Fully booked hotel - Tricks?

[trompettecon]

I have always dreamed of staying at the Poly but the only dates I can go are fully booked. Even if I do a split stay. Anyone have tricks to keep an eye on cancellations other than obsessively checking? Is there a site out there that does the same thing as ADR checking sites?

 

[iwannabdduck]

I'm in the same boat as you ... obsessively checking every day or so. Unfortunately I've never seen or heard of anything like what you are asking. Probably the closest thing that can help these days is a Disney-experienced travel agent.

I've come to the un-informed, and admittedly dubious suspicious that Disney is controlling room availability for reasons we may never know. Since they launched the 50th anniversary Oct 1st and raised resort room prices, Disney resort room UN-availability is more prevalent than anything I've ever experienced before trying to stay on site. They seem to have so many different room discounts going on right now (i.e.: pass holders, members of the military, Florida residents, their own web site Special Offers, and PIN codes) that I wonder if they are holding back and/or allocating rooms for all these various groups to whom they are marketing those special prices, and hiding them from view from everyone else. I tried using the special 20% offer PIN code I was recently sent only to see the most expensive Club Level rooms available at the GF I wanted, and zero availability at other times. But then when I click on the Special Offers link instead of the PIN code, different rooms magically become available that were unavailable seconds earlier. I even clean my browser's internet cache some days to do a fresh search so Disney can't monitor my search activity the way some hotel chains allegedly do. Results also vary by the dates selected for a stay. I don't know how effective any of that really is, but I still try it all. Its bad enough that this year's Special Offers prices are higher than last year's rack rates, but not finding a desired room at any price when you want it is equally frustrating.

With respect to the Poly, try searching the Poly DVC Villas on Disney's web site in addition to the main resort. I've noticed that once in a while a room or two are available there when none show at the main resort. I've seen the same phenomenon at Animal Kingdom and Boardwalk. Good luck. Don't forget ... all my advice and a $1.29 will still buy a small coffee at McDonald's.

 

[CindysMice]

Agree with PP. I will say I have had a positive experience just searching a lot on my own, but we are going next week when it’s supposed to be a “slow” period so maybe that’s why I got lucky? Not sure

DH and I decided last month we wanted to upgrade the last two nights of our trip to the Poly. Of course no standard rooms were showing up. I checked a few times a day for like a week and then one morning it was there.

People are canceling and moving hotels allll the time. I say keep checking!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Someone here clued me into openhotelalert.com and it worked for me looking for a Portofino room at UOR.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

There is a site that will check for hotel openings. I used it for Hard Rock at New Years. It worked, I got alerts and found a room.
But, I don't know if they work with the Disney hotels.

 

[iwannabdduck]

After my previous post, I checked to see what was available at the Poly on a random date in April. Once again it showed no availability. This time however the little notation in the middle of the page above the Room & Package buttons caught my. I took a screen shot for you. If you can read the small print, it states that there are indeed two offers that match the selected dates and resort. You need to sign in to MDE as a Florida Resident, Passholder, DVC member or member of the military to see the offers. I assume that means if you are not in one of these special groups, Disney has no room at this inn for you.

 

[princesscinderella]

Sometimes too I think Disney offers their rooms on third party booking sites like Expedia, Priceline, etc. try seeing if you can book at the Poly through them. Usually they have to set a block of rooms allotted to those sites in order to be included on there that are only booked through that site.

 

[WDW Traveler]

After my previous post, I checked to see what was available at the Poly on a random date in April. Once again it showed no availability. This time however the little notation in the middle of the page above the Room & Package buttons caught my. I took a screen shot for you. If you can read the small print, it states that there are indeed two offers that match the selected dates and resort. You need to sign in to MDE as a Florida Resident, Passholder, DVC member or member of the military to see the offers. I assume that means if you are not in one of these special groups, Disney has no room at this inn for you.

View attachment 640851

I believe the "2 Offers Match the Selected Travel Dates and Resorts" are #1 "Room Only" and #2 "Package with Tickets".

I think the FLA Residents, Passholder, DVC, Military are totally different things. I believe they tell you to log in if you have these things to see if there are discounts offered, not necessarily availability of rooms.

 

[cutigerlady]

I'm not sure what your dates are, but I've noticed the closer you get to within 30 days, the more inventory suddenly appears. I'm guessing lots of people are cancelling at the package final payment date as possible. I have the most luck looking later in the evening or right at 7:00 am EST.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

After my previous post, I checked to see what was available at the Poly on a random date in April. Once again it showed no availability. This time however the little notation in the middle of the page above the Room & Package buttons caught my. I took a screen shot for you. If you can read the small print, it states that there are indeed two offers that match the selected dates and resort. You need to sign in to MDE as a Florida Resident, Passholder, DVC member or member of the military to see the offers. I assume that means if you are not in one of these special groups, Disney has no room at this inn for you.

View attachment 640851

I can assure you that is not what they mean. Rooms are even harder to get using those discounts. the highest level of inventory is rack rate rooms. Number of available rooms go down from there

 

[trompettecon]

I'm in the same boat as you ... obsessively checking every day or so. Unfortunately I've never seen or heard of anything like what you are asking. Probably the closest thing that can help these days is a Disney-experienced travel agent.

