Should DVC eliminate walking?

[rg35]

As DVC is getting more crowded with more resorts and more owners, it feels like more and more people are taking advantage of walking to circumvent the 11 and 7 month booking windows. While not foolproof, it is the best way to provide insurance that you get a reservation when you want, but to the detriment of other owners.

What do people think about Disney restricting walking? Basically, some rules that allow you to make X number of modifications to a booking date for reasonable accommodations to changes in travel plans, then anything else must go through member services. I think restrictions like this would enable people to update their reservations if they need to change flights, or something happens, or whatever else while preventing walking since someone wouldn't be able to book a reservation and update it every day for months.

 

[minthorne]

I've never walked and I think I would agree that I'd like to see the ability to make modifications online limited to a cool down of say once every 3 days. I think some serial renters who book highly desirable rooms/times to rent as confirmed reservations wouldn't like it as much. I own at BWV and Standard/Boardwalk views are often walked making them very hard to get without playing the same walking game. If no on can walk doesn't that make it fair for all?

 

[huey578]

I think reservation changes should be limited to 5.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Nope.

I still have not had an issue in getting the times I want, it can just be a different route of picking up after walkers go thru, so I'm not at all for looking at any booking restrictions. I 100% feel any change would come back to bite a lot of people who think it sounds like a good idea.

Because of the ability to still get the dates I also believe there's a lot of unnecessary walking going on and owners are often wasting their time doing that. It's a rare room and rare time that really has an issue right at 11 months. I also don't feel entitled to any particular room category and will book a different room type - say pool/garden view at BWV vs standard - if the room I was really looking for isn't available. That's part of owning in a flexible point system - we never had a guarantee of a particular room whenever we decided we wanted to book it. Even when walking wasn't possible there were times that the demand for certain rooms was higher than the availability. Restricting walking won't change that either.

 

[Orsino]

A simple way to eliminate walking with low impact on legitimate reservation changes is to not allow cancellation of the first day of your reservation until the booking window has moved past the last day of your reservation. Need to cancel? No problem, just wait a few more days. Need to add days because you are staying longer than seven days? No problem, because you are keeping your first day.

Some walking could still happen if someone has a pile of points, but the constant cancel/extend type walking would be eliminated.

 

[GoingSince1990]

I don’t think Disney cares about it. And they will definitely not do anything that would require them to hire additional customer service telephone reps.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

A simple way to eliminate walking with low impact on legitimate reservation changes is to not allow cancellation of the first day of your reservation until the booking window has moved past the last day of your reservation. Need to cancel? No problem, just wait a few more days. Need to add days because you are staying longer than seven days? No problem, because you are keeping your first day.

Some walking could still happen if someone has a pile of points, but the constant cancel/extend type walking would be eliminated.

Do you actually mean to not allow a modification to the reservation? If one cancels and rebooks they would place them in the pool with everyone else.

 

[Marionnette]

No. Any “cure” would be worse than the “curse”. I’ve never been unable to book what I want at BWV. I just follow behind any walkers and pick up their crumbs.

 

[Orsino]

Do you actually mean to not allow a modification to the reservation? If one cancels and rebooks they would place them in the pool with everyone else.

I would just restrict cancelling the first day of the reservation until the day after the last day of the reservation is bookable. Eliminate walking by removing the ability to shift points until after the next booking day is open. Remove the advantage. For example, if I book 1 March through 7 March. Don't let me cancel 1 March until 8 March. Now I can't recoup the March 1 points until 8 march is already bookable. No walking for me! I would have to get 8 March on the open market like everyone else.

But if I book 8 March with additional points, I'm okay because I'm keeping 1 March. But once I book 8 March, I can't cancel 1 March until 9 March.

I would also probably allow a full cancel of the reservation, since full cancel does not allow walking.

