Waiting List is Bogus?

[bwbuddy5]

People that are on a HH FB group are telling me that they’ve always had more success with stalking reservations than waitlisting. And, if my desired villa opens up, since it’s not automatic, the stalker may actually grab it before the DVC agent does?
Can you either confirm or deny?

 

[SleeplessInTO]

I’ve had success with both waitlisting and stalking. Neither is bogus. I do both when I really want a specific room.

 

[Marionnette]

People that are on a HH FB group are telling me that they’ve always had more success with stalking reservations than waitlisting. And, if my desired villa opens up, since it’s not automatic, the stalker may actually grab it before the DVC agent does?
Can you either confirm or deny?

It can happen. But I've also had wait lists for WDW resorts that have come thru even when I was aggressively stalking.

 

[mernin]

I had been stalking this winter for our March trip while waitlisting the rooms we wanted. The waitlist came through for me.

 

[lundve]

I would have said the same thing as I have been stalking to add a night to our reservation for about a week, checking several times a day every few hours. Lo and behold, I got a confirmation email last night after dinner that my waitlist had matched. Of course it was a single night waitlist and that’s an easier match but it actually does work.

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

As others have said, I do both as well. I had been stalking one night in May at Poly for at least a month, and when I called into DVC MS for something else I asked them to please check on my waitlist- voila! It had matched!! She processed it right then for me. Other times, I fulfill the waitlist myself through stalking. It’s a matter of timing with stalking… and patience with waitlisting

 

[Louis morrell]

I think what the OP is saying is that in a true first come system if there is a waitlist and a matching reservation opens up, the waitlist should fill before the reservation is opened up to the membership. The waitlist was first and with the current system it does not appear as though waitlist gets first priority. That is an assumption but if correct maybe the waitlist is a little bogus. If I have a waitlist I should not need to "stalk" to try to capture the reservation. No one should ever see the avalibility as the waitlist captured it.

 

[TCRAIG]

Hope this helps - think of it like this - waitlist is a batch process - it runs every x # of minutes and grabs matches - stalking is real time - so it is possible for someone stalking to grab a new release between the waitlist batch cycle runs…

 

[CarolMN]

DVC doesn't care who occupies a room. The system's objective is to fill all the rooms at a minimal cost. The current waitlist system (a batch process that runs several times a day) does that.

Individuals may not agree with the system objective (and prefer a rigid first come, first served method), but the current process meets the overall objective.

IMO, the booking system has many more serious issues than "fixing" the waitlist process.

 

[Louis morrell]

DVC doesn't care who occupies a room. The system's objective is to fill all the rooms at a minimal cost. The current waitlist system (a batch process that runs several times a day) does that.

Individuals may not agree with the system objective (and prefer a rigid first come, first served method), but the current process meets the overall objective.

IMO, the booking system has many more serious issues than "fixing" the waitlist process.

Agreed with the more important fixes. The point is my contractor says first come first served. If you allow waitlist that makes the waitlist first. Just the way I see it. But yes, Fix The Da@$ Website.

 

[RanDIZ]

It’s just another part of the DVC’s flawed technology. Wouldn’t expect much from Disney these days.

 

[kilik64]

So basically the waitlist is automatic periodically stalking.

 

[Sandisw]

The biggest problem, and I mention this all the time, is that there is no way to know for sure that you don’t have a match when you see a room.

The rooms are not held for a waitlist I it’s not an exact match. And I do a lot of modifying and changing to know that rooms do not always go back right away as I have tried to change which membership I am using and have lost my room and had to go with something else.

I also grabbed by second choice, and dropped the waitlist to see my room show up.

So, it does work, and it does not realize all rooms all the time and there is no way I just caught the system at the right time.

In terms of first come, first serve, that means as rooms show up the priority is for whoever get is and isn’t related to the waitlist because those are exact match only.

It can be frustrating to hear that stalking works but it does but also be that someone has their room and just doesn’t know it as long as the system doesn’t show pending.

I agree that there are so many other feature that need fixing…specially the
borrowing issue for many contracts.

 

[bwbuddy5]

I agree that there are so many other feature that need fixing…specially the
borrowing issue for many contracts.

Let’s not let them off the hook. Just because you feel one issue needs fixing worse than the waitlist, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be accountable for fixing both.

