Walking a reservation

[amystevekai&bump]

Wait, you called 11 months PLUS and still couldn't get what you wanted? At your home resort! Could I ask what type of room and which resort?

Hopefully this won't be an issue. I've read some horrible reports about the lousy design - especially the studios. It sounds like these rooms will be available - even at 7 months, maybe less.

Yes - I am actually wanting 12/12 - 12/18 in a MK view studio at BLT - so I am in effect 11 months PLUS 6 days out and can't get it (AND I was the first caller of the day!!) - I could get a lake view but there isn't that much difference in points so it wouldn't be a terrific saving, and I did have my heart set on THAT view!!

I am going to try again tomorrow as the system was showing availability for tomorrow (albeit very limited) - I just hope that no one has booked it today - I will keep you posted!!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Yes - I am actually wanting 12/12 - 12/18 in a MK view studio at BLT - so I am in effect 11 months PLUS 6 days out and can't get it (AND I was the first caller of the day!!) - I could get a lake view but there isn't that much difference in points so it wouldn't be a terrific saving, and I did have my heart set on THAT view!!

I am going to try again tomorrow as the system was showing availability for tomorrow (albeit very limited) - I just hope that no one has booked it today - I will keep you posted!!

I fit makes you feel more optimistic, I called to book a BWV BW view the first Thur in Dec for 2009 exactly 11 months out, but not right when MS opened and could not book. I waitlisted that night. When I called the next day, I was able to book 7 nights. So it is possible to have a problem startign a reservation on one night and be able to get the remainder of the nights when calling the next day.

At the risk of being flamed, I really don't have any problem with walking and have even used it when it was convenient to do so even when the reservation was not going to be that difficult. For example, our next reservation in October was going to begin on 10/7/2010, so we would need to call on 11/07/09. Well, thanks to the Disboards, I found out that the 7th was going to tbe the first day to book something (new 180 day dining or member cruise; can't recall) and I was in Maui with a 6 hour time difference and no interest in having a long phone wait. So, our vacation now starts on the 10/6 so we could call on the Nov 6th! -- Suzanne

 

[Sheriff Woody]

Yuck. I hate the "walking the reservation" scam. BOOOOO!!

 

[tinkerfan1]

I don't understand what you do when you "walk the reservation." What is that? Do you add on a day and drop the first day? If that is correct, how does it hold the room? I don't need to know this as I've gotten my upcoming reservations for August and November. I'm just curious.

 

[mac_tlc]

So, DVC changes the policy so that you do not have to call each day at the11 month mark to add a day to a reservation to assemble your entire reservation and the result is people can call for a given day at 11 months + 6 days, and if its available book 7 days and still have to end up calling every day to walk the reservation until you end up with the days you really wanted?

We are eyeing 12/12 to 12/16 for 1bdr MK view at BLT. Bought there for just that purpose. Since we only have 100 pts, the "walking: flexibility is more limited, even with banking and borrowing. If my calcs are right, I should call on 1/9, book 12/9 through 12/12, and then call on the 1/13, 1/14, and 1/15 to turn the 12/9 - 12/12 reservation into a 12/12 to 12/15 reservation.

Seems to me the change accomplished nothing other than to further frustrate those who bought somewhere to actually have a home resort priority.

mac_tlc

 

[kimberh]

Well, I hate this " Walking a reservation" I have not done this and I think it's terrible! With all the changes that have been placed upon our membership recently, I sure think this one needs changing. How many confirmation letters are Member Services sending out? That has to effect dues. Tying up the phone lines. We all want the dates and room size we are calling for. I do think Member Services needs to stop this. My family ask me yesterday if we were going in Dec? Now, tomorrow I am going to have to get the calander out and see what in the world we are going to have to do and hope it's not booked up by someone that doesn't even want it!

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Well, I hate this " Walking a reservation" I have not done this and I think it's terrible! With all the changes that have been placed upon our membership recently, I sure think this one needs changing. How many confirmation letters are Member Services sending out? That has to effect dues. Tying up the phone lines. We all want the dates and room size we are calling for. I do think Member Services needs to stop this. My family ask me yesterday if we were going in Dec? Now, tomorrow I am going to have to get the calander out and see what in the world we are going to have to do and hope it's not booked up by someone that doesn't even want it!

I agree.. I wish walking would stop (although I walk with the best of them).

The solution?? Simple. Just return to the old booking policy. It was completely fair, and did not discriminate against low point holders.

MG

 

[amystevekai&bump]

I agree.. I wish walking would stop (although I walk with the best of them).

The solution?? Simple. Just return to the old booking policy. It was completely fair, and did not discriminate against low point holders.

MG

Totally agree with you - we are low point holders - I am just lucky that all I want is a studio and have enough points to 'play' the walking game this time. But next week I will be trying for a 1 bed at AKV (in a higher point season and with a sav view so even more points) and won't have enough points to do anything except the booking - so I will be crossing all my fingers and toes for that one!!

