New DRI.com search feature, broke???

[winger Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close winger]

The search seems so finicky - not stable.

So the past few days, using Quick Search, here is what happens:

I enter the following
Check In from: 12/5/2009
Check In to: <blank>
Nights: 7
Check Out from: 12/12/2009 <<<---auto populates
Check Out to: <blank>

I select "SEARCH" button and get

Check In from: 11/28/2009
Check In to: 12/12/2009
Nights: 7
Check Out from: 12/5/2009
Check Out to: 12/19/2009

No availability was found for your search parameters.
Rule Error 4:The check-in day requested is not allowed for the property selected


This happened ALOT past few days.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

The search seems so finicky - not stable.

So the past few days, using Quick Search, here is what happens:

I enter the following
Check In from: 12/5/2009
Check In to: <blank>
Nights: 7
Check Out from: 12/12/2009 <<<---auto populates
Check Out to: <blank>

I select "SEARCH" button and get

Check In from: 11/28/2009
Check In to: 12/12/2009
Nights: 7
Check Out from: 12/5/2009
Check Out to: 12/19/2009

No availability was found for your search parameters.
Rule Error 4:The check-in day requested is not allowed for the property selected


This happened ALOT past few days.

That's a programming glitch that has existed for probably at least one year. I've reported it to DRI previously (at the DRI Boards) and DRI has acknowledged the error.

I've seen it coming up when I'm doing a less than seven day search for a resort, but then I also request a search for other resorts in the area. If the other possible resort matches are all minimum 7 day resorts - the system returns that error. It's as if the system forgets about the primary resort I requested when there isn't a match with that resort while it searches the other options. If that request isn't valid for those results then the system acts as if my original request was invalid and returns the error message for that case.

If you are doing regional searches, I suggest you turn off that feature and look for specific resorts only, using resorts that you know will do check-in on the day you specify, and see if the error reproduces.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I haven't been posting about this until I got more information, which I have now received.

I was testing the new search system, looking for reservations at Poipu for next August. I am a deeded week owner, with my deed affiliated with the Club and not in the Trust. As such, I have a 12-month Home Resort Advantage, but do not have the 13-month Trust Advantage window.

When I did the search, there was no availability showing at Poipu until the search was less than 10 months out; i.e., I could only see inventory that was generally available to all Club members. In repeating the search periodically over the course of one week, the availability moved in lock step with the 10-month check in window. For example, when I searched on August 21, I was offered inventory through June 21. When I searched on August 25, I was offered inventory through June 25. Clearly as inventory dropped into the 10-month window it was being offered to me, but nothing was being offered to me under Home Resort Advantage. In the past booking during August using Home Resort Advantage, there has always been at least some inventory available.

I contacted DRI and have been working with a very helpful person named Jessica in the hospitality department. After several conversations getting her up to speed on the issue and showing her why the explanations being offered to her by inventory control seemed bogus, she logged into my account as me (note that she first asked my permission to do so - I appreciated that) and confirmed what was being offered to me. Then she compared that with what was available for booking when logging in her official capacity, and confirmed that there was available inventory that was not being offered to me.

She confirmed that there was a glitch in the system and that they have been problems with the system not showing availability. She advised me that when booking reservations within the Home Resort Advantage window I should make the reservation by speaking with a counselor on phone and not via the on-line system.