Is DVD Cheating?

[drusba]

Maybe someone has a logical explanation for the following that is different from DVD purposefully holding holiday DVC time for cash reservations?

Today is December 26, meaning, with the 11 month window, one should have been able to go on-line and reserve up to 7 nights at your home resort beginning November 26, 2013. I went on-line this morning after 8 a.m. and checked on the AKV "value" studios and 2BRs . What I found is that the nights of Nov 27 and Nov 28 were already booked full but the night of Nov 26 was open. However, it is impossible for a member to have reserved Nov 27 and Nov 28 without having reserved Nov 26, meaning if Nov 27 and 28 were full, Nov 26 had to also be full if members were reserving the time.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Maybe someone has a logical explanation for the following that is different from DVD purposefully holding holiday DVC time for cash reservations?

Today is December 26, meaning, with the 11 month window, one should have been able to go on-line and reserve up to 7 nights at your home resort beginning November 26, 2013. I went on-line this morning after 8 a.m. and checked on the AKV "value" studios and 2BRs . What I found is that the nights of Nov 27 and Nov 28 were already booked full but the night of Nov 26 was open. However, it is impossible for a member to have reserved Nov 27 and Nov 28 without having reserved Nov 26, meaning if Nov 27 and 28 were full, Nov 26 had to also be full if members were reserving the time.

Yes you are totally correct, and I do think this is some manipulation going on.I would call member services and speak with a manager if you don't get any availability with them. Let us know what comes out of this.

 

[CarolMN]

Could be a system issue with release. Maybe someone booked something starting the 26th and then cancelled and system has a glitch that didn't fully release what was booked.

Could be scheduled maintenance of some kind although that seems unlikely this far in advance.

It seems odd to me that DVD/DVC would be reserving value villas for cash 11 months in advance, so I'd prefer to assume this is not the reason.

If I had to guess, I'd guess system issue, especially since there have been a few of those lately.

 

[tjkraz]

Hard to tell if they are "cheating" without any sort of full audit.

DVC does pull rooms out of inventory before the 11 month window due to member trades. Could be rooms set aside for RCI or CRO beginning on 12/26.

Or the total inventory could be lower on those dates if rooms are earmarked for maintenance. Specific units aren't flagged for servicing 11 months in advance but time is set aside to attend to the room(s) most in need of work.

 

[drusba]

Have sent emails to both MS and dvcmembersatisfaction and cannot call right now because am out of country and don't want to incur the phone cost. However, if this is just a system problem rather than DVD holding rooms for future cash reservations, it is a very strange one because I just checked and found that the exact same issue exists for the AKV grand villas at both Jambo and Kidani. The day before and of Thanksgiving, Nov 27 and 28, are booked full while Nov 26 is open. The issue does not exist for other AKV rooms (concierge rooms are also gone for Nov 26 so cannot tell if there is an issue for those). Hard to believe it is a "maintenance" issue because I doubt they do planned maintenance on a holiday and plan it 11 months in advance.

 

[keaster]

Doesn't this happen if someone is walking their reservation ?

 

[drusba]

Doesn't this happen if someone is walking their reservation ?

No, that cannot happen because that walker could not possibly drop Nov 26 until Dec 27.

 

[honeymo78]

...

 

[disneynutz]

I have learned over the years that anything is possible with DVD/DVC. I know from experience that inventory is manipulated but I hit a road block when I try to find out how, why, and how much. They do set aside VIP rooms because we have been given a VIP room twice by management. Once at AKV Club Level and once at BLT Theme Park View.

What rooms are set aside as developer rooms?

I also couldn't get a straight answer on how 2 bedroom rooms are put into inventory. Are one bedroom lockoffs and studios pulled from inventory to make up x number of two bedrooms? How many are pulled and how long are they kept as two bedrooms? When are they released as one bedroom/studios again? I have been told that the system looks for a one bedroom lockoff and studio when a two bedroom is requested but that is a lot of work for a software program. I have been told by MS that it happens both ways.

Hard to believe that the room inventory software works so well when the waitlist process doesn't.

Bill

 

[drusba]

Someone else just reported the same problem with OKW grand villas in another thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3036532 Is anyone else finding this issue that Nov 27 and 28 are not available but Nov 26 is, e.g., how about for BLT standard or GVs?

 

[CarolMN]

Just did a little playing for the BWV. People are walking reservations for the Grand Villas. I suppose that is understandable since there are only 7 and Thanksgiving week is popular.

