Anyone else wish they would stop allowing "walking a reservation" UPDATE POST#80

[mort1331]

Still new to DVC and reading all about walking, not something i am interested in, but what is to stopl someone from starting a walk one month out or longer. I know theres a few obsesive people that would do that, if not already. I just keep hearing about 1 week before, but what stops anyone from doing it longer, except having no life.

 

[jekjones1558]

Still new to DVC and reading all about walking, not something i am interested in, but what is to stopl someone from starting a walk one month out or longer. I know theres a few obsesive people that would do that, if not already. I just keep hearing about 1 week before, but what stops anyone from doing it longer, except having no life.

Starting one month out is possible. If someone is so in need of a particular reservation that they want to call MS every day for a month in order to get it, then I guess that is their choice. Thankfully I think this would be very, very rare. It would a huge drain on MS time, for which we all pay.

 

[luckyman_apd]

Starting one month out is possible. If someone is so in need of a particular reservation that they want to call MS every day for a month in order to get it, then I guess that is their choice. Thankfully I think this would be very, very rare. It would a huge drain on MS time, for which we all pay.

Wow....one month in advance an calling everyday??? I'll pay the extra points. I could see doing that if you had trouble getting ANY room at but just to save points......that's some serious dedication. In theory if you book a full week 1 month in advance, you could call every other day for the first 2/3 weeks. Wow, did I just waste time thinking about that

 

[tjkraz]

In order to "walk" a reservation at 11 months, you don't actually have to call every day. Calling every 5-6 days to drop unwanted nights and add more on the back end would be sufficient.

More than anything, this is yet another example of how unbalanced the early December points remain. Members do love the low point costs for early December but the trade off is exceedingly high demand and many owners getting shut out of their desired accommodations.

DVC could fix the situation quite easily. I'm quite surprised they have yet again failed to act with the 2014 points remaining unchanged.

 

[mac_tlc]

Same thing happening for 1 bdr Theme Park view at BLT for early Dec. I am looking for 12/8 - 12/11, and have noticed the only day unavailbale in any 7 day period has been the first day of the 11 month window. We will see what happens Tuesday at 8AM EST.

mac_tlc

 

[CarolMN]

......(snip)......More than anything, this is yet another example of how unbalanced the early December points remain. Members do love the low point costs for early December but the trade off is exceedingly high demand and many owners getting shut out of their desired accommodations.

DVC could fix the situation quite easily. I'm quite surprised they have yet again failed to act with the 2014 points remaining unchanged.

I disagree. No one is getting shut out of an early December reservation at any DVC resort at 11 months. It's only happening with a few booking categories and 3 resorts.

It's not happening at all at VWL, or BCV. There are still SV 1 bedrooms available at BWV for that week and all sizes are available for Pool/Garden View. I can't see the specifics for BLT, but no one has complained about not being able to get either a MK View or a Lake View villa of any size. There are so few concierge and value villas at AKV that they are a problem most weeks of the year.

There will always be those disappointed not to get the lower cost options. Competition for those limited categories does not mean the point charts are unbalanced.

 

[chalee94]

I disagree. No one is getting shut out of an early December reservation at any DVC resort at 11 months. It's only happening with a few booking categories and 3 resorts.

There will always be those disappointed not to get the lower cost options. Competition for those limited categories does not mean the point charts are unbalanced.

yep - i'd agree with carol. if anything, this sounds more like an argument for making value/standard villas more expensive...

 

[wdrl]

I disagree. No one is getting shut out of an early December reservation at any DVC resort at 11 months. It's only happening with a few booking categories and 3 resorts.

I can't see the specifics for BLT, but no one has complained about not being able to get either a MK View or a Lake View villa of any size. There are so few concierge and value villas at AKV that they are a problem most weeks of the year.

There will always be those disappointed not to get the lower cost options. Competition for those limited categories does not mean the point charts are unbalanced.

There is limited availability of studios at BLT, too. For the first 7 days in December on 2 days are available for theme park views and only 1 day for standard view.

The point that tjkraz is making is that early December fills up very quickly, probably more quickly than any other period on the DVC calendar. Given the popularity of the first two weeks in December, it makes little sense that it is part of the Adventure Season, the cheapest season on the DVC calendar.

 

[Dean]

I am so frustrated right now. I get the whole 'walking' a reservation concept, I truly do, but so many people are doing it now that I can't even get in on the 11 month window for an AKV value studio. I have even tried to 'walk' the reservation myself and can't even get it started.

