wait list but rooms avail

[FigmentLady]

I was upgraded (for free) from POP to SSR. The timing was perfect as I was thinking about buying resale at SSR at the time and was nervous about SSR as it get beaten up on these DVC boards.

After that stay... I bought...

Same thing happened to me, except it took a little while for me to take the plunge and buy, and I did it direct since the financing was easier for me through Disney than on my own.

 

[Garthilk]

Honestly,

This is just another symtom of the antiquated and intentionally inept room inventory management sytoms of Disney and DVC.

 

[jdkdorn]

I was told that there were no rooms available at any resort for December 6th but last week I had a great member services rep that called the resort directly to see if they had any rooms available. She came back to me with a 1bdr at BCV.

Maybe you will be as lucky as I was

Judy

 

[tecodis]

There are several pots of points (rooms). These include declared inventory and non declared inventory. Non declared inventory is never available to book on points. In addition, declared inventory that has been traded will not be available for points reservations and in many cases (exceptions RCI & BVTC) are likely to be available with cash. They will let these rooms sit empty before they will give them to you on points. In addition, any rooms not reserved at 60 days out also are taken by the system and available for cash and may not be available for points reservations. This is simply understanding how the system works, once one has that understanding, they should not be upset about the availability of rooms for cash but not points. One could shift this curve by eliminating exchange options. The truth is they'd be doing most members a favor if they did. And they just might do so for some members coming up if they do make the change to exclude resale buyers.

Exclude resale buyers from what - doing exchanges?

 

[tecodis]

I am on a wait list for Dec 31 to add one more night on to my week at OKW.
I went on the WDW rez and they have rooms available for that night. When I call they say there are no rooms available.
How can I get a room added on?
Any Ideas about this
Thanks,
Tina

I know there are reasons behind this being the case but from a layman's standpoint, it's just frustrating to see a room you want not being available to you. DVC members should always be priority to DVC resort available nights, no matter where the open inventory is!

 

[Dean]

Exclude resale buyers from what - doing exchanges?

The possibilities are many but the most credible rumors would suggest that it's likely that resale buyers at some points will not have the options of anything other than DVC reservations, (No RCI, no cruises, no DC, no CC, no BVTC). Some of the rumors have gone well beyond that suggesting that resale buyers might not have a home resort priority and/or be able to reserve anything other than the home resort. My current feeling is that something will happen at some point, not sure if it'll be soon such as the rumored 1 Jan, 2011 or later. I think existing members will be grandfathered but that resale buyers will lose all exchange options except possibly RCI but that they will have the same DVC options as everyone else who owns at a given resort. Realize there are MANY variables and many directions they could take this. I'll be the first to tell you that Marriott's change this summer was a big surprise to most people as to the specifics.

 

[mgroshans]

it's just frustrating to see a room you want not being available to you. DVC members should always be priority to DVC resort available nights, no matter where the open inventory is!

this is very frustrating to us. We are on a waitlist at Kidani and Jambo for the 20th-24th, studio. I went to WDW website to see if we could book that way, and yep, we sure can- there are rooms available. It just doesn't make sense.

 

[rlovew]

this is very frustrating to us. We are on a waitlist at Kidani and Jambo for the 20th-24th, studio. I went to WDW website to see if we could book that way, and yep, we sure can- there are rooms available. It just doesn't make sense.

AKV is a little different from sold out resorts. Disney still owns a lot of points and none of those would be available for DVC reservations. Those points awould only be available for cash reservations no matter how far it is before the reservations.

 

[Deb & Bill]

this is very frustrating to us. We are on a waitlist at Kidani and Jambo for the 20th-24th, studio. I went to WDW website to see if we could book that way, and yep, we sure can- there are rooms available. It just doesn't make sense.

What you see available on the WDW website is either still owned by Disney (hasn't been bought by a member yet) or given in trade for a non-DVC vacation. So these are not available for points. Either because they were never available for points or they were already used as points (and they can't be used twice for points).

