Lots of people planning with extended family who are keep changing their minds.
People who do not have school calendars set a full 11 months out.
First 2 off the top of my mind.
Also, forcing someone to call is true torture. In order to book my 7 month Hilton Head at spring break I had to make 3 different calls related to legit stuff and Disney glitches. I was lucky I have a job that let’s me call when guest services opens.
Many resorts booked up for Christmas in the first 60 days of availability. So you would make it so people were just out of luck if they needed to shift during that time?
I feel like we are inviting more hassle than we are solving.
Maybe part of the solution is to compromise and impose limits on modification only for rooms that have limited availability and are most likely to be walked, not the whole portfolio of inventory across property.
The trouble is, ultimately, that we’ve come to just “accept” the hassle as it is. That is to say, lack of availability at 11 months out due to walking is a hassle that people have resigned themselves to…but lots of people are affected by this. Changing the rules just shifts who is affected.
So, how do you make a rule that prevents the unfairness of walking, without causing unfairness to those who are making legitimate changes? It becomes difficult to tell the difference programatically.
I think the suggestions are such that they allow for legitimate reasons to change, but prevent walking.
I’d be curious to know what the percentage of folks are who book something, and then decide to necessarily change their dates within 14 days of that original booking. It seems more likely that they would want to make changes, but beyond 14 days. And, of course, some of the limited availability we see now would be reduced (meaning, there it wouldn’t be AS limited) if walking was no longer tying up some of that availability.
I also think the ability to make changes within that 14 day window following initial booking could be allowed, if done via phone. Again, this dissuades folks from doing it needlessly. A one time change in that window, someone is likely willing to call. But having to call daily to walk? Not likely.
Having had to call three days in a row to legit book my Hilton Head stay (at the 7 month mark) this is really burden. Those wait times are long.
I’d be curious to know how many rooms are being walked. As an AKL owner I know the value rooms and the club rooms are being walked year round. BWV standard view studios during busy times. CCV studios at Christmas and BCV for the first week of Christmas. That’s probably it. How does that compare to the people who legit change their room in the first 10-14 days? What if that “cool off” period straddles the 7 month mark?
I am a disorganized planner at the start of my planning process, so I shift things around a lot. Until they bring hold times down to almost nothing, I would rather give up the chance to stay Club level due to walkers, then be forced to call and wait on hold for hours to shift my room dates.
Saw your response after I responded to Ryan. This would definitely seem more reasonable. There are a few that would be tricky to spot but VGC studios and AKL club and value rooms certainly fit.
COVID certainly made me shift and change many things, so maybe my bookings will be less erratic here on out!
Again though, for people who want to book longer stays that’s a massive headache. You have to add on days within 7 days, and then you have the problem of massive wait times.
So then you have to decide do I phone and add on just 2-3 days at a time in case I can’t get through at 6 days? Or do I risk it and then not be able to book the stay I want?
Fix number one would be to add more cast members to the phone lines. That’s across all of Disney, not just DVC. The hold times are such a poor reflection on their business. I’m embarrassed for them.
True.
But having to call just in order to add days on would be awful. Transatlantic calls cost a lot. Seriously they would lose most of their international members pretty quickly unless they allowed at least 14 days to be booked at once.
No one should be forced to call just to be able to book the stay they want.
We already have to call to book some activities at WDW as it is. The U.K. Disney service can only really book packages or tickets, it’s really bad.
The easiest way to stop walking is to only allow days to be added on to the end of an existing booking without calling. Stop people being able to drop days off the beginning of a booked stay online.
It would still mean some people having to call to modify, but at least it allows people to book longer stays.
Of course, one of the reasons they need so many CMs to answer phones is because their IT infrastructure is so bad, it necessitates people having to call to do things they shouldn’t have to. Really, if Disney wants to improve their bottom line, they could benefit FAR more by investing in better IT than simply adding more things to charge for…which in turn strains the IT systems and requires more CMs to cleanup after the mess.
That’s a good compromise.