Cash vs Points BCV 2-BR Room Assignment Problem **UPDATED**

[Johnnie Fedora]

Well, we just returned from a 13 WDW vacation. All was well except for a BCV room assignment issue.

We spent our first 3 nights (Sun-Wed) at ASMo (Mighty Ducks), then moved to a 2-br BCV for 10 nights.

During our January vacation, we booked the first four nights (Wed-Sun) through CRO using the comeback rate that was offered at the time. The following six nights (Sun-Sat) were booked through MS. Of course, I knew there was a possibility that we would have to change rooms between the cash and points stay, but we were very thorough in our requests and indicated on both the CRO and MS reservations that we would be staying 10 nights part cash, part points. We also requested a lock-off, since it's been reported here that CRO 2-BR DVC units tend to be lock-offs and MS saves the dedicated 2-BR for members.

Well, you can guess what happened. When we checked in, there were only dedicated units available, and after our first four cash nights, we would have to move to a lock off we booked through MS. There was no way to keep us in the same room. The following morning, I called MS to see if they could help by changing our 6 night 2-BR lock off request to a 2-BR dedicated so we could stay in the same room. Jennifer at MS got on the phone to the BC desk and was able to fix the problem. We were thrilled and very pleased with MS, we would be able to stay in the dedicated unit for all ten nights, but would have to "check-in" again Sun morning for our points stay. We normally move several times during our vacations, but since we were traveling with 3 kids my mom and handicapped sister, we were looking forward to a long dream vacation.....you know......like the DVC channel talks about.

DW and I spent the next three days joking to each other about the fact that MS was closed on Sunday, and when this whole room issue feel apart, no one would be there to help us.

Well......you can guess what happened. When I toddled down to get our new keys, I received my new room assignment...down the hall. I had to move from one dedicated 2-BR to another dedicated 2-BR. This seemed totally ridiculous, and I just didn't get it, especially since both units were dedicated. And after all, MS told us the problem was fixed and we would not have to move. After seeing the 2nd dedicated 2-BR, I realized the issue, our first 2-BR had 2 queens, and the new decicated had a pull-out.

Normally, I roll with these things as I don't like to spend my vacation time stewing about how things went wrong. However, this time I did ask to speak to the desk manager. I needed a full explanation of how this happened, mostly because I want to know how not to book in the future. Shannon, was able to explain what went wrong, and that it was an error on their part, and they should have been able to match the CRO and MS reservations when assigning rooms. Shannon also did some vary nice things as compensation for our inconvinience of moving unexpectedly and for the loss of "park time". All in all, BC did a wonderful job of fixing a mix-up and making it up to us. Although, I still woulkd have prefered to stay in the same 2-BR for our entire stay, we were pleased with the treatment we received from the BC management. In the future if I book this way again, I will send a fax several days prior to arrival to request the CRO and MS reservations be linked. We didn't this time, because we didn't want to be the overly pesty DVCer who bugs the room assigner with the obvious requests we've already made.

Question: What could MS do to fix this in the future?

Answer: When a member is able to secure a better cash discount through CRO, and the 25% DVC member discount is available for the same timeframe through MS, MS should match the CRO discount. After all, why should a member pay more for DVC accomodations than a non-member. I attempted to get MS to match since we recieved a 40% discount through CRO, but when I checked with MS the only discount I could get was 25%, and MS wouldn't price match. Does this seem right? Matching the CRO discount whould have allowed us to book the entire stay through MS and really link our cash and points stay.

Just wanted to share with those who may want to book this way in the future...Johnnie

 

[DebbieB]

I had 2 cash nights at OKW last month followed by 5 points nights in a 1 bedroom. I had a 25% member discount, I could have got a 30% AP discount. When the AP discounts came out, I called member services and they would not match it and they said they could not guarantee we would not have to move. With the member discount rate, they would guarantee it plus it would be treated as 1 reservation, so we would not have to check-in again. It was only about $20 per night for 2 nights so I decided not to chance it and just left the member rate. With the member discount, we got keys and parking permit for the entire week, did not have to check in and out again. Part of the problem is that the member discount comes from the points pool while a CRO reservation comes from the non-points pool of rooms, so they will not link them. If it would have been a much better discount, I would have taken the chance. It was $270 vs $288 before tax.

 

[caskar]

I was facing the same problem with cash and points reservation. Annual pass is a better rate than DVC members discount but for about $20 more total for Friday and Saturday I was told I wouldn't have to change rooms or check out - check in. So - ok! I was happy about being able to tie everything together. It would be nice if DVC could connect the reservations using whatever is cheapest for the guest. Now if DVC discount wasn't avaliable I would have chanced it using annual pass rate!

 

[Terry S]

This is interesting. We have been told by other people here on the boards that they will not allow people paying on cash either from CRO or from MS to book those 2 bedroom dedicateds with 2 queen beds. We were told you could book a 2 bedroom dedicated on cash, just NOT the ones with 2 queen beds. The reason is that there are only 25 of those at BC and they were going to save those rooms for people who reserve them using points, kind of a little member perk. Well apparantly you were put in one with 2 queen beds while paying cash, I find that really interesting.

Anyway, what did Shannon say went wrong? And what did she suggest you do in the future? Sorry that you had to move, I know that is a real pain!

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

TerryS,

My guess is that the resort could make more money by splitting up the lock-offs into studios and 1-BRs. Therefore, since my 4 night cash reservation could only have lock-off as a request, it didn't have to be honored. They did have to honor my 6 nights in a lock-off booked through MS. (MS was able to change the lock off request to a dedicated request).

I can tell you that when we checked in, the only 2-BRs available were dedicated 2-BRs, but I didn't know the configuration of all of them (2 queen or sofa bed).

About the layout, the dedicated 2 queen room had a window instead of a balcony. The dedicated sofabed room had a balcony which could only be accessed it the bed was folded up. I see why they couldn't have converted all the dedicated rooms to the 2 queen configuration, as originally advertised. That has made booking and room assigning a more laborious task.

Shannon basically said we did all we could do in our request making, but that the request "noting continuation of a stay on points" appeared way down on the page (I'm assuming she means in the computer) and that the CM didn't scroll down far enough to notice it. She made it sound as if they could have honored the request if it would have been noticed at the time rooms were originally assigned. She also mentioned that WDW is phasing in a new program (Destination Disney?) that should make booking easier, and should help eliminate some of these glitches in their reservation systems.

Johnnie

 

[Dean]

Make sure this is listed as your first request as they only can see the first 3 or 4 easily and will go in order with priority for #1.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Thanks Dean,

It's good to know some of these inner working of the reservation system, we will definetly do that if we book like this again.

**Update 06/29/03**:
Well, I sent my comments off to MS last week, and received a phone call from Jackie at MS. She appologized for the problems I had, and said that she would be forwarding my "example" to a steering committee to work on. It was a good example of how Disney could do a better job between reservation systems.

She also told me that MS doesn't price match for members, although I know I've read that they have on the boards here. If you have any info on that, I'd love for you to post it. I told her that I thought MS should price match for members based senario in my above comments. All in all, the call was more of a courtesy, but I was surprised to receive a call rather than the canned e-mails I have received in the past. I hope it will lead to some positive changes for members, only time will tell.

Johnnie

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Bump...due to update above