- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
- Messages
- 9,848
- Reaction score
- 4,227
- Points
- 648
- Location
- Houston, TX
- Resorts Owned
- Wynd VIP Plat GF, HGVC Elite, WM, HICV, +
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good
The Ugly
The Good
- ARP bookings online
- Points are now blind (you no longer have to book ARP with the 'right' points.)
- up to 14 day reservations allowed
- Targeted Search (Dates known) works as expected
- Site is slow
- Rebook and Cancel is an option if there is inventory available to accomplish it (and this is required because Auto upgrade does not work)
- VIP ONLY Issue - Upgrade algorithm is flaky (they should just reveal the rules for upgrades, if they know them, perhaps only the developer who coded it does)
- Access has been problematic
- Account Data has been problematic (name was wrong, points are still wrong)
- Can't be in more than 1 booking process at a time. (when you are trying to grab multiple units for a single date this is a problem).
- Seems like system operates better on my mobile device than my PC, so perhaps it has been optimized for that. But when typing I like my keyboard better.
- There have been a lot of ghost units, but that has been less the last few weeks. (ONLY actual improvement I have seen).
The Ugly
- VIP - benefits are decimated
- VIP - Auto Upgrade, yeah right, NO data to support it is working
- VIP - Since auto upgrade does not work we also lost upgrade from existing booking option, double whammy
- Opportunistic Search is NON-existent, the view by 1 room type by 1 resort is not viable
- Points are still ending up in wrong bucket when reservations using cancelled (and my 45 day old ticket is still outstanding)
- How can you have a booking system when YOU HAVEN'T LOADED all inventory (or inventory is questionable) This baffles me, Emerald Grand inventory got loaded 6 days ago, yes 6, we have been live for 60).
- Failure - my initial Auto upgrade was yanked back, in 45 days not a single upgrade was offered, even though some were online. I am still holding my original reservation with NO upgrade. No opportunity to do instant upgrade online.
- Success - without VIP I would be screwed because of the number of transactions, because I have rebooked and cancelled a lot of inventory. Why? First to get a unit. Period. Then waiting and checking for upgrades when obviously there are larger and smaller units available to obtain an instant upgrade. Then waiting again and finding a better upgrade. So here is one ultimate reservation, but at many reservation transactions and then cancelling, so having to burn transactions would be a deterrent to this approach (except for VIP with free transactions). Book a 1 BR unit, as that is all that is available for dates. Check later and a 1 and 2 BR are available (but I didn't get an auto upgrade from my 1BR). So I grab and upgrade and cancel original 1BR. So NOW I have a 2 BR. I wait another 2 weeks, and then I find a 2 BR and a 3BR both available at the same time. Rebooked that with upgrade. At the 16 Day mark I was able to grab a 1 BR upgrade to 4 BR Presidential, and throw back my 3 BR. So it took me 4 book and cancel to get this. I had friends two single parents both with their own kids who wanted to travel. They would fit in 2 BR, but 4 BR is much more optimal. So yes I do want the bigger space. However, if I didn't have unlimited transactions that would be an issue. I sure hope that do NOT remove that as a VIP perk for my level.
- Failure - I have tried to see how Cancellations come back into inventory and there is NO pattern that I can establish. Hours, Days, Never. It has been all of the above. I booked 5 units a one resort and then cancelled them all hoping to get 1. Nothing came back. I checked nearly every 15 mins for an entire evening and overnight, and the next morning. (minus 2 hrs I slept).
- Failure - I would have booked more but inventory was not available for months spans (yeah like Florida in October is booked solid NOT ever), and my family needed a hard confirmation. Booked an RCI exchange instead.
- Failure - Club Pass has been down for weeks. I have not tried to call, but I hear long long wait times and no way around it. I booked RCI full week at Worldmark instead of booking just days I needed via Club Pass.
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