I finally get why people walk reservations. Disappointed.

[RichVIII]

DVC removed points from the Value rooms to try and rebalance the Concierge rooms. It was nonsensical as they will never diminish the interest in the Concierge. All they succeeded with was making the Value rooms even more desirable.

And great on those glossy marketing materials from 7 points a night!!

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I just looked at availability at all the studios from 12/1 to 12/6. The only resorts with all nights open in any category are SSR, PKW, Poly (Lake) and Kidani (SAV). But the key thing here is for all those booked resorts, it is not just 12/6 that is booked. In every category that has 12/6 booked, either 12/5 or 12/4 are also booked and in most categories, there is almost no availability from 12/1 through 12/6. This is not just walking. This is high demand. With walking alone and no high demand, you see the previous days come available and stay available. When you do not see availability at 10 months and 25-29 days, you might have walking, but you also have high demand overall and eliminating walking will not eliminate the issue of members not getting the rooms they desire. DVC members love to stretch their points. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is already a popular and the points needed are lower than the holidays, so starting on 12/1 all the rooms are booked. I was not watching as we led up to 12/1, but if you had daily availability being missing at exactly 12 months leading up to 12/1, then members were walking to this week. Also, as of right not, only AKV club and BLT TPV are booked for 12/7, if this was walking, many more rooms would already be booked for tomorrow. IIFRC, they did actually bump up the points needed for early December in the last rebalance. They may do it again next time.

This is extremely helpful analysis which strongly indicates walking is not the primary problem. We booked the final week of Nov at both our home resorts (VGF and BCV) so whoever started 11/30 didn’t get it by walking. I do think it’s possible that people sitting on 500+ point contracts could walk every 7-14 days instead of 2-7 days like normal walkers, but we won’t be able to say for sure until later this month…I personally suspect it’s renters, potentially with automated software scripts to grab reservations at 8:00:00 —if the biggest delta between points and rack rates is early December, it will mean most of the rental places (and individual owners with rental biz) will disproportionately try to reserve these dates.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

This is extremely helpful analysis which strongly indicates walking is not the primary problem. We booked the final week of Nov at both our home resorts (VGF and BCV) so whoever started 11/30 didn’t get it by walking. I do think it’s possible that people sitting on 500+ point contracts could walk every 7-14 days instead of 2-7 days like normal walkers, but we won’t be able to say for sure until later this month…I personally suspect it’s renters, potentially with automated software scripts to grab reservations at 8:00:00 —if the biggest delta between points and rack rates is early December, it will mean most of the rental places (and individual owners with rental biz) will disproportionately try to reserve these dates.

Everybody is on the same 7 night or less window at 11 months. One could be holding nights that go further back but there would remain the necessity to move the reservation at least every 7th night to stay ahead of the booking window.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Everybody is on the same 7 night or less window at 11 months. One could be holding nights that go further back but there would remain the necessity to move the reservation at least every 7th night to stay ahead of the booking window.

Thanks for the clarification. I've never had enough points to try to book more than 6 nights at a time.

I think what you're saying is that if you're a rental company, you could hold Dec 1-7, then later add 7-14, keeping all 14 together, but you could only book 1-7 on the day the 1st opens? It would make sense to want to hold on to the maximum number of days in the extreme value group until you find a prospective renter and know what their dates are?

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks for the clarification. I've never had enough points to try to book more than 6 nights at a time.

I think what you're saying is that if you're a rental company, you could hold Dec 1-7, then later add 7-14, keeping all 14 together, but you could only book 1-7 on the day the 1st opens? It would make sense to want to hold on to the maximum number of days in the extreme value group until you find a prospective renter and know what their dates are?

I am not someone who rents, but I do this all the time for my December trip…I usually do a 4 night trip with a split stay as 2 and 2…but I book 4 and 4 with some overlapping days in different room types..

Then, when my trip is set…usually in the summer…I keep the correct dates and room sizes…and cancel the rest.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I am not someone who rents, but I do this all the time for my December trip…I usually do a 4 night trip with a split stay as 2 and 2…but I book 4 and 4 with some overlapping days in different room types..

Then, when my trip is set…usually in the summer…I keep the correct dates and room sizes…and cancel the rest.

Good point, I am actually also holding a few days more than I need (between two reservations) that last week of November--want to see which nights MVMCP and Extra Hours at Epcot are happening before finalizing when I'll be staying where.

 

[davidhr]

I guess a lot of us are guilty of that. Right now I’m holding two reservations for the same dates, one CCV and one at RIV. I normally decide at 7 months what to keep after seeing what’s available at other resorts.

Walking might be an issue, but we owners do a lot of stuff that directly affects availability.

 

[stevehudd]

People are walking the studios for the holiday season at BCV.

It looks like the walking hasnt hurt availability. Studio available there to book today even 45 min past 8.

 

[bakerworld]

It looks like the walking hasnt hurt availability. Studio available there to book today even 45 min past 8.

Yes, it looked available but every time I tried I was directed to refresh and the studios I wanted were gone.

 

[stevehudd]

This is extremely helpful analysis which strongly indicates walking is not the primary problem. We booked the final week of Nov at both our home resorts (VGF and BCV) so whoever started 11/30 didn’t get it by walking. I do think it’s possible that people sitting on 500+ point contracts could walk every 7-14 days instead of 2-7 days like normal walkers, but we won’t be able to say for sure until later this month…I personally suspect it’s renters, potentially with automated software scripts to grab reservations at 8:00:00 —if the biggest delta between points and rack rates is early December, it will mean most of the rental places (and individual owners with rental biz) will disproportionately try to reserve these dates.

Knowledge of renting dvc points has exploded. Whenever dvc comes up on reddit many posters suggest simply renting points from owners. Disney could clamp down on the commercial renters like they did with the scripts grabbing dining reservations.

 

[stevehudd]

Yes, it looked available but every time I tried I was directed to refresh and the studios I wanted were gone.

That stinks!

 

[bakerworld]

Hopefully I'll be successful at walking my BC ressie to the 12th. I originally made the BC thinking the condo assoc meeting was on the 5th. I don't know why I like attending the meeting as it's usually a big 'rah-rah' session but I do. Another year for DH to be irritated at me.

 

[RichVIII]

Looking at Dec inventory at all resorts is really interesting. Typically I am booking BLT in December and there seems to be more demand this year. The surprise to me is Theme Park view being booked so heavily. I get, you can watch fireworks but the points are high. There is even a night booked up in lake next year - those are usually open given the quantity.

 

[gisele2]

It looks like the walking hasnt hurt availability. Studio available there to book today even 45 min past 8.

Happy for the ones needing a studio!

 

[hilltopper152]

Very upset is putting it mildly. You should have seen the brouhaha when DVC rebalanced weekends and weekdays back in the day. Yoi and double yoi.

There were a LOT of people who had gotten contracts specifically for a five-day Sunday-Friday stay. Heck one of the most common point-stretching pieces of advice was to book with the Member cash discount on Friday/Saturday and link the reservations.

Reading this later.... interesting idea. Wonder how much this actually saves when valuations are used and compared.

 

[Brian Noble]

It's probably not even worth looking at, because weekdays went up and weekends went down, so they are closer to the "real" valuations.