New policy for reservations based on check IN date

[RLRDA]

Found out about the rule while on vacation, (still having a great time at VWL!) and the first thing I thought was that I was glad I have NYE this year, what a mess it's going to be trying to get that next year. I do not like the new rules because they make it possible not to have an 11 month advantage for a home resort, and that is what I thought I had been guaranteed when I bought DVC.

Bobbi

Just to make a quick point, if there are 400 members looking for a 300 room supply on a certain day, and all 400 call DBD at 11 months, then 100 of those members effectively don't have the 11 month window either, so you aren't "guaranteed" it under the old system either...

I made a point similar to Bobbi's back on page 2 or 3 and several have made your same point, tidefan, about the room supply and demand. I was referring to my ability (or lack thereof) to hope to ever get a AKV concierge room in August '09. With the old system at 9am on any given day ALL 10 (actually 5 since I only want a 1BR) of the rooms in your example were in inventory - so if a member chose to call DBD nothing had been booked. It still would have been luck for me to be one of the first 5 callers but I had a shot. Someone else referred to 19 GVs at OKW - I could use the same scenario for those.

With the new system I have to HOPE someone is checking out of one of those 1BRs on the day that I want to check in THEN also call first thing at 9am and get extremely lucky! There might be only one 1BR unit available for any given day.

People weren't forced to call DBD before. I've only done DBD once and would have only done it again for very specific times/categories. The 11month window isn't gone entirely but it is now "watered down" for those booking categories with limited supply.

This is not going to affect the members who don't use their 11 month window. Many people can't plan their vacations that far in advance. If you call 6 months out it won't affect you either.

 

[jarestel]

I guess I don't get the idea that the 11-month booking advantage is no longer available. The 11 month booking advantage certainly still exists and recall that it's only purpose ever was to ensure that dues-paying owners at a specific resort had the opportunity to make reservations before non owners at that resort. This is still so. If one can't get the exact reservation they want at 11 months, it's not because a non-owner snagged it, simply that another dues-paying owner at that resort has been fortunate. One owner is disappointed, but another is happy. Sounds like a wash to me.

 

[kdepot]

With a limited number of premo rooms and membership growing. it's only natural that these rooms would become harder to get. And with some members wanting only to stay in these rooms the supply will never be able to meet demand. However those of you who desire these rooms will have an opening when all the members in this group( premo rooms ) start booking BLT.

 

[DVC Grandpa]

The new policy includes “As a result of this enhancement, waitlists are now available only for the full length of stay.” I have a concern also about the “full length of stay” part.
Since we go only once a year, our stay covers up to five weeks. If I am waitlisted for a day, does this mean, in theory, the entire five weeks is waitlisted? I agree I could get several reservations and link them together reducing that waitlist period. This is another example of how the “enhancements” have not been thought out and the member has to take action to remedy the flaw by terminating the reservation and restarting another in order to cut the waitlist day(s) clear of actual booked days. This in turn would create a better chance acquiring the waitlisted day. I can’t see being waitlisted to five consecutive weeks.

 

[DVC92]

A presumably official interpretation of the policy from DVC Executive Communications is that after booking your first 7 days with one call, days 8 and beyond can be booked day-by-day (if desired) beginning at "day 2," i.e. call Jan 1st for Dec 1-7th, call Jan 2nd for the 8th and so on. This being the case, what would the rationale be for capping the initial reservation to 7 days? Longer reservations would eliminate the DBD calls once and for all, which I assume is the goal of MS.

 

[kdepot]

A presumably official interpretation of the policy from DVC Executive Communications is that after booking your first 7 days with one call, days 8 and beyond can be booked day-by-day (if desired) beginning at "day 2," i.e. call Jan 1st for Dec 1-7th, call Jan 2nd for the 8th and so on. This being the case, what would the rationale be for capping the initial reservation to 7 days? Longer reservations would eliminate the DBD calls once and for all, which I assume is the goal of MS.

Could this be to stop some one having a 2 week or more window to grab a premo room and then cancel the front end?

 

[DVC Grandpa]

A presumably official interpretation of the policy from DVC Executive Communications is that after booking your first 7 days with one call, days 8 and beyond can be booked day-by-day (if desired) beginning at "day 2," i.e. call Jan 1st for Dec 1-7th, call Jan 2nd for the 8th and so on. This being the case, what would the rationale be for capping the initial reservation to 7 days? Longer reservations would eliminate the DBD calls once and for all, which I assume is the goal of MS.

THat is the same answer I got on my call back last Tuesday. The flaw is that you have to compete for the first seven days while not having that "level playing field".

