What is the purpose of free dining?

[sleroi]

This is probably going to sound like sour grapes, but I'm a little annoyed at the blackout date policy.

If the purpose of the promotion is to fill rooms that would otherwise go empty, than why are trips that begin before, but extend into a blackout period (presumably a time when room occupancy isn't a problem) allowed the promotion but trips that start in a blackout but extend into a promotion period not allowed?

If someone checks in the day before a black out date and stays for 5 nights Disney will give them 5 nights of free dining in order to ensure their room is booked for that one night it might not be. On the other hand, someone who checks in two nights before the blackout ends and is keeping an otherwise empty room occupied for three nights gets no discount?

If you can get free dining, great, but it just seems like logically a blackout should be a blackout, not a one-sided exception.

 

[danceintherain]

This is probably going to sound like sour grapes, but I'm a little annoyed at the blackout date policy.

If the purpose of the promotion is to fill rooms that would otherwise go empty, than why are trips that begin before, but extend into a blackout period (presumably a time when room occupancy isn't a problem) allowed the promotion but trips that start in a blackout but extend into a promotion period not allowed?

If someone checks in the day before a black out date and stays for 5 nights Disney will give them 5 nights of free dining in order to ensure their room is booked for that one night it might not be. On the other hand, someone who checks in two nights before the blackout ends and is keeping an otherwise empty room occupied for three nights gets no discount?

If you can get free dining, great, but it just seems like logically a blackout should be a blackout, not a one-sided exception.

I'm sure Disney has some complicated formula which indicates that doing it the way they do balances both room occupancy and cost.

Also, Disney doesn't design their promotions to accommodate people who already have vacation plans and wish to change to a better deal. The goal is to encourage people who weren't already planning on going during a certain time frame to go. In these cases, it doesn't tend to matter much the exact dates that are applicable, because all the plans are ideally made after the promotion is released.

They may also hope that the advertising for "Free Dining" entices people to call or price a vacation online, and if their dates don't work, they may still see how reasonable a vacation is and book it anyways for the dates that work for them without a discount.

 

[patsal]

A person who modifies an existing reservation to add a promotion is not the group they are targeting with the promotion. They want someone to say "Hey, we have time and this offer is great, let's plan a vacation ...here are the days it is available." and then book it. The idea is to fill unfilled rooms, by all factors the existing reservation is already a booked room.

 

[TheDisneyGang6]

And, really, what percentage of the general public know that if you book by the last day of the promo you can get the discount applied to your whole vacation? There are thousands of people here on the Disboards who know that little trick, but I bet millions of consumers don't know it. People checking in on the last date for free dining probably don't factor into Disney's number too much.

 

[sweeteypie1118]

And, really, what percentage of the general public know that if you book by the last day of the promo you can get the discount applied to your whole vacation? There are thousands of people here on the Disboards who know that little trick, but I bet millions of consumers don't know it. People checking in on the last date for free dining probably don't factor into Disney's number too much.

I found it out yesterday thanks to these boards I was originally going to arrive on Nov 16th for 9 nights, but going to change it to the 15th for 10 nights and get free dining the whole stay.

 

[Happyjen27]

And, really, what percentage of the general public know that if you book by the last day of the promo you can get the discount applied to your whole vacation? There are thousands of people here on the Disboards who know that little trick, but I bet millions of consumers don't know it. People checking in on the last date for free dining probably don't factor into Disney's number too much.

I have the DIS to thank for this little tidbit! I used this info this morning by adding one day at the beginning of my trip to snag free dining. An extra day of magic AND saving $$, life is good.

I think the DDP also encourages long stays. If you're within driving distance of Disney, I think it's easier to just do a few days rather than a longer vacation. This promo comes with a 6 night/7 day minimum, so they're getting people to extend that long weekend into nearly a week.

 

[brymolmom]

I think it's just sour grapes here.

From Disney's perspective (and their computer systems perspective) - The only logical way it works is to allow the promotion for your entire stay based on your arrival date qualifying for it. Since the system is setup to force you to purchase dining for your whole stay it would be a huge headache (from a programming perspective and CM perspective I imagine) to change things to allow dining for just days one and two, because that's when free dining is, but then NOT for days three, four and five - since those are blackout dates. And then to have to allow customers not to have it at all for the end of the trip - maybe forcing a new reservation and maybe forcing a bunch of people to change rooms. Likely Disney would spend way more money on this type of thing than it would by just allowing the free dining to extend through the blackout dates. And, like others have said, it's only a small percentage even getting these promotions and even knowing that they extend. All comes down to money - and I'm SURE it's way less expensive for them to just allow it for the whole trip.

 

[Micah008]

I think the answer is easy. Disney obviously knows that their policy is that the stay must start within the specific dates, so they just pick the dates to intentionally fill in dates after that.

An example, using the current dates of the promo.

They are allowing people to start their trip anywhere from 11/9 to 11/15, but the dates that they probably need to fill the most would really be more like 11/9 to 11/19. They know how long people stay on average, and can pick dates accordingly.


Also, I think more people realize that the trip just needs to start on those dates than people think. It says right on the first line of the promotion "arrival on...", and TA's and CM's understand this and explain it to people when booking a trip for them.

 

[TDC Nala]

The purpose of free dining is to fill rooms, and that is all it is.

The reason they extend is that it's based on your check-in date. All Disney promotions are based on your check-in date. Not your check-out date or any date in between. Disney knows which dates already have more guests checking in, and which have fewer guests checking in.

I take it the OP can't check in on a qualifying date, or rearrange their plans to check in on a qualifying date.