Hi all!
Forgive my ignorance…I’ve never used a TA before!
We used MVT and got the agent specific rate for POR in December. I have been told by my agent to sit tight before finding out new resort info. But I’m curious how it will work with the agent specific pricing.
Should I be preparing myself for a rate increase?
MVT will work with Disney on alternative resorts. Disney gives them blocks of rooms that they pre-pay for. They have a contract with Disney, you will just have to wait until Disney tells MVT where they are moving them (most likely MVT will be looking for some benefit here too). I know it is hard, but I am sure it will be fine.
From what I’ve been able to gather, the Disney Wholesale department (UT, Travelocity, Expedia, etc.) and the group travel division (which is what I think MVT books under) have separate buckets of room inventory from everything else. I do know that lots of guests who booked through MVT for resorts in July that aren’t going to be open got moved to the Poly. The only thing that’s certain is it had to be an equal move or better. They won’t move you down to a value, but it could end up being another moderate or a deluxe, depending on availability and how many in your reservation. Like, if you booked a 5th sleeper room and there are 5 on your reservation, they have to move you to something that sleeps 5, which may mean an upgrade.
Excellent. We have a 5th sleeper woods view room for the reservation (but only 3 people). Not sure what that means for where we will land in December.
I was thinking I’d reach out to my TA in September to find our landing spot.
Having never used a TA before, it’s tough to give up the control!
I totally understand - I’m in a similar situation, which is how I found out about all this. I have a room booked through UT for 11/28-12/4 at AKL. Which now has no opening date. Many calls to UT and Disney Wholesale later, I got this info. I usually don’t book through another service either, so I’m just as antsy at not having control.
Although UT is a little different. You don’t have a regular TA through them, do you?
No, it’s like using Expedia. Our stuff goes through Disney Wholesale.
MVT buys blocks of rooms through group rates - Wholesale told me that each division has individual buckets of room inventory that they would move people within. So, although you have a TA with MVT, it’s not the same as a regular booking through a TA. In fact, MVT has never stopped booking rooms in 2020 because they already own the rooms.
With MVT you can go back and forth between deals. For example, for year their Labor Day deal was the best deal of the year. Examples: Poly for $225 including tax. Every year my agent would always check the free dining deal against the MVT exclusive and then confirm if I wanted to keep what I wanted or change. I have also changed an MVT booking to an AP rate. My MVT agent always did this. I don’t think Expedia does this?
No, they don’t.
MVT is a full service travel agent that also books deals by buying group rate rooms. That’s why you can switch back and forth.
None of that changes the fact that the group deals and third party reseller rooms come from a separate availability bucket than regular reservations, which is all I was trying to say. When her room (and mine) does get changed, it will get changed to what’s available in that inventory, not regular inventory.
Is the group rate department and the wholesale department the same department? I know Len did a blog post a few years ago about how the MVT contract is different. I am just curious if it is the same department?
I know Pirates and Pixie Dust used to sign similar contracts but now MVT is the only agency that offer them? I think?
That I don’t know - I think the only reason Wholesale even mentioned group sales being in a different inventory bucket like Wholesale is because she saw that I had convention tickets and was letting me know that if I have another room under that convention that the same rules apply.