AKV Concierge = FIVE units?!?!

[nhdisnut]

I have to ask, if the concierge rooms are all 2 BR units, then why do they offer concierge level rooms for studios and one BR units as well?

Maybe I'm missing something?

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I have to ask, if the concierge rooms are all 2 BR units, then why do they offer concierge level rooms for studios and one BR units as well?

Maybe I'm missing something?

Not certain, but I thought I read they were 2br lockoffs.

MG

 

[LisaS]

I have to ask, if the concierge rooms are all 2 BR units, then why do they offer concierge level rooms for studios and one BR units as well?

Maybe I'm missing something?

They are lockoffs so they can be booked as a 2BR or as a 1BR and a studio.

 

[tjkraz]

As far as non AKL guests getting shut out. Thats why if you need the 11 mt window you have to buy at that resort. I can't get WL at Christmas and thats fair, Because it is not my home resort.

Again, I don't see anyone questioning the fairness of this move. My question is whether it is a wise move.

I don't anticipate many problems for perhaps the first couple of years. Low member count. Heck, when they open reservations (when is that again? April? May? June?), people will be able to book their entire stay in one call for dates well into 2008.

But once there are 30,000+ AKV owners and 5 rooms...watch out. Concierge doesn't interest me but I suspect I'll be on the sidelines doing one of these:

We've all heard how an entire morning's worth of CRT reservations can be completely gone in 10 minutes. Now here we're talking about 5 rooms. I can just see the posts now:

"I'm so upset. I got someone to pick up the phone at 8:59 but the rep was was soooo sloooow. By the time he/she FINALLY managed to pull up the inventory on the computer, all of the concierge rooms were gone. Now I either have to cancel my concierge room for 12/30 or spend New Year's Eve switching resorts."

Fair? Absolutely. No tears here.

Satisfying? Well-planned? Good for the program?

And does anyone really believe that DVC will educate new or prospective members as to what it will take to actually get a concierge room? We're not talking about getting BWV at 7 months here (which is very doable.) We're talking about the need to be on the phone 11 mos out, day-by-day at 8:55am to have any chance of getting a room. (BTW, that time is great for those of us in the eastern time zone--not so great for those in the west and abroad. In that sense, I think there is actually room to argue that the system is NOT "fair" to everyone.)

I HOPE they go to some sort of lottery system or come up with another way for members to buy concierge services. Yes, I see the point that something is better than nothing, but I'm also left thinking "be careful what you wish for..."

 

[tjkraz]

The only thing that worries me just a bit, is the day by day thing. I don't mind calling day by day, but let's say you are able to book club level on days 1, 2, and 3, but it's not available on day 4. Now you have to change the whole booking to non club. Now what if day 2 is unavailable? I guess we would just have to move rooms!

MG

That's my whole point, MG. Can anyone really count on being able to get thru to MS first thing in the morning to book 5...6...7 or more nights in concierge?

I have no problem with the limited inventory meaning that only a select few get these rooms each time. The problem I forsee is exactly what you describe...people getting a few days of their trip concierge but being unable to complete the trip for any number of reasons (busy phone lines, slow MS rep, computer problems on the MS rep's end, not being able to call right at 9am one day, etc.)

I almost wonder if it wouldn't be better to mandate full week stays in the concierge class. I know that opens up a whole other can 'o worms. Just thinking out loud.

 

[bcpage]

Where is info like this being found (i.e. only 5 concierge level rooms)?

 

[lisareniff]

Currently at AKL, the 6th floor is concierge along with some rooms on the 5th floor. Once AKV opens, only the 6th floor villas will be DVC club level. There will also be some number of concierge "slots" available to AKL hotel guests. There will be only one lounge -- the current concierge lounge on the 6th-floor. DVC will operate the lounge and be compensated by the hotel for the use of it by hotel guests.

Lisa, Is this still conjecture or has this been been verified by anyone? I might have missed some posts. I'm starting to be disenchanted by the lack of information. I did talk to my guide breifly on Sat. and he did not have any depth of knowledge, sounded like it was still comming out. Still waiting....

 

[crisi]

Just wait until a conceirge room gets rented on eBay.

 

[Starr W.]

Again, I don't see anyone questioning the fairness of this move. My question is whether it is a wise move.

I don't anticipate many problems for perhaps the first couple of years. Low member count. Heck, when they open reservations (when is that again? April? May? June?), people will be able to book their entire stay in one call for dates well into 2008.

