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

[pixie08]

This sounds very interesting and helpful but also time consuming for you guys.

CaskBill I know you will develop some cool software to take care of this but kudos to you for even thinking about putting in that kind of effort! I would definitley contribute

 

[MineeBaby]

I really don't think it is a good idea. Availability changes at a moments notice and by trying to present information that will inevitabily be untrue will lead to disappointment and more importantly, perhaps really influence busy vs not busy times of year to the point where it changes. By trying to enhance the system, you might actually harm it.

The only time I think this might be a useful thing is if DVC actually had online availability information that was connected real time to their system. Otherwise, it is inaccurate.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[pilferk]

Caskbill,

I'm a "numbers guy" by profession (though not a statistician) and have LOTS of experience with MS Access.

If you need anything at all, just drop me a PM. Happy to help out.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Personally, I think this would be a grand effort in futility. Likes someone else stated, the availability changes constantly. So it's reported today that there is no vacancy. Someone else calls in and say, yes there is. One hour later, it changes again. I think if someone wants to start a thread about their failures to get what they wanted because of the new policy, at least that could be given or shown to DVC about disgruntled members. Not to track what is available, but to track all the negatives for the new policy.

 

[Mike©]

I also think this won't work to provide any kind of accurate info. For the most part for all the reasons stated so far. At best it might give you a idea of how Dis'ers are booking, but what good is that?
Maybe if the Dis was more representative of total WDW bookings it might be accurate, but the Dis in reality is a very small percentage of people that go to WDW.
This would end up like a bad TV poll where they ask 100 people about their opinion and then try to state that "based on the poll" the nation feels this way or that way. There just isn't enough people on the Dis for this to be at all accurate and would end up being far better at giving a wrong impression on the actual condition of availability of rooms.

 

[pilferk]

See, I think you'd get some interesting trending data out of it. It might not be the "best" data, but...heck...it's better than what we currently have (which is nothing).

You might not be able to trend, historically, how busy certain times are (that seems to change, year to year, to some extent). But you would be able to get a general idea of most common check in day, check out day, length of stay, etc. All that's pretty useful when making ressies....at least IMHO.

Yes, all the objections about the "purity" of the data are good points. And, ultimately, if we're as "skewed" a population as some suspect, we'll see it when trying to "use" the data in any practical way. But really, we don't know how "skewed" we are until we really look, and try to apply, findings. We might be more "normal" in our travel habits than we suspect...or a lot less "normal". If ANYTHING, this might give us some indication of that, as we try to apply the data analysis to the "real world".