Reservation Walking Poll

[DebbieB]

Years ago I started a thread about how people were either walking reservations or the online reservation system wasn't really showing true availability - much like today with the Poly studios; I have a hard time believing 360 studios are booked within 30 seconds. I mentioned how I might have to do it too, but didn't want to. I remember some people accusing me of doing a "walk", but I never did. I know it's perfectly legal, but I really do wish they would end it. Especially when it seems like some of the "walks" are for spec renting.

All 360 are not declared, 50% I believe. Was that at 11 months or 7 months? 7 months from now is Christmas, easy to believe they were already gone. It would be hard to believe at 11 months, since that is late April.

Edit - no nights are sold out in April (11 months) according to the availability tool.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

All 360 are not declared, 50% I believe. Was that at 11 months or 7 months? 7 months from now is Christmas, easy to believe they were already gone. It would be hard to believe at 11 months, since that is late April.

Edit - no nights are sold out in April (11 months) according to the availability tool.

I think it might even be only be 40% declared, and that would include some bungalows, not all would be allocated towards studios. Also @rlduvall it's not all of the declared the studios that would be available each day at 7 months. There are owners there who would book in the home priority window. And then people who actually are starting a stay before you. I booked Poly for next Oct and there was availability for more than an hour. Considering that almost everything else was booked I can imagine there was lots of interest in those rooms.

 

[com_op_2000]

I have only walked one reservation. That was just this month for a stay at PVB the 2nd week of Dec.
I did mine differently that everyone else, I booked a week from the end date of my reservation, then cancelled off the days on the front end until I got DW's annual birthday getaway that we have taken the 2nd week of Dec every year since '93.

 

[kristenrice]

When DH and I were planning on running the W&D 1/2 Marathon in 2013, the only way we could go is if we stayed on our DVC points (since our "lodging" budget was used up on the race entries). We only had a small amount to use so a VALUE studio at AKV was our ONLY option. If we couldn't get it, we couldn't go. It was a 5-day reservation (Th-Tu) so I booked Tu-Tu and then dropped the first two days. It worked out great and we got the room, but I don't plan on doing it again. Like I said, this was the only option we were willing to accept.

 

[jeepnjudy]

When DH and I were planning on running the W&D 1/2 Marathon in 2013, the only way we could go is if we stayed on our DVC points (since our "lodging" budget was used up on the race entries). We only had a small amount to use so a VALUE studio at AKV was our ONLY option. If we couldn't get it, we couldn't go. It was a 5-day reservation (Th-Tu) so I booked Tu-Tu and then dropped the first two days. It worked out great and we got the room, but I don't plan on doing it again. Like I said, this was the only option we were willing to accept.

This makes sense as you were booking for an odd day of the week and most people seem to come in on a Fri, Sat, or Sun. There seem to be other cases where walking is necessary to get what you want such as high demand times and if you need a room that is difficult to get such as the studios at VGF.

 

[nalajms]

There seem to be other cases where walking is necessary to get what you want such as high demand times and if you need a room that is difficult to get such as the studios at VGF.

After being shut out of MKL weekend in 2014, I walked for 2015 and 2016 for a VGF standard studio.

Tried to walk AKV Club studio 2 weeks ago, but never got the chance to even start! Then someone posted on the boards and I immediate went online and was able book a few nights Thank you to the walker who canceled those nights and allowed me to finally get a reservation.

We used to travel the weekend before Thanksgiving through first week of December, but we would stay with family for 3 nights around Thanksgiving. I would book all those nights at 11m and then cancel 3n for Thanksgiving later just so we'd be guaranteed a room for the first week of Dec.

 

[rlduvall]

All 360 are not declared, 50% I believe. Was that at 11 months or 7 months? 7 months from now is Christmas, easy to believe they were already gone. It would be hard to believe at 11 months, since that is late April.

Edit - no nights are sold out in April (11 months) according to the availability tool.

Sorry - I should have clarified; 7 month window . . . since it opened to all. I was looking at the notorious 1st week in December and thought about walking it in mid-November. Never was able to even get it started. Again, I don't want to do it, have never done it and wish they would stop allowing it.

 

[DebbieB]

Sorry - I should have clarified; 7 month window . . . since it opened to all. I was looking at the notorious 1st week in December and thought about walking it in mid-November. Never was able to even get it started. Again, I don't want to do it, have never done it and wish they would stop allowing it.

Walking is difficult at 7 months because you can always run into a night that is unavailable and you are stuck. I'm not convinced that you didn't get this reservation due to walking. Early December is very popular, most likely snapped up by new Poly owners.

