Going back to the original booking method would eliminate walking, and is the most fair way to book.
Some don’t like day by day booking, but like walking, there is no requirement to do it. The option is there if you want a hard reservation bad enough, and iis 100% fair for everyone.
But... love or hate the old system, it eliminates walking and is 100% fair.
Again, there was no need to book day by day if you didn’t think it necessary, just as there is no need to walk with today’s system.
Not sure what havoc it raised, but with on line booking I don’t see that as a show stopper.
A bit off topic, but to touch on the time the booking window opens, some seem to think the east coast has an advantage at 8AM. I would argue it is actually a disadvantage. I, like probably most east coasters, am actually in the middle of my morning commute already at 8AM. Not so easy to book a room online when you are driving. I would actually much prefer to book at 6AM when I am getting up anyway. Luckily, I take the bus to work so I can easily book from my phone and it doesn't really affect me . Of course, 6AM on the east would mean 3AM in the west, so that's not helpful to anyone.....or maybe it is and I'll have less west coast competition this way while they are sleeping
I know a few were very endeared to that but day by day booking was never what was suppose to be done either. Because owners were doing it was the reason for the change happened. Owners were supposed to book their trip backwards from their date of check out not a day at a time. It was a mess and people were even booking SSR day by day from the fear of day by day booking and then needing those days combined. Holes in reservations with people ending up forced into o move a couple of times because on one day they had been slower than others to book the concierge room for that day. At least now if there are holes in a reservation it’s because an owner has chosen to take a chance at getting a missing night vs it based on the speed of the internet or their prowess at booking.
Both boil down to the same thing - there are a few small categories that are popular and do not have enough quantity on them for the demand. That means there’s always going to be some owners who are disappointed.
I agree day by day was not the intended way of booking, and many abused it. That said, walking is also not the intended method of booking.I agree that it created havoc. Fair is also a little questionable since if someone followed the written rules of booking they were out of luck because of the day by day bookings. It also was a work around of the booking system too.
I'm curious when it was that you sold your points? Did you own for much time after the implementation of the new booking rules to have a good comparison between the two? Neither are 100% perfect but for me the current one creates much less stress and higher satisfaction. I had to change what I was booking more under the old system because of holes in reservation. Now I know on day 1 if I have all my days or not. It might be more of an issue for us west coast owners too - getting up at 5 am once vs 5 am for a week or whatever the length of stay? I'll take 1 morning.
That is not correct.
You can book 2 nights 11 months out just like the other person. You now have that room BLOCKED from being booked on new years eve, because day 1 of the window (for that specific room) is not available. You just have to call more often.
Lets say you want 12/30 and 12/31.
You can book that at 1/30 (as can I)
you decide to walk it starting 1/1. So Do I. You have enough points to book a week. I have enough points to book 2 nights. We can both walk it with the same efficacy, I just have to modify my reservation every day, where you can do it as little as every 6 days. You do not have an advantage because you have more points, it is just less effort for you.
If you book at 1/30 for 12/30 and 12/31 but I book at 1/24 for 12/25 - 12/31 because I have more points and can book longer I have 12/31 secured 6 days before you do. But enough of this - it is moot.
As long as you have the last available booking date at the 11 month window, no one can bypass you and grab the future dates away from you because they MUST have the day that you already own. It doesn't matter how far you extend from the last date for the 11 month window (it matters if you are walking 7 months). The only exception is if DVC takes rooms out of inventory for maintenance or something like that.
Imagine a hotel has 3 rooms, "O" denotes an open date and "X" denotes a taken date. The first day of the column represents the 11 month booking window, then the rest is the +7.
A |X|X|O|O|O|O|O|O|
B |X|X|X|X|X|X|X|X|
C |X|X|X|X|X|X|X|X|
Note here person A has only 2 days, and his goal is to walk until he secures the last 2 days of the week. Note that he is guaranteed to get his dates here. Another person cannot sneak by him to grab his dates because they need that first day in order to do that. As long as person A keeps walking every day, he will get what he wants.
(Edit: it also doesn't matter how many rooms there are or how many people there are, the end result will be the same)
I disagree
Not interested - I already posted this - you disagree. Personally I'd be happy to see walking eliminated. I think you feel otherwise.Fair enough, please explain how person A will be unsuccessful in getting his dates, (unless DVC pulls inventory out of the system from under him, which granted is the one scenario where person A loses)
Not interested - I already posted this - you disagree. Personally I'd be happy to see walking eliminated. I think you feel otherwise.
Personally, I've yet to hear a good reason for why people don't like walking or think it's "unfair".
I don't care that much honestly about whether they ban walking as long as the end result is not too disruptive, and as long as people are making decisions based on information that is accurate. And if I'm wrong about this, I would like to know too. I would be prefer to be corrected rather than to continue to believe something that is wrong.
If you book at 1/30 for 12/30 and 12/31 but I book at 1/24 for 12/25 - 12/31 because I have more points and can book longer I have 12/31 secured 6 days before you do. But enough of this - it is moot.
It's pretty simple I thought. Walking is to secure something and deny it from someone else (otherwise, why do people do it?). I disagree with the notion that "putting effort into walking" justifies this advantage, or that others should simply walk too. The 11 month window exists. It is, in essence a 'rule.' Breaking rules is usually considered 'bad' or 'unfair.'
A while back there was a bit of a brouhaha in the Disboards about certain practices to circumvent Disney rules. Now we have a sticky on the Theme Park board that specifically states that discussion of circumventing Disney rules is not allowed. Walking predates that brouhaha so I guess it got grandfathered in or something; but in my opinion walking circumvents a Disney rule.
Your scenario isn't necessarily relevant to walking, but is more a general booking issue. In any scenario, even if you eliminate walking, a person who wants to book a trip for a week will have dates covered that someone who wants 2 days might want to get. You actually provide a scenario that is one of the perfect reasons someone would/should walk a reservation to make the system fair. The person who wants those 2 days, has zero chance of getting it if they wait until 1/30 to book for a 12/30 reservation. However, to give themselves a chance of maybe securing the date their family needs for that reservation, they could start walking it a few weeks in advance, and now they have the same shot at those days as anyone else.
Regardless, in your scenario, even if they eliminate walking...the person who waits until 1/30 to book 12/30 will never ever have the opportunity to book that 2-3 day trip for their family at that time of year in a studio (probably ever in their 50 year contract), because anyone with a week, 6 day, 5 day, 4 day or 3 day reservation also going to the New Year will have already taken up all of that inventory. The only solution in your scenario to give the person seeking a 2 day reservation at that time of year is for them to actually walk it...or for DVC to revert to day by day booking windows, where you can only book 1 day at a time and hope they hit the lottery and get both days back to back...which seems like an awful idea.
Your scenario is basically, what disney in general faces for things like fast passes and ADR's. If I have a short 1-2-3 day trip, I'm not going to have a chance to get certain dining reservations, because anyone with dates ahead of me already has those reservations secured because of the +10 window for ADR's. Same goes for fast passes like FOP, SDD and 7DMT. People will short trips, are basically shut out from those rides as they are usually gone for 2-3 days after the booking window opens.
Right now if you have enough points to book 2 nights then you have the capability to walk just as much as someone with thousands of points. The minimum number of nights needed to walk is 2 and the maximum is 7. The only advantage to being able to book 7 nights is that you don't have to modify as often.