DVC Availability Checker

[hakepb]

It doesn't matter what .0001% of the members think, you are allowing non-members access to room inventory information. DVD is all about selling, if your app causes one lost sale you will be contacted. If Disney is damaged, you will be sued and Disney will win.

If Disney wanted to improve our ability to search for rooms they would change the website. We waited years and years for the member website that we have now so my guess is that it isn't a priority in Disney's world.

Bill

On the other hand, ****** may be encouraging existing members to use more points when people see availability on the next school break.

 

[disneynutz]

On the other hand, ****** may be encouraging existing members to use more points when people see availability on the next school break.

My guess is that Disney doesn't care if we use more points, only if we buy points direct.

Bill

 

[cel_disney]

The DIS used to have an availability calendar for DVC before online booking started. It was available to anyone with a DIS login and was never shut down.

 

[DebbieB]

The DIS used to have an availability calendar for DVC before online booking started. It was available to anyone with a DIS login and was never shut down.

It was just a list of unavailable rooms made from DIS member reports. It was not connected to the Disney system, they could not shut it down. It was very unreliable, because it only listed the dates reported by members. There were likely other dates not available that were not reported. Or a date that became available when someone cancelled.

 

[hakepb]

My guess is that Disney doesn't care if we use more points, only if we buy points direct.

Bill

Of course
Guides should send more friendly emails or letters to mbers that start booking more short-notice trips

 

[ptlohmysoul]

Thanks for the great app!

 

[Brian Noble]

Good god. It's not at all simple to track down the culprit at a large site.

Having spent a few years as the person in faculty governance overseeing our IT security and privacy organization here at U-Michigan, and seeing how they've reacted to a variety of attacks and intrusions on our various systems during that time, I will respectfully disagree.

 

[stevelee]

personally for me this helped to convince me to buy 200 points. Before i bought i could not see the rooms available could not get a straight answer from the guides on how many or what types of rooms/views were available when i travelled. If you come on the forum you get mainly the doom and gloom of never being able to book.

Once I found out about this app i did about 1`0 mins worth of searches, and found out i would have little trouble booking what i wanted for roughly the dates i was looking for. To be honest it is a lot less gloomy than what people on here made it out to be, but worse than what the guides made it out to be as well.

Again without this app i wouldn't not have known and may have deceided it was not worth the trouble. Even thought i wasn't a member it was nice to know what could be booked before spending thousands on the points.

Thanks for such an awesome site.

 

[gdrj]

I've been checking for availability daily on my own a few days ago created a search and got an alert tonight that something opened up. I had been out all day and just happened to check e-mail. No chance I would have gone to DVC site.

Long story I was able to book 2 days I needed! I had waitlists but not exactly as the way room came up.


THANKS!!

 

[tjkraz]

I don't think there's any question it's a useful tool but it seems to go against DVC's designs for the online booking feature.

They could have allowed owners to see availability up to 11 months out for non-Home resorts. But they didn't. (Granted in this case it's just one resort.)

They could have allowed members to search unlimited dates at once. But they didn't.

They could have allowed members to search all resorts / room classes at once. But they didn't.

They could have allowed non-members to view DVC availability. But they didn't.

It clearly violates DVC's design principles and intent for the online booking feature. The only question is whether they care enough to bother shutting it down.

 

[cel_disney]

I don't think there's any question it's a useful tool but it seems to go against DVC's designs for the online booking feature.

They could have allowed owners to see availability up to 11 months out for non-Home resorts. But they didn't. (Granted in this case it's just one resort.)

They could have allowed members to search unlimited dates at once. But they didn't.

They could have allowed members to search all resorts / room classes at once. But they didn't.

They could have allowed non-members to view DVC availability. But they didn't.

It clearly violates DVC's design principles and intent for the online booking feature. The only question is whether they care enough to bother shutting it down.

Focusing on the 7 month vs 11 month issues here (as I agree that DVC doesnt want us to see those if we dont own there) - ButI think we can all agree that the 7 month searching is different that the DVC website - but saying that its beyond their intent vs beyond their skill or even ideas is hard for me to say is true...it's possibly they found it too complicated to get those things done by the release date...

 

[glvsav37]

I have to say, the other cool aspect about this app is that I can see what other times of the year are heavy or light on inventory.

We can only travel in the summer for now, but this is useful to monitor for any trips in the future where we may be a lie to get away at another time of year.

 

[DeDobber]

personally for me this helped to convince me to buy 200 points. Before i bought i could not see the rooms available could not get a straight answer from the guides on how many or what types of rooms/views were available when i travelled. If you come on the forum you get mainly the doom and gloom of never being able to book.

