Will individual DVC website accounts ever happen?

[rwodonnell]

Well, the subject says it all. Does anyone know if they plan to do this? It seems like an obvious thing, I was surprised when we joined last May that there was not already such a site. It would be a beautiful way to track points usage and book reservations. If the banks can do it, why not DVC?

 

[Caskbill]

At various times DVC has talked about this subject. To the best of my knowledge it's still a go, but don't know how active the project is right now.

Apparently sometime 'soon' we are suppose to be able to check DVC resort room availability. This would apparently help reduce some of the phone calls to MS. It would definitely be nice to do this.

Don't know what 'soon' means. That's what we were told at one of the member's meetings a month ago.

As to checking individual accounts, point balances, reservations, etc. That's anybody's guess right now as to any type of timeframe for this.

 

[DebbieB]

They talked about this when I went to the annual meeting in December 2000, so it's been on the drawing board for a long time. I think part of the problem is that Disney has laid off alot of computer programmers. I heard that's why the web cams no longer work.

 

[manning]

When we bought last March, the person helping us fill out the papers mentioned that the whole reservation system for WDW was in the process of being changed (complete program rewrite) and DVC was included in the process. Don't remember the time line, but thought it was within a few years.

It could be budget cut backs may be delaying it.

 

[JillU-DVC]

Back about a year or so ago, there were large cuts at Disney - one of the departments that had the largest cuts was the Internet development team.

So I wouldn't count on seeing anything unless the economy increases SUBSTANTIALLY and they hire those internet developers back.

 

[BobH]

I don't believe Disney is not providing access to member accounts or online reservations because of cost. I believe Disney can afford anything they want to afford. I think Disney should allow members to "view" their point usage and point totals online and I think if there were any real commitment to this idea it would have happened long ago. The idea was around long before the economic downturn. I have always received great responses from member services by email but I have asked this question about member accounts multiple times and have always been ignored.
Just my opinion.

 

[rwodonnell]

Thanks for the info, all. I think one of the more puzzling things is that I have to believe they could probably get something almost off the shelf for this. Or, if nothing like this exists, the developers of these packages that the banks use ought to be developing this; there are a number of points-based vacation clubs. (Anyone know if Marriott's or Starwood's clubs have such member-oriented sites?) Clearly this is something that could be outsourced as well, then maintained at a lesser cost.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

A couple of thoughts;

First off, nothing is free; since the developement and running costs of such a service aren't free, DVC then needs to balance this cost against the savings which they might expect to see by downsizing the telephone staff at member services. Downsizing of MS could only be achieved by having members actively use the online services.

If there are no savings, then the question becomes whether or not the membership is willing to pay for the service to be deployed.

DVC does appear to be interested in looking at this though - I've participated in a survey the last few times I've called MS, and one of the questions was about whether I would prefer to make my reservations online or not.

So, out of the entire membership, are there enough members willing to go online to justify the expense, or are there really just a handful of fairly vocal internet members that want this; when a majority of the membership would continue to use the phone?

 

[crisi]

No ROI. Almost never is with web enabling something for consumers.

 

[rwodonnell]

Well, at the risk of sounding like a zealot about this there is a lot more to it than just making online reservations. Don't get me wrong, that would be nice, but it would also be nice to see point usages, banking and borrowing information, waiting list length and position, historical personal usage, etc. Thekind of stuff Caskbill's program tracks (thanks Caskbill, I just downloaded that the other day, it looks great so far!) but from their perspective; like an online bank statement versus your personal Quicken information - it's nice to make the comparison.

I do understand the need to weigh cost versus benefit, and I certainly hope as a member they would do that and not jump blindly into projects. I do think, though, that perhaps the cost might not be as high as some think. And with more people joining DVC daily, it's not like they would have to lay off phone representatives, just not hire as many more. The whole thing that so many people do with the daily calls "extending" their stay is a great example of something that could easily be done online and save the phonelines for people that need to talk to the representatives. Let's face it, the phoneline situation is really out of control sometimes.

The whole point is customer relations. Customer relations is important, because it keeps customers happy. Yes, "they have us" as some say. For now. But it's clearly important to DVC to keep the resale market up, and with other clubs out there competing, the only really clear advantage DVC can count on is the ability to stay on grounds at Disney.

 

[sgtdisney]

Originally posted by rwodonnell
The whole point is customer relations. Customer relations is important, because it keeps customers happy. Yes, "they have us" as some say. For now. But it's clearly important to DVC to keep the resale market up, and with other clubs out there competing, the only really clear advantage DVC can count on is the ability to stay on grounds at Disney.

See, there is the real reason why they haven't done anything yet. A lot of times companies develop online web applications, such as the one we are all wanting, to attract and/or keep customers. "We may lose Joe Smith as a customer to Company B because Company B has all this internet functionality and we don't" Something like that. In Disney's case, especially with the DVC, they don't have to worry about losing customers, at least not yet. They are selling out every DVC that they build for more money than the last one and for less time for the membership. People are still buying like hotcakes. Until Disney sees a fall off of business they won't be driven to make big expenditures on their own when they don't have to. Right now our dues fund member services. That works well for Disney. Why would they feel obligated out of a sense of loyality to the DVC member to eat the entire programming budget, if they don't have to. Disney has already shown us time and time again that they consider the average DVC member to be a captive audience. This is the same reason they offer members little to no discounts. They don't need to. I agree 110%, it would be ideal to have online access to these member service functions, but I am afraid that unless the members pay for the programming costs, or Disney fears they are losing market share because of it, it won't happen.