Does anyone else having DVC booking issues?

[vicki_c]

another concern that popped up,

"working the magic. " one observation when speaking with those
working @ dvc... is the fact they are owners themselves. there
have been many reporting guides helping them & getting revs.
that no one else could. wonder if anyone in dvc is monitoring
these "perks" ? [ owners working dvc for their benefits?]

i think the above effected us, based on some of the comments we
heard from m.s.. , & it is why i think owners should consider their
own "watchdog" group. that & some of the dvc workers
who are owners, are commenting here. also the asinine remarks i &
other owners have received. exactly "why" isn't dvc holding those
abusing dvc property responsible? together, i think they are telling
the real story.

I have seen you post this same kind of thought numerous times and I have to say I do not know what you are referring to and I read these boards every day. The only "magic" type reservations I ever see being referred to are when a new buyer makes their purchase contingent upon their guide getting them a reservation they want that is relatively short notice. As was stated elsewhere in the thread, there is DVC-owned inventory that they can do whatever they want with - since the members don't own it, we don't get a say. And sometimes they will let someone book it to make the sale - it's a sales tool and nothing more. The number of reservations booked that way would be an infinitesimal amount of all bookings - so tiny that it wouldn't even be noise in the numbers. And you get one chance at something like that - when you are buying - it's not some magic that guides work for their favorite owners on a regular basis.

As to DVC guides posting here that are also owners, if there are some, I don't know who they are nor have I ever seen anyone post anything that suggested they were a guide.

I don't know why you don't just sell your membership and be done with it instead of trying to make it better for everyone else with some entirely unneeded watchdog group.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Lil' Grumpy: A guide is just a salesperson. If what they tell you isn't already in writing, it doesn't amount to anything at all. If you thought the guide was your best buddy, that's just not the case. Once you make the original sale, you won't hear from them again until it's time to sell you more points. Or if you haven't bought any in a while, they'll contact you to see if you want more.

 

[PoohNFriends]

[/INDENT]from his explanation, over & over, his response/s were all the same. first, if one ever booked @ their home resort, "you" will never have a problem getting what you want. secondly, the way/s the system is design, "you" will always have alternatives , "rooms" to book, no matter "whenever" you decide to go. [ again &again , he went on to explain how this (dvc) was designed to ensurethis. ] . i believe him & still do.

PP's have already explained how members will have problems getting certain reservations - not enough rooms for every member to have a reservation at the same time. And words like never, always, no matter... are often key words to take note of - in this case how can a sales person predict that a room will always be available at a certain time? I think your best bet may be to read thru your member documents and follow-up with your guide to get clarification of membership features, because I believe I have also read posts where you feel a guide lied to you. And if your guide can't give you a clear answer that matches with the member docs then I would suggest you make a request to change guides.
To the OP, I also have no idea when my vacation is going to be for the next year until the very end of the previos year. We're new members but my plan is to make our reservations at the 11 or 7 month mark and hope the vacation matches. If not, we'll have to work on plan B when we get there...One thing mentioned here and I have learned on the boards is that a slow time a Disney tends to be a busy time for DVC because points tend to be lower in these during these times. Still surprised nothing was available when you called during that time, but hope something will come thru for you!

 

[tjkraz]

Buy where you love to stay so you have the 11 month advantage and book at 11 months. Anything less than 11 months and you run the risk of being disappointed.

As additional members are being added, booking at 7 months or less or booking at 11 months at a non-sold out resort will become more difficult, guaranteed.

Bill

I have to disagree with the "guaranteed" part. Availability will always be relative to member demand and demand will invariably shift as new resorts are added.

For instance, two years ago the program had 500 units at OKW and 800 units at SSR. You could make an argument that a significant portion of those owners were often trying to book the likes of BWV and BCV at 7 months. But today we now have AKV and BLT (among others) as new destinations. It is entirely possible that demand for BWV and BCV has gone DOWN as people are now drawn to newer destinations.

You can't simply conclude that non owners will continue to book a given resort in equal or greater numbers without considering how new alternatives will lessen that demand.

 

[crisi]

You can't simply conclude that non owners will continue to book a given resort in equal or greater numbers without considering how new alternatives will lessen that demand.

I think you can, but only for small supply, high demand rooms. No matter how many resorts we add, or what the demand is, Disney isn't going to add anything that stops making an OKW Grand Villa look very attractive to many members - both OKW owners and brand new BLT owners. A great new resort affects the math a little, but I modeled it years ago, and it really doesn't affect it significantly. And where the appeal remains, new members at a "typical" resort will add demand to high demand rooms.

 

[tjkraz]

I think you can, but only for small supply, high demand rooms. No matter how many resorts we add, or what the demand is, Disney isn't going to add anything that stops making an OKW Grand Villa look very attractive to many members - both OKW owners and brand new BLT owners. A great new resort affects the math a little, but I modeled it years ago, and it really doesn't affect it significantly. And where the appeal remains, new members at a "typical" resort will add demand to high demand rooms.

Oh I certainly agree that low supply accommodations like OKW grand villas, BWV standard view or AKV concierge will always be difficult. But whatever negative impact the 800 units at SSR may have had at the likes of BCV and BWV would stand to be mitigated to a degree by adding 800 units at AKV/BLT/VGC/tree houses.

 

[crisi]

Oh I certainly agree that low supply accommodations like OKW grand villas, BWV standard view or AKV concierge will always be difficult. But whatever negative impact the 800 units at SSR may have had at the likes of BCV and BWV would stand to be mitigated to a degree by adding 800 units at AKV/BLT/VGC/tree houses.

If there are 250 BCV owners at 10% of them want BLT, that's 25 open rooms at BCV and an increased demand of 25 rooms at BLT . If there are 800 BLT owners and 10% of them want BCV, that's 80 rooms open at BLT, but 80 rooms needed at BCV.

The idea that more resorts help only helps if the new resorts are SIGNIFICANTLY more appealing than - in this example - BCV. And it has to be pretty significant. Its pretty surprising how unbalanced demand need to be to make up for BCV being built so small.

 

[disneynutz]

What about all of the new owners buying where the purchase price is cheap like SSR and never wanting to stay there.

That's got to be the reason why OKW and SSR always seem to have availability.

Bill

 

[crisi]

What about all of the new owners buying where the purchase price is cheap like SSR and never wanting to stay there.

That's got to be the reason why OKW and SSR always seem to have availability.

Bill

When a resort (SSR) is eight times as large as another resort (VWL) SSR doesn't need to be knocked down as a "less desirable" resort or their owners as people who bought a resort they didn't intend to stay at in order to explain the issue - if ten percent of the members who own there want to switch, that's almost all the rooms VWL even has. If VWL hate their resort and half of them want to switch, that still isn't enough to fill the demand of the small 10% of SSRers. The system was just not set up to provide an equal supply regardless of the demand questions.

Does the demand then factor in - sure, but it isn't "the reason."