A Solution to Walking

[BWoody]

With all the talk I've seen of walking reservations and it being a problem, I thought it would be interesting to create a thread where we could discuss possible actual solutions to the problem (I know, not everyone thinks it is a real problem, but many people do). Maybe Disney will actually read this and see a solution that isn't terrible since I know a lot of people's concern is that if Disney ever did try to fix walking, the solution might be worse than the issue. Here are my thoughts:

If a reservation is greater than 6.5 months away (so covering the opening of the 11 and 7 month booking windows) someone can only modify a reservation once during any 15 day window ( I suppose an 8 - 10 day window would also work). So, if I modified a reservation today, I couldn't modify it again until 15 days from now. You could modify the reservation as many times as you want between 6.5 and 11 months, but never more than once every 15 days. This would basically eliminate long term walking and one could only, I'll call it "jump" a reservation once, so you are still free to make changes for when life happens. During the greater than 6.5 months out period, availability isn't as much of a problem, so you can still get a reservation somewhere should you have a legitimate (non-walking) reason to change your reservation. Now, once you get within 6.5 months of a reservation, there are no restrictions and you can modify your reservation 300 times a day if you want.

I think this idea would have a huge impact in stopping or at least make walking less of an issue. I should also note that when I say modify a reservation, this only applies to date changes. If you are making other modifications like adding or removing a travel companion, this could still be done as many times as you want at any time.

Interested to see what others think and would love to hear other ideas.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Go back to the original way of booking.
No real downside to it. Some don’t like calling day-by-day, but as with walking, that is not a requirement. Everyone has an exactly equal opportunity for the room.

To be clear, I am no longer a Member so I have no dog in this fight. I just remember when it changed and how unfair I thought the new process is.

 

[keishashadow]

Go back to the original way of booking.
No real downside to it. Some don’t like calling day-by-day, but as with walking, that is not a requirement. Everyone has an exactly equal opportunity for the room.

To be clear, I am no longer a Member so I have no dog in this fight. I just remember when it changed and how unfair I thought the new process is.

Shared my thots in another thread as to how i’ve Found booking both ‘value’ studios at BW & AKVJ increasingly difficult since the ‘best kept secret i.e. walking’ became popular via online booking.

I don’t see them ever going back to phone operators, that costs more $. Disney is going to eliminate the live option to make a ADRs to cut costs.

What I do think would help is to increase/reallocate the point requirements for those rooms to point wherein they aren’t that much cheaper to book. Make them closer to the standard villas, their allure might dim enough to lessen demand. Along the same line, perhaps if they could set the points to start off at one number, then drop back at say the 4th or 5th month but no idea how they would accomplish that & stay within their stated allocations parameters

DVC has no real incentive to change anything, I see nothing different happening down the road.

 

[JETSDAD]

With all the talk I've seen of walking reservations and it being a problem, I thought it would be interesting to create a thread where we could discuss possible actual solutions to the problem (I know, not everyone thinks it is a real problem, but many people do). Maybe Disney will actually read this and see a solution that isn't terrible since I know a lot of people's concern is that if Disney ever did try to fix walking, the solution might be worse than the issue. Here are my thoughts:

If a reservation is greater than 6.5 months away (so covering the opening of the 11 and 7 month booking windows) someone can only modify a reservation once during any 15 day window ( I suppose an 8 - 10 day window would also work). So, if I modified a reservation today, I couldn't modify it again until 15 days from now. You could modify the reservation as many times as you want between 6.5 and 11 months, but never more than once every 15 days. This would basically eliminate long term walking and one could only, I'll call it "jump" a reservation once, so you are still free to make changes for when life happens. During the greater than 6.5 months out period, availability isn't as much of a problem, so you can still get a reservation somewhere should you have a legitimate (non-walking) reason to change your reservation. Now, once you get within 6.5 months of a reservation, there are no restrictions and you can modify your reservation 300 times a day if you want.

