Wheelchairs at WDW resorts

[harryk]

So how did Disney control the complimentary wheelchairs ?

They were charged to whoever 'paid' for the room, i.e. they had your credit card number usually and you signed for the chair when you picked it up. They had full control as to who had the chair, and you were permitted to take them into the parks. Therefore, if you failed to return it, you were charged for it.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

They were charged to whoever 'paid' for the room, i.e. they had your credit card number usually and you signed for the chair when you picked it up. They had full control as to who had the chair, and you were permitted to take them into the parks. Therefore, if you failed to return it, you were charged for it.

@thomas998 - So that would be the way to control them if they were rented then, wouldn't it ??

 

[rob0519]

We got a "complimentary" wheel chair for my son once at the CR. I signed a contract that said if I lost, store or damaged the wheelchair, my credit card would be charged $450 for the chair. I'm not sure if it said I would have to pay for any necessary repairs or not, but it would not surprise me if it did.

To take the "if you know you're going to need a wheel chair bring your own" analogy a bit farther to satisfy the greed of the shareholders,
If you know you're going to eat, bring your own utensils. Huge savings to shareholders.
If you know you're going to shop, bring your own bags and packing materials. Huge savings to shareholders.
If you know you're going to shower, bring your own towels. Huge savings to shareholders.

This could go on forever. If WDW wanted to stop complimentary wheelchairs at resorts for whatever reason, fine. It's their policy, but to blame it on something as trivial as probably a five figure cost of maintenance is a little silly.

 

[Mystic]

The point of the courtesy chairs was to get you from point a to point b in the resort. I've seen soooo many guests in the parks with chairs that have the hotel name on the back of them because they don't want to pay to rent. This takes these chairs out of circulation for other guests who need them at the resorts. Blame the actions of a few for the fact that everyone now has to pay to rent a wheelchair, even for the resorts.

 

[thomas998]

B#ll#cks. You're talking about a handful of wheelchairs across the parks and resorts....

You missed my point completely. Sure it might be a drop in the bucket to do this... but then what about the next curtesy you do and the next and the next... those drops add up and at some point they do matter... You can go down the road of doing those things until it is a problem or you can be more proactive and just don't start doing them at all to begin with.

 

[thomas998]

How about people that use them find out they're complimentary at WDW/DL? And that information plays a role in their visiting the parks, where their spending more than offsets the ever-so-drastic wheelchair costs....

Of course the counter argument is that dead down Disney doesn't like catering to the handicapped guests as it forces them to provide special parking, special bathrooms, stop rides to let them on and off... all sorts of things that cost them money or slow down their ability to move people... And if that is the case why would they do anything to encourage more of the guests that they really don't want in the first place. It isn't like Disney is desperate for visitors, and when you aren't desperate you have every reason to be more selective in who you target as a visitor.

 

[wm49rs]

You missed my point completely. Sure it might be a drop in the bucket to do this... but then what about the next curtesy you do and the next and the next... those drops add up and at some point they do matter... You can go down the road of doing those things until it is a problem or you can be more proactive and just don't start doing them at all to begin with.

I didn't miss anything. But TWDC has no issues reducing the number of complimentary things it offers, while incessantly crowing each quarter about its record profits. They can afford one that they're already offering without the slippery slope argument coming into play....

 

[DisneyJoe]

The point of the courtesy chairs was to get you from point a to point b in the resort. I've seen soooo many guests in the parks with chairs that have the hotel name on the back of them because they don't want to pay to rent. This takes these chairs out of circulation for other guests who need them at the resorts. Blame the actions of a few for the fact that everyone now has to pay to rent a wheelchair, even for the resorts.

Precisely.

 

[ABQ]

The point of the courtesy chairs was to get you from point a to point b in the resort. I've seen soooo many guests in the parks with chairs that have the hotel name on the back of them because they don't want to pay to rent. This takes these chairs out of circulation for other guests who need them at the resorts. Blame the actions of a few for the fact that everyone now has to pay to rent a wheelchair, even for the resorts.

Precisely.

I know you seem so sure of this, but in my experience I was personally told by bell services 2 years ago that I could and should feel free to take the wheelchair from the resort to the parks. There was absolutely no inference, hint, instruction or direction that the wheelchair was for use within the resort from point A to point B whatsoever. We used it for a week and returned it in good order back to bell services.

