I DESPISE DVC's Booking System!!!

[pixie921]

tjkraz, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I stand by mine saying that the ability to book a night 11 months out from that night put everyone on an equal footing, rather than making members lose out on their dates because someone else has the ability to book that day a week earlier.

On a happy note for me, I called in precisely at 9 a.m. this morning and was able to grab up that coveted standard view 2-bedroom that I needed for my gaggle of in-laws. Dh was also able to book our standard view 1-bedroom. Just one more call tomorrow to set up a villa for my parents, and we'll be all set. I'm very relieved!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I used to book our BWV stays fro F&W and early December day by day and foudnthe process very stressful. Every day you called and hoped you could add a day to your vacation. since we usually stay for about 10 nights, the stress lasted a long time!

I was concerned when they changed but have found the process much easier and far less stressful. I realize that from time to time, I won't get the most poplular dates for the least available accomodations, so I am always prepared with a backup plan.

personally see no need to make any changes to the current system. The ability to make booking changes immediately is important to me in planing my trips. For example, we want 2 studios at GCV for 3 nights in June. We would prefer to arrive on a TH, but are okay with arriving on a Fri as well. So I called to book and could only book 1 studio. I will call again tomorrow and see if I can book both studios for a Friday arrival. If so, I will cancel the Thur night I no longer need.

Rules changes which limit my ability to cancel and rebook will either mean that I hold on to the night I don't need for a longer time or force me to WL when acceptable rooms are available. -- Suzanne

 

[LIFERBABE]

I used to book our BWV stays fro F&W and early December day by day and foudnthe process very stressful. Every day you called and hoped you could add a day to your vacation. since we usually stay for about 10 nights, the stress lasted a long time!

I was concerned when they changed but have found the process much easier and far less stressful. I realize that from time to time, I won't get the most poplular dates for the least available accomodations, so I am always prepared with a backup plan.

I personally see no need to make any changes to the current system. The ability to make booking changes immediately is important to me in planing my trips. For example, we want 2 studios at GCV for 3 nights in June. We would prefer to arrive on a TH, but are okay with arriving on a Fri as well. So I called to book and could only book 1 studio. I will call again tomorrow and see if I can book both studios for a Friday arrival. If so, I will cancel the Thur night I no longer need.

Rules changes which limit my ability to cancel and rebook will either mean that I hold on to the night I don't need for a longer time or force me to WL when acceptable rooms are available. -- Suzanne

I agree Suzanne. I too found the DxD booking process to be stressful. When i booked our Family reunion in 2007, I had to use it to book a Grand Villa and 9 studios for 4 nights!! Booking 10 villas Day by Day, across different contracts and trying to get to work on time just about did me in.

If you slipped up 1 day and called a minute late, the risk was very high that you would have to change rooms or resorts. DXD was out of control and I find the booking process to be much better. I dont walk reservations, it's not that serious! It's a vacation, not an organ transplant!

I disapproved of the change, initially, but the ability to book up to 1 week with 1 call has won me over. Especially, since we have hosted family twice since the change without issue. If I dont get AKV CL, I have a back up plan.

Members should never bank on getting these hotly contested villas just because they are calling at 11/9am. No system is set up to guarantee that. We are talking 28 Standard View at BLT (the most high point DVC at WDW) and 5 AKV CL rooms at AKV (CL is a bargain compared to BLT standard view points) Demand for Stan view at BLT will always be high, no matter what time of year you choose. I dont even look at that part of the point chart, if I get it great, but I make sure Im willing to pay Lakeview if I must stay at BLT.

Our 2 week holiday stay in a AKV CL is 339 points. The same dates in a BLT stand. view studio are 298 points. Lake view studio is 333!

Op, I am happy you were able to secure your stay for you and your family. My family is always blown away by DVC!

 

[crisi]

BLT is a moderately sized resort with 281 villas, but it is a "small" resort when considering its Standard View category. BLT has 267 two-bedroom villas, but only about 28 are in the Standard View category. Competing for those 28 Standard View villas at the 11-month window are the BLT owners. I don't know how many BLT owners there are but DVD has sold over 24,000 deeds for BLT. Thus, on any given day, there could be a large number of BLT owners competing for the Standard View villas.