11/26 is available for all other room types. 11/27 is NOT available for 2 bedroom standard views and studio standard views. Those two could be related since all 2 bedrooms at the BWV are lock offs.

11/27 is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

I agree it is odd, but I'm still going with system glitch. Why only block off only the 1 night?

 

[myxdvz]

I have a BLT Standard View Reservation that I have "walked".

I started from 11/21 to 11/26... it is now 11/23 to 11/29. No problems encountered.

 

[tjkraz]

Hard to believe it is a "maintenance" issue because I doubt they do planned maintenance on a holiday and plan it 11 months in advance.

Maintenance has to be scheduled 11 months in advance. Otherwise it would never happen for many room sizes and categories. How often to BLT Standard View rooms go unreserved? Or AKV Club level? Or BWV Grand Villas? Or anything at BCV?

They don't earmark specific rooms for maintenance 11 months out. However they do designate a room size & view so that one or more rooms of that type is taken out of service. As the dates approach, more specific decisions are made as to which rooms should be blocked off during the maintenance window and what work will be performed.

That said, I do agree a holiday period would be an odd time for maintenance.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Someone else just reported the same problem with OKW grand villas in another thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3036532 Is anyone else finding this issue that Nov 27 and 28 are not available but Nov 26 is, e.g., how about for BLT standard or GVs?

I really want to believe that DVD would not intentionally do this. It is too coincidental that all of these other resorts would have the same dates unavailable. I' m not buying into the maintenance theory. My question is will these rooms be available tomorrow if it is a systems glitch? Please keep us posted.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I have noted certain types of villas being reserved for cash in the past that seem to be more for DVC's benefit and it was also at AKV (Value and Concierge rooms). So I wouldn't be completely surprised to learn they are doing as you suggest but I've never seen anything specific about how they are allowed or how they choose to set aside rooms for trades and cash reservations to know if it's cheating or not. On the surface it would seem like a possibility that they are but documents may allow otherwise.

I agree it is odd, but I'm still going with system glitch. Why only block off only the 1 night?

It could work out for DVC to reserve and not have it be noticeable because DVC members haven't been able to - or just haven't - reserved the remainder of rooms.

 

[kristenrice]

I have noted certain types of villas being reserved for cash in the past that seem to be more for DVC's benefit and it was also at AKV (Value and Concierge rooms).

I noted this earlier in the year. I was playing around on the CRO website and saw that concierge level villas were available (a 1BR, IIRC) for the week of Christmas, but none were available via the DVC website. This was in April so still outside of the 7-month window. It kind of rubbed me the wrong way because if an AKV owner wanted that room (and they were still in their home resort booking window) they would have to pay the outrageous CRO rates (Christmas week!) instead of using their HOME RESORT points.

I understand the whole process of trades and such, but it seems like with such a limited availability, the concierge rooms (or any category with extremely limited availability) should be the LAST ones to be traded out to CRO. And for heaven's sake, why would they trade out concierge level rooms over Christmas??? It's not like it is a time when the DVC rooms will be sitting empty. JMHO...

 

[bumbershoot]

This brings to mind a thread about Aulani at 7 months, where the first date of their trip was unbooked the night before (checked by pretending they would walk it), then booked the minute the window opened the next day. It went on for too long.

I think that some calls helped resolve that one (maybe I'm remembering wrong, though).

It just seems too close to that situation, with issues happening with that first day.

 

[TSMMANIAC]

I was walking a BW Grand Villa for New Years of 2011. On 1/18/11 I called and was moving it forward and was told it wasn't available on 12/20/11. Impossible I thought as I had it booked through the 19th. I attempted to get an explanation from the rep and then asked for a manager. Basically the manager told me I just didn't understand how the reservation system works. So I punted and booked a 2BR BWV. Low and behold when I called exactly at 11 months out I was able to book a GV but it took several days for them to confirm that I had a reservation. It took special handling for some reason.

 

[stmize]

Someone else just reported the same problem with OKW grand villas in another thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3036532 Is anyone else finding this issue that Nov 27 and 28 are not available but Nov 26 is, e.g., how about for BLT standard or GVs?

Not sure what the issue was yest but I logged on this morn and all 4 days I needed in the grand villa at okw was there. So I'm good to go.

 

[drusba]

I went in this morning for AKV and Nov 27 and 28 were still gone for value 2BRs and studios and for GVs at both buildings. Am still waiting for response to email; MS passed it on to member satisfaction to which i had already sent the same email.