 

[flynnibus]

No, perhaps they wouldn't. But for every one chair that Disney buys, it has to maintain it, and buy spare parts for it

Yeah, just like the lights, the walkways, the utencils, the telephones, the TVs, etc. There are services high end properties offer (like complementary toliletries) that are part of a hotel experience... not necessarily line item services that must be shopped when choosing a property. There is a reason they called it 'COURTESY' - not RENTALS.

and by getting rid then they save quite a chunk of money

And that's pretty much it and the real reasons -- It's yet another example of Disney trimming services and perks to drive margins. Disney was already huge in the wheelchair 'business' because of the parks. That's economies of scale that work in their favor. The fact Disney offers services at the parks, but you can't take them OUT of the parks, and not having a matching service at the resorts leaves a big hole.

It cost Disney in the past too... but they did it because they valued customer service and experience. Now, they value the margins more than that.

 

[flynnibus]

Perhaps they can afford it - but when you're answering to shareholders who are driven by greed and a return on their investment, then costs need to be kept to an absolute minimum

can anyone else believe they are reading this 'justification' on a board about a company and properties built by a company named Disney?

 

[flynnibus]

And what financial return do you get on complimentary wheelchairs ?

What financial return do you get on a Mickey Mouse recorded phone call to your kids?
What financial return do you get on a bell hop?
What financial return do you get a themed queue vs an empty one?
What financial return do you get on putting plants instead of plastic plants in your lobby?
What financial return do you get on toparies around the property?
What financial return do you get on developing a property in a way intended to trial and push new construction methods?

What company sets out in the hospitality business with the company vision and market strategy of 'financial return' as the most significant factors??

 

[flynnibus]

You missed my point completely. Sure it might be a drop in the bucket to do this... but then what about the next curtesy you do and the next and the next... those drops add up and at some point they do matter

That would be true.. if we were ADDING things.. but we're talking about things Disney did for ages... VERY PROFITABLY...

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

What company sets out in the hospitality business with the company vision and market strategy of 'financial return' as the most significant factors??

Which businesses set a market strategy of putting financial returns last i.e. planning to make a loss ?

 

[flynnibus]

Which businesses set a market strategy of putting financial returns last i.e. planning to make a loss ?

I said nothing of the sort. There's a huge difference between spending money to support your product strategy in a way that advances that mission... vs making all decisions based on fiscal return alone. You keep advocating the latter.. and besides Walmart... almost no one wins by ensuring lowest cost as their driving factor.

 

[POLY LOVER]

I have seen many wheel chairs left in the parking lots at the end of the day are we sure they don't have courtesy chairs because I needed one once when I got sick and was able to get it to leave the park. If I remember right it said courtesy on it? Maybe we are fighting about nothing,

 

[POLY LOVER]

is there anything that doesn't eventually breakout into a fight of these boards?

 

[thomas998]

That would be true.. if we were ADDING things.. but we're talking about things Disney did for ages... VERY PROFITABLY...

absolutely true... But at some point the low hanging fruit like raising ticket prices or room rates hits a wall and they start looking at lowering costs... When that happens things that used to be handed out for free will be eliminated to save costs... Which explains why they eliminated the free wheelchairs. I'm not a historian but I wouldn't be surprised if they used to provide wheelchairs at the park for free at one point before finally deciding to rent them... The fact that they decided to eliminate it vs going to rental in the hotels just means they didn't see it being profitable or even breakeven at the hotels, so it got axed.

 

[thomas998]

I didn't miss anything. But TWDC has no issues reducing the number of complimentary things it offers, while incessantly crowing each quarter about its record profits. They can afford one that they're already offering without the slippery slope argument coming into play....

I assume you work... If you do would you turn down a raise at work? If you were offered 10,000 more a year would you say on no.. just give me 1,000 instead? Simply because they made record profits in any given years doesn't mean they should suddenly stop trying to maximize profits like every other company and person does... Shareholders don't buy shares of Disney to get a return below the maximum possible that makes no sense.

 

[wm49rs]

I assume you work... If you do would you turn down a raise at work? If you were offered 10,000 more a year would you say on no.. just give me 1,000 instead? Simply because they made record profits in any given years doesn't mean they should suddenly stop trying to maximize profits like every other company and person does... Shareholders don't buy shares of Disney to get a return below the maximum possible that makes no sense.

Again, it's wheelchairs. And again, it's a practice they've employed for literally decades now. Maintaining or even improving on this practice certainly won't kill the dividends each quarter, or even minutely impact them. And who knows, maybe the fact they haven't monetized the wheelchairs will actually bring another family or two in, more than offsetting any costs associated with taking care of a few wheelchairs. TWDC won't miss the outlay, and even if they did, I've little doubt they'd find a way to more than make up for the cost....