Rule change for modifications at the 11 month window.

[Cyberc]

Yesterday DVC posted that new rules for modifying reservations are coming.

New rules states that new confirmed reservations made at the 11 month window can’t be modified until original checkout date is within the 11 month window.

The new rules is made to curb walking of reservations.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Owners looking to secure longer reservations than 7 nights, might be out of luck and will have to wait before they can add more nights to their 7 night’s reservation. This will impact international owners staying longer than 7 nights.

 

[heathpack]

I guess the longer they make the length of the stay, the less the rule combats walking but it seems to me like allowing a 10 night stay instead of just a 7 night would be pretty anti-walker still without being too disruptive to normal useage patterns.

 

[DeeVeeCee97]

A long overdue policy….however it needs some fine tuning. Walking is a problem with only a few resorts/room types. BWV……the best points charts out there for an Epcot/Hollywood DVC for standard view studios, mostly for dates that coincide with the variety of Epcot festivals. Immediately gone at the 8 am start time…..and you can see that the rooms are being walked. Concierge and Value at AKL….there is not a lot of inventory for these rooms but a good points value. Beach Club studios and BLT standard view are also in high demand, but not always impossible. Standard view One bedrooms at BWV are usually easy to get since they are more points. Riviera is not usually a problem for us….Tower rooms go first….there are only around 24 of them….but still not impossible before the 7 month mark. This resort is not yet sold out and with the restrictions there…..not sure how that will shake out once it’s sold out and those that purchased resale will be “stuck” staying there.
It’s frustrating to see the BWV rooms for rent on the various sites…..

 

[Cyberc]

A long overdue policy….however it needs some fine tuning. Walking is a problem with only a few resorts/room types. BWV……the best points charts out there for an Epcot/Hollywood DVC for standard view studios, mostly for dates that coincide with the variety of Epcot festivals. Immediately gone at the 8 am start time…..and you can see that the rooms are being walked. Concierge and Value at AKL….there is not a lot of inventory for these rooms but a good points value. Beach Club studios and BLT standard view are also in high demand, but not always impossible. Standard view One bedrooms at BWV are usually easy to get since they are more points. Riviera is not usually a problem for us….Tower rooms go first….there are only around 24 of them….but still not impossible before the 7 month mark. This resort is not yet sold out and with the restrictions there…..not sure how that will shake out once it’s sold out and those that purchased resale will be “stuck” staying there.
It’s frustrating to see the BWV rooms for rent on the various sites…..

I agree that some fine tuning is needed, but I don’t think they can apply one booking policy to bwv and akv and another type of policy to the rest of the resorts. That said they can change the home resort priority booking window for select resorts. They just need to keep at least 1 month priority booking window for owners.

 

[Huskerpaul]

Seven days follows the traditional timeshare model of weekly intervals. If I need a longer stay I can try to modify the existing reservation when checkout day hits at 11 months or I would more likely book a second reservation, then at seven months I can look at all resorts. If I decide not to move you can have members services combine the reservations.

 

[TheHolleys87]

I guess the longer they make the length of the stay, the less the rule combats walking but it seems to me like allowing a 10 night stay instead of just a 7 night would be pretty anti-walker still without being too disruptive to normal useage patterns.

Yes, it will be interesting to see whether that happens. Some owners like to book 8 nights in order to get full cleaning on day 4, and this rule means that to book that 8th night they’ll be competing with owners who simply want that as the start date of their own stay. I’m sure there will be workarounds, especially for members who have lots of points. Seven nights is our usual length of stay, so hopefully we’ll be okay. Fortunately we’re not planning to book soon, so we have time to observe reports to see how it shakes out.

 

[Cyberc]

Personally I hope they change the number of nights we can book at 11 months. That way international owners can ensure they can stay longer in the same room but also because I like the flexibility of more nights, I normally book a longer stay and then when my trip is finalized I drop a few nights depending on cost of airfare.

 

[heathpack]

@TheHolleys87 and @Cyberc

it feels to me like extending the possible length of the reservation to 10-14 days is so reasonable and consistent with intended use that i almost expect that change to happen soon

 

[Cyberc]

@TheHolleys87 and @Cyberc

it feels to me like extending the possible length of the reservation to 10-14 days is so reasonable and consistent with intended use that i almost expect that change to happen soon

I tend to agree, at least to a point. By allowing the longer reservations the owners who owns thousands and thousands of points get an advantage over the owner who don’t. I also understand that DVC needs to draw the line somewhere I’m just unsure where it should be.
7 nights was probably chosen because it’s a week, but I’m sure DVC has a lot of data that show how many international owners book more or less than 7 nights.

 

[Huskerpaul]

I think 10 days is a sweet spot and aligns with the 60+10 ADR timeline. I'm guessing that a large percentage of the total number of DVC reservations are for 7 or fewer days. Meaning most owners would not be affected much by limiting initial reservations to 7 or few days.

 

[ljmiii]

7 nights was probably chosen because it’s a week...

I think 7 nights was chosen because that limitation already existed - at the 11 month 'opening bell' you could only make a maximum 7 night reservation. So that code was already in place and didn't need to be touched.

The only code they had to change was that for modifying a reservation - instead of allowing a reservation to be changed to one 7 days from the current check-in limit, only allow it to be changed to the current check-in limit.

 

[AnnaS]

My stays are usually 7-10 days. I hope I won't have to do a split stay.

