Maximum Night Stay Being Enforced At Select Resort(s) for Select Dates

Ever since they had their upgrades the other month the reservations have been wonky to say the least. I believe read somewhere or someone mentioned that they are using computer algorithms at this point. I believe the computer goes based off searches and current bookings and allows certain days for certain rooms and what is and isn't available is based on an algorithms that will increase maximum capacity. It seems like the system is broken but I think its all in part to make sure they have enough blocked rooms for days needed etc.

EX: We are staying Nov 11-18 and there are currently rooms available for the entire stay but when my in laws who are coming down mid week looked for the 15-18 there is no availability for the same room that is available 11-18 so they have the inventory they would rather chunk it to maximize days occupied. Frustrating when you know you the room is available but you have to book a longer stay to get that room
 
I disagree. Connecting rooms are NEVER guaranteed, regardless of what a CM on the phone, or your confirmation states.
There are Many posters here on the DIS with horror stories to tell.
You post stated 1-2 adults and children. 2 adults can each separate, one per room with children.
They will certainly try to accommodate you. But it is not guaranteed

I never said the request was guaranteed 100%. “Guaranteed” is the internal name for it. I know this is confusing, there are so many variables that Disney want to reconcile and their processes are not always easily understandable, even for the educated guests as we are here!

Back to the original topic, my point that, if a resort has 1024 rooms, maybe 4 or 8 rooms will be blocked out so as to maximise the probability that some rooms requests will be fulfilled (such as the “connecting room guaranteed” that we talked about*, but I'm sure there are other rules**). This might need to the situation we are talking on this thread: one guest might want to book a several-night stay, a room is available for each individual night but not for the entire stay. In that case, combining back-to-back reservations *might* be possible, by “unblocking” inventory, but is something that a regular WDW agent cannot do (as others on this thread pointed out).

* This explains why the “guarantee” sometimes cannot be fulfilled. If there are no more rooms, there is nothing the room assignor or the check-in CM can do.
** Another rule that comes to mind is that some “more accessible” rooms are usually blocked out until check-in day.
 
Hotel GM here for 20+ years.

For normal Brands there can be a significant discount count for a long term stay. So purely from profit stand point, I rather take one room for 3 days, one for 4, then a 7 night stay, via one person.

But for Disney and the nature of their stay patterns and costs, you really only get discounts on the passes. The room and meal portion of the package is the same, no matter the stay.

But all it take is one person blocking out a busy weekend and forgetting to allow for a longer length of stay and it will mess up your reservations.

Sounds like something along those lines..
 
I've been having problems getting consistent pricing/availability for a 2 night stay in early December. I have a package booked with a TA for 8 nights but want to add two nights onto the front of the trip and my package resort (POR) doesn't have availability, so I am looking to book these nights room-only. I can get FQ for Wednesday and for Thursday, but not for a reservation for both nights together. I can get a couple of places cheaper if I don't use the 20% off holiday special than if I do, even if the room type is the same. I see availability for some places if my stay is longer but then availability goes away when I shorten it to the two days. It is kind of frustrating.
 


I never said the request was guaranteed 100%. “Guaranteed” is the internal name for it. I know this is confusing, there are so many variables that Disney want to reconcile and their processes are not always easily understandable, even for the educated guests as we are here!

* This explains why the “guarantee” sometimes cannot be fulfilled. If there are no more rooms, there is nothing the room assignor or the check-in CM can do.
** Another rule that comes to mind is that some “more accessible” rooms are usually blocked out until check-in day.

To me a guarantee is something that is 100% assured. Which is why Disney's "guarantee" is not a "guarantee" and it should never be assumed to be one.
 
This is completely absurd to me.

We are booked for 12 night at Pop in November - the trip was booked sometime in February.

We travel from Canada and to make the trip worthwhile (flights, exchange, etc) we stay long periods. If we can no longer do that we won't be going. Plain and simple. No dramatic exclamation, just fact.

I know we're not Disney's target customers but there has to be a significant amount of international travellers who stay more than 4/5/6 nights per trip.

If we can continue to book our 12 nights stays but break them up into multiple shorter stays I will, but not if it means continuously changing rooms. That doesn't seem very vacation-y to me.

What a gong show Disney reservations is turning into.

Rant over :blush:
 


That is because Disney thinks they will have an easier time selling the 4 nights than they would the 2 you would leave on the table. I agree, it is frustrating.
Well they may be losing my 2 to 3 nights twice a year to an offsite or Disney Springs hotel. We always stay 2 or 3 days at Pop prior to a week of DVC. This may push me to try out Universal for a few days. I'll miss my POP, but it's obvious that Disney doesn't want me unless I meet their requirements.
 
Well they may be losing my 2 to 3 nights twice a year to an offsite or Disney Springs hotel. We always stay 2 or 3 days at Pop prior to a week of DVC. This may push me to try out Universal for a few days. I'll miss my POP, but it's obvious that Disney doesn't want me unless I meet their requirements.

That is true of any resort. If you would rather stay at Pop then stay at Pop. Or maybe e-mail them about it, but why try and make a point if you don't let them know what you are doing and why?
 
