What is "walk" the reservation?

[Disney-Kim]

am I saying it right?

 

[chalee94]

let's say we both want 12/25/15 for 5 nights and for whatever reason, we are both after the last room available.

you think, "i need to call 1/25/15 to book the stay" (11 months out).

i think, "wait - if i call on 1/19/15, i can book 12/19/15 for 7 nights, which includes 12/25/15." so i call early and book that stay.

when you call on 1/25/15, i already have that room booked, so even if you see that the room is available for 12/26/15 on, you cannot book that since the first night is taken.

so i can sleep in and call MS around noon on 1/25/15 to cancel the first six nights of my reservation and book the last 4 nights of my stay which no one else can get to (again, since the first night is taken.)

i have just walked the reservation to get in front of you...

but except in very rare cases (AKV club level for one), this type of strategy is a waste of time (mine and MS's). and this strategy is only useful for your home resort at 11 months out for another thing...at 7 months, a home resort owner can jump ahead of you at any time...

 

[owensamo]

and this strategy is only useful for your home resort at 11 months out for another thing...at 7 months, a home resort owner can jump ahead of you at any time...

It does work at 7mo for reservations at your non-home resort, especially if you have no flexibility in dates or room size. In these cases, to alleviate the risk of a home resort owner booking, you would have to call daily to change the reservation until you have the days you want.

Is this good practice? No. However, since Disney doesn't disallow it, people will continue doing it.

While we've done this in the past, I probably wouldn't ever do it unless I was trying to book AKV club level (@ 11 months - not something that's currently in my plans) or a grand villa at a non-home resort again (probably not ever again). It's annoying to have to go through the time and effort. Since we've never had a problem getting a room that worked for us (we've even managed to get an awesome studio for 8 nights in July at GCV at 7 months without having to walk), it just doesn't make sense. However, for those must-have reservations, it can be a useful tactic.

 

[DebbieB]

It does work at 7mo for reservations at your non-home resort, especially if you have no flexibility in dates or room size. In these cases, to alleviate the risk of a home resort owner booking, you would have to call daily to change the reservation until you have the days you want.

Is this good practice? No. However, since Disney doesn't disallow it, people will continue doing it.

While we've done this in the past, I probably wouldn't ever do it unless I was trying to book AKV club level (@ 11 months - not something that's currently in my plans) or a grand villa at a non-home resort again (probably not ever again). It's annoying to have to go through the time and effort. Since we've never had a problem getting a room that worked for us (we've even managed to get an awesome studio for 8 nights in July at GCV at 7 months without having to walk), it just doesn't make sense. However, for those must-have reservations, it can be a useful tactic.

It doesn't work as well at 7 months. For example, say you want September 10-17. You can call at 7 months on February 4 to book September 4-10 and you get it. You call the next day for September 11, home resort owners could already have that booked and it's not available.

 

[mickeyman42]

so even if you see that the room is available for 12/26/15 on, you cannot book that since the first night is taken. so i can sleep in and call MS around noon on 1/25/15 to cancel the first six nights of my reservation and book the last 4 nights of my stay which no one else can get to (again, since the first night is taken.)

Ok, but what if I want dec 26-30, couldn't i conceivably book your villa ie the one you only have booked till the 25th? Or am I missing something here? I guess I am because people walk reservations all the time but i just don't see why if i have a checkout day that someone else couldn't just start their stay the same day i check out thus preventing me from extending my stay? I guess i just don't understand how you know you'll be able to simply add on days at the end, y cant someone else book that villa?

 

[mickeyman42]

Nevermind, i just figured it out! Obviously if you call on the 11 month date exactly then the next day onward still could not be booked as it wouldn't be the 11 month date yet. That's pretty neat actually, now that I know how to do it!

 

[LisaS]

Nevermind, i just figured it out! Obviously if you call on the 11 month date exactly then the next day onward still could not be booked as it wouldn't be the 11 month date yet. That's pretty neat actually, now that I know how to do it!

Now here's the downside: while someone is walking a reservation, they are tying up room nights that they do not actually want. Meanwhile, another member who did want those nights gets shut out. So they set up a wait list.

Some time later, the "walker" starts releasing some nights. Those go back into the pool until the wait list process runs. Another member happens to be looking at availability at just the right time and picks up those nights, undermining the member(s) on the waiting list. Even if they improved the wait list process to hold back nights for which a wait list exists, if the nights are released a few at a time and the member at the top of the list is waiting for all the nights the walker will eventually release, he/she still loses out if someone further down the list is waiting for a subset of those nights.

So, yes, for very hard to get reservations like an AKV Concierge Studio some people do use this approach but unfortunately it also can harm your fellow members.

 

[Disney-Kim]

wow seems like a hassle but I get it, thanks

 

[owensamo]

It doesn't work as well at 7 months. For example, say you want September 10-17. You can call at 7 months on February 4 to book September 4-10 and you get it. You call the next day for September 11, home resort owners could already have that booked and it's not available.

True - but in most cases home resort owners have already booked prior to the 7 month window opening - in order to be sure they can get the room they want and avoid having all other members trying to get the same room they want. So you're usually only in contention with other non-owners at the 7mo window.

I know this works, since that's how we got 7 nights in a Grand Villa at Aulani this year. We got the last GV on the first day when we booked it, and called every morning for a week to add/delete days until we had everything we needed.

 

[DebbieB]

True - but in most cases home resort owners have already booked prior to the 7 month window opening - in order to be sure they can get the room they want and avoid having all other members trying to get the same room they want. So you're usually only in contention with other non-owners at the 7mo window.

I know this works, since that's how we got 7 nights in a Grand Villa at Aulani this year. We got the last GV on the first day when we booked it, and called every morning for a week to add/delete days until we had everything we needed.

When you walk at 11 months, if you have the first night no one else could have booked the next day. But at 7 months, some of those dates could have been booked months ago, so it's not a straight shot like at 11 months. It's great it worked for you but I was just saying it's not a guarantee to work, you could hit a stop and not be able to continue booking.

I have done a form of "walking" at VGC. If I wanted to stay Sunday-Friday, I book Friday to Friday and get a 2 day jump. More people tend to check-in on Saturday or Sunday. Then cancel Friday & Saturday a couple days later. It has worked for me 3 times, I've had current year points to worth with.