why no DVC online booking??

[KANSAS]

why does DVC not allow us to do the following online

book reservations
cancell reservations
bank points
borrow points
search for reservations

would it not, reduce their costs
that would be passed along to the DVC Member

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

why does DVC not allow us to do the following online

book reservations
cancell reservations
bank points
borrow points
search for reservations

would it not, reduce their costs
that would be passed along to the DVC Member

Undoubtedly, online booking would reduce the cost of member reservation activity.

The problem is that there's an upfront cost to develop a sophisticated custom system. An "off-the-shelf" hotel reservation system can't handle DVC's complex requirements.

Supposedly, such a system is on the way.

 

[OnMedic]

I started another similar thread recently! Should give it a read...

 

[rocketriter]

Word on the street is that the system is already being programmed and will be rolled out in less than a year. I can't explain why it isn't already in place.

 

[krbq]

why does DVC not allow us to do the following online

book reservations
cancell reservations
bank points
borrow points
search for reservations

would it not, reduce their costs
that would be passed along to the DVC Member

Actually you can search/book reservations and bank points on line. There's a form on the DVC website you can use, but once I had a special request that wasn't allowed for on the form so I just sent an e-mail with my requests and eventually confirmed a reservation. I've also banked points through e-mail. It's nice to have my requests in writing.

 

[dvc_john]

Actually you can search/book reservations and bank points on line. There's a form on the DVC website you can use, but once I had a special request that wasn't allowed for on the form so I just sent an e-mail with my requests and eventually confirmed a reservation. I've also banked points through e-mail. It's nice to have my requests in writing.

This is not an on-line reservations system. It's just a form that works like an email. Someone will review it as time permits, and book the reservation if it is available. If not available, they contact you, and you start over. You can not check availability first, or get an immediate reservation. They are supposedly working on an on-line system, and the first phase it supposed to allow for viewing your account, point balances, confirmed reservations, etc.

 

[DebbieB]

It has been promised for a long time. I went to the annual meeting in December 2000 and they said they were working on it................

 

[Rence]

Spend a bit of time thinking about how you would implement it. Think about all the banking, borrowing, 7 month/11 month, transfer, use year rules etc. etc.

Think about how you would incorproate all these business rules into a web front-end that would be understandable to the typical user (non-disboard reader). How do you clearly and concisely explain these rules and display various comprehendable error messages when mistakes are made.

It is not an easy task. My first thought when I joined was that on-line reservations would be a no-brainer. After a couple of months of reading the boards and hearing about all the different situations, rules etc. I can understand perfectly why the on-line system doesn't yet exist.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

I can see how difficult it would be to do. But I just wish they had a system that gave you a vague idea of what MIGHT be available any given day. Just download the inventory at 2AM EST and let people plan from that. No it isn't perfect but its a lot easier than guessing blindly at what might be a good time to go. Or just generate some form of chart ...maybe based on a calendar that ranges from green (wide open), yellow, blue, red, purple (no room). It'd be to Disney's advantage because knowledgable people mean less time wasted on the phones.

...I'm not sure I'm wildly comfortable with reservations, banking and borrowing online...right now Interval has my units royally screwed up in the online system although they are apparently okay in their (probably mainframe) system. I'd be MUCH MORE UNHAPPY if I had a similar situation with Disney.

 

[OnMedic]

Just a quick note to those in this thread and those responding to my thred...

If you are not comfortable with online reservations, you can always choose to call MS to make your reservations and inquiries, as you always have. MS is not going to disapear! Many prefer telephone ressies and some may not have a computer or Internet.

That being said, I am also surprized that you can only contact MS M-F 9am - 5:30pm (exception Thursday). With no online booking, I am surprized they are not open 7am to Midnight, and that the are not open on the weekends! WOW!

 

[Caskbill]

Just a quick note to those in this thread and those responding to my thred...

If you are not comfortable with online reservations, you can always choose to call MS to make your reservations and inquiries, as you always have. MS is not going to disapear! Many prefer telephone ressies and some may not have a computer or Internet.

That being said, I am also surprized that you can only contact MS M-F 9am - 5:30pm (exception Thursday). With no online booking, I am surprized they are not open 7am to Midnight, and that the are not open on the weekends! WOW!

They don't do it because it would cost a lot, and that would be passed on to us in the way of dues.

On a typical day there are approximately 80 to 100 cast members manning the phone lines. If their pay plus benefits plus employer paid taxes comes to $15/hour (that's probably about a $10/hour salary), you're talking about $1350.00 an hour, or almost $11,000/8-hour day. Throw in 52 weekends at $22,000 each and you've got almost $1-million, 200 thousand a year just to cover the weekends. Stay open till midnight, that adds almost another 30 hours a week, or 1560 hours a year, or another $2 million annually.

On top of that add expenses (electricity, water, etc)

During very busy times MS will have about 120 people answering the phones. These would be the typical 11-month/7-month windows to the popular holiday times.

When speaking to members, everyone I've spoken with always assumed that MS might just be something like 8-10 people. That's off by a factor of 10.

 

[athenna]

.
That being said, I am also surprized that you can only contact MS M-F 9am - 5:30pm (exception Thursday). With no online booking, I am surprized they are not open 7am to Midnight, and that the are not open on the weekends! WOW!

