Booking your DVC reservations on line

[Ed T]

Wouldn't it be great to log in and do all your booking and reservations on line. Be able to check on your points, make PS seating arrangements, etc. Wouldn't this all be a step to reducing the overhead and cost of the 800# and personal at DVC or MS ultimately reducint our fees?
Why do you think Disney hasn't moved in this direction? It certainly would be no different than the airlines, car rental, etc.

Ed
DVC 1994

 

[sgtpet]

It would be great.

 

[PamOKW]

They've talked about it for years but we're still waiting.

 

[CRobin]

This got kicked around a few months ago in a thread where people were complaining about getting through to MS, which led to a discussion of MS adding temporary help during "peak" hours and everything good (and bad) that went with that.

My guess is (and it's just a guess) is that they are saying "Great, we've got these 200 or so computer nuts whom we monitor over on Pete Werner's boards who would actually use this, and 59,800 who will still call us on the phone, so why waste the investment ?".

My counter argument is this.

Start small. Put in a simple application that does nothing more than GIVE information, i.e. room availability for a particular date, resort, room type, and number of nites. That saves one call to MS.

Monitor your hits on that page. You may be surprised at the number of people who prefer this to being on hold for 20 minutes
to check availability. Then go the next step and do online ressies.

The other option, which is also popular, is to give incentives, i.e. airlines, the DC, etc. for people to use the net and not the phone.

Let's see......."If you book over the net YOU get to pool hop at AKL"

 

[MdmMim]

This was mentioned at the members' mtg a few weeks ago. They told us that: 1) not all members have internet access, so it would not be fair to all. 2) the software would be very expensive (hence, higher dues).

 

[timC]

I manage a team that builds ecommerce functionality for another majro corporation.... There's definately an ROI in investing in this stuff. Disney has always impressed me with the technology they've implemented to manage the world, and I'm shocked at how far behind the the member site has become.

Why is DVD not being given the budget it needs to build some real web capabilities for the members???

 

[EROS]

Originally posted by MdmMim
This was mentioned at the members' mtg a few weeks ago. They told us that: 1) not all members have internet access, so it would not be fair to all.

RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!! Most hotel chains, airlines,etc. maintain BOTH an on-line presence and a phone bank. DVC would certainly keep Member Services for those who did not have computer access. They could even limit on-line reservations to the same times that M.S. are open to prevent an unfair advantage to the Internet users.

As for the cost of software, it IS expensive. However, most American corporations have come to the conclusion that on-line access costs are more than covered by increased productivity and efficiency.

 

[DaveH]

I have a question that came to me from TimC's comment. Does Disney add any money to operating cost of DVC or is it just from sales and dues? Maybe Doc can help.

 

[RobDoc]

Does Disney add any money to operating cost of DVC or is it just from sales and dues?

Disney does not add anything for DVC expenses (or for any other division of the corp.). Any additional operating expense for DVC would have to come from member dues.

Nothing comes to DVC from sales either. DVD does not add any support to DVC- except for any subsidy contractually provided while a resort is still being sold (ie- VB).

All sales costs (advertising, sales incentives, promotional materials, cruise ball caps, etc.) are paid for by DVD- the developer. None of these costs are paid from our dues (even the expired park pass program).

Any expansion of the reservation component of DVC will likely be paid for from dues. DVC has been working on expanded web facilities for some time now, but has met resistance from within the company. I suspect that once (if/when) Disney expands it's reservation component, allowing on line reservations thru CRO, that DVC will be included in the mix and we will have that ability.

 

[EROS]

Thanks, DOC. When it comes to Disney's development of on-line reservation capability (for BOTH WDW resorts and DVC), the phrase SLOW AS MOLASSES seems to pertain . It isn't as if they're trying to write programming for a lunar landing ...............

 

[RobDoc]

<img src="http://www.wdwinfo.com/sites/rajah/mickeymoonsm.jpg">

 

[EROS]

 

[DaveH]

Thanks DOC. You are great with the info. take care of yourself too.

 

[Caskbill]

At the 9-13-01 members meeting, they stated that soon you would be able to check DVC room availability on the internet. That would be availability only, not ressies yet.

Even that I think would help cut down the 800# calls from people who are planning and just checking to see what's available. And those that call daily for a ressie, if they could see availability was wide open, might not call every day anymore.

The original post is here: http://64.225.125.24/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94795&highlight=meeting

My guess is (and it's just a guess) is that they are saying "Great, we've got these 200 or so computer nuts whom we monitor over on Pete Werner's boards who would actually use this, and 59,800 who will still call us on the phone, so why waste the investment ?".

While the number of DVC members who are active on this board is only a small fraction of 60,000 people, the number of people who have and use internet access is quite high, and if you consider the income level and interests of DVC members in general, I would bet that a very high percentage of this group has internet access.

 

[timC]

Any expansion of the reservation component of DVC will likely be paid for from dues. DVC has been working on expanded web facilities for some time now, but has met resistance from within the company.

Thanks Doc. This is starting to make sense. Adding the enhancements necessary to support on-line points processing is going to take $millions to build and maintain. That's a hefty investment for DVC, and if the management team is even a little conservative, I could see how they might take their time to make this decision.

Remember this would not be a standard reservartion system, that takes an on-line credit card booking. The DVC on-line system would need to access our points account and allow for inquiry of our point status; we may want to bollow points on-line to pay for our reservation (I'm an expert at this ), add days with a cash booking. Additionally, they would need to issue secure login accounts to members. I'd imagine they would use our member account numbers for this, but just the process of getting this set up and advertised is a project.

Probably the only thing that would be relatively straight forward would be "checking room availability".

This is going to involve a lot custom software development, and will need to be industrial strength. It would be a fun project for some consulting firm, but it certainly won't be cheap.