I've come to the un-informed, and admittedly dubious suspicious that Disney is controlling room availability for reasons we may never know. Since they launched the 50th anniversary Oct 1st and raised resort room prices, Disney resort room UN-availability is more prevalent than anything I've ever experienced before trying to stay on site. They seem to have so many different room discounts going on right now (i.e.: pass holders, members of the military, Florida residents, their own web site Special Offers, and PIN codes) that I wonder if they are holding back and/or allocating rooms for all these various groups to whom they are marketing those special prices, and hiding them from view from everyone else. I tried using the special 20% offer PIN code I was recently sent only to see the most expensive Club Level rooms available at the GF I wanted, and zero availability at other times. But then when I click on the Special Offers link instead of the PIN code, different rooms magically become available that were unavailable seconds earlier. I even clean my browser's internet cache some days to do a fresh search so Disney can't monitor my search activity the way some hotel chains allegedly do. Results also vary by the dates selected for a stay. I don't know how effective any of that really is, but I still try it all. Its bad enough that this year's Special Offers prices are higher than last year's rack rates, but not finding a desired room at any price when you want it is equally frustrating.

With respect to the Poly, try searching the Poly DVC Villas on Disney's web site in addition to the main resort. I've noticed that once in a while a room or two are available there when none show at the main resort. I've seen the same phenomenon at Animal Kingdom and Boardwalk. Good luck. Don't forget ... all my advice and a $1.29 will still buy a small coffee at McDonald's.

I don't drink coffee but I'll take your advice! lol Tks!

 

[trompettecon]

Sometimes too I think Disney offers their rooms on third party booking sites like Expedia, Priceline, etc. try seeing if you can book at the Poly through them. Usually they have to set a block of rooms allotted to those sites in order to be included on there that are only booked through that site.

Nope. No offers at Disney = no offers on those sites. Been checking

 

[trompettecon]

There is a site that will check for hotel openings. I used it for Hard Rock at New Years. It worked, I got alerts and found a room.
But, I don't know if they work with the Disney hotels.

Is it this site: openhotelalert.com or another one? Unfortunately, that site does not check Disney hotels...

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Is it this site: openhotelalert.com or another one? Unfortunately, that site does not check Disney hotels...

I think so but not positive.
it doesn’t surprise me that it won’t check for Disney hotels. They don’t run their system like others do

i will say just keep checking. The closer to the trip the more likely you’ll find a room. I had nothing over Christmas for she’s then boom, tons of rooms dropped. Can’t remember how far out but it wasn’t much

 

[lmdean]

I'm not sure what your dates are, but I've noticed the closer you get to within 30 days, the more inventory suddenly appears. I'm guessing lots of people are cancelling at the package final payment date as possible. I have the most luck looking later in the evening or right at 7:00 am EST.

I agree with this. We had a WL nature/fireworks view room for 1/24-2/2 (not particularly hard to get), and I saw a WL CL room ONCE in December, and by the time I talked to the hubby about updrading, it was gone. Kept checking every day and got one on 1/5.

Of course, I know CL just recently opened back up at WL, so that was likely some of it, but I would see resports pop up with availablty that had no avilabailty the week before all the time while I was repeadtedly looking.

 

[iwannabdduck]

I'm not sure what your dates are, but I've noticed the closer you get to within 30 days, the more inventory suddenly appears.

Thank you for mentioning this.

Late this afternoon my wife and I took the plunge and successfully reserved a short stay at the Poly DVC (thru Disney directly) for the days and at the resort we truly wanted. I honestly do not know that the Great and Powerful Oz at Disney who controls room availability is doing to manipulate things but I will tell you how it worked for me this afternoon. On my 1st attempt I simply searched Disney's web site for the resort and dates in late April that I wanted & no availability showed up for any room at the Poly. When I checked the Special Offers link, nothing showed up once again. When I logged on using the special PIN code email I got last week from Disney Destinations ... and you guessed it: nothing showed up once more. Finally I logged onto to MDE with my normal logon and password. BINGO! A room suddenly showed as available for the very same dates and at the same resort my 3 previous attempts in the last 5 minutes failed to identify.

This is a special trip for us. Our very 1st trip to WDW with the kids 30 some plus years ago was at the Poly. This will be the only return visit since then where we have stayed at the Poly again. Its also a 50th wedding anniversary gift to ourselves this year and may possibly be our last trip to Disney given our age and desire to keep some money in the bank to pay to electric bill instead of giving it all to Bob whats his name. So we splurged, but nonetheless I'll check in again at the 30 day mark to see if any different room availability and/or cheaper rates magically appear again given your observation.

 

[JulieODC]

I also found that after weeks of no open rooms, there was a bunch that opened up about a month before our stay in mid-February (those have gradually dwindled, and availability comes and goes). I got POR, but would prefer FQ - no luck yet.

 

[focusondisney]

Disney resort room UN-availability is more prevalent than anything I've ever experienced before trying to stay on site. They seem to have so many different room discounts going on right now (i.e.: pass holders, members of the military, Florida residents, their own web site Special Offers, and PIN codes) that I wonder if they are holding back and/or allocating rooms for all these various groups to whom they are marketing those special prices, and hiding them from view from everyone else.

Why would Disney keep rooms away from people willing to pay full price & instead offer them at a discount to someone else?? Of course they don’t do that. There have been many discussions over the last 6-12 months about limited resort availability. It’s just how things have been since reopening.

 

[Sabine W.]

Keep checking, as often as you can stand to. I recently decided to extend our AKL stay, after getting the $100 offer rate for 2 nights when it first came out. Of course, it was fully booked. I must have logged in 100 times to check. And then, just last night, I got the room I wanted for our dates at the discounted price! I have also found that inventory improves early in the morning and late in the evening. Good luck!