I need a reservation beginning December 7th and once the 11th month window opened beginning on November 30th [because I knew I had no choice but to 'walk' it], not one AKV value studio room has been available online right at 8:00 a.m. EST . . . every morning every AKV value studio is booked for the first night I can begin to 'walk' it myself. I know it's the most popular time for DVC and I know there are not many value studios, but I have gone at this time every year for the last 5 years and have never had this kind of trouble.

I personally think 'walking' should not be allowed - if that's what is blatantly being done. I'm not irritated with the Members who do it, it's not against policy, but if they would eliminate this then all Members would have the same chance to get in first. Everyone says buy where you want to stay for the 11th month advantage, but even that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Thanks for allowing me to vent . . . on to your regularly scheduled programming.

I'm of the opinion that every change should be a cancelation and rebooking and/or there should be some type of fee involved. I don't have any problems with members using what options are presented but the system is supposed to minimize abuses, at least those not contractually guaranteed.

 

[DebbieB]

As far as the BWV goes, it's only a problem for standard view studios and standard view 2 bedrooms.

As I type, 1 bedrooms are available for the entire first week of December for all 3 booking categories as are the Pool/Garden studios and 2 bedrooms.

For at least the BWV, this tells me it is just too much demand for the limited booking categories for what is arguably the most popular week of the year for DVC members to visit. It appears that this is the case for AKV value ,AKV concierge and BLT standard view as well.

Even if walking could be eliminated without the cure being worse than the disease, there would be many disappointed. It's the nature of the beast!

P.S. It's also a problem for HA villas at BWV. But I have no experience with that room type and defer to Jean (jekjones1558) for that booking category.

I'm hoping to book Dec 7 to 13 tomorrow, BWV boardwalk view studio. I noticed today that Dec 6 is soldout for boardwalk view but not standard view.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Personally I disagree that there is any significant problem caused by walking and any attempted change would be worse IMO because I change my mind and like the flexibility to do so. And no type of room has ever been guaranteed to be available. I can understand the disappointment though - I've been there with BLT standard view for the first week of Dec (2 years) but I did not and will not ask for a change. I've also been there with AKV concierge and that was back before the booking at check in +7.

Unless you have DVC's ability to see cancellations etc. it's impossible to tell positively why rooms are booked at 11 months. Even then they would need to track why a room was cancelled after being booked for less than a week. Even with day by day there were tons of complaints about missing out on a day or two.

And are you checking back later in the day? You could have gotten a studio for the time frame I think you mentioned. This year I booked a 2BR value for Nov 30 for 4 nights. I did it in the evening so that means both a studio and a 1BR were available for booking at that time. One might conclude it was walking but it might just have been a change of mind such as I had later. After a few days I decided to go with VWL since we'll be at AKV in May so I cancelled the 2BR Value on the 3rd of Dec.

I've also been perusing other room types and except for the ones that are limited in availability and can be difficult at everything else has been available at VWL, BLT, AKV and BWV. That includes GV's.

I think you're missing the most obvious solution: someone else is beating you to the punch when reserving online.

Yep. And not everyone goes for 1 week. And not everyone checks in on Sat or Sun so you might have someone who wants to stay Wed to Wed that has a room locked up so there are less for the weekend check in. Then a few days later people see rooms open again starting on Wed and blame it on walking. All this flexibility means that there might be some odd rooms booked up at times but in the end all it really means is that some other owner got the room which leads back to the fact that owners are not guaranteed any particular type of room. That is a different type of timeshare model with guaranteed weeks and that is not one that I want.

I disagree. No one is getting shut out of an early December reservation at any DVC resort at 11 months. It's only happening with a few booking categories and 3 resorts.

And I agree with Carol here. Yes, early Dec is popular but it's not even close to being impossible to book a villa. As popular as the holiday events are at WDW I'm a little skeptical that anything less than a significant reallocation would change things much in terms of its popularity and that would just put more pressure on the lower point cost rooms. But if DVC did have another time that they desperately needed to try and get people to stay it would be an obvious time they could shift points to in order to reduce a different one.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I'm of the opinion that every change should be a cancelation and rebooking and/or there should be some type of fee involved. I don't have any problems with members using what options are presented but the system is supposed to minimize abuses, at least those not contractually guaranteed.