I think this idea would have a huge impact in stopping or at least make walking less of an issue. I should also note that when I say modify a reservation, this only applies to date changes. If you are making other modifications like adding or removing a travel companion, this could still be done as many times as you want at any time.

Interested to see what others think and would love to hear other ideas.

So how do people make reservations longer than 7 days?

 

[Sandisw]

I personally would be disappointed if they added change restrictions to bookings.

The real problem is that there are more people who want popular rooms than there are rooms. Adjusting the points could play a role.

But, ultimately, I think people just need to adjust and realize if you want one of those hard to get rooms, you need to work at getting it.

For me, adding in a penalty for changes might impact walking. However, think of all the other times people want and need to modify reservations that have nothing to do with walking.

I just wanted to book my May trip last week...wasn’t available. Booked the following week. Yesterday, my original dates were there. Changed.

So, I think people need to be careful what they wish for because charging for changes will hurt way more than walking because people will still be shut out of those hard to get rooms in the fall and early December.

 

[DebbieB]

This assumes Disney considers walking a "problem". I don't think they do, what's they downside to them?

 

[Brianstl]

This assumes Disney considers walking a "problem". I don't think they do, what's they downside to them?

Disney probably sees it as a good thing for them. They probably see it as a way to drive people to purchase an extra 25 or more points to book a non standard studio instead.

 

[BWoody]

Adjusting the points may help a little as some have pointed out for certain categories to influence booking patterns such as maybe pushing more people to book in the summer versus fall, but in some high demand categories you can't really make many changes. AKV Value for example, if they go any higher they just become almost the same cost as a regular room but you get a smaller room, so nothing you can do there. They are cheaper for a reason. Of course, this category is also really just a tease for sales so they can flaunt a low point requirement even though no one can realistically rely on booking them even if you own at AKV.

In the situation @Sandisw presented, 2 items for consideration. First, if such restrictions were in place, perhaps the room for the originally desired week would have been there from the start (assuming it was only unavailable due to a walk under today's rules), and second, you would have still been able to make that one modification. Right now though, you would be blocked from changing again for a few days.

Anyway, these are just some random thoughts. I too believe Disney won't ever actually do anything regarding walking and it doesn't really affect me much anyway due to when I travel, but find it an interesting topic.

 

[KPeterso]

With all the talk I've seen of walking reservations and it being a problem, I thought it would be interesting to create a thread where we could discuss possible actual solutions to the problem (I know, not everyone thinks it is a real problem, but many people do). Maybe Disney will actually read this and see a solution that isn't terrible since I know a lot of people's concern is that if Disney ever did try to fix walking, the solution might be worse than the issue. Here are my thoughts:

If a reservation is greater than 6.5 months away (so covering the opening of the 11 and 7 month booking windows) someone can only modify a reservation once during any 15 day window ( I suppose an 8 - 10 day window would also work). So, if I modified a reservation today, I couldn't modify it again until 15 days from now. You could modify the reservation as many times as you want between 6.5 and 11 months, but never more than once every 15 days. This would basically eliminate long term walking and one could only, I'll call it "jump" a reservation once, so you are still free to make changes for when life happens. During the greater than 6.5 months out period, availability isn't as much of a problem, so you can still get a reservation somewhere should you have a legitimate (non-walking) reason to change your reservation. Now, once you get within 6.5 months of a reservation, there are no restrictions and you can modify your reservation 300 times a day if you want.

I think this idea would have a huge impact in stopping or at least make walking less of an issue. I should also note that when I say modify a reservation, this only applies to date changes. If you are making other modifications like adding or removing a travel companion, this could still be done as many times as you want at any time.

Interested to see what others think and would love to hear other ideas.

But then you have someone like me. I like 10-13 day trips. I book my first 7 nights and then have to login each day to get my additional night at the end of the trip. If I had to wait 15 days (or even 5 days) I risk losing nights at the end of my trip. I am not changing the front end at all, but I am adding nights according to the policy of only 7 nights booked on the 11 or 7 month date.

