Disney Hotel Reservations/waiting list?

[miko]

For those of you that don't remember, Disney used to have a "waiting list" for hotel reservations, especially when there were only 3 hotels on site. During the early years it was absolutely mandatory to plan a year in advance or so or risk not getting to stay on property. They established a waiting list that you could ask to be place on and if openeings became available for your selected dates you would be contacted and offered opportunity to reserve the room. I was on the list several times and always got the location (Poly in early-mid 70's) albeit sometimes only a few weeks before the planned date.
Do you think reinstituting the wait list philosophy would help prevent the overbooking issue discussed here and on the resorts board?
I think it would help and not be needed too often since the WDW properties do not sell out that frequently.

 

[LindaG4458]

I remember the waiting list. The once or twice that I used it I did manage to get my preferrred dates and hotels. When it was discontinued I asked why. The reservations agent said that people ASSUMED (you know what that means) that they would get the requested dates and hotels. If, for some reason, the accomodations did not become available, guests became abusive and the old entitlement mentality came into play.

I don't think the wait list will solve the overbooking problems. If anything, guests seem to feel more entitled now than in the past.

Linda

 

[miko]

I remember the waiting list. The once or twice that I used it I did manage to get my preferrred dates and hotels. When it was discontinued I asked why. The reservations agent said that people ASSUMED (you know what that means) that they would get the requested dates and hotels. If, for some reason, the accomodations did not become available, guests became abusive and the old entitlement mentality came into play.

I can't argue about the "attitude" however a wait list did not require a deposit and you did not think you had a confirmed reservation. You could "ASSUME" whatever you liked but you never had a confirmation number in any format.
I was actually told that the list was discontinued becaue it could be "evluated" and sometimes subject to "bumping" for special guests.

 

[Eeyore1954]

Originally posted by miko
Do you think reinstituting the wait list philosophy would help prevent the overbooking issue discussed here and on the resorts board?

If they implemented something like this for peak times or had it available when a resort began to reach capacity, it might help. But the responsibility really lies with each resort general manager to keep close tabs on their projected capacity. It appears to me that someone at the Poly fell down on their job, because this is a rare occurrence at WDW.

 

[disneychrista]

I do not think a wait list would help, it would just make it harder on the poor reservation folks. If you want a room on property and you can't get it your first try, book something else and then call back periodically and see if it is available. While I understand it being "standard practice" at my places, imo if you only have 1500 room then you book for 1500 rooms.

 

[grinningghost]

With all the hotel choices on WDW property now, I don't think it's really necessary. Sometimes I think they have too many rooms. But a friend of mine did have to book a room at ASMu instead of ASMo due to it being full. So I guess it does still happen sometimes.

 

[safetymom]

I think they should allow one reservation per family. I read so many people holding several reservations on these boards. It must make it very hard for WDW to accurately gauge when so many of the reservations will be canceled.

 

[DawnCt]

Originally posted by safetymom
I think they should allow one reservation per family. I read so many people holding several reservations on these boards. It must make it very hard for WDW to accurately gauge when so many of the reservations will be canceled.

Do you mean one room per family or not allow one family to book a room in every hotel on property until they make up their minds or the discount comes through?

 

[safetymom]

not allow one family to book a room in every hotel on property until they make up their minds or the discount comes through?

That is exactly what I mean. I can understand large parties that may need several reservations but I don't understand the need to hold several reservations until the price is what you think it should be.

 

[DawnCt]

Originally posted by safetymom
That is exactly what I mean. I can understand large parties that may need several reservations but I don't understand the need to hold several reservations until the price is what you think it should be.

When that happens, the price often doesn't reach the level we hope it will be because Disney assumes that all of the rooms or the bulk of them are reserved and so they don't "need" to lower prices to attract more guests. Everyone looses.

 

[safetymom]

Dawn I agree with you. By holding several reservations and waiting to see if their will be codes or specials guests are artifically inflating the occupancy levels of the resorts.

I am sure that Disney figures on some of this but I can see why Disney doesn't jump to issue codes, etc. when looking at the reservations it looks like they are going to have lots of rooms filled.

 

[Galahad]

But the responsibility really lies with each resort general manager to keep close tabs on their projected capacity

I believe that WDW doesn't manage reservations at the resort level, but at a central reservations level. I think, if I remember right, that capacity managment is done at a central level as well. If the Poly's numbers were mismanaged, I'd think it was central reservations that mismanaged it.

