New policy for reservations based on check IN date

[PEANUT1]

I'll tell you, this thread is making me rethink buying DVC when we go down next month. It sounds like it's easier to dine with Cinderella in the castle than to make a DVC reservation.

nah...I think this is just the place people come to vent. no worries. Its not that hard.

 

[Doug7856]

I wonder if this policy change is a part of a transition to online bookings?

 

[kgc07]

I wonder if this policy change is a part of a transition to online bookings?

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[snackyx]

This is going to get sticky! I agree with SuzanneSLO that the cure may be worse than the problem. We travel from Michigan and stay in a GV at OKW the Saturday before Thanksgiving until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. On the day-by-day booking the worst nights to get were Thanksgiving eve (Wed) and Thanksgiving night (Thurs). I have had several MS tell me that people who live within a reasonable driving distance of WDW book those two nights for family get togethers, so those two nights are very popular. With this plan those two night bookers can call MS and book a seven night stay starting on the Friday before Thanksgiving and later just cancel Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tues and have the coveted Wed and Thurs night ahead of their booking window. Those abuses will have to be addressed.

 

[kdepot]

I wonder if this policy change is a part of a transition to online bookings?

If that's the case you'll have some one abusing that too!

I think no matter what system you use there are those who "work" the system to his or her advantage and there will always be those who don't like it.

There is no way to please everyone!!!!!

 

[BeccaG]

I never found booking day by day all that exhausting or stressful. The first call is as long as a typical MS call would be, and I would just mention that I was booking day by day. Then on the subsequent days you tell them you are adding a day to the existing reservation and let them know when the last day is. Last December 29-January 4 I booked five rooms this way (I took my family as a Christmas gift) and I think my follow-up phone calls took maybe 5 minutes (once I actually got someone on the phone ). I too can see a lot of problems with this change, and I wonder what exactly motivated it since, as someone else mentioned, I wonder what percentage of owners really book day by day on a regular basis. I would suspect that if we polled DIS DVCers their booking day by day would be higher than the average.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I wonder if this policy change is a part of a transition to online bookings?

I think this will be harder for online booking to handle than the current policy which opens the 11/7 month window for each day, more or less one day at a time (as airline reservations also do). If it was simply a change from booking 11/7 months prior to your check in day vs. check out day, with no expanded window for longer reservations, then I would say the change might be facilitating a move to booking online.

This is not to say that this new policy will prohibit booking online, as other timeshare systems do make it work. -- Suzanne

 

[jbrowna]

I guess my mind isn't devious enough, 'cause I hadn't even thought about ways to turn the new system to my advantage! Scary, what folks come up with.

For me, I don't know that it will be a problem, since I've never booked a stay where I didn't have some flexibility, as to either location or date. Especially if I'm booking at 11 months, my plans are usually not that set, so I take the dates I can get and buy airline tickets and arrange other things around those dates. I suppose if I were in a situation where I simply had to have a particular accommodation on a particular date I might feel differently. But to me, getting a value or concierge room at AKV is a nice thing if it happens, but if not, a studio at OKW or standard view at BWV -- or anything else they might have available -- works for me!

DW and I managed to get a concierge room at AKV in late September, which was totally unexpected. But MS pointed out it was still available for the two nights we were looking at, so we jumped on it. I guess we looked on it as a bit of pixie dust unexpectedly falling our way. If someone else had wanted it so badly that they were willing to game the system in the manner we've heard described, then I'm not gonna' complain about it. Life's too short! Why turn your WDW vacation into some sort of competition where you have to stretch the rules to ace out other DVC members!

Good grief, folks: chill out!

 

[Judy WI]

I don't have a very good feeling about this. What happens when you call on the first day and it's not available. Do you waitlist that one day at that point and then call back the next day and try to book the rest of the trip as a different reservation? .

I also just read that you can no longer waitlist for only one day. Has to be the whole vacation. Now if you have multi contracts I suppose you can get around that also.

 

[BeccaG]

I also just read that you can no longer waitlist for only one day. Has to be the whole vacation.

I definitely hope that is not true! Then if i call and 6 consecutive days of my 7 day vacation are available, I can either cut my vacation down or risk the chance of them all disappearing? What's to keep me from calling back and planning a one night trip that just happens to be the day before my six night trip, asking to be waitlisted and then linking the ressies if it comes through?

 

[horselover]

I think no matter what system you use there are those who "work" the system to his or her advantage and there will always be those who don't like it.

There is no way to please everyone!!!!!

I was thinking the same thing. No matter what MS does there will be some people that like it & some that don't. As a new DVC member I haven't had any experience with day by day booking so I have nothing to compare to, but in theory I like the idea of being able to book all my nights at the same time. I will however reserve my judgement until I see the final official details from MS & wait to see how it plays out.

 

[Doug7856]

In the back of my head, I seem to recall that for reservations made through central reservations (do they still call it that?), you can extend a reservation at the end of a stay or reduce nights at the end of a stay, but if you want to cancel a night at the beginning of the stay you have to book a new reservation. Does anyone know if that is the policy?

 

[SuzanneSLO]

I also just read that you can no longer waitlist for only one day. Has to be the whole vacation. Now if you have multi contracts I suppose you can get around that also.

Wow! Do you get the feeling that the "suits" at DVC saw that it was too quiet over here at the DisBoards and thougth they should shake it up a bit? Now that the cups are back in the studios, we haven't had a really good venting since the change in banking deadlines!