Quite true! It never bothered me before because I've never had weekends off from work, ever, so it was great to have a day off during the week to do stuff like this. Now I have weekends off (I'm not complaining!) but not being able to make these kinds of phone calls on weekends is tricky! I'll have to do everything on Thursdays

 

[tjkraz]

That being said, I am also surprized that you can only contact MS M-F 9am - 5:30pm (exception Thursday). With no online booking, I am surprized they are not open 7am to Midnight, and that the are not open on the weekends! WOW!

Our member dues pay 100% of the DVC operating costs. Double the hours, double the cost. I doubt you'll hear a lot of outrage over the current hours.

The hours do have an east coast bias, which I think is unfortunate for those in the west and abroad. But I think it would be a mistake to increase service dramatically since it's only a matter of time before Internet bookings will be available.

 

[OnMedic]

OK, that is a lot of MS reps covering the phones!

However, with members calling in the evenings and weekends, demand during the 9-5:30 period would decrease and staggered shifts could be implimented. It would not be pure incrementals Hours/Operating Costs as current hours would be displaced across the day and throughout the week.

So, in perspective, it may cost an incremental $500K to cover off the evenings and weekends, that would only be $5/EA per Member.

However, an online site and the decreased demand on telephone support and would offset the increased $$$ to provide after hours and weekend staffing. With an online site, they may be able to get away with their current MS hours!

So what brings DVC the best Value out of the gates? Would there be greater ROI in a website (Egg) or increased MS hours (Chicken)? I would leave the chicken for now and choose the egg.

I work Monday - Friday and am on the road. This makes after hours and weekends my only true time to sit down to plan, inquire and reserve.

 

[dvc_john]

While an on-line system may be difficult, it is being done by others.
HGVC (Hilton) has an on-line reservations system, and they have many of the same situations as DVC: points based, multiple resorts, home resort priority, 15, 9, and 2 month windows, variable number of days stays, variable number of points based on season and day of week, studios, 1-br, 2-br, 3-br, banking and borrowing, etc. And, it's pretty easy to use.

 

[crisi]

While an on-line system may be difficult, it is being done by others.
HGVC (Hilton) has an on-line reservations system, and they have many of the same situations as DVC: points based, multiple resorts, home resort priority, 15, 9, and 2 month windows, variable number of days stays, variable number of points based on season and day of week, studios, 1-br, 2-br, 3-br, banking and borrowing, etc. And, it's pretty easy to use.

The question isn't "is it doable?" It certainly is. The question is "how long will it take DVC to get a return on the investment?" For many applications, self service web apps have been major dissappointments. Make the investment in development - cut costs in staff. But staff hasn't been cut nearly as much as anticipated, and new costs are added - maintaining and improving the systems, hardware costs, hosting costs. The promised "two year ROI" has been reevaluated to be more along the lines of eight or ten years. Add on the complexity of new member problems in the helpdesk (I forgot my password, where do I find the page to bank points, how do I book two rooms) vein (or old member problems members now blame on the "system" - "really, I booked that room, your system must have made an error") and you have a certain number of people who have added dissatisfaction to balance those you've made happier and the costs to address them.

For all we know, the reason DVC hasn't done this is because Hilton did - I'd imagine the timeshare management world is as small as many industries and Disney would get pretty good gossip on how happy Hilton is with their investment. If Hilton is delighted, Disney would hear and move forward. If Hilton views the investment as a mistake, Disney (and other companies) won't jump on the bandwagon until either their is a change in technology that might make it easier (cheaper) to build and/or manage/maintain, or it becomes a competative imparative to do it.

 

[Rence]

You're right, the system is doable. I work in the IT field and I once had a new boss who handed out his philosophy the day he arrived.

The heading at the top of the page was:

"The Answer is YES -- Here is what it will cost".

He didn't want to here no. He wanted Yes. He believed that anything was doable, given enough time, resources, research, staff, etc. etc. In many cases it will cost so much that it is no feasible, but it is doable.

This may be a case of whether the costs will exceed any expected returns.

 

[jctwizzer]

why does DVC not allow us to do the following online
book reservations
cancell reservations
bank points
borrow points
search for reservations
would it not, reduce their costs
that would be passed along to the DVC Member

#1, how the hell should we know? you're asking the wrong people.
#2. no one here knows whether or not it would reduce costs. again,
you're asking the wrong people

 

[athenna]

#1, how the hell should we know? you're asking the wrong people.
#2. no one here knows whether or not it would reduce costs. again,
you're asking the wrong people

Wow, don't you think this is a little extreme?
Anyone has the right to ask what ever they like here.

 

[Carrie25]

You're right, the system is doable. I work in the IT field and I once had a new boss who handed out his philosophy the day he arrived.

The heading at the top of the page was:

"The Answer is YES -- Here is what it will cost".

He didn't want to here no. He wanted Yes. He believed that anything was doable, given enough time, resources, research, staff, etc. etc. In many cases it will cost so much that it is no feasible, but it is doable.

This may be a case of whether the costs will exceed any expected returns.

Hi i am using my wifes login. I work in IT (web and databse development) also and a reservation system should not be that big a deal to do. The major business rules are already defined (banking, borrowing, user year). The only thing that ever matters is cost. Resources cost money. A business decision to do online booking would have to be made versus other costs (conventional phones). I'm sure they will do this at some point. Amortizing the cost to build (a pie in the sky guess 500k) versus the years to operate (typical project lifetime of 5 years) this is a small expense probably on the per transaction cost. Of course DVC only knows their costs and probability that their "members" will use it enough to make it cost effective. When I first become a member I was shocked they did not have a system in place given how profitable DVC is to Disney supposedly.