Does anyone think there should be "home resort" member benefits?

[sethschroeder]

We weren't discussing pools and I never suggested that all resort amenities should be subject to identical rules.

One other thing what is the #1 reason why they don't allow pool hopping to Stormalong Bay? That is the same reasoning why to a tiny little benefit for those staying at the resort for restaurants.

 

[Deb & Bill]

...Parking at home resort, if staying on property without a limit might be the only thing I can think of that could possibly be done...subject to availability of course.

That would not work well at BLT, BWV, Polynesian and any resort next to theme parks with smaller parking lots that are already being used by non-paying guests.

 

[Chuck S]

I'm thinking all pool hopping is going to go the way of the dinosaurs anyway. It's just another door for communicable diseases to spread. And I doubt COVID will be the last pandemic we see in the next few years.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Then you give the resort owners and stayers to book prior to everyone else at 67 days vs 60 days right now. Again giving the advantage.

I bring up last minute reservations because that honestly is something Disney should be giving to those staying at resorts. You should not be needing to book a restaurant in your own hotel 180+days before your trip. Luckily its down to 60 days right now and hopefully that is a permanent change if not dropping it to 30 days or even 14 days.

I’m all for the shorter timeframe, but it should be done for everyone. Besides, what good would “one or two” reservations do?
DVC Members own the resorts, not the restaurants.

We have chatted about this before, and if you recall I am not a fan.

 

[sethschroeder]

I’m all for the shorter timeframe, but it should be done for everyone. Besides, what good would “one or two” reservations do?
DVC Members own the resorts, not the restaurants.

We have chatted about this before, and if you recall I am not a fan.

Ya you are not a fan because your local lol of course you won't be. Same with the person who plans every meal 180 days out won't be happy with short time frames because of slackers.

The point of just a couple reservations is that there is a chance to get a reservation without taking much inventory out of prebooking. You still give the prebookers most everything, you give locals a chance to book random nights anytime, and you give resorts guests a dedicated small pool of reservations to pull from.

Also the restaurant is part of the resort and MFs pay for the ground around the restaurant (likely not the restaurant themselves). It's also something likely low risk, low cost to be able to give as a benefit either to DVC or more likely just to resort guests in general as that last min reservation option to a select few.

Disney needs to decouple far in advance booking from resort specific food options.

 

[Fred M]

I'd be a fan of offering incentives when owners stay at their home resort, and not get into incentives because owners' own at a particular resort. The latter is going to be ripe for abuse.

I'm a planner, but I wouldn't mind X number of reservations for resort restaurants to be reserved for members using their points at their home resort. Or a commemorative pin when staying at your home resort (once per year). Or even reworking the points chart to decrease a home resort stay slightly and increasing a non-home resort stay slightly. It would make "home" feel a bit more special.

 

[Yinn]

Wait... are you saying you CAN'T do that????

Funny story about a VRBO I did...

I wish I was joking. Some people are weird.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Ya you are not a fan because your local lol of course you won't be. Same with the person who plans every meal 180 days out won't be happy with short time frames because of slackers.

The point of just a couple reservations is that there is a chance to get a reservation without taking much inventory out of prebooking. You still give the prebookers most everything, you give locals a chance to book random nights anytime, and you give resorts guests a dedicated small pool of reservations to pull from.

Also the restaurant is part of the resort and MFs pay for the ground around the restaurant (likely not the restaurant themselves). It's also something likely low risk, low cost to be able to give as a benefit either to DVC or more likely just to resort guests in general as that last min reservation option to a select few.

Disney needs to decouple far in advance booking from resort specific food options.

Quite frankly, even when I was not a local and was a Member I was never in favor of making dinner reservations that far in advance.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Ya you are not a fan because your local lol of course you won't be. Same with the person who plans every meal 180 days out won't be happy with short time frames because of slackers.

The point of just a couple reservations is that there is a chance to get a reservation without taking much inventory out of prebooking. You still give the prebookers most everything, you give locals a chance to book random nights anytime, and you give resorts guests a dedicated small pool of reservations to pull from.

Also the restaurant is part of the resort and MFs pay for the ground around the restaurant (likely not the restaurant themselves). It's also something likely low risk, low cost to be able to give as a benefit either to DVC or more likely just to resort guests in general as that last min reservation option to a select few.

Disney needs to decouple far in advance booking from resort specific food options.

All the Landry's restaurants have a VIP card. When you walk up to them, you get bumped to the top of the line if you have the card. I do not know how they handle it, but they do a very good job. I would prefer something like this with the on property restaurants and the guests at the resort. I imagine some study would have to be done first to make sure it could be accommodated, but I suspect that on average, not a ton of people eat on-site (a majority are usually eating in the parks). . I bet with proper planning, it could likely be handled.