But once there are 30,000+ AKV owners and 5 rooms...watch out. Concierge doesn't interest me but I suspect I'll be on the sidelines doing one of these:

We've all heard how an entire morning's worth of CRT reservations can be completely gone in 10 minutes. Now here we're talking about 5 rooms. I can just see the posts now:

"I'm so upset. I got someone to pick up the phone at 8:59 but the rep was was soooo sloooow. By the time he/she FINALLY managed to pull up the inventory on the computer, all of the concierge rooms were gone. Now I either have to cancel my concierge room for 12/30 or spend New Year's Eve switching resorts."

Fair? Absolutely. No tears here.

Satisfying? Well-planned? Good for the program?

And does anyone really believe that DVC will educate new or prospective members as to what it will take to actually get a concierge room? We're not talking about getting BWV at 7 months here (which is very doable.) We're talking about the need to be on the phone 11 mos out, day-by-day at 8:55am to have any chance of getting a room. (BTW, that time is great for those of us in the eastern time zone--not so great for those in the west and abroad. In that sense, I think there is actually room to argue that the system is NOT "fair" to everyone.)

I HOPE they go to some sort of lottery system or come up with another way for members to buy concierge services. Yes, I see the point that something is better than nothing, but I'm also left thinking "be careful what you wish for..."

Where can I get my seat for this? Should be a good show.

 

[greenban]

This is the issue that I've wondered about. How could any member hope to get more than a day or two of their stay? Competition will be especially fierce for the nights associated with the sunrise safari.

I have visions of people checking in and checking out of Concierge villas every other day -- inconvenient for members and will cause additional housekeeping expenses if those villas end up getting a full cleaning every day due to members ending up with fragmented stays.

So I'm wondering if they will have a lottery for those villas. For those who were members at the time, how did the lottery system for holiday stays work?

This is where trusting your vacation needs to an Owner who is a member of the PDRA is vital. We now have first dibs at Concierge Level Rooms, and I used my source Deep-Croaker to pre-book our Christmas stay in a 2 Bedroom club level.

Look for the PDRA logo for all of your rental needs.

-Tony

And yes, this is one of my posts you should *NOT* believe!

This will be very interesting. Either bringing back the lottery, or being able to book 11 Months + 10 days like making ADRs 180+10......

 

[bzzelady]

Starr W,

You bring the popcorn...and I'll bring the drinks (of course, the drinks won't be able to have straws because they would be dangerous to the animals!).

 

[Starr W.]

Starr W,

You bring the popcorn...and I'll bring the drinks (of course, the drinks won't be able to have straws because they would be dangerous to the animals!).

You have a deal, I think this is going to be even better than some of the "to rent or not to rent point" threads.

 

[lisareniff]

I HOPE they go to some sort of lottery system or come up with another way for members to buy concierge services. Yes, I see the point that something is better than nothing, but I'm also left thinking "be careful what you wish for..."

I agree IF there are only 5-10 villas that can have the concierge service it will be inadequate for the demand and will be a mess. I am somewhat OK with that but it would be sooo much better if the concierge service was allowed to be purchased by the other rooms as an addon fee. Actually, if the rooms on the 6th floor are the concierge rooms, people might not be fighting as much as you think to get those. Six are pool view and the other nine look toward the Sunset savannah with an over hang roof (reportly not the greatest view). Most previous AKL concierge guests wanted the 5th floor rooms.

What bothers me more, actually, is the thought that the 6th floor lounge, a DVC space, may be used mostly by AKL concierge guests not DVC members. Now I say thought because at present I have no real information as to what is happening, just a lot of putting pieces together and guessing. The previously the AKL concierge service/lounge included 19 suites and 55 rooms, which equals about the equivalent of 107 rooms. AKV is planning on having 15??

 

[LisaS]

Lisa, Is this still conjecture or has this been been verified by anyone? I might have missed some posts. I'm starting to be disenchanted by the lack of information. I did talk to my guide breifly on Sat. and he did not have any depth of knowledge, sounded like it was still comming out. Still waiting....

I'm not sure which parts you are asking about but there is some info related to concierge accommodations, expenses and the lounge in one of the documents on the Orange Country website, the "Master Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions".

Definitions of those terms ("Concierge Accommodations", etc.) can be found on page 3. Page 11, section 3.5 discusses the use of the lounge by hotel guests. On page 23, section 7.2 discusses AKL reimbursing AKV for use of the lounge by AKL guests.

