Sorry but I must clarify your statements. First, I never said that you were not a 40 years member if you misunderstood my post where I used or I apologize but here is how it used to work. First, the VIP called the VIP line and the representative asked for the typical information along with the specific unit number if you requested one. He/she was able to track the information on a central inventory system and they were able to tell you if the unit was available for your length of stay. If so, and the availability extended beyond a single week, the representative asked if you wanted a DO NOT MOVE placed on the reservation. If so, this was actually the unit number and DO NOT MOVE was on the reservation you received. They did mention that if the room was down for maintenance or if there was a natural disaster this would void the availability of the unit.
If they were able to do it then (in the dark ages) why not now? This was the only reason we became VIPs and when it was no longer working we protested to either Mary Mahoney or Deanne Gabel, both top level management, and received help throughout their tenure with Wyndham. After that nothing seemed to help and promises by management in most cases was ' Gone With The Wind of Wyndham Sales ".
I think it worked just a little bit different. Pre-voyager when you booked a reservation, you were being assigned a room at that time. It was the way the system was architectured. For everyone. Only VIPs (if they called in) could see it (or ask if a particular room was available or not). We were more apt to call and say 'we need 4 rooms on the same floor, or 4 ocean front rooms, etc and the VC's could look and see what rooms were there and be able to book our reservation accordingly. (For example they could see the 4 corner units, I think there 3 bedrooms, were available on the 8th floor of Ocean Boulevard). We booked those 4 rooms (the VC did it, not us) and she put a 'DO NOT MOVE' on it. It meant don't move those 4 rooms for that particular reservation. We weren't booking beyond the one week. But if we were, I'm sure the same concept applied with additional notes if we were there multiple weeks? Conversely, you could have called and asked if room 123 was available and they could check and see, it it was, book you in it and put on a 'DO NOT MOVE'. And do that for extra weeks, I'm sure (they could tell if it was available). Once a room was booked they would not give it to someone else (even if the 1st person didn't have a 'DO NOT MOVE' on it). Of that, I'm pretty sure.
That's why we saw split reservations. If you were booking some nights in one week, say W, Th, F. And then the next four nights were in the next timeshare week (Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues). The system would show you all 7 nights, but as a split it - you'd be booking 3 nights + 4 nights. And you were at risk of a room change. You might have been able to book it checking in on an off day, but it was booked with this type functionality. Once it booked - you actually saw 2 reservations in your list of reservations. They were 2 reservations. you could cancel one and keep the other. I would call and ask resorts to combine those - that had to be done at the resort, they had a way to combine them - some resorts anyways. At some point management of reservations is up to the resort - even in the old days.
The new system does not assign the room when you book. Your request is a comment, at best. Some resorts do better than others at honoring those. Understanding this basic difference in how the system works, allows you to understand why the old (dark ages) way would give you a much better chance of getting the room you 'reserved'. And we would almost always get what we wanted (unless, as you said, a maintenance type situation). I miss that. You made me miss it more. I'd settled into "oh, isn't that nice, the resort gave me an ocean front, like I requested" - when really - they should be bending over backwards to meet our requests - as it was a benefit (somewhat) lost.
Which is why I think it's a good idea to contact people like Michael Brown and remind them how it worked and that they should remind the resorts of that, as well. I think programmatically it would be difficult to work the old way - put policy-wise - resorts have the ability to make that happen (esp if it's one room wanting a particular view - or 2 rooms close). Many do a great job of it. Although the days of family on one floor haven't happened - oh probably since 2017, lol.
Totally how I perceive what is going on, I could be wrong, but I don't think so
