NEWS! Starwood beta test of a reservation system, roll out on Thursday the 7th

[rickandcindy23]

According to Christy at Starwood, the new do-it-yourself reservation system is kicking off this week.

She said we can check availability ourselves starting Thursday at My Star Central.

Yippee! This has been a long time coming.

Looking forward to it. I call twice a day most days to check summer availability at SBP.

I guess all of those recorded comments finally got them moving. :rofl:

 

[Pedro]

It is only for checking availability or is it also for making real-time reservations?

 

[rickandcindy23]

She said we could see what was there for our various resorts, but she didn't say we could book from My Star Central. I am still excited, because I get tired of calling daily.

 

[Pedro]

That's nice! It is the best piece of news we've got from Starwood lately, and I just hope that the online reservation system becomes a reality.

 

[YYJMSP]

You do realize that this will crash on Thursday, given the built/pent-up demand, when everyone hits it all at once???

 

[grgs]

Great news--thanks for sharing!

Glorian

 

[Ken555]

About time! I'll be very pleased if this works as we should expect it to.

I made a reservation today (and deposited this years options...) and the amount of time wasted on a simple call is just ridiculous. They think they're providing good customer service, but it took too long to make a few simple transactions. I will be thrilled if I never need to call SVN reservations again.

 

[scootr5]

Cool! Long overdue....

 

[spencersmama]

You do realize that this will crash on Thursday, given the built/pent-up demand, when everyone hits it all at once???

Exciting news! Maybe Cindy should have waited to share the news with us until Friday so she could have checked on SBP without worrying about the system crashing? (Joking. ) Thanks for being altruistic, Cindy!

 

[rebrewer]

You do realize that this will crash on Thursday, given the built/pent-up demand, when everyone hits it all at once???

Maybe, maybe not. If their system is located on a server farm, additional servers will be allocated as demand increases.

 

[SDKath]

Yipeeee! Who is Christy, BTW?

 

[YYJMSP]

Maybe, maybe not. If their system is located on a server farm, additional servers will be allocated as demand increases.

I have it on good authority that the current in-house system is a MS-DOS based app...

I've had visions (nightmares?) of a shared spreadsheet or something similar.

I really wouldn't be surprised if they just rolled out a web-based interface to it in some way.

 

[Ken555]

I have it on good authority that the current in-house system is a MS-DOS based app...

I've had visions (nightmares?) of a shared spreadsheet or something similar.

I really wouldn't be surprised if they just rolled out a web-based interface to it in some way.

Yea, that's kinda scary. But...I really don't care what it runs on as long as it works. And just having read-only availability does not solve the problem...we need nothing less than real time availability and reservation capability, along with all other functions we do now on the phone (deposit, etc).

 

[K&PFitz]

I honestly looked twice to make sure the date of the OP wasn't April 1.

 

[Westin5Star]

WOW- this was a long time coming. I remember talking to Susanne Clark about this 5 years (or so) ago.

Our MFs should now be reduced due to the reservation staff in Orlando being cut in half. I know that it will take a year or two to get many owners used to using MyStarCentral to make their reservations. Eventually, they should be able to get to a point that most reservations are made electronically online like Interval.

 

[maggiesmom]

Is this for SVN only, or all * wood owners.TIA

maggiesmom

Anyone got an answer????

 

[YYJMSP]

Our MFs should now be reduced due to the reservation staff in Orlando being cut in half.

And then increase due to additional IT support staff...

 

[hypnotiq]

I made a reservation today (and deposited this years options...) and the amount of time wasted on a simple call is just ridiculous. They think they're providing good customer service, but it took too long to make a few simple transactions. I will be thrilled if I never need to call SVN reservations again.

Blasphemy! Remember you should be thrilled with the excellent customer service and personal attention you get by calling in!

 

[VacationForever]

Wonder if it means everyone will be in front of their computer refreshing their screens at 9pm Pacific time the day before/midnight Eastern time to look for inventory to book against at the 12 mth and 8 mth mark! Scary!

 

[l2trade]

This feature is for SVN 8 month window or less, view only of availability. While owners will need to call in to book, at least they will be able to see what is available (subject to change) before they call. We will be able to search multiple resorts for availabilty all at once. This is a big improvement over what we have today, what I call "20 questions with a phone agent...". Good job! About time!

I see this as a 1st step towards an online booking system. So, I applaud the effort and will then ask for feature enhancements, such as including 12 month Home resort availability for all owners, online booking and usage history reports.

 

[Ken555]

This feature is for SVN 8 month window or less, view only of availability. While owners will need to call in to book, at least they will be able to see what is available (subject to change) before they call. We will be able to search multiple resorts for availabilty all at once. This is a big improvement over what we have today, what I call "20 questions with a phone agent...". Good job! About time!

I see this as a 1st step towards an online booking system. So, I applaud the effort and will then ask for feature enhancements, such as including 12 month Home resort availability for all owners, online booking and usage history reports.

Where did you learn these details? Thanks for the info.

 

[jarta]

He probably didn't get them by using the Internet. He probably called and talked to a real person. Salty

 

[l2trade]

Where did you learn these details? Thanks for the info.

I talked to Starwood employees.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Talked to another Starwood person today and was also told it was an availability check system for now, we can just see what's available, and then it's first come, first served for the actual reservation. I don't think this will help me much with my current ressie needs.

But kudos to Starwood for being on top of new technology right now, even if they are about ten years behind most everyone else.

Gee, I am going to miss making those 1-2 phone calls every day to get summer dates. :rofl:

 

[okwiater]

Call me a skeptic, but I'm not thrilled with this change.

First of all, it is still unclear if this system will display real-time availability, the same as if you called to talk to an agent, or if it will be delayed to some extent. If it doesn't offer parity with what is available to the agents, it's borderline useless.

Also, one wonders if such a system, without a corresponding real-time booking capability, will make it too easy to quickly identify rare openings (e.g. STJ and HRA), resulting in super-saturated phone lines at 9:00am with dozens or hundreds of owners trying to lock down the same week.

Gulp.