Unfortunately these documents consist of scanned documents so you cannot copy and paste them as text.

The info about "Concierge Accommodations" being limited to the 6th floor villas is something I read here on the DISboards. I'm hoping Suzanne will jump in here because she has a much better grasp on what is spelled out in these documents than I do.

 

[lisareniff]

Oh, you didn't need to go to all that work. I was right with you trying to put the pieces together and wondered if I missed a piece.

 

[SoCalKDG]

I'm surprised that they even offered concierge. The cost difference between standard deluxe rooms and concierge rooms is never less than $100, sometimes up to $200. At 14 points for a studio room you are getting concierge for free, thus the best deal of any DVC currently on the market. I'm surprised they didn't offer these rooms starting at 20+ points for a studio.

 

[LisaS]

Oh, you didn't need to go to all that work. I was right with you trying to put the pieces together and wondered if I missed a piece.

Not a problem. I just wish we had something other than these scanned documents. Disney should have released more details about AKV by now -- floor plans, details on concierge level, artist's renderings of the villa interiors, a description of the pool and the restaurant. They've been selling points for nearly a week now!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I'm not sure which parts you are asking about but there is some info related to concierge accommodations, expenses and the lounge in one of the documents on the Orange Country website, the "Master Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions".

Definitions of those terms ("Concierge Accommodations", etc.) can be found on page 3. Page 11, section 3.5 discusses the use of the lounge by hotel guests. On page 23, section 7.2 discusses AKL reimbursing AKV for use of the lounge by AKL guests.

Unfortunately these documents consist of scanned documents so you cannot copy and paste them as text.

The info about "Concierge Accommodations" being limited to the 6th floor villas is something I read here on the DISboards. I'm hoping Suzanne will jump in here because she has a much better grasp on what is spelled out in these documents than I do.

Lisa has it right: DVC will operate the conceirge lounge and then be reimbursed for use of that lounge by AKL guests staying in conceirge accomodations on the 2nd , 3rd and 4th floors. The number of AKL concierge rooms will be based on max concierge lounge occupancy minus max DVC concierge room occupancy.

Where I think the uncertianty continues to lie is in the # of DVC concierge rooms. The 6th floor (which has to have concierge lounge access) has 15 deluxe rooms, which will probably be converted to 5 2BR or 10 1BR + 1S or some comobination. What I think is unkown is whether some of the rooms on the 5th floor which have enjoyed concierge lounge access will continue to do so as they morph into DVC units.

I understand that there are 55 concierge rooms and 19 suites, so with an average occupancy of 5 per room (or suite), the lounge should have an approximate capacity of 370.

The 6th floor rooms will have an occupancy of 45 (5 rooms x 9), leaving 325 hotel guests to enjoy the concierge lounge. It is this staggering difference between use of th e lounge by DVC v. AKL that seems like poor planning to me. DVC seems to be going out of its way to create difficulties for itself if it does not convert some 5th floor rooms to concierge.

DVC may be under-estimating demand for DVC Club rooms. With pricing difference equal in many cases to less than a point per night per occupant, the product seems to be underpriced even for a marginal market. In contrast, at AKL, the pricing difference is probably at least $20 per night per occupant and they still book concierge level rooms.

While DVC does have some members who will be most attracted to the AKV value units even if the view was of the dung heap ("look, honey, that's some of our founder's memorial zebra dung"), I would think that the many (if not most) DVC members are in the camp of affordable quality: willing to pay more for perceived additional value.

I think DVC could add more than 5 concierge rooms without crowding the lounge and still "share nicely" with the AKL. JMO

-- Suzanne

 

[Maistre Gracey]

You know, now that I'm thinking about it, how hard would it be to increase the number of club level rooms? It seems like a very easy stroke of the pen. I mean, there is no difference in the rooms, just the services offered. They could just increase the points required for a regular room and turn those into cash to pay for it, sort of like the Disney Collection.

MG

Alright, this is a new one. I'm "bumping" my post from earlier in this thread. I would really for the folks here to comment on this and see if it's viable.

MG

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

While DVC does have some members who will be most attracted to the AKV value units even if the view was of the dung heap ("look, honey, that's some of our founder's memorial zebra dung"), I would think that the many (if not most) DVC members are in the camp of affordable quality: willing to pay more for perceived additional value.


-- Suzanne

Well, I certainly hope your opinion is correct. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there are only a few of us bottom dwellers willing to settle for the dung heap view. Value room - here I come!!!