 

[LisaS]

The new policy includes “As a result of this enhancement, waitlists are now available only for the full length of stay.” I have a concern also about the “full length of stay” part.
Since we go only once a year, our stay covers up to five weeks. If I am waitlisted for a day, does this mean, in theory, the entire five weeks is waitlisted? I agree I could get several reservations and link them together reducing that waitlist period. This is another example of how the “enhancements” have not been thought out and the member has to take action to remedy the flaw by terminating the reservation and restarting another in order to cut the waitlist day(s) clear of actual booked days. This in turn would create a better chance acquiring the waitlisted day. I can’t see being waitlisted to five consecutive weeks.

Under the old system, if you tried to book a stay and none of your nights were available or a block of contiguous nights was not available, you had the option to wait list for the entire block of nights or wait list for individual nights within the block to come through one at a time. They have eliminated the option to list the individual nights. So if you are missing 2 or more contiguous nights for your stay, you can only waitlist for them to come through all at once.

If you are missing an individual night for your trip, you can still waitlist for just that one night. It would be an "all or nothing" waitlist, but just for one night.

 

[KennySC]

A presumably official interpretation of the policy from DVC Executive Communications is that after booking your first 7 days with one call, days 8 and beyond can be booked day-by-day (if desired) beginning at "day 2," i.e. call Jan 1st for Dec 1-7th, call Jan 2nd for the 8th and so on. This being the case, what would the rationale be for capping the initial reservation to 7 days? Longer reservations would eliminate the DBD calls once and for all, which I assume is the goal of MS.

This was confirmed to me yesterday by MS.

 

[jarestel]

A presumably official interpretation of the policy from DVC Executive Communications is that after booking your first 7 days with one call, days 8 and beyond can be booked day-by-day (if desired) beginning at "day 2," i.e. call Jan 1st for Dec 1-7th, call Jan 2nd for the 8th and so on. This being the case, what would the rationale be for capping the initial reservation to 7 days? Longer reservations would eliminate the DBD calls once and for all, which I assume is the goal of MS.

One would assume that DVC feels that the majority of members don't stay longer than 7 days. As always, a policy that works for the majority might not be ideal for everyone but as DVC membership grows, the one-size-fits-all concept might need additional tweaking.

PS: That's pretty cool! I replied to your post before you sent it, DVC92!

 

[Disneyhappy]

Read through all the posts and my opinion is that this system will stink for those that want limited type of rooms or go at busy times of the year. I compare the 11 month booking window to the 180 + 10 for advance dining reservations. I called at exactly 7 AM at 180 days to book LeCellier and could not get a dinner reservation for our entire stay. Only lunch was available. Other ADRs were not exactly what I wanted either but LeCellier was the key one for me this go around. So my experience with ADRs have led me to believe the same will happen with the new DVC policy. I much prefer that everyone has an equal opportunity at their 11 month window. We were going to add on 100 points at AKV to get booking priority for concierge. I am so glad this policy came out before we purchased because I would have been livid. I know there was no guarantee we would have gotten the rooms when we wanted, but at least I was on a level playing field with everyone else who wanted the same day. With regards to ADRs for next Thanksgiving, I will be booking a room only stay at least 10 days prior to when I want my ADRs in addition to booking our DVC. Once I have my ADRs, I will cancel my room only reservation. Do I like doing this - absolutely not but it is all within the rules and policies as established by Disney. Based on the responses on this thread, similar abuses will be taking place with DVC. It appears that the members with a larger amount of points to play with will have the advantage in playing with the system.

 

[jade1]

I guess I don't get the idea that the 11-month booking advantage is no longer available. The 11 month booking advantage certainly still exists and recall that it's only purpose ever was to ensure that dues-paying owners at a specific resort had the opportunity to make reservations before non owners at that resort. This is still so. If one can't get the exact reservation they want at 11 months, it's not because a non-owner snagged it, simply that another dues-paying owner at that resort has been fortunate. One owner is disappointed, but another is happy. Sounds like a wash to me.

I agree, except its no longer an "11 month" window, and thats what is confusing. Is it 11 months, 11 months and 7 days, 11 months and 4 days, 11 months and 3 weeks "rolling/walking"?

If I cant figure out how to get VWL for XMAS eve-I will take comfort that a fellow VWL owner will be in the room, as you point out though.

 

[LisaS]

A presumably official interpretation of the policy from DVC Executive Communications is that after booking your first 7 days with one call, days 8 and beyond can be booked day-by-day (if desired) beginning at "day 2," i.e. call Jan 1st for Dec 1-7th, call Jan 2nd for the 8th and so on. This being the case, what would the rationale be for capping the initial reservation to 7 days? Longer reservations would eliminate the DBD calls once and for all, which I assume is the goal of MS.

