Can't modify an existing resort reservation!!!

[pooch]

Yup, any day with the DD's is a good day. 45 days til a week with mine!

 

[X and G's mom]

I called last Thursday to drop off the last 2 nights from my reservation and the CM had to put in a special ticket...... They said I would hear within 24 hours and they would email me if they could not do this.......
Well, it still isn't done No email either!

I couldn't get the extra 2 days off work.......

ETA: I called back and the CM helped me through guest services! All fixed!

 

[X and G's mom]

It doesn't make sense, but it is the way booking works with Disney now. It isn't easy to remove a night from a reservation. It has to go through paperwork channels and be 'approved' or 'declined'. I have had to change resorts because it was declined to have a day at the end of my stay removed. It is crazy - you have to book rooms early to get availability, but then if you can't get flights or if work/family issues arise, you can't go for a shorter trip anymore.

Used to be you could go as long as you had the nights booked - now not so much!

How did you know it was 'declined'????

 

[nkereina]

Back in March/April, we added two nights to the front of our August reservation with no issue like this. It was a package and I was not able to do it online, but I called and the phone agent handled it quickly and easily. So not sure if this is something new since the spring or what. I can understand why they'd make it difficult for someone to shorten their stay, so as to discourage it, but if they are just altering dates for the same number of nights or making their stay longer, I would think it would be a simple process!

 

[Babsy]

How did you know it was 'declined'????

IIRC, The CM told me on the telephone that the reservation couldn't be changed because it wan't available for my dates. I was able to book a different resort for my shorter dates, but couldn't get the shorter stay approved by GS for the original resort (even though I already had all the days plus one already booked).

 

[tzolkin]

Back in March/April, we added two nights to the front of our August reservation with no issue like this. It was a package and I was not able to do it online, but I called and the phone agent handled it quickly and easily. So not sure if this is something new since the spring or what. I can understand why they'd make it difficult for someone to shorten their stay, so as to discourage it, but if they are just altering dates for the same number of nights or making their stay longer, I would think it would be a simple process!

The issue is that they can/will only make the change if there is availability for your entire stay. So, if you were staying 6 nights and wanted to add two, they look up the entire "new" 8 night stay and then reserve it. (It doesn't take into account that one of those booked rooms is the one YOU already have reserved)

Where people are having issues is when one or more days during their stay has no availability at that resort. You were just lucky that your dates were not full.

For example, my November dates are completely booked (holiday weekend), but I wanted to add on Wednesday to the beginning of my stay. There were plenty of rooms available on Wednesday, but nothing available when they look up the entire Wed-Mon stay. You would think they would love to have those rooms not sit empty on Wed, and would allow me to add to my existing reservation but they would not. I was actually tempted to not even book it at all due to their policy (it will be a hassle if I have to check out on Thursday morning and then move to another room later that day).

It honestly makes absolutely no sense.

 

[mom2rtk]

IIRC, The CM told me on the telephone that the reservation couldn't be changed because it wan't available for my dates. I was able to book a different resort for my shorter dates, but couldn't get the shorter stay approved by GS for the original resort (even though I already had all the days plus one already booked).

The issue is that they can/will only make the change if there is availability for your entire stay. So, if you were staying 6 nights and wanted to add two, they look up the entire "new" 8 night stay and then reserve it. (It doesn't take into account that one of those booked rooms is the one YOU already have reserved)

Where people are having issues is when one or more days during their stay has no availability at that resort. You were just lucky that your dates were not full.

For example, my November dates are completely booked (holiday weekend), but I wanted to add on Wednesday to the beginning of my stay. There were plenty of rooms available on Wednesday, but nothing available when they look up the entire Wed-Mon stay. You would think they would love to have those rooms not sit empty on Wed, and would allow me to add to my existing reservation but they would not. I was actually tempted to not even book it at all due to their policy (it will be a hassle if I have to check out on Thursday morning and then move to another room later that day).

It honestly makes absolutely no sense.

Yes, it does appear that instead of changing your reservation they are doing it if there is another whole reservation available. I know when I needed to drop my day, my TA had to completely rebook, subject to availability, which meant the river view was no longer an option. We got a room, just not the same one. I watched for days after that to see if the one I released showed back up but was never able to see it.