So when you decide you want to go on the DCL and you pay with points, the equivalent lodging is given to DRC to sell to pay for the cost of the cruise. If the lodging were given out on points a second time, there wouldn't be any way to pay for the cruise. So if you pay 500 points for Adventures by Disney, 500 points worth of lodging has to be sold to cash customers to pay for that trip on ABD.

And since most of the non-DVC trades require a whole lot of points, a whole lot of lodging has to be sold to pay for those trips.

 

[Dean]

I know there are reasons behind this being the case but from a layman's standpoint, it's just frustrating to see a room you want not being available to you. DVC members should always be priority to DVC resort available nights, no matter where the open inventory is!

IMO, once you understand the reasons behind it, it's hard to be concerned over it. I can see the emotions when one doesn't know the reasons, not after.

 

[Deb & Bill]

...DVC members should always be priority to DVC resort available nights, no matter where the open inventory is!

The inventory isn't open to DVC members.

 

[mgroshans]

The inventory isn't open to DVC members.

while I understand all the reasoning, it's just still frustrating. Here we are wanting to go and spend money (park tickets, eating, etc.), we can't, unless we want to pay cash for the room.
Sorry, it still doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Dean]

while I understand all the reasoning, it's just still frustrating. Here we are wanting to go and spend money (park tickets, eating, etc.), we can't, unless we want to pay cash for the room.
Sorry, it still doesn't make sense to me.

It's NO different than looking at the mixed use properties like BC, BW, AK or WL and there being regular hotel rooms but not DVC rooms. There is NO benefit to the other side to giving a room that technically you are not entitled to have access to. I wouldn't disagree that on a limited basis at last minute it make make some sense and be a win win but the reality is that the system is not set up that way AND the cost of administering such an option would almost certainly exceed any benefit. Otherwise it simply becomes an emotional "I want to go, to heck with all the rules" issue.

 

[Garthilk]

It's NO different than looking at the mixed use properties like BC, BW, AK or WL and there being regular hotel rooms but not DVC rooms. There is NO benefit to the other side to giving a room that technically you are not entitled to have access to.

Well, lets not have such a limited viewpoint.

• Hotel gets to book a room it did not have booked and recieves a prenegotiated rate rather than $0 for an unfilled room.
• DVC gets to rent a room for cash and has the potential to double dip. Paying out a reduced room rate to a hotel and charging higher rates for a suite. Thus pulling a profit.
• In the alternative, it has the potential to upgrade a hotel room customer to a suite. This would be a formula based system which screens hotel guests based on post trip spending habits and it would choose those most likely to afford a DVC contract.

but the reality is that the system is not set up that way AND the cost of administering such an option would almost certainly exceed any benefit.

Hmm,

I hate to emphatically disagree, but from a technical standpoint, the cost of administering and setting up such a inventory mangement system is chump change. Disney could save millions of dollars in payroll if they had an upgraded inventory management system.

Such a system would be able to easily allocate rooms to different types of groups (both Disney companies and customer groups) based on revenue sharing agreements, open and close at specific timeframes, etc.

The only hurdle is that Disney managers don't want to lose control of their precious departments and budgets. Not to mention being labled the person who helped bring about hundreds of layoffs doesn't seem to be a popular idea.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Well, lets not have such a limited viewpoint.

• Hotel gets to book a room it did not have booked and recieves a prenegotiated rate rather than $0 for an unfilled room.
• DVC gets to rent a room for cash and has the potential to double dip. Paying out a reduced room rate to a hotel and charging higher rates for a suite. Thus pulling a profit.
• In the alternative, it has the potential to upgrade a hotel room customer to a suite. This would be a formula based system which screens hotel guests based on post trip spending habits and it would choose those most likely to afford a DVC contract.

....

I think you are actually saying the same thing. But points do not equal cash. So these vacant rooms cannot be booked on points. There has to be cash flowing to pay for the non-DVC reservation.

