Even one $35k plus a other $15k working a second job isn’t terrible in a lower cost area like Florida.

When I first started working 60 hours/week was the MINIMUM expected, and I did a fairly rigorous licensing exam series and then my MBA in only 2 years on top of it.

My point is that life is all about trade offs, and while housekeeping is an honest profession it is never going to pay a ton, so if life leads someone there s/he is probably going to have to do something else as well to live the life they want.

 

[Sandisw]

Starting salary is $35k. Annual raises are 3%. It would take 6 years of employment to reach $40k. Most are not employed for 6 years as $40k is not a living wage for a family of 4 In that area so your turnover rate will be huge.

DVC members could be willing to pay for more staffing, but Disney would never allow DVC recruitment to outpace the normal resort recruitment and staffing. At the end of the day Disney does not have the memberships best interest at heart really when it comes to anything, so in this case I don't think it even matters whether members would be willing to pay more.

For me, there is a big difference in having to pay more for housekeepers to guarantee rooms are done and ready by 4 pm for all stays vs paying more because housekeepers can’t knock on someone’s door before 11 am to see if someone has left or will be leaving soon.

So no, I’m not willing to pay more to avoid the occasional knock, regardless of whether Disney would do it or not.

 

[Jwaire]

So maybe they should start at 11:00 if they have nothing to do at 9:00 and thus must disturb sleeping guests in order to find something to clean.

I have a few ideas at the Polynesian and Contemporary if they're interested. Pretty sure there's still dust bunnies on the alcoves at the monorail station at the Contemporary from the 90's. Not sure how hard it is to vacuum and mop a tile floor.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I have a few ideas at the Polynesian and Contemporary if they're interested. Pretty sure there's still dust bunnies on the alcoves at the monorail station at the Contemporary from the 90's. Not sure how hard it is to vacuum and mop a tile floor.

I think the same thing every time I go through there.

 

[Skywalker3]

couple dozen DVC stays, snd only twice have we been bothered by housekeeping before 11 on checkout day. Both times at BLT, both were phones calls, and then one was knocking twice and calling again after wed said we’d be out by 11.This was 8-9 years ago tho .
We used to rope drop every morning, and the only day we ever slept in was checkout day, so we do not appreciate being bothered before 11. Luckily hasn’t happened again .

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Starting salary is $35k. Annual raises are 3%. It would take 6 years of employment to reach $40k. Most are not employed for 6 years as $40k is not a living wage for a family of 4 In that area so your turnover rate will be huge.

DVC members could be willing to pay for more staffing, but Disney would never allow DVC recruitment to outpace the normal resort recruitment and staffing. At the end of the day Disney does not have the memberships best interest at heart really when it comes to anything, so in this case I don't think it even matters whether members would be willing to pay more.

In most cases a family of 4 is probably not being supported only by one wage earner holding a housekeeping position at Disney.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I suppose I'd be an outlier to some because hotel or timeshare nor price matters to me, I wouldn't appreciate it and would be bothered by being interrupted prior to checkout time. If I'm needed to be out earlier because turnover needs to happen earlier I'm fine with making the checkout time earlier. But I'm adhering to the checkout time and I'd like that to be reciprocated.

No lock by the way is going to absolve the actual interruption so while a good tip for safety and privacy it's not pertaining to the actual interruption part.

 

[Mai Ku Tiki]

Not Disney, the Unions.

Yes. In agreements contracted with Disney. TWDC always has the option to determine responsiblities with roles. Most companies categorize employee resposibilities, whether union or not.
But that's not the issue. Unless people think Mousekeepers should violate their contracted roles, it's up to TWDC.

 

[Mai Ku Tiki]

The problem is that Disney across the property is short staffed on housekeepers. The sooner they can get the rooms cleaned the sooner guest can get to their rooms who are checking in.
A few weeks ago my wife and I were delayed till after 4pm getting our assigned room because it was still not cleaned. The front desk moved us to another room that was ready.

Disney used to assign a certain number of rooms to a housekeeper. If they got all their room cleaned before the end of their shift they could leave with a full days pay or they could stay and help other get room cleaned for additional money. I am not sure if this is still the case, it may have changed.
These may be rules set by the union
This may be the reason housekeeper are trying to start so early.

Easy solution, go back to the do not disturb sign.