By the way, 86.67% of BLT has been declared for the DVC membership.

Really, it doesn't matter what booking system they use, with so many members wanting such a small number of "value" rooms to stretch points, its really going to be luck as well as 'what are you willing to do.'

I was a little shocked to see DVC go back to having View categories. I would have thought that the discontent over the availability of BWV Standard View and Boardwalk View would have made it not palatable.

I did Day by Day once, for a family trip - it was a pain in the back end.

And no system is going to be fair. People in California need to wake up hours before people on the East Coast to get their DVC or Le Cellier reservations - people on the East Coast can't necessarily call in from work when MS opens - or are mid-commute.

 

[Bouncin-Tigger]

We love the booking system and we have had some good luck. We are over 8 years in and go 3 times a years and have stayed at all dvc resorts and have never been denied any reservation at 11 or 7 months and have never walked a reservation and have never been denied any dining reservation so its not been a point of negaitivity for us but whatever system they come up with there will be people who find some way around it or try to use the system to their advantage.

 

[hansel1]

They aren't returned to bookable inventory a month later, they are returned to bookable inventory 11 months before check-in date. If someone calls Nov 1, 2010, and books a room October 1 to 7, 2011, that room can not be booked by anyone else until November 7, 2010. So if the person that called and booked on November 1st, 2010, wanted to extend the vacation to include October 7, 8 and 9, 2011, they could call on November 6, 2010, and be guaranteed to be able to extend the reservation. But new person calling wouldn't be able to book the room for October 7, 2011, until November 7, 2010.

So can a member book a 7 night reservation for a 2 br and then call the next day and add an 8th night in concierge?

I have a 7 night akl 2br standard view in jambo. I am calling each day to add a night until I reach 11 nights. My concern is that someone has a studio or 1br reservation and then calls the next day to add a 2br night and I am screwed.

I think I know the answer but want confirmation. Last year I needed a one bedroom for the first 5 days of my trip and then a 2 bedroom for an additional 7 days for a total of 12 nights. I could only book the 5 nights and then had to call back 5 days later for the other 7 nights.

So you can't cross categories during the 7 days!?!?! So when you book 7 nights and need more you are ok to wait six more days to get the rest of what you need?

 

[KerTggr]

So can a member book a 7 night reservation for a 2 br and then call the next day and add an 8th night in concierge?

I have a 7 night akl 2br standard view in jambo. I am calling each day to add a night until I reach 11 nights. My concern is that someone has a studio or 1br reservation and then calls the next day to add a 2br night and I am screwed.

I think I know the answer but want confirmation. Last year I needed a one bedroom for the first 5 days of my trip and then a 2 bedroom for an additional 7 days for a total of 12 nights. I could only book the 5 nights and then had to call back 5 days later for the other 7 nights.

So you can't cross categories during the 7 days!?!?! So when you book 7 nights and need more you are ok to wait six more days to get the rest of what you need?

If I understand the workings correctly, the transfer of rooms/resorts would be considered a second reservation and require a call on the 11 months from the 1st day staying into that new location.

 

[Chuck S]

If I understand the workings correctly, the transfer of rooms/resorts would be considered a second reservation and require a call on the 11 months from the 1st day staying into that new location.

That is correct. A room change makes a new reservation. They fall under the same "itinerary number" in the newly upgraded booking system, but are technically separate reservations.

 

[DebbieB]

Really, it doesn't matter what booking system they use, with so many members wanting such a small number of "value" rooms to stretch points, its really going to be luck as well as 'what are you willing to do.'

I was a little shocked to see DVC go back to having View categories. I would have thought that the discontent over the availability of BWV Standard View and Boardwalk View would have made it not palatable.

I did Day by Day once, for a family trip - it was a pain in the back end.

And no system is going to be fair. People in California need to wake up hours before people on the East Coast to get their DVC or Le Cellier reservations - people on the East Coast can't necessarily call in from work when MS opens - or are mid-commute.