That is because Disney thinks they will have an easier time selling the 4 nights than they would the 2 you would leave on the table. I agree, it is frustrating.

Yup - definitely frustrating. At least a minimum length of stay makes sense, though. That's something that is pretty standard at many hotels during busy times. For example, a hotel might require a 3-night minimum over Labor Day weekend to prevent people from booking just the Saturday night and effectively taking that room out of commission for the whole weekend.

This is something else entirely. Here, they are not allowing people to book a standard week-long vacation (Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday) because they have a 6-night maximum? Huh? It's bizarre, to say the least.
 
Revenue Management is the discipline that controls hotel pricing and room inventory. Today, it is all done via computer software. It is wildly complex and involves math that most people can't understand. I spent many years working as a hotel Revenue Manager.

Sometimes, the recommendations made by the software may to defy logic. But, those recommendations are always made with lots and lots of data. Good software will provide explanations as to why the rate and stay controls (i.e. minimum or maximum stays) are recommended.

Without access to proprietary data, it is impossible to provide a definite answer. But, here are three possible explanations for why a maximum stay control is in place:
  1. Reservation Changes: Data may suggest that guests who book 7 or more nights end up modifying their reservations to six nights. For example, if 25% of guests with a 7-night bookings reduce their length-of-stay and only 5% of guests with 6-night bookings reduce their stay, it might be worth setting a maximum stay requirement.
  2. Cancelation Percentages: Data may suggest that guests who book 7 or more nights are far more likely to cancel their reservations than guests with shorter stays.
  3. Total Revenue: With the MyMagic+ system in place, Disney has lots of data about how much guests spend. It's possible that the average spend (room rate + tickets + food + other incidentals) for guests staying 7 or more nights is less than guests with shorter stays.
Of these guesses, I'd say that #3 is the most likely.
 
Don't visitors from abroad typically stay longer than 7 days???

Yes. But I believe most of them book from a different access portal and currently they are not running into this issue. At least my cousins in England have been researching/pricing a 14 night stay for the past week or so and have had no such issues.
 
Yes. But I believe most of them book from a different access portal and currently they are not running into this issue. At least my cousins in England have been researching/pricing a 14 night stay for the past week or so and have had no such issues.
Interesting.
 
Yes. But I believe most of them book from a different access portal and currently they are not running into this issue. At least my cousins in England have been researching/pricing a 14 night stay for the past week or so and have had no such issues.

Most folks from Europe book from Disney UK because the discounts are often more interesting than on the US site, especially for 1+ week stays. I never actually understood why this portal was not actively used by US people as well.
 
Most folks from Europe book from Disney UK because the discounts are often more interesting than on the US site, especially for 1+ week stays. I never actually understood why this portal was not actively used by US people as well.

We can't. We can navigate the site and price a vacation but are blocked from being able to book through it. Once it gets to the point of billing information we need to put in a postcode and country.
 
My family has planned a trip to Disney World for 10/13-20/2017, which I know is a popular time at Disney. Many months ago I booked a room at a higher price point than I wanted in hopes I would be able to apply a room-only discount for the general public or annual passholder. I missed the general public option so I decided to change our resort to a value. So a few days ago I began my quest to book at Pop Century to be among friends who are also traveling that week. Pop Century was not available for the 7 nights, however, I had no trouble getting into any of the All-Star resorts. Curious, I began searching for the first 6 nights at Pop Century and then for last night at Pop Century giving me the entire 7 nights. To my surprise, Pop Century had availability for all nights for 2 of the room types.

I called reservations and explained my situation and asked if they could make the entire 7 night reservation for me. The answer was 'no, not with one reservation.' It was explained to me that I had exceeded the maximum night stay at this resort and would need to book 2 separate reservations. Many questions raced through my head like "I have made many reservations in the past for as many as 11 nights and never encountered this" and "I was just able to book at the All-Star resorts for 7 nights". The Cast Member continued to explain that each resort manager has the option of choosing maximum night thresholds for any periods throughout the year and that this policy has been in effect for many years, however, manager's never utilized it. The insinuation further into the conversation was that Disney was now holding manager's accountable for showing some discretion and enforcing maximum night thresholds.

The Cast Member then had to get Guest Services on the line in order to merge the 2 reservations to ensure we would not have to move rooms, the general reservation specialist cannot do it. I was advised this is the new policy for Disney going forward and expect other resorts to follow suit. So, in the future, I won't be able to simply make a resort room reservation online if I encounter this problem again, I would eventually need to call and have the reservations merged. I am struggling to understand the business decision being made for guests staying more than 6 nights so can anyone break it down for me? Not upset, just really want to understand the 'why'.

I'm wondering if this was a "glitch"? I literally just searched your dates and Pop and it came up with 3 different room types. Added a week...still has availability for all 3 categories.

DO understand that if you were looking at a discounted rate that they will limit availability for those rooms. They always have.

But rack rate...you're good to go!
 
I wonder if it's because with a room-only you can cancel up to five days ahead and get all of your money back. So they would rather have more groups booking a hypothetical room within a time period. Increases the likelihood of the room being occupied for some portion of the time period.

Makes me think they will move to requiring a two-day deposit and/or requiring cancellation further in advance. I should probably shut up now before they get ideas lol
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top