Number of People Walking

[KAT4DISNEY]

This has been mentioned quite a bit, and yet I agree with a prior poster that it would not do anything to stop those mega-point owners and resellers from behaving as they currently do. They'll have enough points to reach as far out as possible, walking their room less often than the little guy with only a handful of points, and the mega-point owner will simply pass along the fees to their renters, where the price different will go unnoticed as they're still saving off Disney's rack rates.

Yep. Where walking is equal for smaller and large point owners now that would shift to definitely benefit large point owners if they started charging for each change.

 

[ParkHoppers]

Yep. Where walking is equal for smaller and large point owners now that would shift to definitely benefit large point owners if they started charging for each change.

But how many large point owners are after standard studios and one bedrooms. With that many points I believe many would just book next category up from standard and not have to bother with walking at all.

 

[JETSDAD]

But how many large point owners are after standard studios and one bedrooms. With that many points I believe many would just book next category up from standard and not have to bother with walking at all.

By the look of rental groups, a lot of them are booking the highest demand rooms to rent out.

 

[bobbiwoz]

But how many large point owners are after standard studios and one bedrooms. With that many points I believe many would just book next category up from standard and not have to bother with walking at all.

I go for the higher point cost. I do not see how charging for over “x” changes would be a benefit to large point owners.

I have owned at AKV since its beginning, have been able to book CL until all these walkers have shown up.

 

[ziravan]

I go for the higher point cost. I do not see how charging for over “x” changes would be a benefit to large point owners.

I have owned at AKV since its beginning, have been able to book CL until all these walkers have shown up.

Let’s say you get 3 free changes before charges apply. If I own enough points for the full week, I can make 3 changes 6 nights out, and buy 2 more changes for $25/change, and for $50 I’m walking 36 nights early.

If I only had enough points to walk 4 nights? Same walk would cost 9 moves (1st is the original plus 3 plus buy 5 more): same walk costs $125.00.

Now push that to the edge of what a walk is worth.

Is it worth $100 bucks to get that special room in the first 2 weeks of Dec? If so, it’s gonna cost the 4 night owner $200. At some point the cost/benefit curve pushes out the smaller owner in favor of the larger one.

At every point in the curve, there’s a built in advantage to the larger point owner.

And unless that cost to change is very high ($95/change), you’ve only changed walking to skipping towards a reservation.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I go for the higher point cost. I do not see how charging for over “x” changes would be a benefit to large point owners.

I have owned at AKV since its beginning, have been able to book CL until all these walkers have shown up.

First - it's unlikely DVC would charge to add days at the 11 month window so they could add multiple days - even get a 2 week reservation. Then, every 2 weeks they could make their walk change. A small point owner with enough points to book a week would be modifying twice as often. Less points then even more frequent changes.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

But how many large point owners are after standard studios and one bedrooms. With that many points I believe many would just book next category up from standard and not have to bother with walking at all.

For Concierge all it takes is 5.

 

[twinklebug]

For Concierge all it takes is 5.

And after many stays, and the ever increasing park pass prices, I'm betting that there are more folk willing to spend their home resort points on those rooms and a shorter stay than before.

 

[ziravan]

For Concierge all it takes is 5.

Speaking of which, back on the concierge walk this morning! Yeah. Except this time, I’m close enough to my desired dates (mid-Dec) that if I’m blocked again, I’m just going to stay where I’m at.

I have 3 concierge nights booked in Dec 2019 for SW:GE early FP booking! I was pumped this morning.

And because of my earlier booking problems, I dropped off 36 points on 4 value nights (picked those up in the wake of other walkers) in mid October so I’m gonna end up with a F&W visit as well. So that really worked out.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Let’s say you get 3 free changes before charges apply. If I own enough points for the full week, I can make 3 changes 6 nights out, and buy 2 more changes for $25/change, and for $50 I’m walking 36 nights early.

If I only had enough points to walk 4 nights? Same walk would cost 9 moves (1st is the original plus 3 plus buy 5 more): same walk costs $125.00.

Now push that to the edge of what a walk is worth.

Is it worth $100 bucks to get that special room in the first 2 weeks of Dec? If so, it’s gonna cost the 4 night owner $200. At some point the cost/benefit curve pushes out the smaller owner in favor of the larger one.

At every point in the curve, there’s a built in advantage to the larger point owner.

And unless that cost to change is very high ($95/change), you’ve only changed walking to skipping towards a reservation.

Well, apparently you have thought it out. I am still in favor of a change in the current practice, and will continue to let DVC know. As a large point owner, why would I want to add to my already high enough maintenance fee. Apparently you are willing to walk and pay. I will not.

 

[JETSDAD]

Speaking of which, back on the concierge walk this morning! Yeah. Except this time, I’m close enough to my desired dates (mid-Dec) that if I’m blocked again, I’m just going to stay where I’m at.

I have 3 concierge nights booked in Dec 2019 for SW:GE early FP booking! I was pumped this morning.

I was going to try to grab that this morning but I was told that I didn't want it. Apparently I want to use less points and also go to HHI as well this year. Some day she'll tell me that I'm allowed to want to go to battle for the club rooms.

 

[twinklebug]

I was going to try to grab that this morning but I was told that I didn't want it. Apparently I want to use less points and also go to HHI as well this year. Some day she'll tell me that I'm allowed to want to go to battle for the club rooms.