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, it's now 48 hrs, and no word on whether or not I can drop those first two days. I could understand if I wanted to add to the reservation, but evidently it's now just as hard to drop days!! Oh well.....now I'll need to try to figure out new plans.

 

[hsmamato2]

So, I have two room only reservations...one for me, one for my dd. We were supposed to arrive on Oct 30, but our plans have changed, and we need to arrive Nov 1. We are there until Nov 5. I tried modifying it online, nope, that didn't work. So, I called yesterday. The CM couldn't change it either....after a 25 min on hold! He said he would transfer me to GS, but it would be at least a 30 min wait. I couldn't do that, so he said to call first thing in the morning. Okay, I did that. I called at 7:02. Okay, got through quickly. BUT...I was told that they couldn't modify my reservation either! The CM, somewhat rudely, told me that she needed to fill out a form, for each of the two reservations, asking for a change in arrival date, and those forms would then be submitted to yet another dept!!! I asked her why this was so hard to do...I hadn't used any special code or discounted rates, I was paying standard rack rate. She said something about it being outside the 30 day window? What? So, she said I would hear from the other dept within 24 hrs. When I told her that I was very frustrated, and that if I couldn't change my arrival date, I was afraid that when I didn't checkin on Oct 30, my reservations would be cancelled and when I did arrive on Nov 1, there would be no beds for us!!! She didn't seem very concerned at all. Then told me there was a survey at the end of the call and that if I needed to make any resort or dining reservation changes, I could do so by going to MDE and modifying there!! Seriously? Hadn't I just told her I was unable to do that?
Anyway....my point in posting is to see if anyone else has had a similar experience. I've always been able to change my reservation, with no problem. I could understand if I was trying to move to a different resort, but I'm just trying to drop the first two nights of a six night stay. Anyone else experienced this or am I just unlucky???

I started a thread here somewhere about the MDE glitching the same day...it started with me trying to help my Dsis alter her res. too..... no go. among other issues,I really,really hate the whole MDE and Disney IT hasn't improved over the years I've been forced to use it.

 

[DrankTheKool-Aid]

I think the same thing may just have happened to me. I started looking for resorts about 9 months out and when I noticed our top two resort/room type combos did not have any availability for our week (mid-April). I settled on our third choice and booked a preferred pool view room at Pop. SW did not have flight information available that far out so I added a couple extra days to each end of our week until I could schedule our flights.

Now that our flights are booked I tried to go online and drop three nights we no longer need. The system would not allow the change and showed my only option was to rebook with one of the standard room choices. I then tried to call and was told they had to submit a form and I'd receive an email within 48 hours. I received an email this afternoon that was a confirmation screen of my original reservation (the dates were not changed). There was not any mention of the date change request so I'm not sure if this was the discussed email communication and it means the request was denied?

I'm still over 180 days out (so I'm not trying to scam the system and get a head start on ADR or FP reservations) so it seems crazy to me that I cannot take the extra days off as they have almost 7 months to fill the room. I think their claim that you can cancel or modify your reservation until 30 days before is a little misleading as it doesn't seem like you actually have a "modify" option.

 

[goofy4tink]

Well, I wasn't at the 30 day window when I started trying to do this two weeks ago. I will be tomorrow. When I called, to try to drop the days, I asked why this was now so difficult to do. The CM said something about not being at the 30 day window yet. She was pretty difficult to understand, and extremely curt. So, it looks like I'm staying in a room, and dd is staying in a room, for two nights that we didn't want. It is what it is. Instead of staying with family and enjoying the time together, Music will be our base and I'll just have to drive around.

 

[DrankTheKool-Aid]

Well, I wasn't at the 30 day window when I started trying to do this two weeks ago. I will be tomorrow. When I called, to try to drop the days, I asked why this was now so difficult to do. The CM said something about not being at the 30 day window yet. She was pretty difficult to understand, and extremely curt. So, it looks like I'm staying in a room, and dd is staying in a room, for two nights that we didn't want. It is what it is. Instead of staying with family and enjoying the time together, Music will be our base and I'll just have to drive around.

