Availability Weirdness

[kes601]

Anybody else noticing a weird potential glitch the last 2 or 3 mornings? The same "uncommon" rooms have been available the last 2 or 3 mornings on the exact same dates when they have not been available later in the day the previous day.

Example 1 -- on Monday BLT Lake View Studio suddenly had availability from the middle of May through the end of August (minus a day or two). Later in the day a day here or there disappeared, then Tuesday morning it was back. Same thing happened Tuesday afternoon, a day or two disappeared and then suddenly Wednesday morning it was back. Same thing happened this morning. I had initially thought on this one that maybe a couple of rooms had been taken out of service and then got thrown back into the mix.

Example 2 -- Same thing, on Monday there were 5 nights in the middle of June in a 1 BR at VGF that opened up. I can't say if it was available on Tuesday morning, but I know it showed as available yesterday morning because we grabbed it. Availability showed it was gone, yet again this morning the exact same nights are available yet again.

I've seen many other examples this morning on FB -- BCV Studio, Value rooms at AK, etc.

I'm concerned that we switched from a a good plan -- splitting BLT Lake View Studio and a 1 BR at Boulder Ridge to one that now involves a split 3 way split between BLT / VGF / BLT. I know they usually make things right, but if this happened to too many people then what would they do?

 

[Sandisw]

I think if it ends up being a glitch and people booked rooms not there, they will call you and tell you its invalid. If someone switched from something else, then I have no idea how they handle that....

 

[Ariel620]

I see the same thing, AKL club level rooms, value rooms, but not just at AKL. BLT, even GF, Poly have rooms available on July 4 for fireworks. This summer there is now more availability for BCV and BWV than there was a few days ago. Yesterday I thought that might be because they release some of the rooms held back for refurb, but that would not affect so many resorts, is really most DVC resorts. So I don't know what's going on.

 

[kes601]

I had initially thought maybe it was 1) people cancelling as we are getting near the end of the month so a banking window is coming up, 2) people cancelling because of cruise payments, or 3) rooms held back due to being out of service, etc. But, the fact that the same rooms are coming back overnight on the same dates is what is definitely worrying me.

ETA: Not sure if I should contact MS to inquire about a potential glitch or just see what happens.....16 days is hard to book so if they tell us closer to time that our reservation is invalid there may not be much they can do.

 

[Ariel620]

But, the fact that the same rooms are coming back overnight is what is definitely worrying me.

Do you mean the same room you booked yesterday sold out then became available again today on the same date you booked it? If so, that makes me think it's a glitch. I didn't specifically see that, but I don't think I would have noticed if that happened. I'll keep some notes now.

 

[kes601]

Do you mean the same room you booked yesterday sold out then became available again today on the same date you booked it? If so, that makes me think it's a glitch. I didn't specifically see that, but I don't think I would have noticed if that happened. I'll keep some notes now.

Correct -- a VGF 1 BR. Also noticed in November the 4 nights we dropped at RIV Tower Studio became available this morning again (CCV Studio was available yesterday so we booked it instead).

 

[RoseGold]

Sometimes the system releases room in batches, sounds like that is what happened. I wouldn't be worried. They haven't had a glitch that bad since the VGC stuff. That was really bad, but it was like two years ago.

 

[kes601]

Sometimes the system releases room in batches, sounds like that is what happened. I wouldn't be worried. They haven't had a glitch that bad since the VGC stuff. That was really bad, but it was like two years ago.

It's just the weirdness of the exact same nights coming open overnight each night. Gonna try to not worry (but that is against my nature).

I do remember the unicorn day a couple of years ago where everything opened up all at once (presumably because the system wasn't releasing rooms) and as far as I know all of that was valid.

 

[Matty B13]

Could also be the high Easter Point Charts during this time. Easter is March 31st in 2024 I believe.

 

[kes601]

Could also be the high Easter Point Charts during this time. Easter is March 31st in 2024 I believe.

Not seeing the correlation of Easter 2024 and June / July this year unless you are saying people are cancelling so they can bank the points for next Easter?

 

[Matty B13]

Ops, sorry missed the timing of the reservations. I saw the AKV value rooms opening up for next March 2024, this morning.

 

[kes601]

Something was definitely up. The last half of May and first half of June basically just had the availability for all rooms stripped from it.,

 

[kmorlock]

Just now, 4/27 4:30ish - I saw zero rooms in any category for OKW along with most other resorts except SSR & VGF. I refreshed, then saw a few sparse dates come up. I definitely think something is up besides regular bookings.

 

[marko]

I noticed it also. Practically all dates in July and August are available at all of the DVC resorts, but nothing in June.

 

[mz-s]

were they holding back tons of rooms and suddenly decided to release them? What's going on? Did they boot "landlords" out of the program?

 

[kes601]

Just curious, because I don't know how it works, but I do know rooms can be taken at 60 days for breakage (aka moved to cash side). Since basically all availability is gone up to the 60 day mark (it reappears at day 61) could this have happened? Just wondering if maybe they "forgot" (IT glitch) to pull the rooms and then discovered it this afternoon and just did a mass pull.

ETA: As of this morning, seeing the same thing w/most availability being on the 27th of June or later....except for the VGF 1 BR we grabbed, which yet again showed back up for the 21st-26th.

 

[MFMont]

Could it be that the surplus of all the Covid points is finally over and it is just a very soft summer ahead? If you look at cash, there are tons of availability there for 4th of July week as well.

 

[kes601]

Could it be that the surplus of all the Covid points is finally over and it is just a very soft summer ahead? If you look at cash, there are tons of availability there for 4th of July week as well.

Based on dining availability when we booked last week, the excess number of cash rooms, and the higher than usual discounts I would say that bookings are not at what they were expecting. I can only hope so, I'd like lower crowds for our 2 weeks.

 

[meekey7197]

Any seasoned AKV owner could tell you that something weird is happening at the end of March right now…

 

[MFMont]

Any seasoned AKV owner could tell you that something weird is happening at the end of March right now…

While I am a recent AKV owner, I am certainly not seasoned on this resort. Can you enlighten me on what is normal? Are you talking about March 24'?