 

[Dean]

Well, lets not have such a limited viewpoint.

• Hotel gets to book a room it did not have booked and recieves a prenegotiated rate rather than $0 for an unfilled room.
• DVC gets to rent a room for cash and has the potential to double dip. Paying out a reduced room rate to a hotel and charging higher rates for a suite. Thus pulling a profit.
• In the alternative, it has the potential to upgrade a hotel room customer to a suite. This would be a formula based system which screens hotel guests based on post trip spending habits and it would choose those most likely to afford a DVC contract.

Hmm,

I hate to emphatically disagree, but from a technical standpoint, the cost of administering and setting up such a inventory mangement system is chump change. Disney could save millions of dollars in payroll if they had an upgraded inventory management system.

Such a system would be able to easily allocate rooms to different types of groups (both Disney companies and customer groups) based on revenue sharing agreements, open and close at specific timeframes, etc.

The only hurdle is that Disney managers don't want to lose control of their precious departments and budgets. Not to mention being labled the person who helped bring about hundreds of layoffs doesn't seem to be a popular idea.

I suspect we're talking apples and oranges else we'll simply have to disagree on most points. You'd actually have to look at each portion somewhat separately. They do upgrade cash customers at times with such inventory allowing them to rerent the first room much the way that cruises do.

Undeclared inventory IS exactly the same as hotel inventory at mixed use properties. Disney is responsible for the upkeep and use any rentals to offset their costs both upkeep and to recoup some of their initial investment. As such, there would be NO benefit to them to let those rooms go for anything other than cash. The VERY LIMITED benefit they could get by letting those rooms go last minute for points would be either a poor value for DVD or a poor value to DVC as a whole or both, likely both depending on the specifics of the administration. I think you're assuming that an empty room is the worst case scenario and I would disagree. Lets say for example that disney rented out rooms at a drastically reduced rate at 30 days or less, say $59 for a studio, $69 for a 1 BR and $79 for a 2 BR. While there would be some income for rooms that would otherwise go empty, this would also create the expectation that these rooms would be available at times and would cause some to not rent for a higher price at times and that's true even if they rented them to DVC members only. BTW, at least one timeshare company and both exchange companies do this very thing and there are those that specifically hold out for the lower cost rentals. In addition, a certain cushion of unrented rooms can be a godsend when you consider maint issues, last minute problems and housekeeping.

Rooms reserved with exchange points (CC, DCL, DC, ABD) - exactly the same discussion.

Breakage inventory is actually owned by DVC and it appears that MS has been successful recouping such inventory for points reservations at times. I don't think anyone has confirmed this was the source of those units that were gotten by calling the resorts but it makes sense that it is.

Exchange inventory (RCI & BVTC) does not belong to Disney at all and those companies can do whatever they want with it.

What I think would be an absolute disaster for the system as a whole and to the membership as a whole would be to have DVC take inventory off their hands at last minute that was being offered for cash and give Disney/DVD/CRO full use points or nearly so. Think of it like buying meat or produce that's about to spoil, it's not worth the same as fresh items even though there might be a market for it at the right price.

Do I think there are possibilities, sure, do I think it's feasible or cost effective for Disney to do so, absolutely not, esp given their IT track record. Remember you've got to task IT with creating the system to do this, have them maintain it and then put various people in charge of having it work over time. You're likely looking at 2-3 FTE's min just to administer it and likely double or triple that to get it up and running.

 

[hollis]

I am on a wait list for Dec 31 to add one more night on to my week at OKW.
I went on the WDW rez and they have rooms available for that night. When I call they say there are no rooms available.
How can I get a room added on?
Any Ideas about this
Thanks,
Tina

I don't think you can get Dec 31 with member cash price either. If you really want that night, you should go ahead and book the night with WDW rez. If your waitlist comes through, you can cancel the WDW rez. Good luck.