If you're close to the 30 day mark maybe there will be some cancellations resulting in more availability for your shorter reservation. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you

 

[goofy4tink]

Well. I woke up this morning, and lo and behold, my reservation has been changed to Nov 1-5!!! Thank you Disney! I have to wonder if it's the 30 day mark that makes a difference, since that would be today. In any case, I'm very happy now. Wish I hadn't had to go through what I went through, but all's well that end's well I guess.

 

[writerguyfl]

Hello, folks. What's being described in this thread is known as Revenue Management. It's the process hotels use to maximize their profit by ensuring their rooms are as full as possible. It's something that's used in a wide variety of industries. I spent many years working as a hotel Revenue Manager.

And yeah I've been reading reports of this difficulty for over a year.

And now universal is doing the same thing, fwiw.

Regular mainstream hotels (like Hiltons, Hyatts, Marriotts, etc) have been adhering to the policies that Disney just started using for decades. Everything described in this thread were things we did back in the late 90s when I worked in hotels.

I totally understand why some people are upset at Disney for making this change. If it helps, consider the fact that Disney has been overly nice with it comes to reservation modifications for literally decades.

When people started posting about this over a year ago my theory was that Disney's bean crunchers had spotted a source of lost revenue - late partial cancellations leaving orphan rooms - and they changed the policy to plug that hole.

Over the past 3-5 years, Disney has been slowly integrating hospitality industry best practices to their resort operations. For example, the "Express Fresh" room service menu and offers of gift cards to guest who decline Housekeeping are copies of programs run by Marriott and Starwood hotels.

I haven't researched it, but I imagine the person who current runs the Resorts Division probably came from of the major hotel brands. She or he probably pushed to change from the mindset that "Disney's always done it this way" to "let's try something new."

It honestly makes absolutely no sense.

As I wrote, I spent years working in Revenue Management. Keep in mind this is all computerized. The software does more calculations in a minute than a human can do in a day. It sees patterns that we can't. For the most part, the software is smarter than us. In my experience, it only fumbles when something really unusual happens: a sudden weather event, an airline strike, or a terrorist action.

Sometimes, the recommendations won't make sense. Good revenue management software will provide explanations as to why the recommendation is being made. Without access to proprietary information, you can't really know what's happening.

Also, you have to consider the fact that the software is looking at the big picture. Sometimes it's worth losing money on a single reservation if that action means making more money on a different one.

 

[tjmw2727]

This doesn't explain why I can't get a three night reservation for the dates I choose but I can get a "two night and a one night" as well as 3 separate one night reservations..... same dates, same party size and same resort choice and booking category. If I book the three separate stays that would mean triple housekeeping for them if I have to change rooms.

Hello, folks. What's being described in this thread is known as Revenue Management. It's the process hotels use to maximize their profit by ensuring their rooms are as full as possible. It's something that's used in a wide variety of industries. I spent many years working as a hotel Revenue Manager.



Regular mainstream hotels (like Hiltons, Hyatts, Marriotts, etc) have been adhering to the policies that Disney just started using for decades. Everything described in this thread were things we did back in the late 90s when I worked in hotels.

I totally understand why some people are upset at Disney for making this change. If it helps, consider the fact that Disney has been overly nice with it comes to reservation modifications for literally decades.



Over the past 3-5 years, Disney has been slowly integrating hospitality industry best practices to their resort operations. For example, the "Express Fresh" room service menu and offers of gift cards to guest who decline Housekeeping are copies of programs run by Marriott and Starwood hotels.

I haven't researched it, but I imagine the person who current runs the Resorts Division probably came from of the major hotel brands. She or he probably pushed to change from the mindset that "Disney's always done it this way" to "let's try something new."



As I wrote, I spent years working in Revenue Management. Keep in mind this is all computerized. The software does more calculations in a minute than a human can do in a day. It sees patterns that we can't. For the most part, the software is smarter than us. In my experience, it only fumbles when something really unusual happens: a sudden weather event, an airline strike, or a terrorist action.

Sometimes, the recommendations won't make sense. Good revenue management software will provide explanations as to why the recommendation is being made. Without access to proprietary information, you can't really know what's happening.

Also, you have to consider the fact that the software is looking at the big picture. Sometimes it's worth losing money on a single reservation if that action means making more money on a different one.

