AKL versus SS

[tjkraz]

If the current Jambo house can pay for it's services, when complete, 100%, why can't Kidani? Your assertion just makes no sense.....if they can check in 150 people at Jambo, park 150 cars at Jambo, and bell 150 sets of bags...maintain a larger acreage of savannah...all on our current dues....why can't they do 350 at Kidani? It's not like you need to bus bags at BOTH places for the same party. It's not like you need to check in guests at BOTH places for the same party. I suppose you might have to valet some of the same cars if those at Kidani don't want to walk to Jambo, but...really....how much duplication do you think that's really going to cause.

The main issue is minimum levels of service that need to be maintained at both locations. For instance, let's say that resorts typically staff Bell Services with 2 people from 10pm to 6am. At SSR, OKW, etc you only have two people on staff during those hours. At BCV or BWV you have 2 people on staff, and DVC members are only paying a fraction of their salaries. But at AKV, you'll be paying for 2 people at Kidani plus part of 2 people at Jambo. The same holds true for minimum staffing in front desk personnel, maintenance, housekeeping, etc.

We also touched on managment earlier. If you're staying at Jambo House and have a problem with your room condition or bell services loses your bags or your child falls down a set of stairs, do you really want to hear "I'm sorry but the front desk (or resort or bell services) manager is over at Kidani right now." I hope that people would want to see these positions duplicated at both facilities, given the 1/2 mile journey between the two. When there's an emergency, nobody wants to hear that the manager in charge is anywhere other than 30 seconds away.

It would also be quite inefficient having managers supervising staff in such disparate locations.

So, I propose we settle it thusly: I'll bet you the cost of a beer (or an actual beer if you're in our around WDW during one of our DVC trips) or other non-alcoholic beverage of your choice, that we don't see much in the way of a dues increase outside what goes on at the other resorts (typically 3 to 4%, but within a 1% range of whatever the typical increase is for that year) in '09 or 2010. And then we can let the rest of the thread off the hook for a discussion I'm sure many of them find boring, especially now we're both largely repeating ourselves.

Deal?

Make it "the first year dues are no longer subsidized" and you've got a deal.

 

[pilferk]

The main issue is minimum levels of service that need to be maintained at both locations. For instance, let's say that resorts typically staff Bell Services with 2 people from 10pm to 6am. At SSR, OKW, etc you only have two people on staff during those hours. At BCV or BWV you have 2 people on staff, and DVC members are only paying a fraction of their salaries. But at AKV, you'll be paying for 2 people at Kidani plus part of 2 people at Jambo. The same holds true for minimum staffing in front desk personnel, maintenance, housekeeping, etc.

Again, you're only paying "extra" if those service people are not providing service, as you point out. So, if the resort were NOT mixed use, you'd likely still need 3 full people to service all the units (using your example of 2 dedicated vs 2 "partial"). Given you're servicing the same number of units, you're still paying, most of the time, the same amount of FTE's. The only time "minimum levels of service" come into play (and trust me, this is something I analyze, from a patient care/nursing perspective every day) is when your census is low. Otherwise, it's pretty much a zero sum equation. I highly doubt that the minimal times that happens, given the 90%+ occupancy rate we see in most DVC units, is going to have much effect on dues.

We also touched on managment earlier. If you're staying at Jambo House and have a problem with your room condition or bell services loses your bags or your child falls down a set of stairs, do you really want to hear "I'm sorry but the front desk (or resort or bell services) manager is over at Kidani right now." I hope that people would want to see these positions duplicated at both facilities, given the 1/2 mile journey between the two. When there's an emergency, nobody wants to hear that the manager in charge is anywhere other than 30 seconds away.

There are already "front line" managers (which is what you're talking about in your examples above) in place at Jambo. We'll be subsidizing those. With 400+ units, at a stand alone resort (like BWV..that's what seems to be reported when guests have complaints), there's likely be 2 "front lines" on staff at any one time, right? So I don't see much of a difference if we're subsidizing one at Jambo and paying all of one at Kidani. Again, usage is the key...you're only paying "extra" if one isn't working for you at any given time.

In addition to that fact, it's not like Kidani is any further from Jambo than the furthest building is from the lobby at SSR.

High end managerial positions (like the overall DVC resort manager) don't need to be on site. They just need to be quickly reachable and able to respond.

It would also be quite inefficient having managers supervising staff in such disparate locations.

How so? You have staff working throughout SSR and their supervisor is back in the SSR main building. That's not any more ineffiecient.

Make it "the first year dues are no longer subsidized" and you've got a deal.

Agreed. And this really is my last post about this in this thread.