Interesting Chat with DVC Executive Office yesterday

[briand1023]

The discount on tickets would not cost them much at all, expecially when DVC members come for a week, the tickets starting at day 5 and beyond drop in price very fast

 

[RumpleMom]

I'm not interested in DDP. I would like to be able to buy the TIW card without having to have an annual pass.

 

[crocko]

Hopefully they will act on some of these proposals.

My thoughts exactly.

Why? DVC Members are a captive audience. Disney does not need to incentivize them to come, because they are already committed to coming. There is no need to "make up for" the 'free' dining promotion, because that's designed to attract people who are not already committed.

Ugh - sorry, but I'm so tired of hearing DVC owners spout this out. Why? Because a business should provide good service to its best customers.

I happen to go to Quizno's near where I work 3 or 4 times a week. So, I'm not just a regular, I'm an uber-regular. Do they ignore me and take for granted they have my business, no they treat me nice and occasionally throw in a free drink or sandwich upsize for me....it's treatment like that that keeps me coming back as often as I do.

 

[cseca]

...

Why? DVC Members are a captive audience. Disney does not need to incentivize them to come, because they are already committed to coming. There is no need to "make up for" the 'free' dining promotion, because that's designed to attract people who are not already committed.

Instead the discounts provided to DVC members tend to be designed to drive business to under-utilized amenities---less popular restaurants at less popular times, etc. I suppose I *could* see a discount on maybe the Premium plan, in part because it's so vastly profitable for Disney as it is priced today. But, ultimately, such broadly-appealing discounts would likely be offered as the carrot to get people to add on more points---direct from Disney, of course.

Just to throw in my 2cents.
I don't disagree with the bolded statement above in general.
But that could be a double edge sword as well. For some (or maybe most, I don't know) members who've been to WDW many many times the thrill of eating out may not be there anymore. Especially with having a kitchen in the room.
So there might be a good reason for DVC to negotiate a deal to get more members to get away from their room and into the parks/restaurants.

The current DDP price and plan do not work too well for members who are willing to spend a little bit of time in their kitchen. Now, if the price is lowered enough that might be an incentive for members to spend $ in the restaurants that they might not have considered before.

Again, just my 2cents... maybe 3 with inflation...

 

[TisBit]

Why? DVC Members are a captive audience. Disney does not need to incentivize them to come, because they are already committed to coming. There is no need to "make up for" the 'free' dining promotion, because that's designed to attract people who are not already committed.

I don't believe they would do it to "make up" for the free dining, but DVC might do it to overcome that sales hurdle. Anyone looking to buy, starts asking about free dining and it is a very large hurdle to overcome, even though most of us know that the free dining isn't free.

I happen to go to Quizno's near where I work 3 or 4 times a week. So, I'm not just a regular, I'm an uber-regular. Do they ignore me and take for granted they have my business, no they treat me nice and occasionally throw in a free drink or sandwich upsize for me....it's treatment like that that keeps me coming back as often as I do.

Big difference is you have an option to go somewhere else. Lets change that to you prebought your meals for the next year, do they have to jump through hoops to make sure you come back next week? As long as they are relatively consistent and not horrible, you will be back to get your moneys worth.

 

[lilpooh108]

Thanks for the info OP. Fun debate. Hope the perks actually happen

 

[cvjw]

Original OP here - want to add one more thing that the Executive Office CM told me. He said they were in "active negotiations" with their partners on the dining and ticket discounts - whatever that means. I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not, but it does make it sound official!

I agree with some of the PP about the discounts being tied to the tiered benefits system. Wish I had thought of that yesterday, I would've asked him!

 

[crocko]

Big difference is you have an option to go somewhere else. Lets change that to you prebought your meals for the next year, do they have to jump through hoops to make sure you come back next week? As long as they are relatively consistent and not horrible, you will be back to get your moneys worth.

There's still the need to provide good customer service.

I can always try to sell my DVC membership.....or I can continue vacationing in WDW since I've already spent the money but I can still let other people know (who are considering DVC) that this is a company who will not provide you good customer service if you buy and that I think you should do something else with your money.

Disney wants people in DVC (cash cow). One of the BEST ways to get more people in DVC is positive word-of-mouth from current owners. Make the current ownership too disgruntled and you lose that source. Customer service doesn't stop just because you completed a sale.

 

[crocko]

Also, if they go with a tiered system (and let's say it starts at 200 points), add-on-itis is going to hit me hard. We currently have 160 and would be very tempting to go ahead and add on another 50-60 points to get into a tiered benefit range.

 

[Chuck S]

I don't think in-restaurant dining discounts could be easily tiered, I mean, to a server or restaurant manager, a DVC Member is a DVC Member, unless they start sending out different membership cards for each tier.

Discounts on the pre-paid dining plans wouild be easy to do, as those are paid at time of booking through Member Services, but I have to wonder what would be in it for Disney? They don't really need to increase the number of table service customers...securing an ADR at many locations is next to impossible now.

I could see them making the premium plans available to a specific tier of owners, as longer stays would almost be required for those plans to be an advantage.

