Can't Pay for Best Rate!

[MNSusan]

Forgive me if this has been discussed already...

I booked two Best Rate rooms for November through Dreams Unlimited. This was right when the program began and I was happy with the rates. I put down the deposit on each room through the DU website. Wanting to pay the balance in full, I went to the DU website yesterday and put in the required information.

I received an email this morning from DU saying that Disney doesn't let you pay in full for the Best Rate program reservations. They'll only take the deposit and you must pay the balance when you check in.

On one hand, its no big deal, the money will be there in November. But I like to get my trip mostly paid for before we leave. It helps smooth out the finanical commitment and I don't have huge bills waiting for me when I get home.

I wonder what the thinking is behind this policy. Has anyone been able to pay for their reservation in full? Any insights??

 

[Melynny]

Could it be that if the "lowest general public rate", which is what you get when you reserve, lowers there would be issues with giving credit? I could see that some folks may want to get a refund if the price lowers even before they check in? Thats the only reason I can think of!

 

[EthansMom]

My understanding is that WDW is reserving the right to lower the prices on rooms booked with the Best Rate Program and they don't want people to pre-pay the rooms in full so that they don't have to issue a whole lot of refunds if they do lower the rate.

 

[tlbwriter]

What they said. Why not stash that money in savings, or even pre-pay your credit card, so the bill will be "mentally" paid even if it's not yet "physically" paid?

 

[sherry8253]

Forgive me if this has been discussed already...

I booked two Best Rate rooms for November through Dreams Unlimited. This was right when the program began and I was happy with the rates. I put down the deposit on each room through the DU website. Wanting to pay the balance in full, I went to the DU website yesterday and put in the required information.

I received an email this morning from DU saying that Disney doesn't let you pay in full for the Best Rate program reservations. They'll only take the deposit and you must pay the balance when you check in.

On one hand, its no big deal, the money will be there in November. But I like to get my trip mostly paid for before we leave. It helps smooth out the finanical commitment and I don't have huge bills waiting for me when I get home.

I wonder what the thinking is behind this policy. Has anyone been able to pay for their reservation in full? Any insights??

I always have paid our room off before we arrive. For some reason, it doesn't seem like you are paying as much if you pay it off in chunks over 3 or 4 months. I called CRO and asked them why I can't pay in advance for our best rate reservation and the CM said she didn't know why but she couldn't accept my payment. It is hard to believe Disney won't take my money in advance. Maybe they really are going to reduce room costs and don't want to have to deal with a bunch of refunds. But, Disney reducing room rates is almost harder to believe than the fact they won't take my money.

 

[srfrgrl07]

This has been mentioned before, but I'll add it to this thread. It is a system limitiation and any reservations booked online are only capable of accepting a one night deposit. You can't prepay the entire amount (or anything other than the deposit) online if you book anything except a package, since a package is required to be paid in advance. It's strictly technical, has nothing to do with disney wanting/not wanting your money in advance LOL.

 

[sherry8253]

I understand it is a system limitation. I am an IT project manager with a programming backround and I know if you are already set up to allow for something such as advance payments (in the case of packages) it should not be a major overhaul to allow room only bookings to make advanced payments. A company as large a Disney should be able to set up that type of system change. But then again when I think about the 'trash' their systems people have released several times over the last few years, I guess I can understand why they don't want to make a system change to allow people to pay (either on-line or by phone) in advance when they make an on-line reservation. Think of the amount of money Disney is losing by their on-line booking system not allowing pre-payment of the best rate and all of the other on-line room only reservation customers. They are now forcing AP people to book on-line. I am sure the interest they are losing by not accepting advance payments for all of their on-line bookings must be a huge chunk of change.

 

[ducklite]

Just buy travelers checks that will cover the balance and stash them away until you leave. No bills to come home to. Not sure what the big deal is...

Anne

 

[MNSusan]

This has been mentioned before, but I'll add it to this thread. It is a system limitiation and any reservations booked online are only capable of accepting a one night deposit. You can't prepay the entire amount (or anything other than the deposit) online if you book anything except a package, since a package is required to be paid in advance. It's strictly technical, has nothing to do with disney wanting/not wanting your money in advance LOL.

I've always been able to pay my room only reservation off before we arrive. Just returned Sunday from a trip that was booked online and paid off a few months ago. From what the TA told me, this seems to be part of the Best Rate program only.

ducklite, its not a big deal, just a surprise. Like I said the money'll be there in November, too.

 

[sherry8253]

Just buy travelers checks that will cover the balance and stash them away until you leave. No bills to come home to. Not sure what the big deal is...

Anne

It is not a big deal. I will have the money when I get there. It is just amazing to me that a company the size of Disney has a system that cannot allow for advance payments. The business I am involved has customers who make payments. My boss would not be happy if I told him my system would allow all who took out a loan on-line to only pay a set amount of money once a month because the loan was processed on line. But others who took out a loan by signing a paper note could pay could make multiple payments each month. I wouldn't have my job for very long. I am surprised that Disney does not have a better online system.

 

[Kmygrl73]

I think it is a big deal for some people. It is easier to pay for the resort ahead of time. You don't have to worry about saving money or having enough on your credit card. Some people don't have credit cards and don't have tons of money on vacation. It is easier for them to pay it ahead of time in installments or whatever. Some people aren't great at saving money. I know I don't like to use by debit /check card at hotels because everytime that I have made a payment to Disney , they always charge my card and also put a hold for the same amount. It takes a few days for the hold to come off and I am sure that I am not the only person that doesn't have that kind of money to be held on me. I need my funds to be available. It could be my bank but it has happened to me before. Right now we are saving the resort stay money in our credit union because we won't touch that and then we will just have to take it out when we get there and pay in cash. Do you know if you can pay with a check?

Thanks,
Kim

 

[jenelope]

I had a similar experience recently with a regular AP rate room only reservation (not Best Rate). I got a bonus at work and immediately zapped the money over to my credit card to pay off my reservation, and called CRO. Looked at my reservation on line and it showed a 0 balance. A couple of weeks later I was looking at my reservation online again and it showed the remaining 7 nights' balance again. I looked at my bank statement and, sure enough, Disney had returned the sum to my credit card. I called CRO to find out what had happened. After the agent had looked around for about ten minutes and finally asked her supervisor, the reason turned out to be simple- it was room only, can't prepay room only, attempt to do so got returned. I've since tucked away that credit card so that I won't use it until check-in. (35 days!)

So, it's not just you.

 

[SueEllen]

I think someone else here posted this, but any online bookings for Room Only reservations are limited to the deposit only. If you do happen to call and get a CM that takes the payment, Disney's system will refund it back to your card.

Regular bookings (through CRO) can still be prepaid as usual.

Strange, but it is the way the online system is set up.

Sue Ellen

 

[MNSusan]

Sue Ellen, I booked with Dreams Unlimited. Does that make a difference? I just returned from a trip with a room only reservation, booked through DU, and paid off way before we left. It sounded as though this was just with Best Rate. Guess not.

This really is no big deal, just a surprise. In six trips to WDW, this is the first one I haven't been able to pre pay.

 

[SueEllen]

Susan,
Only the ONLINE bookings for room only stays cannot be pre-paid (Best rate, or other room only online bookings)

Any reservation called in and booked with CRO can be prepaid before arrival.

Sue Ellen