Please explain how MS books a room?

[Tiger926]

So today we called MS to add a waitlist for 2 days at the end of our July vacation. It is for a Value 1 bed @ AKV, so we didn't even ask for availability, and CM says that the 1 night is available. We were stunned, so she said she was grabbing that, and putting the waitlist on for the last night. No problem.

We waited a few minutes, and she came back and then said she was not able to get it after all. Huh? The last time this happened, the CM messed up, and we lost the room, so how does this happen?

This has happened to us several times over the years, so it got me wondering how MS actually secures/books a room while the member is on the phone? Does the room go into a hold pattern for a few minutes? Do the CMs have to input our points before the room is secured, and that is how rooms are lost?

Thanks, Tiger

 

[Tiger926]

Wow, I can't believe no one knows how MS secures our rooms during the booking process while we are on the phone with them?

Maybe everyone is busy with holiday preparations? Tiger

 

[CarolAnnC]

This happens because with the multitude of CM's that are booking at any given time, if there is limited availability, someone was probably a step ahead of you in the booking process and that may have been the last room.

This is not unique to DVC, and can happen with booking hotels anywhere as well. Another example is booking day for the DVC Member Cruise. Now that is a case where rooms are booking and flying out the window as fast as you can speak on the phone, too.. Sorry you were unable to secure your room.

 

[rcchello]

1) You make a request
2) They look up what is available
3) You think about what you want and then tell them
4) If the room is still available they book it, otherwise they tell you it is no longer available.


Between the time they look up the room and you say yes, the room could be assigned by another agent. This happens on reservation systems all the time.

 

[Tiger926]

This happens because with the multitude of CM's that are booking at any given time, if there is limited availability, someone was probably a step ahead of you in the booking process and that may have been the last room.

This is not unique to DVC, and can happen with booking hotels anywhere as well. Another example is booking day for the DVC Member Cruise. Now that is a case where rooms are booking and flying out the window as fast as you can speak on the phone, too.. Sorry you were unable to secure your room.

I do understand that, but it seems like chatty and distracted CMs seem to lose the rooms. This has been our case several times, so it would seem to me, that as soon as an agent makes an inquiry for a room, an automatic 5 mins hold should apply for that guest. Wouldn't this be a better system? In this case, she would never have told us the room was available, as another guest was in the process of securing that room. This system just leads to frustration and disappointment, IMHO.

1) You make a request
2) They look up what is available
3) You think about what you want and then tell them
4) If the room is still available they book it, otherwise they tell you it is no longer available.

Between the time they look up the room and you say yes, the room could be assigned by another agent. This happens on reservation systems all the time.

Yup, I got all of that as well, but this has never happened with me with other hotels, and I've booked lots of them. I am seriously questioning why there isn't an automatic hold on that room for a few minutes (as I mentioned above)? This would take care of chatty CMs or those who get distracted and lose the room for the guest. We are very quick, tell the CM what we want before they look for the room, and even tell them what points to use, and then we don't speak to them, so they can do their job of securing the room. We are confident that on our end, there are no waits or distractions - we tell them what we want and how to book it before, so once he/she says it's there, they know to book. There is no thinking on our end, as we only ever ask for them to check 1 room at a time.

But every once in awhile, it doesn't happen this way, and it's very frustrating. Yesterday, she said room was there, as she was typing, room was there again, and then she came back, and said she couldn't get it now. So somewhere in her process, she lost that room for us, as hubby didn't speak to her, nor distract her in anyway.

Thanks for the info. I would really love to take a behind the scene tour of how MS books our rooms while members are calling in.

Tiger

 

[TisBit]

This has been our case several times, so it would seem to me, that as soon as an agent makes an inquiry for a room, an automatic 5 mins hold should apply for that guest. Wouldn't this be a better system?

I agree they should be able to put a "hold" on a room, but the problem is that if just an inquiry on dates puts a "hold" on the room, you could have the exact same problem of not getting the room because of excessive holds. Lets say that there is one room available for your dates...someone calls because their family is just thinking about going during a certain time frame. They ask about several weeks or several room types, just to see what is available, before booking one. Well, now they have taken numerous rooms out of the system...in the meantime you have called, knowing exactly what you want and the room is not showing up. In the meantime, while they are inputting your information in for a waitlist, that room is released, but before you are even in the waitlist system (which we know is not instant) these temp holds release and someone else snatches that room.

This could get messy if it is expanded into how many people call checking availability and do not book (which is a lot of people). Honestly, we don't kow exactly how the holds work now, but if another CM was just a couple of minutes ahead of you in the system and go their information ahead of yours, presumably because their call started first. (I know, sometimes this isn't the case, but majority of the time it is)

 

[disneynutz]

Until the points are applied, the room is up for grabs. If the Adviser has trouble borrowing points or some other delay with the points, you may not get the reservation. It has happened to us a couple of times.