If not being able to waitlist day-by-day means that you cannot waitlist for the single day you are missing in a reservation, this would be big negative for me. Otherwise, I am not surprised to see some changes with the waitlist because ever since the waitlist went automatic, there has been a lot of confusion. Of course, that confusion could be solved by going back to the old system, but that would be too easy.

-- Suzanne

 

[tjkraz]

I think no matter what system you use there are those who "work" the system to his or her advantage and there will always be those who don't like it.

In a way, we could argue that wise members have been abusing the old system for years.

I don't believe that DVC has ever condoned the so-called "day by day" bookings. Everything that I've read simply says "11 months from the checkout day", or something to that effect. I'm sure there are thousands of members who have never done a day-by-day booking, and would claim that we have all been abusing the rules by doing so.

DVC could certainly allege that the day-by-day bookings are an abuse that has been occurring for years now. Members doing that clearly aren't departing the resort following each individual day booked, so DVC would be within its rights to point out that we've been violating both the spirit and the letter of the law.

The new system isn't foolproof, but it's going to reduce calls dramatically. That will not only save money but cut down on these excessive wait times for MS. And the member's convenience is important, too. Now, in one phone call we can complete a reservation that would have previously taken as many as 7--often with wait times of 15-20 minutes during every call.

 

[kdepot]

I was thinking the same thing. No matter what MS does there will be some people that like it & some that don't. As a new DVC member I haven't had any experience with day by day booking so I have nothing to compare to, but in theory I like the idea of being able to book all my nights at the same time. I will however reserve my judgement until I see the final official details from MS & wait to see how it plays out.

I am also a new member and new to posting on these boards. If i wanted to "game" the system this is where i would learn how!
I started reading these boards to understand how DVC worked. Now I see how DVC "gets" worked. I also will hold my final judgement and hope MS understands what could happen.

 

[drag n' fly]

This is a great way to eliminate the day-by-day phone calls to MS at 11 and 7 months ... however ... it adds a potential for abuse if members really want a 5 night reservation (Sun - Thurs) but can now call to reserve 7 nights (Friday - Thurs) and then later cancel the Fri/Sat - thus getting a 2 day booking advantage over those who wait until the Sunday may be reserved.

If that's the case, MS may need to have a policy where later modifications where the check-in date is dropped from the reservation would require that the reservation would be cancelled and rebooked - allowing the waitlist to pick up any freed up dates in the meantime.

It will be interesting to see how this works as time goes by. In principal, it's a great way to reduce phone calls for MS and headaches for members. There is certainly the potential for someone to call for a hard-to-get reservation, be the first one thru at 9:00am and have no availability already because that date was already reserved 2 days ago.

Stay Tuned!

Wow good point! I do love the convenience of it though. For those of us with a time difference, those really early day by day bookings are tough on an old gal like me

 

[ACDSNY]

In a way, we could argue that wise members have been abusing the old system for years.

I don't believe that DVC has ever condoned the so-called "day by day" bookings. Everything that I've read simply says "11 months from the checkout day", or something to that effect. I'm sure there are thousands of members who have never done a day-by-day booking, and would claim that we have all been abusing the rules by doing so.

The new system isn't foolproof, but it's going to reduce calls dramatically. That will not only save money but cut down on these excessive wait times for MS.

I totally agree! I have never done day-by-day booking as I wouldn't want to waste my own time or MS.

 

[BeccaG]

IDVC could certainly allege that the day-by-day bookings are an abuse that has been occurring for years now. Members doing that clearly aren't departing the resort following each individual day booked, so DVC would be within its rights to point out that we've been violating both the spirit and the letter of the law.

I must respectfully disagree with you. Day-by-day booking 11mo out from check-out gave every member an equal opportunity to book any given day. If I only had enough points for one day or if I have 2000 points and had been a member for 15 years anyone can book the new open date. This system favors those with more points and, as someone else mentioned, the violation of the spirit of the law here is folks booking days they never plan on using; just like the speculative renters many on this message board were up in arms against a while back. I agree that the new system could be more convenient but it seems to have the potential to hurt the "little guy" the most.

I also really want to know why the change and why there was no prior notice!!

 

[LisaS]

I wonder if this is also a move to try to keep mousekeeping expenses down. It seems like eliminating the need for day by day booking and eliminating day-by-day waitlisting makes it more likely a guest stays in one room for their entire stay. If you can reduce the number of room/resort changes, you reduce the number of full cleanings.

 

[Inkmahm]

This is a great way to eliminate the day-by-day phone calls to MS at 11 and 7 months ... however ... it adds a potential for abuse if members really want a 5 night reservation (Sun - Thurs) but can now call to reserve 7 nights (Friday - Thurs) and then later cancel the Fri/Sat - thus getting a 2 day booking advantage over those who wait until the Sunday may be reserved.

If that's the case, MS may need to have a policy where later modifications where the check-in date is dropped from the reservation would require that the reservation would be cancelled and rebooked - allowing the waitlist to pick up any freed up dates in the meantime.

It will be interesting to see how this works as time goes by. In principal, it's a great way to reduce phone calls for MS and headaches for members. There is certainly the potential for someone to call for a hard-to-get reservation, be the first one thru at 9:00am and have no availability already because that date was already reserved 2 days ago.

Stay Tuned!

You stated exactly my concern. At least booking day by day based on checkout day gave us all an equal chance at getting reservations. Now, I might not get the nights I want because someone was able to reserve 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 days and the day before I called!