 

[BWoody]

But then you have someone like me. I like 10-13 day trips. I book my first 7 nights and then have to login each day to get my additional night at the end of the trip. If I had to wait 15 days (or even 5 days) I risk losing nights at the end of my trip. I am not changing the front end at all, but I am adding nights according to the policy of only 7 nights booked on the 11 or 7 month date.

On these trips that are longer than 7 days, perhaps these are an exception where you need to call MS and they can add on the days? I'm sure there is a reasonable workaround that isn't any more difficult than already having to update your trip daily as you do now.

 

[JETSDAD]

On these trips that are longer than 7 days, perhaps these are an exception where you need to call MS and they can add on the days? I'm sure there is a reasonable workaround that isn't any more difficult than already having to update your trip daily as you do now.

Right now you don't have to update it daily....you could just add on once every 6 days. If you allow people to add days without penalty then you're just making it so that people with more points have a greater advantage as they can simply make a really long reservation and then drop the majority of it in one modification.

 

[crvetter]

On these trips that are longer than 7 days, perhaps these are an exception where you need to call MS and they can add on the days? I'm sure there is a reasonable workaround that isn't any more difficult than already having to update your trip daily as you do now.

This would benefit DVC members with larger amount of points available to do the walking. For instance I have 200 points and operate on always banking my 200 points (so operate with 200 point cushion about). I could book 7 nights 7 days in advance, call each day "claiming to be extending my vacation" for the next 7 days. After your proposed 15 day wait I could simply drop days from the beginning, thus I walked but now only people with "extra" points can do this. I will say most solutions to this "problem" (for a super small amount of rooms) seem to benefit larger point holders or those with money.

I think re balancing the seasons would fix many studios (except AK-Value, AK-Club, and maybe VGF/CCV/BWV-Standard). I also don't witness too much walking in any category except (AK-Value, AK-Club all year and VGF/CCV/BWV-Standard in Fall Frenzy). I suspect the DRR Tower Studios will be walked all year.

 

[Sandisw]

Adjusting the points may help a little as some have pointed out for certain categories to influence booking patterns such as maybe pushing more people to book in the summer versus fall, but in some high demand categories you can't really make many changes. AKV Value for example, if they go any higher they just become almost the same cost as a regular room but you get a smaller room, so nothing you can do there. They are cheaper for a reason. Of course, this category is also really just a tease for sales so they can flaunt a low point requirement even though no one can realistically rely on booking them even if you own at AKV.

In the situation @Sandisw presented, 2 items for consideration. First, if such restrictions were in place, perhaps the room for the originally desired week would have been there from the start (assuming it was only unavailable due to a walk under today's rules), and second, you would have still been able to make that one modification. Right now though, you would be blocked from changing again for a few days.

Anyway, these are just some random thoughts. I too believe Disney won't ever actually do anything regarding walking and it doesn't really affect me much anyway due to when I travel, but find it an interesting topic.

I don’t think it’s walking since those 2 nights are gone again. And it was SSR in May. The rest of the weeks are wide open. I think it had to do with the fact that Epcot MM is May 4th.

But, I was just on again and guess what? I was able to modify and get those 2 nights in SV studio at VGF. Had I been blocked or charged to change, I wouldn’t have been able to get the room that I did.

Must have been the only one because when I checked after I got it, no more rooms.

I guess the point is that changing things to possibly stop walking for hard rooms would have a much greater impact on changes being made that have nothing to do with walking.

 

[BWoody]

Good points everyone! Interesting that those with a lot of points are hunting for the cheapest rooms I joke of course. Everyone has their own ways of traveling and you can do whatever you want with your points. Nice grab with vgf and you are right, such restrictions would have drove me crazy if I were in your does with a chance to make that second change. Nothing will ever stop waking 100%, but it seems to be a growing phenomenon. Maybe there is a way to discourage it more versus stop it entirely?

