My point was that people who are owners at a resort have a vested interest in how it is maintained and how that affects the MF and other decisions made for that property. It seems to me, that those who come that do not own weeks at any property and only have Destination Points, are not as vested in the property and possibly do not have an understanding of property standards.How would you judge me if I own at the resort, but am staying via points outside of my season. Am I then likely to bring half of my towels back to the room and leave half on my chair?
So, are you saying that points users are too stupid to be able to understand the property standards, or are you saying they likely have the aptitude to understand, but unfortunately were never educated in what the standards actually are.
I just thought this was standard - most resorts I've been to provide towels in the room. TBH, I think we just plan to bring towels from the room. Though I also can't really fathom needing a bunch of towels anyway. I have never seen anyone touch someone elses pool stuff, but also usually when I've gone there's very few people near the pool or hot tub. The only reason I could imagine doing so is around chair hogging TBH.
I think some deeded owners also believe they are entitled to do certain things, like leave towels just laying on chairs, because they are the ones paying the fees.
Yeah, the broad generalizations of one type of people are all good, and one type are all bad, crack me up.
People take them all the time. Some resorts charge if not returned or accounted for. I hope it doesn't come to that but if enough people steal them, it's an issue and charging for uncounted for towels might be needed. In addition, when they launder the pool towels, most resorts launder them separately and differently. DVC has said in the past it costs them more to launder pool towels than regular towels. Juust taking towels back to the room would raise costs in this situation as well as increasing the needed inventory with additional costs as well.
I wonder what the cost to the association is for a lost/stolen towel. These towels can't cost all that much when bought in bulk. What is the number of towels that go missing every year? I am sure some towels blow in the pond or get thrown in trash cans. Not necessarily just taken by guests.
I can't say but it must be enough to matter since many resorts exert efforts to reduce losses which may include charging for non accounted for towels, having machines with card access implying they may charge them to the room if not returned or paying personnel to hand them out. I can't think of a MVC resort where I've heard of charges but I've seen others. If the losses were negligible in terms of $$$ I would think they wouldn't worry about it at all. If they're in the room they know how many are supposed to be there and they could charge it there were unaccounted for items.
I sure hope they don't count the ones in the room after checkout. Otherwise I am on the hook for two towels that were recently stole from us pool side. I think if they were to start charging for them, they would run into a lot more disputes and upset guests. People would just claim they didn't take them, they returned them or whatever and the resort would just remove the charge.
I think they'd need to insert RFIDs into the towels somewhere. This actually is something they could probably get done cheaply in an edge area if they have a huge custom order. Maybe it wouldn't survive being washed though, I'm not sure. They could also uniquely label each towel with a qr code or something, and then they could actually be tracked who signed out the towel, or was assigned to what room. I don't know how much that'd realistically cost, but I think at point of order, if the order is large enough, it probably wouldn't be that much.
The Towel Tracker system that is used at several of the resorts we've been to do claim to use RFID. "Towel Tracker" is the company. You can look up the product they offer on their website.
www.toweltracker.com
There are resorts that use towel dispensers and say they have added RFID tags to the towels. You have to use your room key to get access to the towels. However, none of the ones I've seen either restrict the number of towels you can pull out or have a sufficient tracking system to track the used ones that are deposited. DVC got fairly aggressive with this a number of years ago. They weren't necessarily targeting those who stole the towels, they are actually strongly discouraging just taking the towels back to the room. The reason is that people would just grab a stack of clean towels and take them back to their room. I suspect most were just using them. DVC charges for extra towels.
MVC also makes 10% of the cost of every one of these tens of thousands machines.
The machines were supposed to save the association money. The towel folding machine too. Buying these didn't stop maintenance fees from going up.
A very reasonable rant- the audacity of touching someone’s mobility scooter is appalling!Has anyone else run into this problem? We especially notice it at resorts that ration pool towels by providing them in your room and either not providing exchange or making exchange a cumbersome process. This has happened twice to us in the past four resort visits. One of those resorts just has Towel Trackers (I love these now) and the other resort we didn't swim. So two for two really on having towels swiped from our pool chairs (kinda).