It would have been a mess at AKV if they did not break out savannah view. To me, that is the biggest draw for that resort. I wouldn't book there without a savannah view.

Same at BLT, it would be a mess if some people got the MK view and others got a first floor pool view or a parking lot view for the same points.

I wouldn't buy at either of those resorts without a reserved view. When my mom died in 2005, I was ready to sell my DVC. Having the boardwalk view as a separate category is what stopped me, I could not give that up!

 

[KerTggr]

Can I just say that reading this thread has made me really happy that I bought SSR! Beyond the large # of GV it sounds like a lot of people bought their SSR add-ons as extra points and don't really use them there.

 

[ekm]

I haven't made a reservation for a couple of years, and didn't even know about the new system. I'm used to booking grand villas at OKW day by day. Recently, I decided to try to book a GV in early Sept/11, just beyond the 11 month window. I thought for sure that there would be no availability, but I was able to get all the dates I needed. I guess this is because of the added inventory at all the new resorts.
I still wish that the old system was still in place. It was a relief to successfully book each day, and very exciting when the reservation was completed.

 

[crisi]

It would have been a mess at AKV if they did not break out savannah view. To me, that is the biggest draw for that resort. I wouldn't book there without a savannah view.

Same at BLT, it would be a mess if some people got the MK view and others got a first floor pool view or a parking lot view for the same points.

I wouldn't buy at either of those resorts without a reserved view. When my mom died in 2005, I was ready to sell my DVC. Having the boardwalk view as a separate category is what stopped me, I could not give that up!

I wouldn't have made any non-savannah views at AKL - I would have had every room face the Savannah.

And I would have put BLT on the other wing of the Contemporary.

There would have been ways to architect around those issues that wouldn't have created the "handful of Conceirge rooms" or "very small number of standard view room" - and the associated booking issues - that they knew would create member dissatisfaction since they'd "been there, done that" at BWV.

Frankly, most of us who were hanging here pre VAKL announcement had watched years of these sort of gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands over Standard View/Boardwalk View availability at the BW - with a lot of the resort dedicated to specialized views, people would get locked out at eleven months from those specialized categories. It doesn't take a huge leap to predict that this problem is replicated - worse - when you have six (?) concierge rooms, or a handful of standard view two bedrooms in a larger overall resort.

I find the concierge rooms particularly confusing.

But apparently, keeping people content once they've bought isn't their main objective.

 

[tjkraz]

tjkraz, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. I stand by mine saying that the ability to book a night 11 months out from that night put everyone on an equal footing, rather than making members lose out on their dates because someone else has the ability to book that day a week earlier.

It's not really an opinion. Since DVC never took any steps to inform all members of the ability to book day-by-day people were not on equal footing. The only way to achieve equality would have been to publicize the process and give 300,000+ members fair warning that they had the ability to make 7 phone calls to book a 7 day trip.

And IF DVC had done that, it's a given that day-by-day booking experiences would have been radically different than what people saw two years ago.

The bottom line is that demand exceeds supply. More members want a certain resort/view/date than was available and some of those members were shut out. The ONLY reason that day-by-day yielded greater success in the past is that tens-of-thousands of members who wanted that room weren't even aware that they could call and book it as early as others were.

If all members were aware of day-by-day, there would have been countless instances were members booked 4 or 5 days of a 7-day trip, but were blocked other days by those who got through the phones sooner. Then you would have true "fairness", but I'm not sure that getting 4 scattered nights of a 7-night trip is a step in the right direction, nor does it lead to increased satisfaction among members as a whole.

 

[Granny]

It's not really an opinion. Since DVC never took any steps to inform all members of the ability to book day-by-day people were not on equal footing. The only way to achieve equality would have been to publicize the process and give 300,000+ members fair warning that they had the ability to make 7 phone calls to book a 7 day trip.

Can't argue with this. The only thing I would say regarding "fairness" is that under the old rules you never had people intentionally booking days they had no intention of keeping.

