The world is a complex place, full of complex problems. Very few of the world's problems can be solved in a sound byte. You are not taking into account unintended consequences and drawing the wrong conclusions from the spoodles example. If you have no one showing up for reservations, does it matter if you show availability or not? These are people that took the time to pick up the phone and make the reservation all not showing up that the same time. You think it is because they did not show availability that the restaurant is empty? Did a full restaurant's worth of people all double book Spoodles as their back up plan? Or could it be that when it is nice, people don't leave the parks early to walk 20 min. to diner?
It is a great story and you tell it so well, but it does not mean the reservations system is systemically flawed.
yes
They do teach it in university, it is called econometrics. It is part of most masters programs for anything related to business
http://web.econ.ohio-state.edu/courses/900.htm
there have been a few recent books on the topic...
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Sway
The Logic of Life
Pick two, get them on audible. Or go though the masters program at Ohio State. Or go though the Culinary Program at Johnson & Wells here in Charlotte. I brought this topic up to some high caliber minds today, two of whom used to be Executive Chefs at WDW, all agree that the result would not be more availability at the busy restaurants and the cost is substantially more than the perceived benefit. And that no one wants to leave the parks and walk 20 min. to eat at a mediocre restaurant at 5pm when they can eat mediocre food in the park.
the Spoodles story is the irrelevant factor. you are using a rationalizing argument from the narrow to the broad. the restaurant would have been empty if disney dining showed availability. The restaurant was not empty because Disney Dining was showing no availability. the restaurant was empty because no one wants to leave the parks to have dinner at 5pm on a nice day.
I try to use examples to illustrate the situation more clearly... What is the number of people that called Spoodles on a nice day at 5pm and were turned away? I am guessing the number is statistically irrelevant. What happened in your situation does not cost justify the expenditure to take a CC hold for every restaurant. I have stated many times, the places that are not busy will still not be busy... the places that are busy will still be busy. There is a lot of wisdom in that statement that you are overlooking.
For a company that is interested in maximizing profits, they are not going to spend the money to make this happen with out seeing a
Return
On
Investment. The change you suggest would not have the practical result you insist that it would. This is not Theory, it is the practical application of self interest. No one will plunk down a credit card with the possibility of getting hit with a $20 per person penalty (which is the current average for the restaurants at WDW doing the CC hold) for a majority of the restaurants in WDW. Those that can command that fee, already do. The places that would have availability because no one is going to make a reservation with that high a penalty already have availability from the people not showing up for their reservations. No one that knows enough about how to double book is going to use Spoodles as a back up choice. Putting cc hold in place will result in restaurants like spoodles being empty with an empty reservations book instead of a full reservations book. They can take you as a walk up either way... but there are not going to be walk ups at Spoodles on a nice day at 5pm because those people are in the parks. the money to train and implement staff, and ramp up back end servers to accept the load is a waste... This analysis is over simplified for the sake of brevity. But once again... the restaurants that are busy and hard to get reservations, will still be busy and hard to get reservations.
