New policy for reservations based on check IN date

[RobDoc]

I booked today may 20 - 27. But, I wanted 4 nights in a studio and 3 nights in a one bedroom so that not to use so many points. She let me book it for 7 nights in a studio, but would not let me book the last 3 night one bedroom even though she stated it was available. she stated it is a separate reservation and that I had to call back on the 24th and change the reservation to the one bedroom for those last 3 days. does it make sense? If they were available, the one bedrooms for the last 3 nights, shouldnt she have booked them. Also, she kept looking to see if available. I did not understand since I was one of the first people to find out about the change in booking since I called right at 9:00, just to book the night of may 20 for next year. So for people who divide their stay to save points, you have to call back.

In this case you are wanting two separate reservations - one with an arrival on May 20 and one with an arrival on May 24. Under the new policy, you could reserve May 20 - May 27 as one reservation, but need to wait until June 24 to reserve anything with an arrival on May 24. So, in this case you were given correct information under the new rules. Under the old rules, you couldn't have reserved anything until tomorrow and that would have just been one night - May 20, 2009.

While you will likely be fine getting exactly what you want for these dates - if enough owners called today (or tomorrow, Sunday or Moday) it's possible that there could be no availability for those 1BR villas by the time you can call on the 24th - thus the concerns about having a level playing filed for everyone.

Alternately, you could have reserved May 20 - 27 in a 1BR today under the new policy - and would have still needed to wait until June 24 to reserve a stay in a Studio (or other villa type) for May 24 - 27.

 

[JimC]

DVC website has yet to be updated. From the DVC website as of the time and date of this post:

Home Resort Priority
Get the guidelines for booking a stay at your Home Resort up to 11 months before your check-out date.

Your Disney Vacation Club Membership allows you the privilege and flexibility to reserve accommodations at your Home Resort as far as 11 months in advance of your check-out date.

 

[RobDoc]

So far for our 2 completed vacations last Aug. and Thanksgiving week and our 3rd next month we have not had to use the 7 or 11 month window yet. Last year we stayed 5 nights SSR our home resort and 3 nights BWV with BW view and we are splitting in July at OKW and BCV and we were so lucky to get them with like 5-6 months out. All of these were 2br. I guess this might be a problem for us if we want a peak time?? I guess time will tell for all of us.

This is likely to be an issue only for popular dates (early December, Thanksgiving, Christmas/NewYears, Fall Break, etc.) and for highly sought after accommodations (BCV - 2BR/2Q, BWV - BW view, Standard View, GVs, VB - Beach Cottages, HH - GVs during summer, AKV - Concierge, Value).

Most of the year will not likely be an issue certainly at 11 months and even 7 month reservations will be available as they are at this time. As long as members are flexible with dates, resorts and villa types we should see little change for most of the year. The exceptions I expect are noted above and the new policy will likely adversely affect some members who are used to reserving without issue in the past for those dates. Still, with flexibility and use of the waitlist, most members will still have success in the long run.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

So If you are booking at 11 months using points from two different use years, you will not be able to book your entire stay 5 night stay. You will have to book whatever days you can off of contract #1, and then wait till your your "check-in day" on the second reservation to book the rest of your stay off of contract #2. Then link the reservations together.

Makes booking an entire stay difficult for owners with multiple use years at the same resort.

 

[wedance6]

You stated exactly my concern. At least booking day by day based on checkout day gave us all an equal chance at getting reservations. Now, I might not get the nights I want because someone was able to reserve 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 days and the day before I called!

What I don't understand is how can this new policy be any different than booking day by day. I called every day at 9am, and was able to get my room in conceierge, what prevented the guy that arrived there 3 days before me, but overlapping with my stay to be taking the room away from me anyhow. He didn't I was always able to get all 10 nights in May with no problem. So does that mean that that particular guest kept getting waitlisted since I was getting the room? I find that strange since if he called at the same time that we didn't get a crapshoot of 50/50 on the room....hope this makes sense

 

[wedance6]

So If you are booking at 11 months using points from two different use years, you will not be able to book your entire stay 5 night stay. You will have to book whatever days you can off of contract #1, and then wait till your your "check-in day" on the second reservation to book the rest of your stay off of contract #2. Then link the reservations together.