 

[kboo]

But how many large point owners are after standard studios and one bedrooms. With that many points I believe many would just book next category up from standard and not have to bother with walking at all.

Although I'm not even close to being in the 1000 point club (and probably never will be), I'm pretty sure we are well above the mean and median point level. I *still* would rather book a lower cost category and stay for longer, than book a higher cost room for a shorter stay. Maybe that would change if I had 1000 points, but right now that's still a consideration.

I go for the higher point cost. I do not see how charging for over “x” changes would be a benefit to large point owners.

I have owned at AKV since its beginning, have been able to book CL until all these walkers have shown up.

I don't understand how "all these walkers" have shown up - for CL at AKV, there's the same # of owners and points trying to book CL rooms. Supply (# of rooms) has stayed the same, but as more AKV owners are learning about the different room categories and learning how walking works, some/more are willing to put in the effort to do it.

Here's another way that being a large point owner is an advantage and charging for changes doesn't really matter, and that doesn't involve walking: Making parallel reservations. So your desired week in CL isn't open, but a savannah room is. So you book the savannah room. Now you stalk the RAT and use your wait list. If you WL 1 day instead of the whole week, you have a better chance of your WL coming through. So you use your WL to WL for single days, and book them with your "extra" points while you leave your backup savanna room reservation alone. Slowly, you pick up each cancelled day by canceled day until you have 7 consecutive single night reservations in CL as well as your backup savanna level reservation. Then you cancel your savanna room and call MS to link your 7 single night reservations. Easy peasy, and you were able to do something that a small point owner could never do - keep a whole other room as a backup until you were sure you got all the days you wanted in CL.

I know you don't consider this as evil as walking but it's doing the same thing - keeping another room that you know you won't need out of inventory for a period of time.

 

[CarolMN]

Best way to reduce walking is to make every date change a cancel and rebook, with the waitlist taking priority over the rebook. I would not like that at all and prefer the current system over that. Since the online system now takes care of the walking without needing MS involvement, it is unlikely that DVC will do anything about it.

IMO, even though I personally do not like walking, any fix will almost certainly be worse than the problem it purports to solve. To me, this is absolutely a case where it would be wise to "be careful what you ask for".

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

IMO, even though I personally do not like walking, any fix will almost certainly be worse than the problem it purports to solve. To me, this is absolutely a case where it would be wise to "be careful what you ask for".

I agree! I'd never wish for a "fix" for walking. Scary.

 

[DenLo]

I cannot think of a way to restrict walking without making the rest of us pay either monetarily or that every change means a new reservation, shutter.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We disagree, and I sincerely hope that walking is stopped. I want to have a chance to book what I want at 11 months out, and I wish every other owner, large and small owner of points to have the same opportunity.

Done!
Bobbi

 

[ziravan]

We disagree, and I sincerely hope that walking is stopped. I want to have a chance to book what I want at 11 months out, and I wish every other owner, large and small owner of points to have the same opportunity.

Done!
Bobbi

Fixing walking won’t fix that.

The problem isn’t walking; it’s a mismatch of supply/demand.

Walking is just a symptom.

Even if you end walking, those in the know still have a knowledge advantage. How many average owners are gonna set up on universal time and click right at the moment?

Shoot, how many owners even here know the cheat on that? I’m not talking.

The only way to give every owner an equal shot is to use a lottery for the first two weeks of Dec and all the time for concierge and value. That’s it’s own set of problems and besides, far too much work for DVC to take on with no economic benefit to itself.

You can hate walking; it or some other loophole is always gonna be a fact of a system that requires a large amount of knowledge to master.

The average person just doesn’t have the attention span to create the egalitarian system you desire. And that’s not a bad thing. People invest their time in what is worth their time - to them. That’s why I’m not opposed to walking. I think owners that seek out and use their time to understand the system, even its loopholes, SHOULD have an advantage as a result.

Every owner has an equal opportunity to invest in the knowledge base and time necessary to walk. It’s not like walking is a direct owner perk. Maybe it should be??

 

[Orsino]

Just lock a reservation until after the window for the checkout date. That would stop walking.

Book at 11 months. fine.
Want to add 8th or more days a few days later? Fine.
Want to DELETE a day within the window? Say No. Not allowed. But you can delete in a few more days, after the window passes their reservation. No more walking.
(More specifically, they only need to restrict deleting days from the beginning of the reservation)

Impact on regular bookers? Minimal. Only someone who needs to shift their day or made a mistake would possibly get stuck. But that is user-error and not really DVC's fault.

 

[JETSDAD]

Just lock a reservation until after the window for the checkout date. That would stop walking.

Book at 11 months. fine.
Want to add 8th or more days a few days later? Fine.
Want to DELETE a day within the window? Say No. Not allowed. But you can delete in a few more days, after the window passes their reservation. No more walking.
(More specifically, they only need to restrict deleting days from the beginning of the reservation)

Impact on regular bookers? Minimal. Only someone who needs to shift their day or made a mistake would possibly get stuck. But that is user-error and not really DVC's fault.

And that then benefits the large point owners because they can afford to walk much longer. I am far from a large point owner but I could still walk a Value Studio for 3+ weeks.