 

[Huskerpaul]

My stays are usually 7-10 days. I hope I won't have to do a split stay.

Once you get the second reservation you can contact member services and ask them to combine the reservations into one. I have done this in the past when picking up a night through waitlist to add to my original stay.

 

[Cyberc]

Once you get the second reservation you can contact member services and ask them to combine the reservations into one. I have done this in the past when picking up a night through waitlist to add to my original stay.

That’s assuming you can get the 2nd reservation. During high demand times you might not get it.

 

[AnnaS]

Once you get the second reservation you can contact member services and ask them to combine the reservations into one. I have done this in the past when picking up a night through waitlist to add to my original stay.

If it's available, we should be able to add to our existing reservation. I am pretty flexible with my dates - even when I go with my kids/grandchildren Easter Break (theirs is a week after public school/easier to get).

But, yes, I have asked MS once or twice in the past to combine and thankfully never had to switch rooms. I am sure walkers will find a way around this/a loophole to do what they need to do.

Thank you for the thought/suggestion.

 

[TheHolleys87]

I tend to agree, at least to a point. By allowing the longer reservations the owners who owns thousands and thousands of points get an advantage over the owner who don’t. I also understand that DVC needs to draw the line somewhere I’m just unsure where it should be.

That’s my concern too. If that were the case, owners with plenty of points who only wanted a 3-night holiday weekend could book it a week earlier than owners who didn’t have that number of points, then drop the extra 7 nights when they got to checkout date.

I think 10 days is a sweet spot and aligns with the 60+10 ADR timeline. I'm guessing that a large percentage of the total number of DVC reservations are for 7 or fewer days. Meaning most owners would not be affected much by limiting initial reservations to 7 or few days.

I’m sure they know what percentage of owners routinely book long stays. If that’s a minority of owners, hopefully they’ll not change rules to benefit that minority while disadvantaging the majority.

 

[brp]

We do 4-5 nights, and will be doing that until the end of our contracts in 2042 (the stays are all mapped out on a spreadsheet :), so this doesn't impact us. But I agree with the general sentiment here that the intent is good, but the original length needs to be increased to at least 10. 14 would be ideal.

Cheers.

 

[Cyberc]

That’s my concern too. If that were the case, owners with plenty of points who only wanted a 3-night holiday weekend could book it a week earlier than owners who didn’t have that number of points, then drop the extra 7 nights when they got to checkout date.

I’m sure they know what percentage of owners routinely book long stays. If that’s a minority of owners, hopefully they’ll not change rules to benefit that minority while disadvantaging the majority.

Well im of the opinion that here they did exactly that.

It's a minority that have complained about walkers. At least a minority of the total membership.

I of course have no way of knowing that, but that's my assumption.

 

[Cyberc]

We do 4-5 nights, and will be doing that until the end of our contracts in 2042 (the stays are all mapped out on a spreadsheet :), so this doesn't impact us. But I agree with the general sentiment here that the intent is good, but the original length needs to be increased to at least 10. 14 would be ideal.

Cheers.

I agree that with this change it should be 10 - 14 nights.

 

[heathpack]

Well im of the opinion that here they did exactly that.

It's a minority that have complained about walkers. At least a minority of the total membership.

I of course have no way of knowing that, but that's my assumption.

I would bet that most owners don't know what walking is but they do know when they cannot get prime reservations with at their home resort.

Some owners then see prime reservations for rent and realize something wonky is going on.

So I am sure that DVC gets plenty of complaints about reservation availability even if the disgruntled members are not specifically complaining about walking. DVC knows why those reservations are hard to get! And they've taken a step to address it.

People/legal entities who buy lots of points so that they can obtain prime reservations by walking (the minority) them are a problem for the regular Joe member (the majority) and I personally am glad that DVC has taken steps to curb this practice.

 

[Cyberc]

I would bet that most owners don't know what walking is but they do know when they cannot get prime reservations with at their home resort.

This I agree with, walking or no walking, that will be no different.

Some owners then see prime reservations for rent and realize something wonky is going on.

This will still be the same, and walking will have no impact on that.

So I am sure that DVC gets plenty of complaints about reservation availability even if the disgruntled members are not specifically complaining about walking. DVC knows why those reservations are hard to get! And they've taken a step to address it.

People/legal entities who buy lots of points so that they can obtain prime reservations by walking (the minority) them are a problem for the regular Joe member (the majority) and I personally am glad that DVC has taken steps to curb this practice.

In the sense that you own thousands and thousands of points and walk many many reservations, then yes it would be a problem.

 

[heathpack]

This I agree with, walking or no walking, that will be no different.



This will still be the same, and walking will have no impact on that.


In the sense that you own thousands and thousands of points and walk many many reservations, then yes it would be a problem.

Well, we shall agree to disagree then.

 

[BrownThunder]

My stays are usually 7-10 days. I hope I won't have to do a split stay.

I sent them an email asking them to consider allowing us to modify reservations without changing the check-in date as this allows us who like to stay for more than 7 nights at a time to get our usual reservations.

Unfortunately, I think this will remain as is and they won't change the initial cap of 7 nights to something more reasonable like 14 nights.

 

[TheHolleys87]

I would be in favor of allowing the addition of days if checkin day doesn’t change. I wouldn’t be in favor of changing the initial booking from 11+7 to 11+10 or 11+14, etc., because I think it could lead to a new kind of walking by owners who own lots of points.