Possible new DVC-Board feature....Would you be interested?

[Mickey'sApprentice]

Thank you so much for suggesting this. I think it would be great if it really worked.

I think the system might be problematic. There would be times that the DIS would say there was availability when there was not, and other times when the DIS would say no availability when rooms were indeed available.

The system would be most reliable for times that regular DISsers already know about. We would see no availability for NYE by Labor Day, and early May wouldn't fill up until the last minute.

i.e., The reliability of the more iffy times, would be well...iffy. I think the SSR availability thread would be a real disaster.

In May, we considered joining my sister for the week of July 4th.

I called and there was availability [SSR ST] (I was undecided, didn't take it.)
I called a few days later. (No availability)
I surfed the DIS a few weeks later. (Someone got in for the same week.}
(It was almost a case of when you called.)

I know July 4th would usually not be iffy, but this year, it was.

Plus, can't we call MS? While calling about the possible July 4th trip, I was also trying to put something together with friends for next March, and asked MS how availability was going for next March, and they told me that I was in good shape to wait a few weeks, but not much longer if I wanted a BW View room. He then told me exactly how many BW View and Std. View studios were left (exact #, & that they were wide open on Pool View.)

Is this all a response to the new booking policy? Would this thread actually make the problem worse? Please help me understand why this would be helpful?

Now, I would really, really love a new board for Trip Reports from Trades using anything but DVC collection, or maybe even include HH, VB, Hawaii, DL, etc. This has been requested a few times. I have really enjoyed hearing about the trips to Italy, Williamsburg, and Destin that has been reported recently. I think its really important for us to know about the different destinations, the quality of the rooms and resorts, whether people were hit up for TS presentations, etc., and also believe it would increase our enjoyment and usability of our DVC, and the DIS. It would also be a lot easier to administer.

I also have some experience with Access, but do not know if I have enough of the right type experience to fit your needs.

 

[JimMIA]

My responses may sound a bit schizophrenic, but I voted D and b.

I'd contribute (FWIW) whenever I made a ressie, but that's only twice a year.

For availability, the only availability data that counts for me is whether MS is able to book my ressie or not. Hypothetical availability that someone else experienced doesn't really have any meaning to me.

I certainly appreciate the never-ending efforts of the mods to continually improve the boards, but this would not be important to my family.

 

[simzac]

Great idea, wish I'd thought of it

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Wonderful idea! Would be next best thing to having a true on-line system through DVC!!!

 

[dbprimeaux]

This would be very interesting.

 

[El&Asmom]

I think it is a great idea. Like any great idea, there is the possibilty that it will be useless info in the end, but it may become very helpful. We'll never know until we try.
Plus, how many times have you seen a post from someone asking if anyone know about availabilty for a particular time period. Most are just late night musings that want some opinions before calling MS in the am. This would potentially give them the info they were looking for.

Again, no harm in trying besides the loss of some time from our great mods who put it all together.

 

[gingermouse17]

Great idea

 

[disneynutz]

It's a nice idea but remember, garbage in, garbage out. I don't see how you expect to get a constant and consistent sampling of data.

Post a poll about when and how many active DISers book rooms, it may be only a few a week and when are they going, Feb, June, Dec? Of the 125,000 DVC Members, how many are active on the DIS and of those, how many are willing to report and report correctly?

As I said before, it's a nice idea but I don't think the result of your hard work will be very useful.

Thanks for all of your hard work to make the DIS the wonderful place that it is.

 

[Jillpie]

I don't see the benefit either. The reservation system that MS operates changes minute to minute, seven days a week. I can see folks getting all excited late at night that their "studio" will be available to them in the morning, and woola, nothing. I think people will get frustrated real quick with this, just my opinion. Thanks for trying to improve this site though, we thank you for all you do!

 

[mikeandkarla]

I don't see a real benefit from doing this, however, it would be an interesting read. I would definitely contribute my reservation information. Good luck to all the mods working on this venture and thanks for all your hard work!

 

[hlyntunstl]

It would be interesting but I also wonder how good the data provided would be. Unless the DB is constantly updated, the information could be out of date by the time any new data has been added. For some reservations, even a couple of days could be too late. I'm a late booker so I can still see a benefit. It may push be to call MS sooner.

I have MS Access and can help if needed.

 

[squidmo]

I voted A, a and "Special". I think this would be really interesting data to have, and would be very willing to help crunch data in MS Access.

