I really wish that DVC had more inventory!

[3DisneyKids]

My home resort is BWV. I bought where I would like to stay. The system should give the "home owners" top priority over any other request, may it be cash,rented,or members from other DVC resorts. It should not be this difficult! There should never be the situation where there is a room available for cash yet I cannot get a ressie at my home resort. Hey if I have to call day to day to get what I want I'll do so, Im very proactive!!!

I wonder if the bigger resorts like OKW or Saratoga Springs has this problem?

If you are calling within the 4 months (before the 7 month window opens), and you are still getting shut out, then BWV owners ARE getting top priority--the only people who can make reservations at that time are other BWV owners. I don't understand how you expect DVC to "prioritize" the owners of the same resort. They can't guarantee that every owner of BWV can get a reservation during the sme week...that is not how the system works. There are only so many rooms, so many points, etc.


I agree that commercial renting is likely a problem as well...DVC seems to be making an effort at stopping this...time will tell.

 

[erikthewise]

I've done day by day for the first week of December many times (BWV - either standard or boardwalk view), it's not that difficult. I want to be sure to get what I want, I've never not gotten it. If you are not proactive, then you may not get what you want. Other members who are willing to take action will get it. I'm not sure what you want DVC to do, it's first come first served. There are only a few cases where day by day is necessary, it's not the norm. I called for a week at the beginning of May next year about a week or two after the 11 month passed, no problem.

I suspect that day-by-day reservations, though they certainly work, are seldom necessary. We have done first week of Dec at BCV every year since 2002. I call for the first day or two at precisely 11 months, and ask if it looks like I will need to do day-by-day. They say no, and I only make one or two more calls to complete the reservation. This year I got a 2BR at BCV Dec 1 - 9 with only two calls.

Now if you call for high-demand times and want a 2BR with two queen beds at BCV, standard view at BVW, or a Grand Villa, then maybe you'd better do day by day. Otherwise calling at 11 months will do the trick. But come back a month later, and who knows?

 

[crisi]

We've done two years of BW Standard View rooms during Food and Wine calling on checkout day. Next year I have to call day by day because I need two rooms, but we haven't had a problem. We have had "that looks to be the last room" luck though.

 

[OneMoreTry]

There is another way....they could have sold points to operate at a lower occupancy - so that at any given time they expected only to have 80% of the rooms full instead of the reported 95%. However, at popular times like New Years that buffer would fill quickly - maybe there would have been something at 10 months, but not by nine. This would have made the whole program, from purchase to dues, more expensive.

This unsold inventory cushion you mention seems like a compromise between the current system and the much-maligned, theoretical "exclusive resort" discussed in another thread.

We could look at DVC like musical chairs -- with the exceptions that 1. there is no missing chair and 2. each person only gets to sit for so long and then has to get up for another person.. One chair for each person at a given point in time. With a hundred thousand people and chairs it might be hard to find a specific chair, and you may not get the seat you want at the time your favorite music is playing.

It sounds like you're saying DVC could have left some of the chairs unsold so that it would be easier to find a chair? I agree that, if the developer wanted to make the same amount of profit in this situation, he would have had to charge more for each seat sold. At the 80% rate, for every seat someone purchased, an owner would have to pay to keep 1/4th of a seat empty while he/she was sitting.

At the current rate that would be $25 per point. I'd take my chances.

 

[crisi]

Yep, that's pretty much what I'm saying. In the end I don't think people would be that much happier. BWV would still fill up their Standard Views too quickly in early December and BCV would still not be available on short notice. A few more people would get rooms a little later, but I don't think it would be at a rate worth the cost.

i.e. more inventory is the same as few members.

 

[erikthewise]

The real problem isn't that the resort is almost fully sold. It's that there isn't, and can't be, "Room at the Inn" for everybody at once.

Let's consider a simple example. Suppose the resort only has one room, and 50 members each own points equivalent to one week. (This is 96% sold.) If 20% of those members (that is 10 of them) want to stay during a particular week, only one of them is going to get the room. Only 10% of those wanting that week will get it.

Now suppose the result is only 77% sold. Then we have 40 members each owning a week's worth of points. Now If 20% of those members (that is 8 of them) want to stay during a particular week, only one of them is going to get the room. So still only 12.5% of those wanting that week will get it.

You can build all the rooms you want but it won't change the situation, or the percentages in this scenario. Improving the "acceptance rate" for high demand weeks from 10% to 12.5% doesn't even come close to justifying underselling the resort.

 

[crisi]

Yep - adding two more chairs (or two less players) to musical chairs doesn't help enough to justify the cost - what I wish is not that DVC had more inventory, but that they hadn't moved F&W back to the week we travel. We go in early October - used to not be that hard to book. Now it is!

 

[abeyst]

Plus any reservations left over at 60 days out to to Disney to sell to anyone who wants them.

I think part of OP's issue is that CRO has availability and DVC doesn't.

So if it's OK to give DVC inventory to whoever wants it at 60 days, why can't CRO do the same for us? Even if they make it at 31 days out instead of 60 - why not give the extra rooms to DVC members who are sitting on waitlists? Seems only to be a fair trade for all the DVC/developer inventory they get to sell over the years?