We mostly go to the pool only for a couple hours and spend much of the time in the pool. My wife uses a powered mobility device that we just park somewhere. Perhaps under an umbrella or off to the side as we don't usually need a lounger to lay on. At the last resort, Crystal Shores, we just left our folded towels sitting on her mobility device. Seems reasonable. We got into the Upper Cascades Pool, but the deeper end is at the opposite end of the pool from where our towels were. So we were away from our "spot" while in the pool. From the distance I can see someone pilfering through our towels. I try to hurry up there, wading as fast as I can through the resistance of the water. I get up there just as they are trying to leave and I call them out. Asking why they took our towels. They didn't have much of an explanation except to try and claim they thought it was the resorts towels. How The-F (was my thought, I didn't use profanity at the pool) is my wife's mobility scooter the resorts towel exchange. I guess they used all their towels and needed more. I didn't end up getting out of the pool at the time as they returned the towel they stole (I thought) and took back the wet one they threw on top of our other towels.
When we did get out of the pool about 15 minutes later, we were short one towel and there was a wet one left there that was rolled up to look like it was untouched. Something similar happened at Oceana Palms (the other resort we had this issue at). Though I didn't see the person that took the towels and they didn't leave their wet ones behind. I had something similar happen at Shadow Ridge several years ago where I went by myself to the pool and left two clean towels on a lounger while I was in the pool. The people down from where I had put the towels decided to help themselves.
This is a reason why I now don't like, and never really liked, rationed towels in the room. When you don't give people a vialble way to exchange their wet towels poolside, they take matters into their own hands. Crystal Shores says you can exchange pool towels between 4pm and 6pm at the activities room. Perhaps in peak times of the year they still have pool side exchange as I remember them having that in the past at the Lower Cascades Pool.
We are at Ocean Pointe now and I see they now have pool towels just in the room. I recall a towel exchange years ago but that must be gone. The card they left beside the towels on the bed just say to not leave them at the pool. No explaination on what to do with them when wet. My plan would be to wash them in the in room laundry (or one of the shared laundry if in a studio), but I know many people don't think of that or do that. They expect a way to swap them out for clean towels. The card just says to call at your service if you have questions. The resorts need to provide better direction on what people should so, swap them, exchange them, steal other people's towels. Something.
Okay, rant over
You’d be better off taking a cheap grocery store bag that zips up. One of those lightly insulated ones that are suppose to keep refrigerated food cold.
In my opinion, I wouldn't consider taking eight towels for two people and actually using them and returning them as being a jerk. If you are a party of 6+ people who take 4 per person and put them on lounge chairs, only use those chairs for 2 hours of the six hours they are there, and then leave them there when you leave, then you are a jerk. The problem at resorts like Canyon Villas is that the towel dispensers contain a limited number of towels, so they can run out quickly if people take more than their fair share. Common sense and courtesy would make things better for all guests. I think Crystal Shores has the right idea in providing two per person occupancy in the villa, and providing an easy exchange location for those who don't want to wash them in their villas. As an owner, I think this helps to minimize costs. Beach resorts have a greater problem because people leave the towels on the beach covered with sand. I'm sure these aren't easy to launder.
The real problem are those darn Encore people and renters from Marriott. No skin in the game!
It’s nearly 20 years old and has gone on every family vacation and local trips too. No one has stollen it obviously- even when new. And of course we don’t put anything valuable/ irreplaceable in it- Diet Coke and chapstick.
I'm not sure if this is tongue in cheek but in case it isn't, I don't agree. I've seen no evidence and had no feedback from any GM I've asked (2 or 3) or any front desk (asked there probably 5 or 6 times) that supports the idea that owner, renter, etc makes any difference on treatment of the resort. The only group that anyone has ever been mentioned as standing out in this regard is a spring break type of crowd. Granted these discussions have been centered more around damages to a unit but I think we can reasonably extrapolate. Even for owners, the villas are essentially a rental car. I think it'd only make a difference for a fixed unit situation but other than that I do not believe it makes any difference at all. I think most people are reasonable and honest overall but some aren't and I believe it's the character not the ownership that makes a difference. If anything, owners sometimes seem entitled more than others, especially those that have owned for a longer period of time.