DVC no reservations available at all? Really?

[Skip3key]

So we have been owners since 2012 and been to WDW 1-2 times a year at all times, but most often October and November, and I don't believe I have ever seen such a lack of room availability! Even the times we wanted to go down with little advanced notice, we always could find something at Saratoga Springs, but this year, nothing!

We started thinking of a quick 2-3 day trip anytime on October about a month ago, and really have not found much of anything, anywhere (admittedly when I just looked there is a 3 bedroom villa at SSR for 2 days, but since there is just 2 of us...).

We have a planned trip in mid December (got rooms reserved through the waitlist back in June), and I have been trying to book one additional day for the past 6 weeks, and again, nothing has materialized. We are waitlisted and I look everyday, sometimes multiple times a day, and nothing. I know these are high demand, popular times of the year, but this just seems beyond what we have seen in the past. Has DVC oversold their plans? Is that why there is an urgency suddenly to make more DVC properties?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Really.

Fall has become more popular, and many people had to reschedule after Irma.

DVC cannot oversell, but points are sold yo fill all resorts 365 days a year and do not account for higher demand seasons, or people using HHI points on property at 7 months and leaving opens at HHI or VB.

 

[jbh275]

Yes, it's definitely starting to become more difficult in the fall, but I too always have found availability for a couple of nights at SSR. Maybe it's only this fall and things will get back to normal after the Avatar hype has died down. Maybe a lot of people waited until this fall to head to WDW. We'll see how next year is. Good Luck

 

[BillPA]

This is why it's important to buy where you like to stay and plan early. It's getting difficult to book home resorts at 9-10 months out for the popular times. Some are gone at 11 months -1 or 2 days. Be sure to get on a wait list or 2 ASAP. Good luck

 

[n2mm]

Let's add hurricane Irma to the extremely busy oct-dec dates. Many of us had to cancel and now trying to piece our trips back together. For us it was a cruise and once rebooked, we needed before and after rooms. We were lucky to find 2 nights in a row. Still waitlisted for a 1 bedroom that sleeps 5, but will make due with our 1 bedroom At SSR if we have to. I booked my original rooms at BLT and Bwv at the 11 month windows, but they all got canceled when we had our cruise cancel.

 

[Lori in CNY]

Let's add hurricane Irma to the extremely busy oct-dec dates. Many of us had to cancel and now trying to piece our trips back together. For us it was a cruise and once rebooked, we needed before and after rooms. We were lucky to find 2 nights in a row. Still waitlisted for a 1 bedroom that sleeps 5, but will make due with our 1 bedroom At SSR if we have to. I booked my original rooms at BLT and Bwv at the 11 month windows, but they all got canceled when we had our cruise cancel.

We were booked right in the middle of Irma too - Saturday 9th thru Sunday 17th. All I asked DVC to do was walk our reservation a few days....let us arrive on Wednesday 13 after all the dust had settled. We already had a room booked for Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun so just wanted to add a few more days at the end. Add Monday and Tuesday maybe. Their answer...no...plain and simple. Cannot do it, no rooms available, blah, blah, blah.... I was willing to give up our room to someone that needed it to evacuate or ride out the storm and we would avoid it all together. Again....nope, can't help you. Funny the airline was more than willing to work with us as was our rental car company but the one I have the most money tied up in was unwilling to budge. Very disappointed how they handled this.
Feels like there really aren't enough rooms to go around.

 

[bumbershoot]

We were booked right in the middle of Irma too - Saturday 9th thru Sunday 17th. All I asked DVC to do was walk our reservation a few days....let us arrive on Wednesday 13 after all the dust had settled. We already had a room booked for Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun so just wanted to add a few more days at the end. Add Monday and Tuesday maybe. Their answer...no...plain and simple. Cannot do it, no rooms available, blah, blah, blah.... I was willing to give up our room to someone that needed it to evacuate or ride out the storm and we would avoid it all together. Again....nope, can't help you. Funny the airline was more than willing to work with us as was our rental car company but the one I have the most money tied up in was unwilling to budge. Very disappointed how they handled this.
Feels like there really aren't enough rooms to go around.

Well, right. Timeshares want to be 100% full or as close as possible. They don't hold onto just in case rooms like hotels sometimes do.

They couldn't move you because there were people already booked in those rooms.

The airlines couldn't have gotten you into an overly full flight and the rental car place couldn't have gotten you into a car if they had none left at that location.

 

[crisi]

We were booked right in the middle of Irma too - Saturday 9th thru Sunday 17th. All I asked DVC to do was walk our reservation a few days....let us arrive on Wednesday 13 after all the dust had settled. We already had a room booked for Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun so just wanted to add a few more days at the end. Add Monday and Tuesday maybe. Their answer...no...plain and simple. Cannot do it, no rooms available, blah, blah, blah.... I was willing to give up our room to someone that needed it to evacuate or ride out the storm and we would avoid it all together. Again....nope, can't help you. Funny the airline was more than willing to work with us as was our rental car company but the one I have the most money tied up in was unwilling to budge. Very disappointed how they handled this.
Feels like there really aren't enough rooms to go around.

I'm confused about what you expected - the resorts were booked full, did you expect them to kick someone else out? Or maybe have you share a room? Or does Tinkerbell's pixie dust make rooms magically appear?