 

[Eeyore1954]

Originally posted by Galahad
I believe that WDW doesn't manage reservations at the resort level, but at a central reservations level. I think, if I remember right, that capacity managment is done at a central level as well. If the Poly's numbers were mismanaged, I'd think it was central reservations that mismanaged it.

Thank you. I sit corrected.

 

[mrsltg]

I believe that WDW doesn't manage reservations at the resort level, but at a central reservations level. I think, if I remember right, that capacity managment is done at a central level as well. If the Poly's numbers were mismanaged, I'd think it was central reservations that mismanaged it.

Ok, lemme ask something. How does a hotel become overbooked? Assuming the Poly has 100 rooms, wouldn't the computers only be able to fill 100 slots per day? How does this happen? I am really confused on this issue.

On to the OP - I'm not sure how well waiting lists would work nowadays. Being that WDW has 19(?) resorts, would they really need the waiting lists enough to warrant a change to their computer systems and staff to manage the lists?

Erin

 

[Eeyore1954]

I don't claim to understand it, but I think hotels operate the same way airlines do. They don't book exactly to the number of rooms available. Both have to take into account cancellations and no-shows. If they book strictly to the number of rooms or seats available, they could end up with empty seats/rooms. So they anticipate a certain number or % of no-shows/cancels and then overbook to compensate.

It's a somewhat educated gamble on their part that sometimes can bite them on their tush. From what I've been told, they'd rather have too many guests or passengers than too few. An empty room or seat is money lost, never to be recovered.

I'm sure someone else can explain it better than this.

 

[safetymom]

Eeyore1954, I think you explained it well. The hotel or CRO may think they are at 100% based on reservations. They know that some may not show up so they overbook. It makes sense to me. If I was running a hotel I would want to see people in all my rooms not just in the computer where the number don't reflect the fact that some people are holding several reservations.

 

[Mainebound]

Originally posted by grinningghost
With all the hotel choices on WDW property now, I don't think it's really necessary. Sometimes I think they have too many rooms. But a friend of mine did have to book a room at ASMu instead of ASMo due to it being full. So I guess it does still happen sometimes.

FYI: On our trip to AKL in March we were told by a CM that whole sections of that hotel (i.e. floors) and others get closed to save money in slower times and/or to encourage guests to book elsewhere (for what reason I don't know). The Unofficial Guide and other guides online also suggest that when we are told a hotel is "full" or "being renovated" this is often not technically true, but is a sort of code for this sort of cost cutting. It's hard to know what is up with Disney sometimes!!

By the way, re: a waiting list, I love these discussions of the old days and ways at WDW!

 

[AlisonY2K]

By the way, re: a waiting list, I love these discussions of the old days and ways at WDW!

I would if people would understand what worked back then doesn't work now, simply because of the number of people passing through on a daily basis now compared with then.

I'm all for the "entitlement" crowd to have to room at a budget resort. Might make them more humble.

"no coffee for you!"

 

[miko]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, re: a waiting list, I love these discussions of the old days and ways at WDW!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I would if people would understand what worked back then doesn't work now, simply because of the number of people passing through on a daily basis now compared with then.


Technology has increased a hundred fold since the "old days" and so has staffing. To just point blank say that something from the past could not work now may not be true. I will agree that resurecting some things from the past might be costly and not have much roi, but any 21st century premier company can certainly "handle" the loads.

 

[ljfkgf]

I never knew they had a waiting list for reservations. For the first 24 years that we visited, we stayed off property. My grand-mother lived in Florida. In any case, we received a call 28 days before our up-coming trip, (November 4th!!!), telling us that we were being bumped for three of our six nights at the Poly. I was told that the list of 150 people who were being bumped came from "revenue management". The hotel manager from the Poly said the hotels do not receive the actual reservation information for their guests until 7 days prior to arrival. Everything is handled through the Central Reservations Office. I agree with several others that there are far too many people who book more than one hotel, with the hopes of obtaining AP or other discounts. This does give the hotels a false sense of being booked, so why would they bother to release AP or other discounts? I'm not sure why Disney can't see these duplicate reservations with their hi-tech computers. All of these people can't be using other names for the duplicate reservations. It would make more sense to me for Disney to call these duplicate reservation people and ask them to choose a hotel or risk all of their reservations, then to have to call people with legitimate confirmed reservations for one hotel and tell them that they have to go somewhere else because the hotel is over-booked. The guy who called to bump us used the analogy of Disney being like the airlines - they're just trying to make sure that they operate at maximum capacity. Someone royally screwed up this year for the month of November. With so much Disney magic, I can't see how that happened. Linda