I don't think I used the points calculator function much, I'm trying to remember the flow of what you're describing,
@HitchHiker71 , and I'm not remembering too much specific, so I don't think I was very familiar with it. But looking at the availability calendar, I would look at a month that I'd like to visit a given resort, see that there was still availability for my general date range (which is usually a little flexible by a few days here and there) and then I'd look for when I could start booking and then throw that on my Google calendar with a reminder so I could go back and book once I was able to.
The old points calculator was relatively simple. You would pick a date range and it would then show you how many points you had eligible for that date range. That's it in a nutshell. What I'm trying to envision for the new website is a replacement that would eliminate the need for the points calculator function. In the Points Summary area (screenshot for reference), right now there's the general amount of points available for each use year:
What I'm ideating on is a drill down for each use year. So the "Current Use Year" would be a clickable link with a descriptor hover-over that says "Click here for a breakdown of your Current Use Year points by type," or something similar. When you click on that link, it opens up a section that displays something like this:
Current Use Year - Advanced Reservation Priority Points Available for reservations from startdate to enddate: ARPpointsavailable
Current Use Year - Standard Reservation Window points available for reservations from startdate to enddate: STDpointsavailable
Current Use Year - Express Reservation Window points available for reservations from startdate to enddate: EXPpointsavailable
The same links would be available and would display the same information for your future use years as well. We bounced around the idea of also providing buttons to book in this area - particularly for CWS owners that have ARP at a specific resort - and RARP at a specific resort - these buttons would take you to either the calendar view in the ARP date range - or you would input a date range via a "select date range" button and it would launch an availability search right from that area for your specified date range.
Please provide feedback on this item as we need further ideation to vet out this enhancement request.
Ooh, that would be a great enhancement, allow for a "my diary" of sorts to set up a push notification remind you that you want to book! Another enhancement would be the ability to have a little free-form note section for each resort that has been favorited. Pie in the sky stuff, I know...functioning without takeaways is the top priority
So in your scenario where you said:
I would look at a month that I'd like to visit a given resort, see that there was still availability for my general date range (which is usually a little flexible by a few days here and there) and then I'd look for when I could start booking and then throw that on my Google calendar with a reminder so I could go back and book once I was able to.
What would have prevented you from booking right then? Obviously you could see the availability already at that time - so why wait to book? Were you waiting to book at a resort where you didn't have ARP? Or were you waiting for the Express or VIP discount windows to book?
In any case, we also touched on borrowing an idea from RCI for Ongoing Searches - but for CWP resorts. So if you performed a search for a resort that had no availability - you could save that search as an Ongoing Search - and it would then keep searching for you and if that particular search became available - you would receive an email notification that your ongoing search was fulfilled - and it would then either automatically book it for you if you had enough points available - or you would have up to x hours to resolve the ongoing search match before the inventory was returned to the pool.
I also like your idea of having a Saved Searches function - whereby you could set up searches that would not process until a future date. Once that date arrives - you would receive an email notification indicating if there was any availability (basically it would process a normal date range search with the "flexible" option automatically enabled) - and if not - did you want to set up an Ongoing Search to keep looking?
Your idea for a Notes area would probably be a good idea for the mobile app ideation section, I will add it to that section. Basically a "Live Your Bucket List" free form section for each scheduled vacation and/or resort. There was talk at one point of Wyndham coordinating scheduled excursions in advance - so this same section could have excursion options listed that you could sign up for ahead of time - and would then be listed in in this same area.