 

[Upatnoon]

Perhaps the software has discovered that people who book 2 night or 1 night reservations spend more than people who book 3 night reservations.

They've been harvesting data off those magic bands for years now, so it wouldn't surprise me they have crunched those numbers. With today's computing power and AI, they could use all kinds of techniques to maximize the revenue for their rooms. Less-profitable potential guests find "nothing available" while profitable one will find plenty of rooms.

Thus, rooms are available for these "more profitable" stays, while not available for the others.

Another benefit for Disney limited availability is creating the illusion of scarcity, allowing them to drive up prices. In the cruise industry, it used to be common practice to cut cabin rates at the last second to fills ships. Now some cruise lines are letting the rooms go vacant to protect their pricing, even if it means they may not make as much money on a certain cruise. Overall, it's more profitable.

When you combine bean counters with super computers, the end result may not be great for consumers.

This doesn't explain why I can't get a three night reservation for the dates I choose but I can get a "two night and a one night" as well as 3 separate one night reservations..... same dates, same party size and same resort choice and booking category. If I book the three separate stays that would mean triple housekeeping for them if I have to change rooms.

 

[tjmw2727]

Another interesting perspective! I still think its a glitch though especially when you can call and get the three days as one reservation instead - I just didn't have the time for a one hour phone call. For me it was easier just to pop over to the SPG website and book my room - and my sister in laws room at the Dolphin. So even though my 3 night stay (x2 rooms) didn't seem profitable enough (accd to your scenario) now they lost 6 nights revenue.

Perhaps the software has discovered that people who book 2 night or 1 night reservations spend more than people who book 3 night reservations.

They've been harvesting data off those magic bands for years now, so it wouldn't surprise me they have crunched those numbers. With today's computing power and AI, they could use all kinds of techniques to maximize the revenue for their rooms. Less-profitable potential guests find "nothing available" while profitable one will find plenty of rooms.

Thus, rooms are available for these "more profitable" stays, while not available for the others.

Another benefit for Disney limited availability is creating the illusion of scarcity, allowing them to drive up prices. In the cruise industry, it used to be common practice to cut cabin rates at the last second to fills ships. Now some cruise lines are letting the rooms go vacant to protect their pricing, even if it means they may not make as much money on a certain cruise. Overall, it's more profitable.

When you combine bean counters with super computers, the end result may not be great for consumers.

 

[Haley R]

Could be! I know lots of people that do that. And it could look like that's why I booked the way I did. I have nothing booked with Disney (dining or FPs) until Nov 1!! But we were arriving late on the 30th (9:30pm) and were supposed to head to US/IoA the next day...my younger dd works over there, so thought it would be fun to spend the day in the parks there with her, if she could get the day off!!
But, lots of people do just that...book a few days early in order to get a jump on dining and FPs!! Then try to dump those first few days. Dang, I never thought of that!!! That's probably why they're changing things up.

I've never heard this before, but it makes me kind of sad that people would work the system this way. We usually aren't able to afford a long trip at Disney so sometimes don't get a great chance at ADR and FP.

 

[writerguyfl]

This doesn't explain why I can't get a three night reservation for the dates I choose but I can get a "two night and a one night" as well as 3 separate one night reservations..... same dates, same party size and same resort choice and booking category. If I book the three separate stays that would mean triple housekeeping for them if I have to change rooms.

As I stated, without access to proprietary information, there's no way to explain a specific situation.

It could very well be the scenario that Upatnoon describes. It could be a mistake, as even revenue management software isn't 100% correct 100% of the time. It's based on social science principles, not hard science. As such, there's always going to be some guesswork involved.

Even with the recent advances in computer processing power, hotel revenue management recommendations aren't done in real time. Typically, the software will do a complete run over night, while the reservations systems are offline. Then, smaller and more concentrated processing is done at intervals during the day. As such, weird situations like what you describe are more likely to happen just before an update. So it's possible that the issue could have resolved itself in a few hours.

Like anything that involves humans, it's not a perfect system. It never will be, either.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

The Disney systems stink in all regards, it doesn't enhance revenue if they drive their customers away. I've had issues using MDE every day for the past week, it works to book one adr, then boom, stitch is back and ate my page again. It's ridiculous.