Hello and a question

Alluc · Jul 28, 2016

Hi all,

Currently at WKORVN for our annual stay. Made it through the Tropical Storm Darby. We were here for Flossie and Iselle too, must me our luck. So Aloha to any others here as well

My question has to do with the timestamp on a reservation made online vs over the phone. I know you are in the system 9 hours before if you book online vs calling. However, I'm wondering how the time stamps are managed now with the online and phone calls since many more people can be online booking at any given time. In other words there were only so many operators taking our calls and I would imagine that we would would only have to "compete" with as many callers as there were operators taking the calls at exactly 9am EST. Now you could have a many many times more people online trying to book at the same time. So are time stamps now separated by seconds?, are online reservations queued like a phone reservation?

TIA

DeniseM · Jul 28, 2016

Alluc said:
are online reservations queued like a phone reservation?

TIA

They should all be in the order they are received, whether you go online or call. If you call, you will be 9 hours down the line or more.

BTW - the confirmation numbers are sequential, in the order they are made.

Alluc · Jul 28, 2016

Wow thanks for the super quick response
yes, I understood that part of the process. I'm thinking that when there was only phone reservations it limited the number of reservations being taken at 9am to 903 for example. Say there were 100 operators,the first 100 callers are handled right at 9am, so 100 villas at, say WKORVN, are being booked and when another owner gets through the que at 904 his time stamp is 101st.

With online reservations many more owners are booking at exact same time so you could have 500 or 1000 owners booking online at 1201. So if you're booking at 1202 you are now 1001st on the time stamp.

As we know a lower time stamp gives you a better chance to request a particular building, floor, villa or even upgraded room.

I am crazy or does what I outlined make sense?

DeniseM · Jul 28, 2016

Alluc said:
so you could have 500 or 1000 owners booking online at 1201.

I don't think there is any ambiguity, because the system is assigning each confirmation a unique, sequential, number - even when many reservations are made within a few minutes.

And the reality is that the system bogs down at midnight, so even if you click the button right at 12:00, you often have to resend it several times, and may not get something until 12:15 - or not at all.

As we know a lower time stamp gives you a better chance to request a particular building, floor, villa or even upgraded room.

Actually, reservations will not accept a request for a particular bldg., floor, villa, or upgraded room. The only thing you can actually request is a high or low floor within your deeded view category.

The advantage to having low number/timestamp is that (in theory) it gives you higher priority (within your deeded view category) when units are assigned by inventory control.

Alluc · Jul 28, 2016

DeniseM said:
Actually, reservations will not accept a request for a particular bldg., floor, villa, or upgraded room. The only thing you can actually request is a high or low floor within your deeded view category.
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True, I was referring to the front desk. I understand that the properties get their room assignments on Wednesday/Thursday for the Friday checkin. I've been calling the front desk of the property the Wednesday before we check in and have requested building, floor and villa #s. They often reference my timestamp as being early enough to be able request something specific. Then when we check in we ask again for a building, floor villa #s. We have been very lucky that we have been able to have the same villa for the last 4 years (the time period I have been doing this). It also helps us keep the same villa through our two week stay.

canesfan · Jul 28, 2016

Online reservations has definitely opened up the field. Before when you had to wait to call you we're dealing with operators for the entire company also, not just one location. Yes, the system can be slow or time out but there are still a lot more users going online at midnight vs waiting to call at 9am.

DeniseM · Jul 28, 2016

Alluc said:
I've been calling the front desk of the property the Wednesday before we check in and have requested building, floor and villa #s. They often reference my timestamp as being early enough to be able request something specific. Then when we check in we ask again for a building, floor villa #s. We have been very lucky that we have been able to have the same villa for the last 4 years (the time period I have been doing this). It also helps us keep the same villa through our two week stay.

-What view do you own?

-What are you requesting?

-Are you a 5 Star Elite Owner?

canesfan · Jul 28, 2016

I don't believe being an elite owner does anything for preference. At least that has been my experience.

DeniseM · Jul 28, 2016

canesfan said:
I don't believe being an elite owner does anything for preference. At least that has been my experience.

It absolutely does make a difference...