 

[disneynutz]

I think part of OP's issue is that CRO has availability and DVC doesn't.

So if it's OK to give DVC inventory to whoever wants it at 60 days, why can't CRO do the same for us? Even if they make it at 31 days out instead of 60 - why not give the extra rooms to DVC members who are sitting on waitlists? Seems only to be a fair trade for all the DVC/developer inventory they get to sell over the years?

Because giving the rooms to DVC doesn't make Disney more money.

 

[castleri]

I think part of OP's issue is that CRO has availability and DVC doesn't.

So if it's OK to give DVC inventory to whoever wants it at 60 days, why can't CRO do the same for us? Even if they make it at 31 days out instead of 60 - why not give the extra rooms to DVC members who are sitting on waitlists? Seems only to be a fair trade for all the DVC/developer inventory they get to sell over the years?

I could be wrong but don't think they give rooms to CRO at the 60 day mark if there are people on a waitlist. There should be no waitlist for the rooms that are available. There may be 1BRs that there are no one waiting for that go to CRO and that there are no villas in the other categories that are not reserved as an example. It would only be rooms that do not have anyone waiting for them at that point. I also think that sometimes they can get those rooms back. The ones they cannot get back are the ones that belong to the developer and the ones that are the result of trade outs to other resorts, II, LBVTC, or cruises. As someone said these rooms are being sold as reservations to pay for those other options that some member gave up his/her points for. If they had used their points the rooms may not have been available either since they would have used them at WDW and it may have been the days you wanted.

 

[spiceycat]

If so, they are doing a lousy job. They have great numbers for the hotel industry, but their annual report puts resort occupancy at more around 80% than 100%.

which is why they told the board no more new resorts for at least 5 years- that was 2 years ago - so 3 more to go.

they really want the 90% back. I think 1997 was the last time when most of the WDW resorts were at 90%.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Alas, we have found the enemy, and it is us!
2) One of DVC's main selling points is also a main criticized point - flexibility.
3) Most DVC's are sold out of points.
4) Thus, each night is accounted-for (excluding cash rooms).
5) So, if people decide not to use the first week in January, the resort is oversold.
6) You simply can't fit 52-weeks of points into the 51-weeks remaining.
7) Thus, so folks will have to take left-overs, or not go that year.
8) If you do day-by-day you might get lucky, or the wait list might come through.
9) Otherwise, try to pick another date.

NOTE: As for adding more inventory, the statement "Because giving the rooms to DVC doesn't make Disney more money" is pretty much accurate. Why give rooms away when you can sell them? Why should us DVC members get that inventory?

 

[tjkraz]

So if it's OK to give DVC inventory to whoever wants it at 60 days, why can't CRO do the same for us? Even if they make it at 31 days out instead of 60 - why not give the extra rooms to DVC members who are sitting on waitlists? Seems only to be a fair trade for all the DVC/developer inventory they get to sell over the years?

When unbooked DVC rooms are offered to CRO at 60 days out, DVC members profit from it. Revenues earned from those reservations show up in the budget as a credit to our member dues. It's under the heading of Breakage.

But that's not a 2-way street. Disney (CRO) owns the rooms that show in their inventory more than 60 days out. There is no mechanism in place for them to receive compensation if those rooms are given to DVC members?

 

[crisi]

When unbooked DVC rooms are offered to CRO at 60 days out, DVC members profit from it. Revenues earned from those reservations show up in the budget as a credit to our member dues. It's under the heading of Breakage.

But that's not a 2-way street. Disney (CRO) owns the rooms that show in their inventory more than 60 days out. There is no mechanism in place for them to receive compensation if those rooms are given to DVC members?

If I read Dean's (maybe Doc's) recent posts on types of inventory, the unbooked inventory from CRO can be reclaimed by DVC. This is what happens when DVC says "let me check on something" and a room magically appears. Any room you are booking less than 60 days out is this type of inventory - somehow its visible to both CRO and MS. However, we can't tell what the inventory type we are seeing on Disney's web site - if it is anything other than unbooked inventory - i.e. if it paid for a trade or a cruise, if its developer inventory - that can't be reclaimed - that room was either "sold" to Disney or isn't DVC's yet to claim.

 

[tjkraz]

If I read Dean's (maybe Doc's) recent posts on types of inventory, the unbooked inventory from CRO can be reclaimed by DVC. This is what happens when DVC says "let me check on something" and a room magically appears. Any room you are booking less than 60 days out is this type of inventory - somehow its visible to both CRO and MS.

Good point. Although it was more than 2 months out, I swear this happened to me once. When the call began I asked what was available for my dates and picked one of the resorts. After completing the reservation, I asked to be put on the waitlist for another resort. Instead of entering the waitlist request I got the "let me check" and after a couple minutes I had the preferred resort.

Still, I've always been under the assumption that many cash reservations are made on shorter notice--shorter than 11 months, at least. If true, I doubt CRO would be willing to release all rooms at 60 days if there is DVC demand.

Maybe one of these days we'll at least figure out what criteria they use in reclaiming those rooms now.