It isn't fair and as Dean said earlier it could be easily rectified - I hope it is as I really don't like this system but will 'walk' if that is the only way to get a booking I want

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Just to let you know -I rang MS again today at opening and was able to get the MK view studio that I wanted!!!

Now I just need to move the booking forward until 12th Dec (my first 'real' day) - the lady at MS said I would need to ring every day to do that, but I believe that I only actually need to ring once on 12th Dec - is that right?? - after all this fuss I don't want to foul it all up now by phoning back on the wrong day!!

Can I also double check - I know that in order to 'walk' I will have to have enough points to book the extra nights before cancelling the first few nights, but once I have cancelled the early nights, if I make sure they have kept my banked points for the booking and cancelled the current years points, does that mean I am still ok to bank those current years points? or (because I made a booking with them) do they go into holding??

Sorry to be a pain - I am trying to be clever, but I am obviously not that smart!!

 

[tjkraz]

I agree.. I wish walking would stop (although I walk with the best of them).

The solution?? Simple. Just return to the old booking policy. It was completely fair, and did not discriminate against low point holders.

MG

The old system also cost a lot more in administrative expenses since members were being increasingly duped into thinking that they needed to call day-by-day for reservations at most resorts, year-round.

There is no perfect system. You could argue that day-by-day FIFO is "fairer" (not sure I totally agree, though), but when demand is exceedingly high you invariably have people who would end up with gaps in their reservation because they can't call at 9am for several consecutive days. Or they simply get beaten out by others.

Since it's looking increasingly like another reallocation is in the works, much of this will be resolved by adjusting demand for early-December. Bump those weeks up to Dream season and demand will go down plus those who still do end up booking will be required to use more of their points.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Just to let you know -I rang MS again today at opening and was able to get the MK view studio that I wanted!!!

Now I just need to move the booking forward until 12th Dec (my first 'real' day) - the lady at MS said I would need to ring every day to do that, but I believe that I only actually need to ring once on 12th Dec - is that right?? - after all this fuss I don't want to foul it all up now by phoning back on the wrong day!!

Can I also double check - I know that in order to 'walk' I will have to have enough points to book the extra nights before cancelling the first few nights, but once I have cancelled the early nights, if I make sure they have kept my banked points for the booking and cancelled the current years points, does that mean I am still ok to bank those current years points? or (because I made a booking with them) do they go into holding??

Sorry to be a pain - I am trying to be clever, but I am obviously not that smart!!

You need to call on the day BEFORE you could otherwsie call if you had no reservation. So if you currently are booked for 12/7 to 12/13, call back on 1/12 and book 12/13 and up to 5 more nights after that.

In my example, you can cancel your 12/7, 12/8, 12/9, 12/10 and 12/11 nights without impacting your reservation for 12/12, so you can cancel first. No need to book the later nights before you cancel the earlier ones. Hope this helps -- Suzanne

 

[Disneycouple99]

Did you book Dec. 7 to the 13? If so, on the 12th call and cancel the first 5 days then book the last 5 days of your trip. MS should use all of the banks points first and leave any current UY points alone and are able to bank them.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

The old system also cost a lot more in administrative expenses since members were being increasingly duped into thinking that they needed to call day-by-day for reservations at most resorts, year-round.

I'm not convinced the new system will save phone calls as walking becomes more commonplace.

I'm really anxious to see how things pan out once on line booking is a reality. It will be easy to walk, or book day by day under the old method without a lot of administrative costs.

MG

 

[tjkraz]

I'm not convinced the new system will save phone calls as walking becomes more commonplace.

Maybe, maybe not. But it's been a year and a half since the rules changed and walking isn't nearly as commonplace as day-by-day was. At its peak, nearly every single booking question posted here was met with the advice of doing day-by-day. And there were consistent reports of MS reps reinforcing it as well.

There are over 4500 DVC villas available now if you count the lockoffs separately. If just 5% of members were booking day-by-day, you're looking at over 50,000 excess calls generated in a year.

4500 villas x .05 of members x 5 excess calls per week (assume 7 calls per week to book each villa instead of 2) x 52 weeks = 58,500 additional calls generated by day-by-day bookings.

By comparison, "walking" is rarely discussed with the exception of early-December reservations and the occasional AKV Concierge booking.

Since the reservation system changed MS has undoubtedly reduced its telephone traffic by tens-of-thousands of calls.

With early December still being the rough patch, another reallocation will solve a lot of that. Some small groups of rooms (AKV Concierge, perhaps MK View Studios) will always be a problem during peak periods no matter the system used. I understand some thinking the current system is unfair. However, if you've got 50 people trying to book 10 Concierge villas for the same week, the odds of the same folks stringing any number of dates together via day-by-day are remote. You could argue that DBD is "fairer", but I'm not convinced that it serves the best interest of members, that it's worth the added expense, nor that it would lead to increased member satisfaction.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

You need to call on the day BEFORE you could otherwsie call if you had no reservation. So if you currently are booked for 12/7 to 12/13, call back on 1/12 and book 12/13 and up to 5 more nights after that.