And, wasn’t batching created in the 80s? There is no reason they can’t design a program that flags new availability and holds it for waitlists.

 

[Sandisw]

Let’s not let them off the hook. Just because you feel one issue needs fixing worse than the waitlist, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be accountable for fixing both.

And, wasn’t batching created in the 80s? There is no reason they can’t design a program that flags new availability and holds it for waitlists.

But I don’t think the waitlist system is broken and I think it works more than we think it does.

That is my point. Just because someone mentions getting something does not mean that it wasn’t a different room that showed up and that the waitlist did grab a room too.

 

[bwbuddy5]

But I don’t think the waitlist system is broken and I think it works more than we think it does.

That is my point. Just because someone mentions getting something does not mean that it wasn’t a different room that showed up and that the waitlist did grab a room too.

I understand what you’re saying, I guess with batching, though, it’s bound to happen. The batching should be ditched.

 

[Marionnette]

I understand what you’re saying, I guess with batching, though, it’s bound to happen. The batching should be ditched.

There was a very good explanation of the benefits and drawbacks of both real-time and batch mode for running the wait list program from just a few days ago. You might want to take a look at it. In addition to what @tjkraz wrote, I will add that running a waitlist program in real time could bog down an already taxed website.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-just-dont-get-the-wait-list.3871944/#post-63774375

 

[bumbershoot]

There is no reason they can’t design a program that flags new availability and holds it for waitlists.

Of course there is a reason. The reason is that they don't care and don't want to.

I used to know a couple guys who went from amazon to disney IT in Seattle. They weren't the brightest. I once knew a young, incredibly bright go-getter who desperately wanted a horribly low-paid intern type of job with Disney IT. His family had been going to Disney for years, he knew what 'land and 'world trips involved and knew the site's issues even as a teen. He wasn't given the job. They give the jobs to the 19 year olds who don't care and don't have opinions and will just do what they are told. He went to amazon instead and the last time I saw him was well on his path to VP-land.

Disney IT simply doesn't care. And they never have.

 

[tjkraz]

And, wasn’t batching created in the 80s? There is no reason they can’t design a program that flags new availability and holds it for waitlists.

It's not just about complexity of programming, there's also an element of deciding who should and shouldn't get the room with no clear victor, IMO.

Imagine you're waitlisted for January 1-7. Somebody cancels January 1-5. That's not a match for your request. If everything happened in real time, those dates would be passed down the list to someone whose request it can match. If another member waitlisted January 1-2 and a third person waitlisted January 3-5, their requests would both be fulfilled. You get nothing.

Now instead imagine that at 8:00am someone cancels January 1-5 and at 8:10am a different member cancels January 6-7. The batch runs at 9am, both rooms are still available, and the combination of the two matches your request. You get the room. Batching increases the likelihood that longer stays will match, at the expense of some immediacy.

In addition to the operational shortcomings, real time matching is an incredible drain on computing resources. Every cancellation would have to bounced off of literally thousands of waitlist requests looking for a match. That simply cannot happen instantaneously, meaning there would be a lag between when a cancellation occurs and when the inventory returns to the website. That lag disrupts the FCFS nature of reservations. (If someone cancels a room at 8:05am and I'm looking for that same room at 8:06am, I should be able to see it...not have it stuck in a waitlist pending queue for minutes or hours, only to have someone else grab it later.)

It's also worth pointing out that DVC has to manually adjust reservations that hit against the waitlist. And it can take several days for that to happen. When people get a room by "stalking" the waitlist, it's entirely possible that another room has already been held, but is not yet assigned. In other words:

Feb 18: Waitlist match is made, new room is placed on administrative hold waiting for CM to cancel existing reservation and book the new room.

Feb 20: Another room is freed-up for same travel dates. Member sees room by "stalking" and books manually before DVC has opportunity to make waitlist assignment.

I'm sure there is room for improvement in DVC's IT systems. But I'm not convinced this is an area that is clearly broken. Any "fixes" would introduce new / different problems.

 

[bwbuddy5]

In my case, my waitlist is just one day to add to an existing reservation, so should be satisfied in all of your scenarios, correct

Nevertheless, I think we should take bets: will I find it stalking before my waitlist comes through?