But all of these ideas we are talking about are largely giving you an advantage in the resort you are staying at, or giving you a home resort advantage if you are NOT staying there. I thought the point of the thread is to give you a reason to stay at your home resort. That means it must be an advantage you only get when you are staying where you own?

 

[sethschroeder]

All the Landry's restaurants have a VIP card. When you walk up to them, you get bumped to the top of the line if you have the card. I do not know how they handle it, but they do a very good job. I would prefer something like this with the on property restaurants and the guests at the resort. I imagine some study would have to be done first to make sure it could be accommodated, but I suspect that on average, not a ton of people eat on-site (a majority are usually eating in the parks). . I bet with proper planning, it could likely be handled.

But all of these ideas we are talking about are largely giving you an advantage in the resort you are staying at, or giving you a home resort advantage if you are NOT staying there. I thought the point of the thread is to give you a reason to stay at your home resort. That means it must be an advantage you only get when you are staying where you own?

That might make sense on a way of doing things. Also with most people eating in parks that is how it really has to be since if you don't already have a reservation at most resorts you are not getting anything more than food court food. One exception to that I feel is Poly with their nachos and I know people love AKV but personally thought it was overrated (and a long hike from Kidani which is the main building for DVC).

Quite frankly, even when I was not a local and was a Member I was never in favor of making dinner reservations that far in advance.

I am completely on board with reducing reservations to only 25%-50% of the seating so that extreme planners can do their thing. Maybe they could do something like 50% at 60 days, 25% at 7 days, 25% day/night of.

 

[Yinn]

All the Landry's restaurants have a VIP card. When you walk up to them, you get bumped to the top of the line if you have the card. I do not know how they handle it, but they do a very good job. I would prefer something like this with the on property restaurants and the guests at the resort. I imagine some study would have to be done first to make sure it could be accommodated, but I suspect that on average, not a ton of people eat on-site (a majority are usually eating in the parks). . I bet with proper planning, it could likely be handled.

But all of these ideas we are talking about are largely giving you an advantage in the resort you are staying at, or giving you a home resort advantage if you are NOT staying there. I thought the point of the thread is to give you a reason to stay at your home resort. That means it must be an advantage you only get when you are staying where you own?

There are still some that are difficult to get. Ohana, Artist Point, Victoria & Alberts. Then there's the question of - how do you give priority over cash paying resort guests since these aren't DVC only properties.

 

[Sandisw]

There are still some that are difficult to get. Ohana, Artist Point, Victoria & Alberts. Then there's the question of - how do you give priority over cash paying resort guests since these aren't DVC only properties.

I think that is why there would be no way to give DVC owners benefits for eating at restaurants simply because they own there

In many of the shared resorts, DVC has fewer guest rooms than cash resorts. Since these are not part of DVC I think it would be hard to justify it, especially when many places have no issues filling up with guests...prior to this of course,

 

[CanadaDisney05]

What is the goal that we are trying to accomplish with all of these ideas?

To promote booking your home resort? Why does anyone care?
To get more free things? I'm always down to receive free stuff, but who is paying for this?
To instill pride in your home resort? Again, who cares?

I love the idea of brainstorming ways to make DVC better, but in order to have a real discussion, I think we need to address what goal we are trying to accomplish. Once we understand that, then it is easier to come up with strategies to achieve that goal, and evaluate them.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

In many of the shared resorts, DVC has fewer guest rooms than cash resorts. Since these are not part of DVC I think it would be hard to justify it, especially when many places have no issues filling up with guests...prior to this of course,

Why differentiate? Why not something more general - priority seating for ANY guest staying at the hotel that the restaurant is tied to (whether cash or DVC). Just as a course of business.

What is the goal that we are trying to accomplish with all of these ideas?

To promote booking your home resort? Why does anyone care?
To get more free things? I'm always down to receive free stuff, but who is paying for this?
To instill pride in your home resort? Again, who cares?

I was under the impression from the OP that it was to promote booking in your home resort. As I said earlier in the thread, I am split fence on the idea.

I think it would be a good idea to promote booking your home resort because it might help to ease some of the jam in the system. Honestly your home resort should mean more than the cost of maintenance points, when the term is up and a 3 month booking advantage. But I doubt any of these suggestions would matter. A bonus to staying in your resort wouldn't fix anything, because if your resort is busy you will still seek another hotel. What would really matter is not honey to bring you to your resort, but vinegar to prevent you from going elsewhere, and that would be bad for a number of reasons (especially since it's against our contracts!).

And I do not want vinegar to stop me from booking somewhere else since I want to (on occasion) see all the resorts. That's part of the fun of DVC.

