waitlist & stalking strategies

[ellenmiele]

I've read about stalking missing nights for a desired reservation (in addition to having a waitlist in place) but I'm wondering is there are any specific strategies for stalking? Day of week? Time of day? Are waitlists granted manually several times a day (I seem to recall hearing that) or it it all automated now? And I'm only talking about one night, not multiple nights. Just trying to increase my chances of finding it.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

From my limited experience, I'd say just check whenever you can!

I was looking for one additional night in Dec and upon first check there was only SSR & OKW. Over the course of less than a week I saw studios at AKV (standard and savannah), BLT (Lake), Poly (standard and Lake), BCV and BWV (standard and p/g). I checked roughly 2-3x / day but skipped at least 1 day completely. I booked what I needed today! YAY!

As for waitlist, I had a waitlist set up but found the room myself and cancelled the waitlist. I wasn't checking obsessively. It was not a night in the middle of my trip or anything I desperately needed. It was more that I'd go look to see if my waitlist had been filled and out of curiosity look to see what else was available. Didn't really think I'd find it myself (standard BWV studio)

 

[Marionnette]

I've read about stalking missing nights for a desired reservation (in addition to having a waitlist in place) but I'm wondering is there are any specific strategies for stalking? Day of week? Time of day? Are waitlists granted manually several times a day (I seem to recall hearing that) or it it all automated now? And I'm only talking about one night, not multiple nights. Just trying to increase my chances of finding it.

There are two time periods when stalking is most effective. The first is in the days following the opening of your 11-month window as anyone who is walking a reservation starts to cancel the days at the beginning of their reservation in order to add days to the end of their reservation. The other time of increased opportunity would be in the weeks leading up to 30-days prior to your dates. That's when people who have made speculation reservations will cancel them so that their points don't go into holding.

As far as how or when the wait lists are filled, it appears that as people cancel their reservations, there is a period of time when the room will be available for anyone to book before the wait list software grabs it. However, I don't think anyone knows how often or at what time that program runs. Even after a villa is grabbed by the wait list, there is a lag between the time that it is removed from available inventory and when a CM manually finalizes the match.