 

[oakmanner]

Sounds good to me... More time on the DVC Boards!

Dennis-

 

[lisareniff]

I voted 'A' and 'a'.

You would need a lot of responses to get the results needed. Could happen here on the DIS with such a large membership, sometimes you don't know until you try.

An option that I would find most helpful would be being able to 'click' on a day and see a graph of when that day went from being available to not available. (Not sure if this is possible on the boards but just the concept idea.) This would allow understanding of how time sensitive the booking dates are.

 

[CarolMN]

An option that I would find most helpful would be being able to 'click' on a day and see a graph of when that day went from being available to not available. (Not sure if this is possible on the boards but just the concept idea.) This would allow understanding of how time sensitive the booking dates are.

I think we should just all wish for (and write and call to request) online booking.

While we are waiting for that, I wish that each night at midnight, DVC would just post an "availability snapshot" on the Members' Web page. It can't be all that hard or cost all that much and would save MS far more calls (cost) than it would take to implement.

But since wishing won't make it so, at least we DIS posters can band together (thanks to Bill) and try to get some idea of the ebbs and flows of availability.

 

[Caskbill]

An option that I would find most helpful would be being able to 'click' on a day and see a graph of when that day went from being available to not available. (Not sure if this is possible on the boards but just the concept idea.) This would allow understanding of how time sensitive the booking dates are.

Because the data will be stored in an Access database, that's something someone could volunteer to do.

It wouldn't be as simple as a button click, but if someone wanted, for example, to chart how the NYE reservations went for a particular resort, they could volunteer to take the database and calculate the result, then make a post here on the board.

That's the idea behind the 'special' option in the poll.

Everything will be contingent on member feedback.

We expect to semi-automate the processor initially, and fully automate it eventually. Once fully automated, the threads would be updated on a daily basis.

 

[Sammie]

Isn't the information going to change literally by the hour, or even minute, as rooms are booked or cancelled.

I guess I am just not seeing how this will be possible to keep up with.

Also is this data going to be shared based on when someone calls to book a vacation or are people going to start calling MS and just asking for random dates with no intention of booking just to share it here.

If so isn't that going to do the one thing we are all against, tie up the phone lines.

I guess I am just totally confused as to how this will work or the mechanics of it.

 

[doconeill]

Because the data will be stored in an Access database, that's something someone could volunteer to do.

It wouldn't be as simple as a button click, but if someone wanted, for example, to chart how the NYE reservations went for a particular resort, they could volunteer to take the database and calculate the result, then make a post here on the board.

Perhaps it would be better to put the data in a live database online, at least eventually? That is what I considered doing. I use mysql all the time...

Again, what really matters is the quantity and quality of the database. A lot of data is needed before anything reasonable can be produced, and unfortunately if no one is seeing results from the data the provide, they are less inclined to provide data...

-Brian

 

[Caskbill]

Isn't the information going to change literally by the hour, or even minute, as rooms are booked or cancelled.

I guess I am just not seeing how this will be possible to keep up with.

Also is this data going to be shared based on when someone calls to book a vacation or are people going to start calling MS and just asking for random dates with no intention of booking just to share it here.

If so isn't that going to do the one thing we are all against, tie up the phone lines.

I guess I am just totally confused as to how this will work or the mechanics of it.

This will in no way be anything near to a real time reference. It will be something more for a planning reference. For example someone wishing to make a December reservation at 7-months in a non-home resort might see that by the 8th month the home resort members have pretty much already taken all the reservations, and therefore might alter their plans accordingly. For example they may want the 1st week of Dec in a BWV standard view room, but see they are all already booked.

We have no intention of asking members to call and get random dates. Hopefully it will reduce call volume. In the above example the member may develop several options before they call, rather than calling with only one reservatiion in mind, and finding there is no availability. By having an indication before they call, they can check their back-up plan with the same call, instead of calling back, maybe numerous times.

The mechanics is very simple. You open a thread for a specific month, scan down to the resort you're interested in, and the villa type you want, and you see if anyone has reported that they have already inquired with MS about those same dates and were informed that there was no more availability.

If during a call to MS you find out something else in no longer available, you can report it so others will know, by submitting a reply post to the appropriate Month's thread. Our computer program reads your reply post and updates the top level posting which shows the information, basically in chart form, so that others may see it.

 

[jeankeri]

This would be a great feature!