 

[rlduvall]

Walking is difficult at 7 months because you can always run into a night that is unavailable and you are stuck. I'm not convinced that you didn't get this reservation due to walking. Early December is very popular, most likely snapped up by new Poly owners.

Possibly. I know that the 1st week of December is the most popular, but every day shows availability at and past the 7 month mark - which would generally take out the Poly owner equation. And then within a few seconds of the online booking window opening there is no availability left. Many DVC dis'ers have mentioned it, also.

 

[tasha99]

Possibly. I know that the 1st week of December is the most popular, but every day shows availability at and past the 7 month mark - which would generally take out the Poly owner equation. And then within a few seconds of the online booking window opening there is no availability left. Many DVC dis'ers have mentioned it, also.

That doesn't sound like walking to me--that sounds like a busy time at the resort. You can't really tell how many rooms are left at the start of the 7 month period--the resort availability tool just shows yes or no on rooms available. It could be 3 rooms that get snapped up. This issue comes up all the time at VGC because it's so small. People always think it's walkers, but I think it's just that there are very few rooms available by the time it gets to 7 months. I think it's the same thing you're seeing at the Poly.

 

[rlduvall]

That doesn't sound like walking to me--that sounds like a busy time at the resort. You can't really tell how many rooms are left at the start of the 7 month period--the resort availability tool just shows yes or no on rooms available. It could be 3 rooms that get snapped up. This issue comes up all the time at VGC because it's so small. People always think it's walkers, but I think it's just that there are very few rooms available by the time it gets to 7 months. I think it's the same thing you're seeing at the Poly.

There are a lot more rooms available at Poly than VGC. Any you're right there might only be 3 rooms left of the 40% of 360, we will never know. Just seems odd it's happens every single booking day that opens.

 

[JWG]

We did it for Aulani because we were staying over Christmas and New Years. I started it about 12 days out to get our first day of a 12 day stay. It wasn't perfect because it's not our home resort, so availability changed each day based on owners there. It worked up to New Years, we weren't able to get New Year's Eve or New Year's Day and ended up having to pay cash for those two days. But, we were in the same room and view the whole stay so never had to change rooms. Just had to check-in and out 3 times as we went from points to cash back to points.

 

[JimC]

Never done it. Not worth our time with other strategies consistently working. We own where we need 11 month booking advantage and use regular booking for other trips. Have not been locked out yet. Nearly all wait lists have confirmed. Once or twice we have had to be flexible on resort or villa size for last minute reservations.

 

[Nennie]

I just walked for the first time ever to get Poly for Marathon Weekend. Irony is that it looks like I didn't even need to do it...resort availability tool shows that it's still available to book! LOL!!! I thought I was being so clever. At least I got the reservation!

 

[DenLo]

We have never walked, although we have added dates to the end of a reservation when it was more than 7 days. We rarely book later than the 11 or 7 month marks and really haven't seen a need for it. The only reservation we couldn't get was Club Level at AKV which is our home resort. The days seem to be always gone even at the 11 month mark. And based on comments here on the Disboards, walking probably won't help you anyway, unless you start walking months out for AKV concierge/club level. Why stress over getting the perfect room when others just as good are available?

 

[DMKEDM]

Several years back (7 or so), I walked a BCV reservation...did it day by day as day by day was still allowed then...MS knew what I was doing (I told them), and they held my reservation open til I had the week I wanted...will never know if I needed to walk (I did this at 11 months, w/BCV points)...but the entire point of buying BCV points was the 5 years I had of a T-giving week w/my then-in-school (college/law school) son...now that he's out in the real world w/vacation considerations and w/out the school schedule driving his time, I haven't encountered a need to walk.

I'm pretty flexible about which resorts for my frequent trips, and generally my guests come along for when I invite them--rarely to I book a trip based on dates chosen by guests ahead of time...I like to go to different places--mix things up as it were--but I love all the resorts except Wilderrness Lodge, so generally I'm fine w/whatever I can get...Also, more often than not I can book either a studio or a 1-BR; that flexibility helps, too.

I haven't booked at 7 months, much less 11 months, since DS's college/law school schedule issues stopped...and I've been pretty lucky getting something that was just great on pretty short notice...just last month I got us 5 nights at Kidani on 2 days' notice (in April)...just this afternoon I found 5 nights at BLT (LV studio) for late August/early Sept...flexibility helps as does being super happy to get SSR even if it's 2-3 trips in a row! But I wouldn't hesitate to walk if a particular time frame at a particular resort bumped the time/place to a priority...rules are rules and walking is within the rules...it's not cheating and it's no more depriving someone else of a reservation than making your desired reservation at your first chance to do so and then changing it if/when circumstances change! None of us is "entitled" to availability but I believe we're all "entitled" to maximize our chances within the rules...