Modifying a reservation

[kabbie]

When you adjust your reservation through Member Services (i.e. Take a night away from a reservation), do they cancel & rebook, or just modify?

 

[mustinjourney]

I think they just modify. You shouldn't lose your reservation unless they completely screw it up. I've heard of it happening to people, but it's not supposed to happen.

 

[jjohnson]

they modify the original reservation

 

[drusba]

You can drop days at the beginning or end of a reservation, or both, without cancelling or changing the reservation number. That change can only be made by calling MS. Online, to make such a change, you would need to cancel the first reservation entirely and create a new one.

 

[disneynutz]

Same if they add days to a reservation even merging two different reservations.

Bill

 

[Cyberc1978]

If members could modify online by themselves we could save some money as less would call ms.

 

[drusba]

If members could modify online by themselves we could save some money as less would call ms.

Would not save a dime. You need to understand how MS and its reservation system is funded. MS and its reservation system have four sources of funding: (a) a $1 per member annual charge referred to as the DVC Reservation Component in the annual budget; (b) all the breakage income (rental income that the applicable Disney entities get from renting rooms still open at 60 days out) that exceeds the amount that offsets dues; the total breakage income that offsets dues is that amount which equals 2.5% of the annual operations budget excluding certain items in the budget; breakage income has always exceeded that amount; (c) the fees charged for trading out to non-DVC resorts; and (d) the annual management fee paid to DVC which is always 12.5% of the annual dues budget excluding certain items (such as the management fee, taxes, and some others).

That is it. Source (a) is a fixed amount of dues and thus cannot vary due to use of MS services. Sources (b) and (c) consist of money that is outside of anything covered by dues. Source (d) is a set percentage of the total budget that may vary in amount annually but not percentage and thus if none or all of it is used for MS reservation services, the amount of dues paid for the management fee remains the same.

Thus, your dues will not vary according to the amount actually paid for MS services and the reservation system. What can vary is the amount Disney gets to keep from that management fee and breakage income that is not spent on MS services and the reservation system. In other words, based on the sources of income to pay for MS and the reservation system, the less Disney spends on MS and the reservation system the more money it gets to keep from breakage income and the management fee.

 

[Cyberc1978]

I didn't know that. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Dean]

Would not save a dime. You need to understand how MS and its reservation system is funded. MS and its reservation system have four sources of funding: (a) a $1 per member annual charge referred to as the DVC Reservation Component in the annual budget; (b) all the breakage income (rental income that the applicable Disney entities get from renting rooms still open at 60 days out) that exceeds the amount that offsets dues; the total breakage income that offsets dues is that amount which equals 2.5% of the annual operations budget excluding certain items in the budget; breakage income has always exceeded that amount; (c) the fees charged for trading out to non-DVC resorts; and (d) the annual management fee paid to DVC which is always 12.5% of the annual dues budget excluding certain items (such as the management fee, taxes, and some others).

That is it. Source (a) is a fixed amount of dues and thus cannot vary due to use of MS services. Sources (b) and (c) consist of money that is outside of anything covered by dues. Source (d) is a set percentage of the total budget that may vary in amount annually but not percentage and thus if none or all of it is used for MS reservation services, the amount of dues paid for the management fee remains the same.

Thus, your dues will not vary according to the amount actually paid for MS services and the reservation system. What can vary is the amount Disney gets to keep from that management fee and breakage income that is not spent on MS services and the reservation system. In other words, based on the sources of income to pay for MS and the reservation system, the less Disney spends on MS and the reservation system the more money it gets to keep from breakage income and the management fee.

It wouldn't save directly but it could indirectly. Dues are set in part based on the costs to manage the system. If it costs less, those savings could (and should) be passed on to the members. It's not much different than how health or car insurance works. Of course the question is would they simply pocket the money or return it later in the form of reduced future costs? My guess is somewhere in between but they could take the government approach to budget where you spend every dime you can so you won't get cut next year.

 

[CarolMN]

I don't see DVC making updates to the online booking engine unless it is absolutely necessary (like adding a new resort) or until the call volume causes them to have to hire more staff. IMO, we only got the online booking ability in the first place because of the need to hire more staff to handle call volumes.