Makes booking an entire stay dificult for an owners with multiple use years at the same resort.

Use years have nothing to do with when you can book a ressie, it's always 11 months from your check in day, unless this changes back to check out day

 

[kikiq]

I agree - it wipes out the 11 month/7month windows more or less.

How does this wipe out the 11month/7month windows? If you own AKV, you are only competing with other AKV owners for those rooms. I don't own AKV, so IF (and I know that I'm in the minority in not really wanting to stay there)
I wanted to book I still have to wait until the 7 month window. Maybe I missed the post that said that this was for ALL ressies and they also did away with the 11month/7month home resort rule.

I'm new and I'm willing to let this play out. It may however make us buy more points at GCV.

 

[Disney Kim]

Is there a e-mail address anyone can give me for write MS about this??

 

[jdg345]

This is a great way to eliminate the day-by-day phone calls to MS at 11 and 7 months ... however ... it adds a potential for abuse if members really want a 5 night reservation (Sun - Thurs) but can now call to reserve 7 nights (Friday - Thurs) and then later cancel the Fri/Sat - thus getting a 2 day booking advantage over those who wait until the Sunday may be reserved.

If that's the case, MS may need to have a policy where later modifications where the check-in date is dropped from the reservation would require that the reservation would be cancelled and rebooked - allowing the waitlist to pick up any freed up dates in the meantime.

It will be interesting to see how this works as time goes by. In principal, it's a great way to reduce phone calls for MS and headaches for members. There is certainly the potential for someone to call for a hard-to-get reservation, be the first one thru at 9:00am and have no availability already because that date was already reserved 2 days ago.

Stay Tuned!

I was thinking right along these lines ... why not just call a week in advance now? So if you really wanted the 14th through the 21st, you can just call on the 7th and reserve through the 14th. Then call on the 8th, and change to be the 8th through the 15th, then 9th through 16th, etc.

The idea was probably to cut down on phone traffic for these day-by-day reservations ... but imo, they just moved the process up by a week.

 

[zulaya]

What I don't understand is how can this new policy be any different than booking day by day. I called every day at 9am, and was able to get my room in conceierge, what prevented the guy that arrived there 3 days before me, but overlapping with my stay to be taking the room away from me anyhow. He didn't I was always able to get all 10 nights in May with no problem. So does that mean that that particular guest kept getting waitlisted since I was getting the room? I find that strange since if he called at the same time that we didn't get a crapshoot of 50/50 on the room....hope this makes sense

When you made your reservation this new policy wasn't in effect. I'm going to try something here and let's see if I get it right...

Owner #1 is checking in for a stay Dec 1-8
Owner #2 is checking in for a stay Dec 5-12

For the sake of argument, both are reserving BW SV 1BR and need exactly the same amount of points.

Owner #1 can call 4 days before Owner #2. It's possible that in those 4 days before Owner #2 can call, all the BW SV 1BR are reserved for Dec 5-8. Which means that before Owner #2 can even call at his 11 month check-in window, he'd have to go on the waitlist for that particular room reservation.

This, for me, is the most important piece of this new policy. It's not a matter of my calling a few minutes late and it being the luck of the draw. Members checking in before you for their vacation may very well be the cause of your not getting what you want because of this policy. Not blaming the members, but MS for this being allowed to happen.

 

[castleri]

What I don't understand is how can this new policy be any different than booking day by day. I called every day at 9am, and was able to get my room in conceierge, what prevented the guy that arrived there 3 days before me, but overlapping with my stay to be taking the room away from me anyhow. He didn't I was always able to get all 10 nights in May with no problem. So does that mean that that particular guest kept getting waitlisted since I was getting the room? I find that strange since if he called at the same time that we didn't get a crapshoot of 50/50 on the room....hope this makes sense

With the new system the guy who is reserving 3 days before you can get that room before you can call for your reservation. With the old way you each have an equal chance if you call day by day of getting the room. Since there are only a max of 10 club level rooms under the new system it is possible they would all be booked before you could even pick up the phone for yours. At least with the old system everyone was on equal footing if the dialed in at 9am. It may have been a time consuming project but at least everyone had the same chance at it.

Off to send an email to express my concerns with this new system. There were rumors in the past about not being able to drop days without cancelling the whole reservation and startin over. Maybe this is where they came from. There may be more info that hasn't been communicated yet.

