HOW MANY SECONDS does it take for your home resort "standard view" studio

[tjkraz]

Too many people walk and it is not fair to the people who dont walk reservations.

If "walking" truly is to blame, go on the waitlist. Walking means booking a night that you don't ultimately intend to keep. If that's the case, those unwanted nights will eventually be dropped. And if there are 20 rooms being walked, there will be 20 rooms eventually returned to inventory.

That said, how many people are actually walking? How many is "too many"? And what's a better solution for eliminating walking?

 

[Deb & Bill]

People could be walking for marathon week. Even more popular than NYE! Since Jan 1st was not booked they could have cancelled what they had that included NYE and booked a new reservation starting Jan 1st without having to wait for MS to open.

That's a long walk since marathon is the second week of January in 2019 (9-13)

 

[SL6827]

I look at ****** to see whats available since I am not in the system just yet and I have seen where some hard to get units will pop up from time to time. I was thinking it was probably people dropping days off with walking. When I first started seeing these units open, I was surprised, but later on I realized what it might have come from.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

That's a long walk since marathon is the second week of January in 2019 (9-13)

Some people talk about walking longer than that. I agree with you though - if one felt they had to walk they could have gotten in after the first. But there was quite a bit of angst after the first week of December this year and people were thinking it meant that availability was going to be that way thru out the entire month instead of just being the busiest week for DVC.

 

[William Ades]

Exactly.

The finger is frequently pointed at "walking", but I'm just not sure how many people are actually bothering to do that. The night of December 31 has been bookable by owners for 6 days now. Anyone with a check-in date of December 25-30 has already had access to that night. Even though availability was showing at 7:59 this morning, it was likely very few rooms.

What's clear is that demand exceeds supply. When that happens, there are always going to those who lose out.

I'm only one person and I personally know several folks that practice the art of "walking." So I have no doubt there are plenty of folks out there that do as well. Certainly enough to effect availability. The one thing I think the boards have proven to me is that Disney/DVC planning is survival of the fittest to 10th power...Lol!!! It is definitely a result of supply and demand though. They keep pushing for new members, and new members are joining daily but they do not seem to be expanding on the "Designated" rooms. No need to really, they already got us committed. At the end of the day they would rather have the cash value for the rooms. IMHO...

 

[Deb & Bill]

Some people talk about walking longer than that. I agree with you though - if one felt they had to walk they could have gotten in after the first. But there was quite a bit of angst after the first week of December this year and people were thinking it meant that availability was going to be that way thru out the entire month instead of just being the busiest week for DVC.

The marathon was earlier this year with the Expo starting on Jan 3. Then the weather turned bad and some people couldn't get home right away so some people extended. So incoming runners, outgoing Holiday guests and you had quite a bit of congestion for the first week of Jan.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

IMO, it is possible that the system works that way, but I really don't think so due to the patterns I've seen elsewhere.

Since the RAT only shows us that at least 1 villas is available, it's more likely that someone got that last room at one nanosecond after the window opened. Unless someone here has an inside source to the programmers, we'll never know for sure.

OP - Hope your waitlist works (or that you booked a 1 bedroom as a back up.)

Often wonder of the commercial renters deploy bots - much like concert tickets.

 

[CarolMN]

Often wonder of the commercial renters deploy bots - much like concert tickets.

While I don't know how the bots work, I kind of doubt it, since you can't log in or actually book anything without being a member. I think Disney would notice if a large number of attempts were originating from the same user but from different places. Maybe some of our posters with programming expertise will comment.

FWIW, I don't think the demand right at the window's opening is coming from renters. It's pretty easy to rent points without entering the "booking derby" at 8 AM - i.e., why put more effort into making less $$. For example, no need to book on the first day to get a Lake View studio at BLT and you'll make a few dollars more than if you rented a standard view.

 

[DenLo]

I hate to have it happen, but sometimes I think DVC should charge $$ for more than 6 changes to a reservation or say you have to cancel and make a new reservation. It would be punishment even for us that don't walk a reservation though. It is a stupid idea really.

 

[Matty B13]

I hate to have it happen, but sometimes I think DVC should charge $$ for more than 6 changes to a reservation or say you have to cancel and make a new reservation. It would be punishment even for us that don't walk a reservation though. It is a stupid idea really.

I think 3 changes before charging a fee is more than reasonable for 1 reservation.

 

[kboo]

I did a practice run all Sept for Boardwalk. Each day, it showed that there was availability for the following day. At 08:00 on the dot I was ready and kept refreshing. I was never able to snag a room for the whole month (granted it is highest volume time of the year). Always was chasing the carrot. Too many people walk and it is not fair to the people who dont walk reservations.

This is not walking, if the room is available at 8 am and gone a few minutes later - that is someone having a faster connection and getting the last room available. MS doesn't open until 9am. So if the room is available - even for a nanosecond between 8-9am, then it is not being walked.

 

[miTnosnhoJ]

This is not walking, if the room is available at 8 am and gone a few minutes later - that is someone having a faster connection and getting the last room available. MS doesn't open until 9am. So if the room is available - even for a nanosecond between 8-9am, then it is not being walked.

Or...more likely...at least 1 room is not being walked.

 

[kboo]

Or...more likely...at least 1 room is not being walked.

Agreed- but that means that everyone actually has a chance to get that room. But I upgraded from a 1br std to a 2br std at BLT at exactly 8am for Thanksgiving. Of course now if MIL changes her mind and we need to downgrade, I'll have to go to a LV 1BR, which isn't really saving that many points...

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Or...more likely...at least 1 room is not being walked.

Not really that one isn't being walked as stating that seems to imply to me that is the reason all rooms are gone. It's just that it may be that only one is still available. People can also book their actual vacations for 7 nights from the date of check in. Many of the rooms already gone from inventory are being held by those who actually intend to use them for that date. I'm of the belief that is actually the majority of the reason a room disappears quickly - just because there is reduced inventory because other owners are starting their trips sooner. A few walkers add in but if it were only due to walkers then lots of rooms would open up as they walked past the dates.

 

[BillPA]

.

 

[Reuven Shechter]

I just booked a value 2-bedroom at AKV this morning for 6 nights. I used two browsers and had a stopwatch going. I had 3 seconds to book it. It was gone on the browser within 5 seconds. The past few days I haven't been able to get it, and was going to do our backup (2 standard view studios).

 

[ScubaCat]

I hate to have it happen, but sometimes I think DVC should charge $$ for more than 6 changes to a reservation or say you have to cancel and make a new reservation. It would be punishment even for us that don't walk a reservation though. It is a stupid idea really.

I think 3 changes before charging a fee is more than reasonable for 1 reservation.

There's actually a 20 per year limit in the condo declaration. Whether or not it's enforced is another story.

Wow, it really is at least moderately ridiculous that I know such things.....

 

[CarolMN]

Scuba - I think Denlo was trying to stop walkers, not commercial renters. The 20 per year is for reservations not in owner's name and wouldn't apply to dropping or adding nights from same reservation.

 

[supersnoop]

There's actually a 20 per year limit in the condo declaration. Whether or not it's enforced is another story.

I don’t believe that’s in the declaration. That’s a policy established to help enforce a vague limit in the declaration.

 

[ScubaCat]

I don’t believe that’s in the declaration. That’s a policy established to help enforce a vague limit in the declaration.

Weird - I could swear I saw it before but I just looked again and sure enough it's not there. It simply references the "Home Resort Rules and Regulations" to which they could easily add such a stipulation, but considering it doesn't really affect them -- other than maybe needing an extra phone agent or two, which will be solved by allowing modifications online -- I doubt they really care.