 

[A_Princess'_Daddy]

"Free" dining is offered instead of resort discounts. Offering discounted or free dining to guests staying on points makes as much sense has giving those guests a check when Disney is offering discounts.

This is my thought exactly! I understand, in the theoretical sense, why one would want a benefit that another receives, but because I look at DVC as an prepaid amortized discount on future vacation stays, in essence I'm not paying "rack rate" for my room, and therefore am not eligible for free dining, anyways.

 

[dwelty]

I think that they may be considering perks like this to stimulate new sales. Since Disney has been discounting rooms heavily over the last couple of years, the reasons for purchasing DVC, have been diminished. Perhaps greater perks for members will make a difference.

 

[disneylover1959]

I hope it's a discount on park passes!! That would be wonderful.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We (me, DH, and DS15) lose money on dining plans. Not just a little money, either. I am talking we get HOSED on dining plans. I have compared what we pay out of pocket with a TIW card against what we would spend on DxDDP over the same amount of days and I am not joking when I say the cost is over a thousand dollars more for the plan. Last year we considered just doing the counter service plan, but at the last minute decided NOT to get the plan and just track our spending on counter service and snacks really closely to see if the plan would be worth it in the future. The plan would have cost DOUBLE what we actually spent.

Yet there is some magical pull that makes me run the numbers on EVERY dining plan for EVERY trip, just to see. So far the answer is no. We go for 2 weeks at a time, eat EVERY meal onsite, lots of signature dinners, and I STILL can't come up with a scenario where we save money on a dining plan. Our daily out of pocket cost NEVER exceeds the cost of the plan + tips.

If they discounted the plans I bet I would try even harder to figure out a way to make the dining plans work for us.

 

[fishermouse]

I could see the tickets. My company has a relationship with Disney, and we are able to purchase tickets at 12% off of face value. They could extend that more broadly fairly "inexpensively."

Might see this if DVC sales start to slow down, otherwise I don't see any reason to give the discount. They offer the AP discount because it entices us to make multiple trips each year. I always try to get 4 trips out of my pass. Even with the DVC room and AP I spend money on food etc.

 

[TisBit]

Also, if they go with a tiered system (and let's say it starts at 200 points), add-on-itis is going to hit me hard. We currently have 160 and would be very tempting to go ahead and add on another 50-60 points to get into a tiered benefit range.

That is exactly why they would do a tiered program. Don't think they won't have a huge audit and know exactly where their members sit on points. 160 is a huge chunk because that was the minimum buy in for a long time. So I wouldn't be surprised if they started the first good tier at about 200-225. They will do surveys to find out how many points someone would add on for that benefit and set the point level there.

I don't think in-restaurant dining discounts could be easily tiered, I mean, to a server or restaurant manager, a DVC Member is a DVC Member, unless they start sending out different membership cards for each tier.

Discounts on the pre-paid dining plans wouild be easy to do, as those are paid at time of booking through Member Services, but I have to wonder what would be in it for Disney? They don't really need to increase the number of table service customers...securing an ADR at many locations is next to impossible now.

I could see them making the premium plans available to a specific tier of owners, as longer stays would almost be required for those plans to be an advantage.

Chuck, first I think you would see different member ID's, just to make people feel "special", but if the discount is on the dining plan....MS would be able to see where everyone sits when you booked it. I don't think you will see a different discount per tier at each restaurant, but basic DVC members would most likely be eligible for the discounts that are set up now. Higher tiered members might have the option for a discount on the dining plan (which is booked in advance).

 

[sarahk0204]

that changing the dining plan to "pay when you add it" might facilitate offering some sort of dining discount? Since adding the DP is now done and paid for through MS and not at check in at the resort, having some sort of tiered program would be relatively easy for MS to check, rather than the check in desk at the resort or the restaurants.

Hmmm

 

[disneymotherof3]

I'm really curious about the "tiered" deal. I wonder how it will be set up. I understand that some people have more points than others, which in turn, IMO, means that they have more money. But does that make them more important than someone who just has the "buy-in' points? To me, no it doesn't.

For my family, when we go, we use the military ticket (DH is Active Duty) so a ticket discount isn't that appealing to us. That being said, I do think a ticket discount would be nice. Don't they offer a DVC discount already on AP's? We always use the DDP so a discount on that would be great!!

 

[DebbieB]

I wonder what % of member reservations add the dining plan? For myself, I have not used it in 5 years. We just don't spend that much on food. But if they throw in a $5 or $10 per day discount, I might go for it. I would still be paying a little more than out of pocket but it would be worth it for the convenience. The price now is just too much more.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

I'm wondering if the tiered plan would frustrate and alienate future purchasers. Look at the people who buy to go every other year or once a year and don't want a lot of points. Then add those who really cannot afford Disney's minimum but buy a small contract through resale. Then add the people who bought years ago, are ready to vacation elsewhere and are on the fence about keeping or selling.
I could see each of these groups feeling like second class citizens and Disney losing their business.
People who have tons of points do it because they love Disney. They will be there perks or not.
On the other hand, if the perks were offered to anyone, sales could increase as people buy in to get the benefits.