The timestamp has first priority for home resort reservations, but if there is an upgrade available - Elite Owners have priority.

*We know this because this is info. that was published by Starwood.

canesfan · Jul 28, 2016

I've never gotten an upgrade. Elite status has done nothing for me in terms of room placement. It's worthless.

okwiater · Jul 28, 2016

canesfan said:
I've never gotten an upgrade. Elite status has done nothing for me in terms of room placement. It's worthless.

What level of Elite are you? As a 5-star I've been placed in rooms which would otherwise be unexpected. For instance, we reserved 2 weeks in 2 separate units at Harborside -- using StarOptions and over the Thanksgiving holiday -- and were placed in some of the nicest units in the complex facing the marina and Royal Towers. I suppose it's possible that we just lucked out, but it does seem that we are consistently assigned to the nicer units. It's all anecdotal evidence though.

canesfan · Jul 28, 2016

I'm at 4*, just shy of 5*. Nothing would convince me to buy with them to get me over the hump as I see no value in elite. It could just be my experiences at the resorts I own or/and visit or even that I am only 4*. But on the flip side, that doesn't make a good argument for themselves that I need to be 5.

SMHarman · Jul 28, 2016

DeniseM said:
BTW - the confirmation numbers are sequential, in the order they are made.

I did two bookings back to back one time in the middle of the night. Got sequential booking numbers

okwiater · Jul 28, 2016

DeniseM said:
BTW - the confirmation numbers are sequential, in the order they are made.

Note that confirmation numbers are sequential only within the same resort.

If you make 2 reservations at the same resort, one right after the other, you will get sequential reservation numbers.

However, if you make 2 reservations at different resorts, one right after the other, you will get wholly dissimilar reservation numbers.

DeniseM · Jul 28, 2016

okwiater said:
Note that confirmation numbers are sequential only within the same resort.

If you make 2 reservations at the same resort, one right after the other, you will get sequential reservation numbers.

However, if you make 2 reservations at different resorts, one right after the other, you will get wholly dissimilar reservation numbers.

Of course... Reservations made at different resorts have no relationship to each other, and are not in the same sequence of numbers.

Alluc · Jul 28, 2016

DeniseM said:
-What view do you own?

-What are you requesting?

-Are you a 5 Star Elite Owner?

Ocean view

Top floor of building 7, north side of the building away from the road at WKORVN

3 Star

tklement · Aug 5, 2016

Surprise upgrade

We were just at WKORV 7/23-7/30, we own a 2BR LO Island View (Bldg 4), we received a 2BR LO Ocean Front Deluxe (Bldg 2 first floor). We are Elite 4 * and I believe I made the reservation 12months out. Very Pleasantly surprised. Last year our 12 month out reservation for first week of February was not upgraded. Also this is the first time we have rented the whole 2BR LO for the same week. v/r, TxAzCat :banana:

RnU · Aug 6, 2016

DeniseM said:
It absolutely does make a difference...

The timestamp has first priority for home resort reservations, but if there is an upgrade available - Elite Owners have priority.

*We know this because this is info. that was published by Starwood.

Denise, do you know if owners of premium view weeks, say Ocean Front/Ocean Side, get priority for those views if they book after the Home Resort reservation period if there is availability?

DeniseM · Aug 6, 2016

RnU said:
Denise, do you know if owners of premium view weeks, say Ocean Front/Ocean Side, get priority for those views if they book after the Home Resort reservation period if there is availability?

If you book within 8 mos., you get a floating view reservation - no matter what view you own. The system does not recognize your underlying view, when you use Staroptions.

So you would definitely get a "floating view," confirmation.

Therefore, an "Ocean Front" unit would be an upgrade that could only be assigned at check-in.

Elite Owners have first priority for upgrades.

YYJMSP · Aug 7, 2016

DeniseM said:
Elite Owners have first priority for upgrades.

My experience is that we've never had an "upgrade" on our home resort bookings, but the front desk has been very flexible in seeing if other options were available at time of check-in.

On our SO bookings, they've ended up in OV's every time, except when we asked for three bookings to be close to each other and they all ended up in B4 on the 6th floor facing in pretty much every possible direction...