 

[Deb & Bill]

No, they okay the process if the owner wants to take the time and effort to walk their reservation.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I would just restrict cancelling the first day of the reservation until the day after the last day of the reservation is bookable. Eliminate walking by removing the ability to shift points until after the next booking day is open. Remove the advantage. For example, if I book 1 March through 7 March. Don't let me cancel 1 March until 8 March. Now I can't recoup the March 1 points until 8 march is already bookable. No walking for me! I would have to get 8 March on the open market like everyone else.

But if I book 8 March with additional points, I'm okay because I'm keeping 1 March. But once I book 8 March, I can't cancel 1 March until 9 March.

I would also probably allow a full cancel of the reservation, since full cancel does not allow walking.

Uh - that's a giant no for me then if cancelling weren't allowed at all. Incredibly restrictive.

 

[Orsino]

Who said no cancelling, just no cancelling until the booking window is past your reservation. Sheesh. This would have no impact on non-walkers.

 

[Great3]

No. Any “cure” would be worse than the “curse”. I’ve never been unable to book what I want at BWV. I just follow behind any walkers and pick up their crumbs.

Definitely agree with this. Any restrictions put in place will only cause other problems later. Once DVC goes down this path, it will only get worse with more and more restrictions until nobody likes it.

Great3

 

[Orsino]

I give up.

 

[jerseyduke]

I would just restrict cancelling the first day of the reservation until the day after the last day of the reservation is bookable. Eliminate walking by removing the ability to shift points until after the next booking day is open. Remove the advantage. For example, if I book 1 March through 7 March. Don't let me cancel 1 March until 8 March. Now I can't recoup the March 1 points until 8 march is already bookable. No walking for me! I would have to get 8 March on the open market like everyone else.

But if I book 8 March with additional points, I'm okay because I'm keeping 1 March. But once I book 8 March, I can't cancel 1 March until 9 March.

I would also probably allow a full cancel of the reservation, since full cancel does not allow walking.

I book March 1 to March 7 as you suggest (I do this April 1 at the 11 month window) March 4th rolls around - the week I want in December just opened up!!!! I need my points....DOH!
Or what If I want to trim that march trip down 2 or 3 days, because my anniversary weekend just opened up.

1 Pissed off member.

How about waitlists? Its a logistical can of worms that is of no benefit to Disney

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Who said no cancelling, just no cancelling until the booking window is past your reservation. Sheesh. This would have no impact on non-walkers.

Even if it's just for a week it's still no cancelling for a time. I don't know about others but for any number of reasons I can end up cancelling the reservation I made at 11 months within a week of making it and booking something else and it has nothing to do with walking, just changing my mind. Jerseyduke gave some specific examples too. So if cancelling were not allowed for a week after making a reservation at the 11 month window I'd consider that very punitive to members wanting to make changes that weren't for walking reasons. Thus my original - no, I don't think DVC should implement any restrictions.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I give up.

Call us when you have owned for 22 years.

 

[han22735]

No. Any “cure” would be worse than the “curse”. I’ve never been unable to book what I want at BWV. I just follow behind any walkers and pick up their crumbs.

Agreed!

 

[Orsino]

Even if it's just for a week it's still no cancelling for a time. I don't know about others but for any number of reasons I can end up cancelling the reservation I made at 11 months within a week of making it and booking something else and it has nothing to do with walking, just changing my mind. Jerseyduke gave some specific examples too. So if cancelling were not allowed for a week after making a reservation at the 11 month window I'd consider that very punitive to members wanting to make changes that weren't for walking reasons. Thus my original - no, I don't think DVC should implement any restrictions.

Full cancel would still be available, just not a partial cancel of the reservation. Partial cancellations are what drive walking. Full cancellation does not confer a walking advantage so I see no reason to restrict those.

In my view, walking circumvents the 11 month rule. The 11 month rules exists for a reason and DVC should enforce it.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Walking also impacts only a small number of units, and it's unlikely that magically eliminating walking suddenly makes AKV Value easily booked. Too few of them. Same for BWV Standard, truthfully.