So in the end, I guess I am missing an end goal for this conversation.

 

[Yinn]

Why differentiate? Why not something more general - priority seating for ANY guest staying at the hotel that the restaurant is tied to (whether cash or DVC). Just as a course of business.



I was under the impression from the OP that it was to promote booking in your home resort. As I said earlier in the thread, I am split fence on the idea.

I think it would be a good idea to promote booking your home resort because it might help to ease some of the jam in the system. Honestly your home resort should mean more than the cost of maintenance points, when the term is up and a 3 month booking advantage. But I doubt any of these suggestions would matter. A bonus to staying in your resort wouldn't fix anything, because if your resort is busy you will still seek another hotel. What would really matter is not honey to bring you to your resort, but vinegar to prevent you from going elsewhere, and that would be bad for a number of reasons (especially since it's against our contracts!).

And I do not want vinegar to stop me from booking somewhere else since I want to (on occasion) see all the resorts. That's part of the fun of DVC.

So in the end, I guess I am missing an end goal for this conversation.

I took it as the OP just wanted to feel special about their home, not necessarily to promote booking there. To give a sense of “exclusivity” at ones home resort. Idk that opening up the perk to all guests staying there would necessarily help with making a DVC home resort feel more exclusive.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I took it as the OP just wanted to feel special about their home, not necessarily to promote booking there. To give a sense of “exclusivity” at ones home resort. Idk that opening up the perk to all guests staying there would necessarily help with making a DVC home resort feel more exclusive.

I find this wrong on so many levels. (The premise, not your assumption)

 

[Sandisw]

Why differentiate? Why not something more general - priority seating for ANY guest staying at the hotel that the restaurant is tied to (whether cash or DVC). Just as a course of business.



I was under the impression from the OP that it was to promote booking in your home resort. As I said earlier in the thread, I am split fence on the idea.

I think it would be a good idea to promote booking your home resort because it might help to ease some of the jam in the system. Honestly your home resort should mean more than the cost of maintenance points, when the term is up and a 3 month booking advantage. But I doubt any of these suggestions would matter. A bonus to staying in your resort wouldn't fix anything, because if your resort is busy you will still seek another hotel. What would really matter is not honey to bring you to your resort, but vinegar to prevent you from going elsewhere, and that would be bad for a number of reasons (especially since it's against our contracts!).

And I do not want vinegar to stop me from booking somewhere else since I want to (on occasion) see all the resorts. That's part of the fun of DVC.

So in the end, I guess I am missing an end goal for this conversation.

The thread is about giving DVC owners benefits at their home resort whether staying there or not so my response was based on that.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

I took it as the OP just wanted to feel special about their home, not necessarily to promote booking there. To give a sense of “exclusivity” at ones home resort.

The thread is about giving DVC owners benefits at their home resort whether staying there or not so my response was based on that.

Yup. I re-read the initial post, and you are correct - the OP was clear that it was about giving you benefits at your home regardless of whether or not you are staying there. For example, "pool hopping because you pay for it anyway" which is unfortauntely not entirely accurate (or is only partly accurate). .

 

[CanadaDisney05]

Why do we care where other people book? If most people book at their home resort, that doesn't make it easier for other's to switch because the home resorts will be booked up. If most people book other resorts, the resorts will also be booked up. So I guess I don't understand the goal of promoting home resort booking.

Why do we care about home resort pride? I mean, I guess it could be fun for some people like cheering on a local sports team? I don't know how having extra perks provides much in the way of team pride, but sure.....

Where I do think extra home resort benefits could play a factor is in resale value. If a certain home resort has better advantages than another, that increases the perceived value of owning at that home resort vs another. For example (I know this is probably not possible, but it's just for illustration purposes), if you were allowed to pool hop at your home resort even if you are not staying there, I believe having Sleep Around Points at Beach Club would be more desirable than it currently is. This would increase the demand from the SAP crew for Beach Club ownership, and therefore decrease demand for SSR ownership from the same group. Beach Club resale value goes higher. SSR resale value goes lower. As a SSR owner of SAP, this is not something I would be in favor of.

I also think there is a logistical issue with this whole thing. You would have to have a minimum ownership stake in the resort to have access to these perks. I don't think you want someone with a small 25 point contract at the resort just for the purpose of getting better access.

 

[Yinn]

I also think there is a logistical issue with this whole thing. You would have to have a minimum ownership stake in the resort to have access to these perks. I don't think you want someone with a small 25 point contract at the resort just for the purpose of getting better access.

What if we based it on percentage of ownership? 25 points is 0.0001% of ownership. So you only get 10 seconds at SAB dedicated. If you want an hour, you’ll need to purchase 10,000 points. Problem solved.