That is what I would assume would be the solution to walking. And is what I absolutely hope would not happen (selfishly I understand but part of the flexibility of the system when I bought and one I'd like to keep).

 

[Dean]

That is what I would assume would be the solution to walking. And is what I absolutely hope would not happen (selfishly I understand but part of the flexibility of the system when I bought and one I'd like to keep).

If you give members the ability to take advantage, they will do so and who could blame them. The only solutions are to accept it or do away this the options that allow it. Philosophically it is my opinion that anyone waiting on that time should have higher preference than one who wants to change their dates. The rest of my thoughts flow from that belief.

 

[lilpooh108]

I'm of the opinion that every change should be a cancelation and rebooking and/or there should be some type of fee involved. I don't have any problems with members using what options are presented but the system is supposed to minimize abuses, at least those not contractually guaranteed.

No thank you! I think this would actually make me sell all of my DVC contracts. Since we still have small kids, this no-penalty flexibility is the only reason why we ever considered a timeshare, when we used to run away screaming from timeshares.

The easiest way to eliminate walking is to take away the ability to MODIFY a reservation by adding or dropping 1 day. If you want to change your dates, then you have to cancel and rebook. Most people will not want to lose their entire reservation and walking will effectively stop.

 

[Dean]

No thank you! I think this would actually make me sell all of my DVC contracts. Since we still have small kids, this no-penalty flexibility is the only reason why we ever considered a timeshare, when we used to run away screaming from timeshares.

The easiest way to eliminate walking is to take away the ability to MODIFY a reservation by adding or dropping 1 day. If you want to change your dates, then you have to cancel and rebook. Most people will not want to lose their entire reservation and walking will effectively stop.

Wasn't that one of the 2 options I mentioned and it was the first and is my preferred change. That is to make every change a cancelation and rebooking. A charge is my second and less preferred option but is far better than the current IMO.

 

[CarolMN]

There is limited availability of studios at BLT, too. For the first 7 days in December on 2 days are available for theme park views and only 1 day for standard view.

The point that tjkraz is making is that early December fills up very quickly, probably more quickly than any other period on the DVC calendar. Given the popularity of the first two weeks in December, it makes little sense that it is part of the Adventure Season, the cheapest season on the DVC calendar.

I understand his point. I just don't agree with it.

I don't think that that the seasons need adjustment given that only a few booking categories at 3 of the 7 WDW DVC resorts are filling up at the 11 month mark. And those booking categories that are in short supply make up a significantly smaller percentage of available rooms than the "main" booking categories at those 3 resorts.

Again, no one is being shut out of a resort at 11 months. They are just not getting their first choice at that resort. There will still be members who get into those resorts at 7 months.

If all or nearly all of the studios or 2 bedrooms in a resort were filling up the first few weeks, then I would agree it's time to reallocate. I do not think that is happening.

 

[lilpooh108]

Wasn't that one of the 2 options I mentioned and it was the first and is my preferred change. That is to make every change a cancelation and rebooking. A charge is my second and less preferred option but is far better than the current IMO.

Sorry Dean. You probably did. Mea culpa--I read the 1st and last page.

 

[chalee94]

I'm of the opinion that every change should be a cancelation and rebooking and/or there should be some type of fee involved.

i wouldn't be that opposed to a fee for making or changing a reservation with MS (partly since you'd need to call in to "walk" a reservation).

i'd hope that online booking should remain free for a while...

 

[Muhlenberg]

Personally, I don't know what the solution is, or if there is one, or if there should be one. All I know is it's completely frustrating. I ended my frustration (for the moment) and canceled my waitlists for Value rooms.

Yes, I know others "beat" me to it at 8 am, and yes, I checked many times during the day. For whatever reason, be it overlapping time-periods or whatever, values were booked solid every morning, and throughout the day, starting at 8 am. It's been the same pattern all week, with availability showing for 11 months plus 1 day. It may be that MOST small booking categories will be booked solid at opening time of 8 am.

 

[albarellic]

The easiest way to eliminate walking is to take away the ability to MODIFY a reservation by adding or dropping 1 day. If you want to change your dates, then you have to cancel and rebook. Most people will not want to lose their entire reservation and walking will effectively stop.

How would this work for people who want to stay for longer than 7 nights, since you can only book 7 nights out from your arrival date at 11 months? Like me, who booked 7 nights yesterday and called this morning to add the 8th day to my reservation?