 

[jdg345]

You can do a one night waitlist if that's the only night you are seeking.

What they have eliminated is the day-by-day waitlist. If you wanted Dec 2-6, in the past you could create 5 separate waitlist requests for each individual night. It's much easier to get one night off of the waitlist than 5 consecutive, so the odds of success are probably much higher this way.

Now if you wanted Dec 2-6, you need to waitlist for the entire period. It's all or nothing.

Is this confirmed? I preferred the day by day personally as it gave you a better chance of filling here and there and eventually getting the whole period. Day-by-day, you only need someone to release one night. If you waitlist for the whole period, all those days need to be released at the same time for you to be able to pick them up. Much harder to match, imo.

 

[doconeill]

What I don't understand is how can this new policy be any different than booking day by day. I called every day at 9am, and was able to get my room in conceierge, what prevented the guy that arrived there 3 days before me, but overlapping with my stay to be taking the room away from me anyhow. He didn't I was always able to get all 10 nights in May with no problem. So does that mean that that particular guest kept getting waitlisted since I was getting the room? I find that strange since if he called at the same time that we didn't get a crapshoot of 50/50 on the room....hope this makes sense

With day-by-day bookings in the old system, everyone had equal opportunity to book a room on a given day. Say you and I want the same room class, and there is only one available. I want the room for the 1st through the 7th. You only want it for the 4th through the 7th. I start calling on the 1st 11 months prior, get the first day, call on the 2nd and get the second day, etc. Come the 4th, we both call - and if there is only one room available, either you or I get it, depending who called first (or who got the faster CM - but the advantage goes to me slightly because it is quicker to add a day than start a new ressie). Repeat for the remaining days.

There really is no way to get any sort of advantage.

Under the new system (as we understand it at this point), I can call on the 1st, and book the room for the 1st through the 7th. You call on the 4th, and there is no room available. Me for the win.

So, let's change this a bit.

I want the room for the 2nd through the 8th. You still want it for the 4th through the 7th. BUT, you have enough points that you COULD book it for the 1st through the 7th temporarily. So on the 1st YOU can call and book the room for the 1st-7th, and I call on the 2nd and there is no room. Come the 4th or any time thereafter you call and cancel the 1st to the 3rd, putting the points back in your account. Even if I call, I can book the 2nd-3rd, but I'm still out on the room for the 4th-7th. You win.

Sooooooo...I can play that game too. I call on the 31st, and book through the 6th, locking in the room. Then I call day by day, canceling the 31st and adding the 7th. You and I go back to the 50-50 chance on getting the 7th, but I've already got the 1st-6th so I've got an advantage...

Soooooo...you call the 30th, and do the same thing...

And I call the 29th...

And we all waste MS time to guarantee getting a room for a day we can't even actually book yet.

 

[jdg345]

And now that there IS a new rule, every time you call to make that GV reservation in the future there is the possibility that all the GVs will be gone to people who were able to book before you. None of us will ever have a level playing field again for getting the scarce rooms.

Sure you will ... people will just book day-by-day a week in advance, that's all. All this does is complicate the system -- I really don't see how it fixes anything.

 

[kgc07]

What I don't understand is how can this new policy be any different than booking day by day. I called every day at 9am, and was able to get my room in conceierge, what prevented the guy that arrived there 3 days before me, but overlapping with my stay to be taking the room away from me anyhow. He didn't I was always able to get all 10 nights in May with no problem. So does that mean that that particular guest kept getting waitlisted since I was getting the room? I find that strange since if he called at the same time that we didn't get a crapshoot of 50/50 on the room....hope this makes sense

When you called day by day it was the first day that anyone was able to book the room. So, yes, you may have taken a room that someone who had the room the 3 prior days to your first day was planning on staying in. Under the new policy, if the same person checked in 3 days before you and continued their stay three days more, they would have had the room possibly booked before you even had the chance leaving you with no room.

 

[Cruiser1969]

Under the new system (as we understand it at this point), I can call on the 1st, and book the room for the 1st through the 7th. You call on the 4th, and there is no room available. Me for the win.

So, let's change this a bit.

