Would love to confirm our DVC Villa room number, like on the cruise...

[Pintail]

I was just thinking how nice it would be to confirm our villa room number when we initially book our reservation.
That way we could get the actual room and view that we want.
We do make a request, but why not just confirm it?
DVC villa availability is predictable, like on the cruise ships, so it seems that it could be done.
Maybe this could happen...Oh, to dream....is it just me?

 

[ziravan]

Cruises are all the same length. There aren't nearly so many pieces to the puzzle. Everybody that signs up, right to the last second, are going to stay the exact same amount of time.

 

[crisi]

Yep, because check in and check outs vary, you'd have a lot of gaps - one night here, one night there - so that people late to the game wouldn't be able to get into the same room for consecutive nights.

 

[Pintail]

Thanks, I agree that room availability is dynamic and that 100% pre-assignment would not be totally efficient.
I do think that with some effort, the view and villa type variables for each DVC property could be modeled and a percentage of rooms could be pre-booked.
I assume that DVC capacity controls are tighter than the overbooking that occurs in standard hotels, because of the advance points bookings.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thanks, I agree that room availability is dynamic and that 100% pre-assignment would not be totally efficient.
I do think that with some effort, the view and villa type variables for each DVC property could be modeled and a percentage of rooms could be pre-booked.
I assume that DVC capacity controls are tighter than the overbooking that occurs in standard hotels, because of the advance points bookings.

So, you'd rather your dues go towards those efforts. Not me.

 

[DenLo]

Thanks, I agree that room availability is dynamic and that 100% pre-assignment would not be totally efficient.
I do think that with some effort, the view and villa type variables for each DVC property could be modeled and a percentage of rooms could be pre-booked.
I assume that DVC capacity controls are tighter than the overbooking that occurs in standard hotels, because of the advance points bookings.

I have used programs for a hotels that allow you to select the area of a floor you want, but not the exact room number, and that was when I did online check in. Although some only allowed me to request a floor and an area of the floor I want my room in.

I could see it really being difficult to add on days or move your vacation to start a day earlier or later, because that room has already been assigned to someone else for those other dates. It would really restrict all those little changes DVC members make. Or at the very least force you to change rooms or even do a split stay at the same resort. Or perhaps the room would no longer be available since some of the days were not available.

 

[Pintail]

Yes, I have the Hilton app, and am able to select a specific hotel room a day prior to check in.
It shows the hotel layout, and the rooms available by floor. It is a nice feature, and I have used their digital key feature too.
I appreciate that guests like to make adjustments.
It just seems to me that if I book DVC at my home resort between 7 and 11 months out, it would be nice to have the opportunity to select my specific room.
Maybe only 25% of the rooms would be available for that - but it could be a benefit of booking early at your home resort.
I know people like last minute flexibility, but the tradeoff may be switching rooms or losing that specific room upon check in.
Disney has a nice app for attraction wait times, and is savvy when it comes to innovation.
I am confident they could improve the current system.

 

[Airb330]

While the Hilton app is pretty cool, IMO not too many hotels participate. Likely due to the issues mentioned in this thread.

I have found, if I am reasonably specific requesting a room or wing, I generally get it or am really close to the room I wanted. You just don't find that out until check-in versus knowing ahead of time. I can live with that though as I do feel Cast Members do try to meet requests. I also wouldn't even trust Disney IT to get your idea right to be honest!

 

[sndral]

When we camp at Big Sur you choose your campsite & length of stay.
Booking opens up 6 months before your stay. For the popular summer months you have to be online & poised to grab your favorite campsite the second bookings open, we usually have 3 of us w/ a game plan of who is going for which. They literally are 90% booked w/in minutes. My son w/ the fastest internet connection and quickest fingers is assigned to grab our favorite site & the others go for the adjoining sites. One person would be unable to get the adjoining sites, by the time they finished booking the first, the others would be taken.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

When we camp at Big Sur you choose your campsite & length of stay.
Booking opens up 6 months before your stay. For the popular summer months you have to be online & poised to grab your favorite campsite the second bookings open, we usually have 3 of us w/ a game plan of who is going for which. They literally are 90% booked w/in minutes. My son w/ the fastest internet connection and quickest fingers is assigned to grab our favorite site & the others go for the adjoining sites. One person would be unable to get the adjoining sites, by the time they finished booking the first, the others would be taken.

National parks have the same system for some campgrounds. If you're looking at booking you'll see it leaves stranded nights at different spots just as it would if DVC were to do this. Very inefficient IMO and is a system that really only works when everyone is there for the same length of time.

 

[wdrl]

People are walking reservations just to make sure they get any villa for their travel dates. Can you imagine how many more people would start walking reservations just to book a specific villa????

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

People are walking reservations just to make sure they get any villa for their travel dates. Can you imagine how many more people would start walking reservations just to book a specific villa????

Scary!

 

[Airb330]

People are walking reservations just to make sure they get any villa for their travel dates. Can you imagine how many more people would start walking reservations just to book a specific villa????

Good point. I think the CMs do a pretty good job with requests. Any room is better than no room. So I'll take the guaranteed reservation and deal with the actual room later on.

 

[Deb & Bill]

And then there is the fact that DVC is expected to be at least 97-98% occupied every night.

 

[jekjones1558]

One of the only perks of booking a BW view HA room was knowing the exact room we would get because there is only one in each room size. It certainly eliminated any drama!