When they were telling people to call back in a week to book the next 7 nights, then the 7-night limit made sense because on day 8 the person seeking to extend their stay was competing for those additional nights. Now that they have decided you can extend your stay via DBD booking starting on day 2, the 7-night limit doesn't make sense -- the person booking the longer stay essentially has blocked anyone else from booking that room so why not just let them book it for their entire stay in one call. This assumes we are correct about what happens if I call and my first night(s) are not available. We've assumed that if we cannot get the first night or couple of nights that we cannot book any nights in that 7-night window. If we're wrong about that and we can waitlist nights 1-N (where N<7) and book the remaining nights we need (up through night 7) then that really changes things. If I call to book 7 nights and can't get nights 1-6 but they let me book night 7 and waitlist nights 1-6, I could take away the room needed by the person trying to extend their stay (or walk their reservation) if I get through to MS first.

So I would like to know, what is their intention here? Did they intend for those staying 7 nights or less to have a shot at booking the same nights someone else needs for a longer stay? And if so, will I be able to book whatever nights I can get on my first call? Or is the goal to maximize the chances of someone getting all of their nights in which case why not just let the person booking a long stay get it over with in one call since they will have the rest of us blocked out anyway?

 

[jdg345]

This was confirmed to me yesterday by MS.

And I've been doing this for awhile now ... so I know it works. Other's have reported success as well.

 

[jdg345]

Here's a question based on the new recording when calling Member Services. I know at least one other person 'heard' it in a similar fashion because they posted about it. I was just wondering if anyone else 'heard' it as well. While I won't quote the message verbatim, this is more or less what I 'heard':

We've made some exciting enhancements to the booking rules! We have now enhanced the way you book reservations in an enhanced way! You can now, through our enchanced changes, book up to 7 days of your stay at 11 months of your arrival in one call. This enhancement was based on requests that we enhance the system! Also, thanks to this wonderful enhancement, we have also enhanced waitlists! With the new enhanced waitlist system, you can now put your entire stay in one enhanced waitlist instead of individual days. Enjoy the new enhancements!

 

[jarestel]

Here's a question based on the new recording when calling Member Services. I know at least one other person 'heard' it in a similar fashion because they posted about it. I was just wondering if anyone else 'heard' it as well. While I won't quote the message verbatim, this is more or less what I 'heard':

We've made some existing enhancements to the booking rules! We have now enhanced the way you book reservations in an enhanced way! You can now, through our enchanced changes, book up to 7 days of your stay at 11 months of your arrival in one call. This enhancement was based on requests that we enhance the system! Also, thanks to this wonderful enhancement, we have also enhanced waitlists! With the new enhanced waitlist system, you can now put your entire stay in one enhanced waitlist instead of individual days. Enjoy the new enhancements!

That's funny!

Maybe DVC can enhance their message by using a version of yours!

(Another ESP post for me. I'm getting good at responding to posts before the author has even posted it.)

 

[dvcdisney]

I apologize ahead of time if this has already been posted.

I emailed MS a few days ago and got a phone call the next day, which I thought was great!

I inquired about a few things that I was unclear about. Since our vacations typically last for more than 7 days, I asked about the booking the days after the 7th day. The answer I received was that I may then call on Day 2 to book Day 8th and so on using DBD. Okay, that's fine. And when I asked about the waitlist, I was told that if I needed to waitlist one or two days, I could waitlist each one. So I brought up the scenerio of having to waitlist every other day of my vacation (ie. Day 2, 4, etc). And if day 2 came up and not day 4, will I still be able to get that and she said yes. Whatever I waitlist for, I do not have to wait until all the waitlist comes through...so this to me sound like there is no real change to the waitlist policy when it comes to individual or a set of days (which I was worried about).

I did voice my concern about the probability of abuse and disappointment of the so called "enhancement". But was told that this was done due to the overwhelming feedback from members.

As others mentioned, I don't think it would have a great impact on those who book after the 11 mth window. I believe, this creates a more anxious booking experience for those (like myself) who book day by day at exactly 11 mnths.

 

[dcamdad]

With close to 1100 posts on this matter the poll was closed after only 50 votes? Any particular reason?

 

[dvcdisney]

So I would like to know, what is their intention here? Did they intend for those staying 7 nights or less to have a shot at booking the same nights someone else needs for a longer stay? And if so, will I be able to book whatever nights I can get on my first call? Or is the goal to maximize the chances of someone getting all of their nights in which case why not just let the person booking a long stay get it over with in one call since they will have the rest of us blocked out anyway?

Agreed! I'd like to know the purpose as well!

 

[squirrlygirl]

But to wait and call at the end of my stay while everyone is calling at the beginning of theirs, would virtually guarantee that I will not get a room - especially during the month of December, or at BCV duriing F&W, during the spring break weeks, etc., and also for several different room types in any season, because you're talking about a 10 day disadvantage. And think of the waitlist ramifications for the scenario of calling at the end of your stay. For planners such as most of us here on the Dis are, that is unthinkable!

Whatever thought I was responding to was talking about booking at 6 months out-not at the beginning of a booking window