DVC availability tool empty months?

[krysib]

Howdy!

when using the dvc availability tool through the dvc rental site today I am receiving a lot of partial availability errors.
When I click into the dates-there are blanks over the whole month. Some resorts are blank for may 2022 and available for June 2022. Others are blank for June and available for may.

is there a major booking blackout or is this a glitch in the matrix?

 

[drusba]

If that is occurring, it appears to be a problem with the particular website/tool because the DVC site for members is currently showing availability for May and June 2022.

 

[Sandisw]

Someone mentioned the new platform prevents it from working correctly.

And, we don’t allow owners to post what is actually available as it changes to often and until you can book, it doesn’t matter

Best bet is to check the actual site if you are an owner. If not, then we also don’t allow renters to ask…not that you were..except in response to someone on the rent and trade board.

 

[krysib]

Thank you both!

 

[ScubaCat]

I get the 7 dwarfs every 2-3 times I try to check a room for availability. This started right after the migration/maintenance they did last month. Does anyone else have this issue or am I just lucky??

 

[Nappy1380]

I get the 7 dwarfs every 2-3 times I try to check a room for availability. This started right after the migration/maintenance they did last month. Does anyone else have this issue or am I just lucky??

I have been having this happen numerous times. Even happened when I tried to modify on Sunday.

 

[hhisc16]

I get the 7 dwarfs every 2-3 times I try to check a room for availability. This started right after the migration/maintenance they did last month. Does anyone else have this issue or am I just lucky??

Same here!

Or the entire month goes blank and shows 0 points with 0 availability.

 

[ScubaCat]

I have been having this happen numerous times. Even happened when I tried to modify on Sunday.

Great.

I also tried under my wife's account and the same thing happened. I just got off the phone with member services (for a different issue but also asked about this) and the fabulous agent gave me the number for the internet helpdesk, so I'm going to give them a call and see how this goes. I know I've called there in the past; can't remember when or why though.

It might not hurt if several of us call and report this. 407-939-4357

I'll update this post after I get off that call. I'm not expecting miracles but we'll see...

UPDATE: I waited on hold about 30 minutes and the support rep took my case and opened a ticket. Obviously there's probably not going to be a specific resolution for me, individually, but it'd be helpful if others experiencing the same issue would suffer through that call and do the same so they have more documentation of the problem.

UPDATE 2: For anyone technical that's curious -- if you open the debugger and watch the calls, it looks like they've deployed a new WAF (web application firewall) that is blocking certain calls after you click the calendar a few times. Just great. It shouldn't be too hard to fix, but the way these folks work (or don't), this could be an ongoing problem. They never did fix the persistence issue with their previous load balancers. Call the number above and report this, please!

 

[supersnoop]

I've been seeing issues where the search results say there are 4 nights available, but then only one or none show up when you expand the calendar. I've also seen where it says that no nights are available, but when expanding the calendar, there are a handful of options. It's happened too frequently and consistently to be caused by rooms being booked.

 

[Nappy1380]

Great.

I also tried under my wife's account and the same thing happened. I just got off the phone with member services (for a different issue but also asked about this) and the fabulous agent gave me the number for the internet helpdesk, so I'm going to give them a call and see how this goes. I know I've called there in the past; can't remember when or why though.

It might not hurt if several of us call and report this. 407-939-4357

I'll update this post after I get off that call. I'm not expecting miracles but we'll see...

UPDATE: I waited on hold about 30 minutes and the support rep took my case and opened a ticket. Obviously there's probably not going to be a specific resolution for me, individually, but it'd be helpful if others experiencing the same issue would suffer through that call and do the same so they have more documentation of the problem.

UPDATE 2: For anyone technical that's curious -- if you open the debugger and watch the calls, it looks like they've deployed a new WAF (web application firewall) that is blocking certain calls after you click the calendar a few times. Just great. It shouldn't be too hard to fix, but the way these folks work (or don't), this could be an ongoing problem. They never did fix the persistence issue with their previous load balancers. Call the number above and report this, please!

Thoughts that the firewall is to prevent bots from crawling for reservation openings? There are plenty of them in play with dining reservations and would imagine if someone built and deployed one for the already fragile DVC system, it would cripple the whole thing.

 

[PatMcDuck]

I have noticed less 7 Dwarf screens if you look at one resort and room type at a time (annoying I know) and for me, I need to get off Safari and use Google Chrome (I even use Incognito).

 

[ScubaCat]

Thoughts that the firewall is to prevent bots from crawling for reservation openings? There are plenty of them in play with dining reservations and would imagine if someone built and deployed one for the already fragile DVC system, it would cripple the whole thing.

It's a bit too complex to explain in a post but a WAF does many different things, such as prevent people (or their code) from trying to manipulate the URL bar at the top, "inject" session IDs, etc. Unfortunately there is a misconfiguration of some sort now that is detecting normal behavior as suspicious and kicking us to the error screen. They are actually extremely difficult to implement and require ongoing maintenance. Generally they allow everything by default because of this, whereas a packet inspection (network) firewall blocks everything by default.

If you're not confused yet, I'll be happy to explain in more detail over on the tech forum . For now, hopefully the engineers responsible fix it soon, because wow - this is pretty bad even by their usual standards.

Everyone, please call and report this! 407-939-4357 and suffer through the prompts (thanks in advance )