Who remembers what year online booking began?

[jekjones1558]

While unsuccessfully trying to make a reservation at my home resort at exactly 11 months out, I thought back to the days when there was no online booking and everyone was trying to get through to MS on the phone right at opening in the morning. And I think (not positive) that even then people were walking reservations by calling to subtract a day from the beginning and adding a day to the end of a reservation. Often you would get a busy signal and by the time you could get through, it was too late. It sounds neanderthal now to have to rely on phone calls to book. Who remembers how long ago this was?

 

[Sandisw]

I joined in 2009 and it was still phone only. IIRC, I think it started in 2013 or 2014

But, I remember the days of constant busy signals trying to book. And I remember she. It was 9 am to 5 pm only.!

For all its issues, and the website has them, it’s still much better than having to call for everything!!!

 

[drusba]

The ability to reserve online began Jan 19, 2012. That is also when DVC made online booking available beginning 8 a.m. at exactly 11/7 months out, while MS did not take calls until 9 a.m. In its original form you could reserve a room and cancel the entire reservation, but there was no option to modify the reservation online. Moreover, though you could check availability for your home resort at 11-months out from any given date, you could not check availability for any other resorts until 7-months out.

 

[heynowirv]

I joined in 2009 and it was still phone only. IIRC, I think it started in 2013 or 2014

But, I remember the days of constant busy signals trying to book. And I remember she. It was 9 am to 5 pm only.!

For all its issues, and the website has them, it’s still much better than having to call for everything!!!

I remember those days all too well. We've been members since 2008. DVC online booking was introduced in Jan. 2012.

 

[heynowirv]

The ability to reserve online began Jan 19, 2012. That is also when DVC made online booking available beginning 8 a.m. while MS did not take calls until 9 a.m. In its original form you could reserve a room and cancel the entire reservation, but there was no option to modify the reservation online. Moreover, though you could check availability for your home resort at 11-months out, you could not check availability for any other resorts until 7-months out.

You threw that out there twice while I was looking it up.....LOL

 

[DaveNan]

The ability to modify online came around 2018. I believe this contributed to the number of people walking. Some members walked before, but having to call was more effort and made it very apparent with MS you were doing it. Now, you have members walking for months, and walking 2-3 day reservations because they don't have enough points for longer stays/walks. You can modify online daily, much easier than calling MS every day. But consistent with drusba comment, even though it resulted in more walking, being able to modify online is better than not.

 

[mom2missmous]

While unsuccessfully trying to make a reservation at my home resort at exactly 11 months out, I thought back to the days when there was no online booking and everyone was trying to get through to MS on the phone right at opening in the morning. And I think (not positive) that even then people were walking reservations by calling to subtract a day from the beginning and adding a day to the end of a reservation. Often you would get a busy signal and by the time you could get through, it was too late. It sounds neanderthal now to have to rely on phone calls to book. Who remembers how long ago this was?

I too was unsuccessful trying to book at my 11 month window today. I banked 2022 points (october use year) into 2023, but when I try to book a reservation it says the number of points I just banked as my balance (NOT including the unused 2023 points!) and wants to BORROW from 2024- but when I check my account I see the correct balance for 2023! Very frustrating!

 

[Sandisw]

I too was unsuccessful trying to book at my 11 month window today. I banked 2022 points (october use year) into 2023, but when I try to book a reservation it says the number of points I just banked as my balance (NOT including the unused 2023 points!) and wants to BORROW from 2024- but when I check my account I see the correct balance for 2023! Very frustrating!

Try logging out and back in? If you banked right before trying maybe the system didn’t see them?

 

[E2ME2]

The ability to reserve online began Jan 19, 2012. That is also when DVC made online booking available beginning 8 a.m. at exactly 11/7 months out, while MS did not take calls until 9 a.m. In its original form you could reserve a room and cancel the entire reservation, but there was no option to modify the reservation online. Moreover, though you could check availability for your home resort at 11-months out from any given date, you could not check availability for any other resorts until 7-months out.

Yes - that's the way I remember it. We bought in 2011, and the 2012 "on-line" booking was rolled out right after we had made our first reservation the old way!

 

[mom2missmous]

Try logging out and back in? If you banked right before trying maybe the system didn’t see them?

Thank you for the advice. yes, I did bank a few minutes before because i knew we would need those points to book. May try again later or take my chances and wait until Monday when MS opens again. This is our small resale contract so dont know if that is why it is glitching . Never had issues with our BCV contract we bought direct years ago , but who knows these days.

 

[tjkraz]

Online reservations began in January 2012:

https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program/pol...6/1843-first-hand-look-at-online-reservations

Ability to modify existing reservations in June 2018:

https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program/pol...ify-reservations-online-with-new-booking-site

 

[jlovesee]

We joined in 2007 and if I’m not mistaken it was about that time they switched from 7/11 months from the end of your reservation/day at a time to 7/11 months from the beginning. I only recall that because people would call in day at a time to get hard reservations, instead of waiting for the end date.

I also recall when online booking went online, it made everything much easier!

Jennifer

 

[drusba]

We joined in 2007 and if I’m not mistaken it was about that time they switched from 7/11 months from the end of your reservation/day at a time to 7/11 months from the beginning. I only recall that because people would call in day at a time to get hard reservations, instead of waiting for the end date.

I also recall when online booking went online, it made everything much easier!

Jennifer

Yes, originally the reservation time was 11 months for home resort/7 for others from time of departure from the DVC resort. You could at one-time book more than 7 nights as long as you were calling 11-months out from departure date, but for perceived hard to get reservations many members did daily booking, e.g., at 11-months minus one day out from their desired arrival date, they would call MS and book the first night of their trip with a departure date 11-months from the day they called, and then call daily and book another night until they had all the nights they wanted, and then they would call MS and have it merge the reservations into one.

On June 28, 2008, DVC announced the immediate change of the reservation time to 11/7 months out from time of arrival, but for a maximum of 7 nights if reserving exactly 11/7 out.

One thing I also remember from that time period is that it was soon (about a month or two) after the announcement of the change, that an ingenious DVC member, whose name I cannot remember, posted on this site a possible way to gain advantage for hard to get reservations with the new system. He did not use the word "walking" but the system he described was exactly that, and the term "walking" was soon applied to it.