 

[crvetter]

Interesting that those with a lot of points are hunting for the cheapest rooms I joke of course.

Well if one doesn't have a lot of points but is just banking points they still might want to walk, or if they do have a lot of points they could be splitting their points (slow DVC time and Fall Frenzy) to take more than 1 trip. In the example I gave 200 isn't too much for the time of year I want to go for a full week (usually 10 days) over Thanksgiving.

 

[JETSDAD]

Good points everyone! Interesting that those with a lot of points are hunting for the cheapest rooms I joke of course. Everyone has their own ways of traveling and you can do whatever you want with your points. Nice grab with vgf and you are right, such restrictions would have drove me crazy if I were in your does with a chance to make that second change. Nothing will ever stop waking 100%, but it seems to be a growing phenomenon. Maybe there is a way to discourage it more versus stop it entirely?

I don't have a lot of points but even without using banked or borrowed points I could walk a Value Studio 3 weeks on one modification. I don't think walking is as big of a problem as a lot of people make it out to be and walking often gets blamed for other issues. Any time there is a lack of availability people blame it on walking. Walking is simply a symptom of greater demand than supply. Someone waits a few days into their 11 month window and then tries to grab a Value Studio and wonders why they're booked....they then blame walkers instead of the fact that there are far more people attempting to get those rooms than there are rooms to be had. I mean I like the values as well and try to book them in order to free up points for some other trips but if I don't get it then standard is only a few points more per night....not the end of the world or a problem worth begging Disney to come up with a solution for as their solution would certainly be worse than what the perceived problem is.

 

[Sandisw]

I don't have a lot of points but even without using banked or borrowed points I could walk a Value Studio 3 weeks on one modification. I don't think walking is as big of a problem as a lot of people make it out to be and walking often gets blamed for other issues. Any time there is a lack of availability people blame it on walking. Walking is simply a symptom of greater demand than supply. Someone waits a few days into their 11 month window and then tries to grab a Value Studio and wonders why they're booked....they then blame walkers instead of the fact that there are far more people attempting to get those rooms than there are rooms to be had. I mean I like the values as well and try to book them in order to free up points for some other trips but if I don't get it then standard is only a few points more per night....not the end of the world or a problem worth begging Disney to come up with a solution for as their solution would certainly be worse than what the perceived problem is.

I think you are correct in that walking is automatically assumed to be the culprit for any lack of availability.

IMO, people just need to recognize that they may have to do things a little differently now because we do have the ease of online booking and modifications. Someone in another thread mentioned getting AKV value for September 2020 off a waitlist already. What is shows is that when people walked it, it became available quickly. Which, I turn, means that walking wasn’t really necessary for that time period.

i say, take the good that we now have with the online system with the bad which is the ease of walking. The bulk of the year things are going to be fine.

What I do find amusing is that if people are walking all year, than it really becomes no different than just being a competitive at 11 months.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I hope that DVC does penalize walking. They do not seem interested in stopping walking whenever I have brought the subject up to them.

 

[DougEMG]

Go back to the original way of booking.
No real downside to it. Some don’t like calling day-by-day, but as with walking, that is not a requirement. Everyone has an exactly equal opportunity for the room.

To be clear, I am no longer a Member so I have no dog in this fight. I just remember when it changed and how unfair I thought the new process is.

Booking at the end day sucks. I like to go for 3-4 weeks so would probably never get a solid block.

 

[TexasChick123]

I don’t care about walking one way or another. If someone wants to walk for a month to get a room, then so be it. I didn’t want the room badly enough to do the same. I’ve had good luck booking at 11 months. The few times I have walked reservations, it was mostly a waste of my time. I think only one time did it matter. Even then, I think the walkers went past my dates a few days afterwards when it opened up again, so I should’ve just waited. To be fair, I don’t walk AKV value or concierge because I don’t own there, so I am not dealing with it there which seems to be the worst of it. I have walked for a BWV standard 2BR and standard 1- and 2-BRs at BLT. It wasn’t necessary.