In my example, you can cancel your 12/7, 12/8, 12/9, 12/10 and 12/11 nights without impacting your reservation for 12/12, so you can cancel first. No need to book the later nights before you cancel the earlier ones. Hope this helps -- Suzanne

Did you book Dec. 7 to the 13? If so, on the 12th call and cancel the first 5 days then book the last 5 days of your trip. MS should use all of the banks points first and leave any current UY points alone and are able to bank them.

thank you both - that has made it all a lot easier fo me as I thought I had to book the extra nights before cancelling which would have complicated things for me as I only have a miniscule 100 points at BLT!!

Its also good to know that I only need to ring once - ringing everyday did seem a bit excessive!!

 

[CarolMN]

....(snip).......With early December still being the rough patch, another reallocation will solve a lot of that. Some small groups of rooms (AKV Concierge, perhaps MK View Studios) will always be a problem during peak periods no matter the system used. I understand some thinking the current system is unfair. However, if you've got 50 people trying to book 10 Concierge villas for the same week, the odds of the same folks stringing any number of dates together via day-by-day are remote. You could argue that DBD is "fairer", but I'm not convinced that it serves the best interest of members, that it's worth the added expense, nor that it would lead to increased member satisfaction.

I don't think a reallocation will help much. Unless there is a HUGE difference, most who love that time of the year will just pay it (grumbling all the way, I'm sure, LOL). There isn't much difference between CHOICE and ADVENTURE season, so they'd have to put early December in at least regular season to have an impact. I don't think they'll go that far, even if they can.

If walking becomes a problem (in DVC eyes, not ours), I think we are more likely to see a rule change or perhaps a fee to cancel. If DVC made each change a cancellation and a rebook, subject to availability and the possibility of losing the reservation to a waitlist, it will stop most of the walking. Of course that will upset/inconvenience a whole different set of members.

FWIW, I think Christmas week and New Year's Eve have a lot more walkers than early December. DVC could just institute the "cancel/rebook" rule for any reservations for December stays and/or for AKV concierge at any time. That would stop most walking and inconvenience fewer members. JMO. YMMV.

 

[Dean]

I agree.. I wish walking would stop (although I walk with the best of them).

The solution?? Simple. Just return to the old booking policy. It was completely fair, and did not discriminate against low point holders.

MG

That would stop walking but has it's on issues as Tim points out. From a system standpoint, and likely from most members standpoint, there are better choices such as I mentioned previously.

I'm not convinced the new system will save phone calls as walking becomes more commonplace.

I suspect it will overall but the new system combined with a way to stop walking cuts the phone calls a lot more.

I don't think a reallocation will help much. Unless there is a HUGE difference, most who love that time of the year will just pay it (grumbling all the way, I'm sure, LOL). There isn't much difference between CHOICE and ADVENTURE season, so they'd have to put early December in at least regular season to have an impact. I don't think they'll go that far, even if they can.

If walking becomes a problem (in DVC eyes, not ours), I think we are more likely to see a rule change or perhaps a fee to cancel. If DVC made each change a cancellation and a rebook, subject to availability and the possibility of losing the reservation to a waitlist, it will stop most of the walking. Of course that will upset/inconvenience a whole different set of members.

FWIW, I think Christmas week and New Year's Eve have a lot more walkers than early December. DVC could just institute the "cancel/rebook" rule for any reservations for December stays and/or for AKV concierge at any time. That would stop most walking and inconvenience fewer members. JMO. YMMV.

IF the reallocation does not have enough of an effect in adjusting demand and behavior, the answer is a larger swing on the reallocation. Given they were up against the 20% limit, it's hard to know if they'll need another change or not. It will be interesting to see if they do and to see if they make it coming up for 2011 or 12 OR if they give it 2-3 years to see what the real effect will be.

 

[CarolMN]

.....IF the reallocation does not have enough of an effect in adjusting demand and behavior, the answer is a larger swing on the reallocation. Given they were up against the 20% limit, it's hard to know if they'll need another change or not. It will be interesting to see if they do and to see if they make it coming up for 2011 or 12 OR if they give it 2-3 years to see what the real effect will be.

I don't agree that reallocation will do much, if anything to stop walking. Again, look at all the members walking to get Premier season reservations. That was my point.

 

[Dean]

I don't agree that reallocation will do much, if anything to stop walking. Again, look at all the members walking to get Premier season reservations. That was my point.

I don't think the reallocation will do anything to help walking, if anything it will make it worse. What it is designed to do is even out demand and it should do that to a degree, whether it's enough will be the question.