Timeshares operate at near 100% occupancy year round - sometimes (often) AT 100% occupancy. That is what you bought into. That DVC operates in that fashion means its a financially viable timeshare. Having rooms sit empty would make DVC FAR more expensive.

Airlines have some capacity flexibility - but even they can't help you if you need to get from one place to another right at the holidays. We've shown up in Orlando to the car we reserved not being available (over booked - it was the last time I've rented a car for Orlando).

 

[disneynutz]

Rental brokers and increased renting has increased the number of reservations where in the past, more points went unused.

In addition owners at HH, Aulani, and VB may be booking at WDW.

Bill

 

[zavandor]

That's the beauty (from developer's point of view) of points timeshares: everyone buy thinking they're buying the points to go during their favorite time of the year, but that is obviously not going to be possible if everyone's favorite time is the same. What the developer should do is allocate the points charts so that slower time of the year are cheaper so demand is as even as possible. DVC seasons were decided 25 years ago reflecting hotels booking patterns and are mostly unchanged since. Maybe it's time for a reallocation.

 

[crisi]

That's the beauty (from developer's point of view) of points timeshares: everyone buy thinking they're buying the points to go during their favorite time of the year, but that is obviously not going to be possible if everyone's favorite time is the same. What the developer should do is allocate the points charts so that slower time of the year are cheaper so demand is as even as possible. DVC seasons were decided 25 years ago reflecting hotels booking patterns and are mostly unchanged since. Maybe it's time for a reallocation.

Which DVC did try and do - but they didn't anticipate a few things. They didn't anticipate that DVCers would be a substantially different traveling population than regular park goers - we like low point values, good weather, and lower crowds. We don't seem to mind going when school is in session. They didn't anticipate F&W would be a huge draw for DVCers or that RunDisney events would fill the calendar, and have DVCers filling the resorts for those events. So the points calendar looks like the cash busy/slow seasons of thirty years ago.

 

[Matty B13]

I wonder if this will push for a point reallocation in the near future across all of the DVC properties at WDW?

 

[disneynutz]

I don't understand the point reallocation posts. They don't need to change the points required for a stay to even out occupancy, it is even now, 98% full. Not everyone can stay during the more popular times, that won't change if they change the amount of points required. I also don't understand how charging more for the springs or congress park helps the system. It will cause members who want to stay there possibly buy more points and I don't consider that a help.

Bill

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I also don't understand how charging more for the springs or congress park helps the system.

This reallocation wasn't intended to help the system as a whole or shift demand seasons in any way, or even shift demand TO Saratoga. It was purely internal for Saratoga, to deal with booking requests. Springs and Congress Park were highly requested, to the point where many times those requests could not be fulfilled for each guest, creating desk tantrums and unhappiness. By making them booking categories, they are setting better expectations (although I suspect Carousel still causes tantrums when someone requests Grandstand).

 

[disneynutz]

This reallocation wasn't intended to help the system as a whole or shift demand seasons in any way, or even shift demand TO Saratoga. It was purely internal for Saratoga, to deal with booking requests. Springs and Congress Park were highly requested, to the point where many times those requests could not be fulfilled for each guest, creating desk tantrums and unhappiness. By making them booking categories, they are setting better expectations (although I suspect Carousel still causes tantrums when someone requests Grandstand).

They could have created the new category without increasing the required points to stay there, they didn't, they are charging more.

Bill

 

[stazmatic]

This is exactly why I have not bought DVC yet. I know it could save me money in theory, but I don't plan 11 months in advance for anything. Maybe try renting your points for a later time and booking a room with cash?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

They could have created the new category without increasing the required points to stay there, they didn't, they are charging more.

This is still only intended as an internal shift.

People clearly saw additional value in Congress Park and Springs via their requests and response to not getting said requests. By changing the point values as they did, they created value for the areas that people were not requesting to the same extent by making them cost less.

The changes didn't change overall demand for Saratoga, I do not think.

 

[crisi]

I wonder if this will push for a point reallocation in the near future across all of the DVC properties at WDW?

I doubt it. Its been this way for the fifteen years I've belonged, and there has never been a significant seasonal point shift. Any significant seasonal point shift is likely to make a whole lot of members VERY unhappy - and without knowing what the consequences will be - will another season become just as unbookable? With Disney add another event at that time of year with draw? And it would have to be a pretty significant reallocation in order to change behavior significantly.

Plus, they can't change the point requirements overall at the older resorts. BWV is always going to be a bargain compared to VGF - even after a reallocation That they upped the point requirements for newer resorts means that while you could rebalance a little within the resort, once the seven month window opens, BWV and BCV are going to always look like bargains compared to VGF.

 

[DebbieB]

This is still only intended as an internal shift.

People clearly saw additional value in Congress Park and Springs via their requests and response to not getting said requests. By changing the point values as they did, they created value for the areas that people were not requesting to the same extent by making them cost less.

The changes didn't change overall demand for Saratoga, I do not think.

I think they did do it to offer rooms at lower points to make SSR more desirable. It was almost always the last with availability.

 

[Matty B13]

I was thinking more that they might merge "Choice and Dream" seasons at the resorts, since if F&W is so popular and might have similar occupancy rates with the other seasons.

Personally I would love for Magic Season (School Vacations) to be lower, but if it was we might not get a room...... pros and cons to everything.