Bill

 

[Petraman]

Well said TisBit... exactly what I ws thinking. It really just moves the problem to a different stage of the booking process, and maybe even would make things worse.

For the OP... You mentioned you had never had this problem with other hotels chains. I actually had the "displeasure" of working for 2 different hotel chains in their booking department, and I can tell you that for both of them (Choice Hotels and Hilton) the booking system is exactly the same.
You request a date to see if available, we look it up, you decide, we try to book.
There were only a couple of times when I remember having the kind of problem you described... the day bookings came available in Indianapolis when the Indy 500 was running, and Sturgess during the bike rally. Booking on those days was insane!

No system can be flawless, I guess the key is really know what you want to do (1st, 2nd, even 3rd choices) before you call and go for it!

 

[silmarg]

Personally, I cant wait until we have the ability to book online via DVC website. I find the DVC phone hours too restrictive. I tend to prefer doing my vacation reservations at midnight...

 

[crisi]

Well said TisBit... exactly what I ws thinking. It really just moves the problem to a different stage of the booking process, and maybe even would make things worse.

For the OP... You mentioned you had never had this problem with other hotels chains. I actually had the "displeasure" of working for 2 different hotel chains in their booking department, and I can tell you that for both of them (Choice Hotels and Hilton) the booking system is exactly the same.
You request a date to see if available, we look it up, you decide, we try to book.
There were only a couple of times when I remember having the kind of problem you described... the day bookings came available in Indianapolis when the Indy 500 was running, and Sturgess during the bike rally. Booking on those days was insane!

No system can be flawless, I guess the key is really know what you want to do (1st, 2nd, even 3rd choices) before you call and go for it!

The difference between normal hotels and points based timeshares is that points based timeshares average 95% occupancy. Hotels think they are doing pretty good at 80%. There are times when a hotel is totally booked, but its rare. With a timeshare, if the points are being used by the owners, the opposite is the case - its rare not to have the building completely, or nearly completely booked.

In addition to having a backup plan, call early. This problem doesn't occur when the resort has 40% availability.

 

[drusba]

Personally, I cant wait until we have the ability to book online via DVC website. I find the DVC phone hours too restrictive. I tend to prefer doing my vacation reservations at midnight...

Frankly, I fear DVD's putting in on-line reservations. History tells me that Disney and DVD are, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is worst and 10 is best, a -10 when it comes to properly setting up computer systems or anything on a website. The thing that will most likely happen for probably two years after the on-line system is in place is that practically everyone's reservations will be screwed up.

 

[skelooch]

Frankly, I fear DVD's putting in on-line reservations. History tells me that Disney and DVD are, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is worst and 10 is best, a -10 when it comes to properly setting up computer systems or anything on a website. The thing that will most likely happen for probably two years after the on-line system is in place is that practically everyone's reservations will be screwed up.

I couldn't agree more, if they think their phones are busy now just wait until after they implement on-line booking, they"ll probably be adding CMs
I predict it will be a total disaster.

It might work for the simple reservations (single resort, using current use year points) but many of the reservations aren't that simple, as evidenced by many of the post here on the DVC forums.

The sad thing will be many members won't even know their reservation was screwed up or points misallocated until perhaps months later, when it will be even more difficult to straighten out.

I believe they'll give it their best shot, realize it won't work (too many variables), and hopefully scrap it.

 

[TisBit]

Frankly, I fear DVD's putting in on-line reservations. History tells me that Disney and DVD are, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is worst and 10 is best, a -10 when it comes to properly setting up computer systems or anything on a website. The thing that will most likely happen for probably two years after the on-line system is in place is that practically everyone's reservations will be screwed up.

The number of people on these boards that will be screaming about how they lost reservations because the DVC system crashed at the last step or failed to load, etc. It will be a literal nightmare.

I am also not so sure that the online booking will be what people expect/anticipate and might not be the fully functioning system like the CRO system. It might be very dumbed down and for basic reservations and not be a 24/7 system, etc. With WDW/DVC there is no telling exactly what will be rolled out and the consequences.

I think about how screwed up some of the best systems get during a rush (ever been on ticketmaster when a huge concert hits town and sells out instantly??) can you imagine DVC for Christmas bookings?

 

[dianeschlicht]

Personally, I cant wait until we have the ability to book online via DVC website. I find the DVC phone hours too restrictive. I tend to prefer doing my vacation reservations at midnight...

While I think it will be nice to book online, I suspect the computer system is the same and there will still be "issues". Maybe not these same exact ones, but I for one do NOT expect it to be problem free. After all, this is the inept Disney IT guys we are talking about!