I want the room for the 2nd through the 8th. You still want it for the 4th through the 7th. BUT, you have enough points that you COULD book it for the 1st through the 7th temporarily. So on the 1st YOU can call and book the room for the 1st-7th, and I call on the 2nd and there is no room. Come the 4th or any time thereafter you call and cancel the 1st to the 3rd, putting the points back in your account. Even if I call, I can book the 2nd-3rd, but I'm still out on the room for the 4th-7th. You win.

Sooooooo...I can play that game too. I call on the 31st, and book through the 6th, locking in the room. Then I call day by day, canceling the 31st and adding the 7th. You and I go back to the 50-50 chance on getting the 7th, but I've already got the 1st-6th so I've got an advantage...

Soooooo...you call the 30th, and do the same thing...

And I call the 29th...

And we all waste MS time to guarantee getting a room for a day we can't even actually book yet.

 

[ScottakaMickey]

Here is how the popular times will have to work.

I want to do a vacation December 25 to January 1. So, here is how I have to do it.

On January 19 I call MS. Book 7 days from December 19 to checkout on December 26.
On January 20 I call MS. Extend my 7 day stay to now checkout on December 27. Then I cancel my December 19 reservation.
On January 21 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on December 28. Then I cance my December 20 reservation.
On January 22 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on December 29. Then I cancel my December 21 reservation.
On January 23 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on December 30. Then I cancel my December 22 reservation.
On January 24 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on December 31. Then I cancel my December 23 reservation.
On January 25 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on January 1. Then I cancel my December 24 reservation.

I now have what I really wanted. This is going to be very complicated to get done, but it's going to have to be that way. Now, the biggest challenge is making sure you have enough points to book 7 days worth of stay if you only want to do this for a stay shorter.

I don't like it, but there is still a way to get the popular times or popular locations.

 

[toesmom]

Here is how the popular times will have to work.

I want to do a vacation December 25 to January 1. So, here is how I have to do it.

On January 19 I call MS. Book 7 days from December 19 to checkout on December 26.
On January 20 I call MS. Extend my 7 day stay to now checkout on December 27. Then I cancel my December 19 reservation.
On January 21 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on December 28. Then I cance my December 20 reservation.
On January 22 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on December 29. Then I cancel my December 21 reservation.
On January 23 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on December 30. Then I cancel my December 22 reservation.
On January 24 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on December 31. Then I cancel my December 23 reservation.
On January 25 I call MS. Extend my new 7 day stay to now checkout on January 1. Then I cancel my December 24 reservation.

I now have what I really wanted. This is going to be very complicated to get done, but it's going to have to be that way. Now, the biggest challenge is making sure you have enough points to book 7 days worth of stay if you only want to do this for a stay shorter.

I don't like it, but there is still a way to get the popular times or popular locations.

You've totally explained how it can be done, thanks! That's assuming MS will let you drop that first night without making a brand new reservation.

 

[jdg345]

I booked today may 20 - 27. But, I wanted 4 nights in a studio and 3 nights in a one bedroom so that not to use so many points. She let me book it for 7 nights in a studio, but would not let me book the last 3 night one bedroom even though she stated it was available. she stated it is a separate reservation and that I had to call back on the 24th and change the reservation to the one bedroom for those last 3 days. does it make sense? If they were available, the one bedrooms for the last 3 nights, shouldnt she have booked them. Also, she kept looking to see if available. I did not understand since I was one of the first people to find out about the change in booking since I called right at 9:00, just to book the night of may 20 for next year. So for people who divide their stay to save points, you have to call back.

Again, this is where people with larger contracts have an advantage. If you had a boatload of points, you could have booked both the Studio and the 1BR today, 7 nights each. Then, next week, you cancel the days you don't need, and you're all set.

 

[doconeill]

Sooooooo...I can play that game too. I call on the 31st, and book through the 6th, locking in the room. Then I call day by day, canceling the 31st and adding the 7th. You and I go back to the 50-50 chance on getting the 7th, but I've already got the 1st-6th so I've got an advantage...

Now that I think of it...this may be a bigger advantage than I thought.

Under the new rules, if you call to book the 1st-7th, and the 1st-3rd are not available, can you still waitlist those and book the rest? Technically, the days you CAN book are outside the 11 month window, so if the waitlist doesn't count, then there is no way you can gain the room in this scenario.