Once I found out about this app i did about 1`0 mins worth of searches, and found out i would have little trouble booking what i wanted for roughly the dates i was looking for. To be honest it is a lot less gloomy than what people on here made it out to be, but worse than what the guides made it out to be as well.

Again without this app i wouldn't not have known and may have deceided it was not worth the trouble. Even thought i wasn't a member it was nice to know what could be booked before spending thousands on the points.

Thanks for such an awesome site.

I felt the same way about availability. Everyone on the boards talks about needing to be up at the crack of dawn to get your room booked at 7 months. I have found that to not be the case, although if you have one particular room type and one particular week, and that week is the Fourth of July or something, you will probably find your room booked.

I'm glad the app helped you with a purchase decision. For me, owning DVC seems like a great decision so far.

 

[DVC Dude]

Focusing on the 7 month vs 11 month issues here (as I agree that DVC doesnt want us to see those if we dont own there) - ButI think we can all agree that the 7 month searching is different that the DVC website - but saying that its beyond their intent vs beyond their skill or even ideas is hard for me to say is true...it's possibly they found it too complicated to get those things done by the release date...

I think if thee ****** could search 11 month availability it might convince me to buy VGF as right now, it appears that 7 month availability in a 1-2-3 bedroom si good, but studios go fast.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I think that if I wanted to limit my exposure on this app, I would consider capping 7 months on any resort via code. I'm really not sure this will help once it hits someone's radar screen, but at least it will be defensible that it was a level playing field that all members had access to anyway. You still can't defend that a non-member can use it though.

Just some food for thought.

I still like the app. I just don't see it being able to stay up. I hope I'm wrong. I think. I admit I haven't thought it through enough to try to figure out if it's a disadvantage to owners for it to be out there. I admit I haven't seen anybody in this thread really give a reason of how it could hurt us but I'm not willing to concede that just yet.

 

[Brian Noble]

The best I can come up with for harm to current owners is: more information for prospective renters can potentially reduce rental rates. Right now, I suspect some renters pay a premium for home-resort booking advantages in resorts/units/views/times that don't really require it. On the other hand, this tool might also go the other way: showing prospective renters that some things are still open well into a 7-month window, and they are not "too late" to rent from an owner.

 

[WMorganS]

The best I can come up with for harm to current owners is: more information for prospective renters can potentially reduce rental rates. Right now, I suspect some renters pay a premium for home-resort booking advantages in resorts/units/views/times that don't really require it. On the other hand, this tool might also go the other way: showing prospective renters that some things are still open well into a 7-month window, and they are not "too late" to rent from an owner.

I really hope Disney leaves you web app alone. The only "damages" claim I can imagine is that because your app totally rocks for someone that is "hoping" a room will open up, they could claim that it devalues their (derogatory adjective omitted) "wait list" feature.

Okay... this is a nasty monstrous stretch IMO, totally devils advocate... and I have more faith in Disney than this, but if it were a different company, like a music/MPAA company, they might (wrongly IMO) argue that BECAUSE your app helps people get rooms that others have wait-listed, it (*choke*cough*) automates "stealing" availability from the typical member that's using their (totally *^#+@!) wait-list app. They should just buy your app and/or hire you!

Okay - I inserted plenty of phrases to clarify my feelings, but just in case someone gets riled up at such a fictitious portrayal of "stealing" rooms --- PLEASE remember to keep your posts polite so this thread stays positive ;-)

 

[LindaBabe]

I just bought at GCAL, and had a bunch of banked points I had to use on pretty short notice. I was logging in every day to see what was coming available, particularly around Christmas. I got tired of logging in, so I automated it to check every 6 hours. I managed to get a 2BR for December 22nd-26th about a month ago.

Many people stress over getting the right dates on these forums, so I posted to a couple threads and got some feedback suggesting my tool might be of use to some of you. I've worked on it quite a bit in the last month, and now you can save searches and have it email you if it sees availability for the dates you're looking for. Would love additional feedback.

http://******.com

******.com

BRILLIANT! THANK YOU!

 

[goneviral]

http://******.com

******.com

This is a wonderful app and I sincerely thank you for your contribution to the DVC community.

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Thanks to the awesome app, I was able to login for the first time to the DVC site today and book my first and last night for marathon weekend and adjust my normal room ressie, saving me SO much money! I don't mind switching resorts or rooms. Thank you!!

Staying at VGF our last night!