Like everyone else, I think it will be interesting to see how Disney executes the on-line reservation system. Safe to say it will provide fodder for this forum for a long time.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Like everyone else, I think it will be interesting to see how Disney executes the on-line reservation system. Safe to say it will provide fodder for this forum for a long time.

Personally I'm hoping that they realize that West Coast owners should get a little break and they open the online booking at 12AM pacific time. Makes perfect sense too - kind of in the middle between the east coast and Japan.

 

[TisBit]

Can't argue with this. The only thing I would say regarding "fairness" is that under the old rules you never had people intentionally booking days they had no intention of keeping.

Like everyone else, I think it will be interesting to see how Disney executes the on-line reservation system. Safe to say it will provide fodder for this forum for a long time.

It will probably only be for reservations less than 7 months away

I think the current system is much easier to understand for the every day DVC member, yes the experts new the old system and had an advanatage in knowing the ins and outs. How many new members didn't understand the booking from checkout instead of check in and day by day was not a "well known" booking method, except on the Dis.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

[snip]I personally see no need to make any changes to the current system. The ability to make booking changes immediately is important to me in planing my trips. For example, we want 2 studios at GCV for 3 nights in June. We would prefer to arrive on a TH, but are okay with arriving on a Fri as well. So I called to book and could only book 1 studio. I will call again tomorrow and see if I can book both studios for a Friday arrival. If so, I will cancel the Thur night I no longer need.

Rules changes which limit my ability to cancel and rebook will either mean that I hold on to the night I don't need for a longer time or force me to WL when acceptable rooms are available. -- Suzanne

I called again this morning and once again, ended up "walking" a reservation. I could book 2 studios for 3 nights if I checked in on Friday, so I cancelled the Thur night in one studio I booked yesterday, booked Sun night instead and cancelled my Th - Sat WL for the other studio. So we have exactly what we wanted with no WL. Once again, I am glad that there are no prohibitions on cancelling recently booked room reservations. -- Suzanne

 

[TisBit]

I called again this morning and once again, ended up "walking" a reservation. I could book 2 studios for 3 nights if I checked in on Friday, so I cancelled the Thur night in one studio I booked yesterday, booked Sun night instead and cancelled my Th - Sat WL for the other studio. So we have exactly what we wanted with no WL. Once again, I am glad that there are no prohibitions on cancelling recently booked room reservations. -- Suzanne

But if it becomes common practice like day by day booking, I am sure you will see a change to that as well. I don't really care if people want to walk their reservations, I don't feel the need to, as long as I can get a room I am ok, if I don't get my first choice, I can waitlist and I am sure time in the next 50 years I will get what I want

 

[maburke]

I sympathize with everyone who cannot get what they want when calling right at the 11-month mark. (Though newbies should realize that this usually only happens for rooms in the very limited categories, and it's worse when you're trying to get multiple rooms.) And I think anytime someone makes a reservation with no intention of using it (that includes walking and spec reservations, in my opinion) it's unfair to people who really would use a reservation for that day. But people make their own choices, and sometimes the "cure" for such problems is worse for the rest of us than the "disease.". Like, I don't consider what SuzanneSLO did to be walking a reservation, you just changed your plans to take what you could get. If you could have got everything on the first day, you would have used it (so doesn't fall into my "no intention to use" category.) It also opened up that Thursday to someone else quicker than if there were a 7 day wait rule.

However, I really think that the new system is better than the old system, because even if you can't get your first choice when you call, you can see all of your choices for the entire 7 days. (And since you can then add to it before it goes back into inventory, you can get that room for as long as you want, with additional later phone calls.) People must realize that even when "everybody had the same chance" of getting a day with the day-by-day system, you could easily end up with days missing in the middle of the reservation, which I think is much worse than getting the full stay in a second choice.

If those of you who never had trouble with the day-by-system just think that it was because you had the fastest dialing fingers, I recommend you read one of the threads from the member cruise booking days. There are many stories in there of people literally dialing for hours. It's just luck in those cases of who gets in first and who dials all day.