With all due respect, you've stated a lot of opinions as fact. a) We don't know what Disney/
DVC may or may not do to address concerns of the membership b) We don't know that walking is a marginal problem c) we don't know that closing this particular loophole results in harm to the membership as a whole, though I do stipulate it will definitely result in harm to those who employ this particular technique.
a) we know that they changed the way reservations were being done because of the extra load on MS caused by people having to call day by day to book at 11 and 7 months. We have a precedent of Disney changing things because of impact of the reservation on MS. That's why I deduct that if the load of editing reservations was a problem, Disney would ask IT to change the booking system. Also note that as members we would pay for such a change, so it's not cost that keeps Disney from doing it.
b) People walk reservations only for the "specialty rooms". Somone walking an SSR reservation is just crazy.
Some people walk just the standard rooms at BLT and BWV, value and concierge rooms at AKV, VGF studios. A few nights (like race week ends and early December) may require to walk a few other room types, but it's just a handful nights out of 365. Those rooms are so difficult to get because there are just a few of them, so that's why I say impact is minimal: only a very small percentage or rooms may require walking.
Also, even those special categories do not require walking the whole year. Tomorrow the 7 months window opens for a reservation I need to book to rent my points and BWV standard is available.
c) any suggestion I've seen here will harm members:
- a cancellation fee will be an extra cost that now we don't pay
- require to cancel and re-book for any change could cause the member to loose his reservation entierly
- going back to the old system of booking by end date rather that by start date would be like wlaking every room every day
My point is a simple one: Members looking to make real reservations using their 11-month priority shouldn't be shut out by placeholder reservations. Once the 11-month priority window has passed, none of this matters anymore so as Ben E N points out, people making reservations at 10, 9, 8, months aren't impacted at all.
People already book placeholder reservations waiting to finalize their plans. It's not just walking, it's part of a system that forces you to book 11 months in advance. So what? Should DVC allow to change or cancel a reservation only with a medical certificate?
BTW I think also that on this forum many times when people complain against walkers it's not really that.
I remeber someone saying they saw a night available one day and the next day when the booking window opened it wasn't available anymore. Blame you walkers! My guess is that someone else was quicker at 8:00am.