Someone is Selling Restaurant Reservations....

[HolleBolleGijs]

No, that wasn't my point. I have been forced to buy tickets on stubhub myself because they were snatched so quickly by non-fans who were permitted to resell them. And as I said above, I paid a HUGE premium to get Eiffel Tower tickets earlier this summer because they were snatched up by resellers. I didn't mean to imply that only true fans are at the resale-preventable concerts, just that true fans were the original buyers of those tickets. You would still be a true Disney fan if you were forced to pay a premium for a BoG reservation because resellers had snatched them all up as well - it would just be a shame that you didn't have the ability to reserve it yourself from the get-go because the reseller was in the picture.

Gotcha. I was just confused because the resellers wouldn't actually be at the concert. Also FWIW, I've never seen a 6-hour wait for the Eiffel Tower. I spontaneously did it one weekend and waited less than 30 minutes.

 

[JillC LI]

Also FWIW, I've never seen a 6-hour wait for the Eiffel Tower. I spontaneously did it one weekend and waited less than 30 minutes.

I'm glad you got lucky. We couldn't risk it because we only had one day to tour as much of Paris as possible, and DD's dream was to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It's a good thing we got those reseller tickets too because 2 of the 3 elevators from the base of the Tower were broken that day, and the lines to go up were insane. Our reseller was able to get our group close to the front of the line which turned out to be an unexpected but huge perk in the end.

 

[DaisyDoesDisney]

I understand the idea of having to show your credit card at the door. I've done it in the past with concert tickets and I think even at an NFL game last season, but there are problems with that idea. Just last month I had a credit card used fraudulently multiple times and my bank shut the card down and issued me a new account number and card. I guess I could have saved the terminated, compromised card, but I was told to destroy it and never considered otherwise. That card, the one I no longer have, was used to secure all of my ADRs for our September trip and all of our ADRs for our December trip. What would happen in this case? I would just forfeit all of my reservations because I can't produce that card at the door?

 

[thomas998]

So fridays

so Fridays isn't decent? How dare people eat there...I guess if eating a cliche foodie places is your thing. We cook home every day now. No going out. #thelifeofthepoor

You know that's what they do now right? Put there own credit cards on file and make reservations than cancel long before cancelation fee window. Hence they can book as many as they want and never shovel out a dime because they just cancel and hand it off to you. And how has ticket scalping ended? Last I checked stub hub is booming. Place like that or ace ticket buy huge lots you think your fav concert sells out in 30 seconds because of all the rabid fans?

Depends on the venue and whether they really follow the credit card required rule. I know I have gone to concerts where I have to show up with my card which was a pain in the backside when things popped up and weren't able to go as expected, in that instance I sold all the tickets but one and then had to show up to get the other 3 people in using the last of the 4 tickets for myself before turning around and leaving the concert without seeing it... Now I guess it would be possible for someone to use that method to scalp tickets or reservations but when you have to show up you better be scalping for a lot of money because you lose the cost of one ticket in the process unless you actually wanted to see the concert... for Disney reservations it would be even more expensive for the scalper because they would need to pay for the park admission just to show up and get you in.

As for using a credit card to put a bunch of reservations on file... sure you could do that but then there is no guarantee that you could re-snag that reservation with the other buyers name and credit information even though you would know when you cancelled your original reservation.... and that would be a very easy thing to deal with by Disney, track reservations made and cancelled and if a certain number are cancelled within some time period you blacklist the person from making reservations unless they pay for the meal with no cancellation allowed... and could also stop putting reservations back in the pool the moment they are cancelled instead put them back at random times so again it becomes more difficult to game.

 

[chiefs11]

Doesn't need to be that complicated, does it? There's already a name on file with the reservation. Just make it so it can't be changed and have them show ID when they show up.

 

[blackfootedcat]

Doesn't need to be that complicated, does it? There's already a name on file with the reservation. Just make it so it can't be changed and have them show ID when they show up.

I think this is the obvious solution. I actually did have to show ID to be able to park at AKL for a Sanaa reservation a few months ago. I'm not sure why they don't do this already for all meals, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is implemented at some point regardless of the future of these ADR scalpers.

I'm interested to see if this has any further impact. We usually do not purchase tickets until very close to our trip and stay off-site, so I hope it does not come to having to have a package to be able to make ADRs. However, I noticed before our last trip that a LOT of ADRs we couldn't previously get opened up a day or two in advance when I did one last check on the dining reservation site- I assume due to the new cancellation policy- so it really may not be too much of an issue anyway for those of us who book off site and/or last minute.

 

[matt9112]

Actually, for those venues that actually do what thomas998 suggested, ticket scalping really is eliminated. You have to show up with the same credit card that purchased the ticket or you can't get in. I've been to concerts like that and although it takes a little longer to get in, it's great knowing that only the true fans are there. It's the places that still allow ticket resales that fall victim to stubhub.

Like all sports venues?

 

[matt9112]

Apples and oranges. You're talking ticket scalping and I'm talking about the resale of vacation dining reservations. Completely different things.

No I'm talking resale too. Think stubhub.

 

[PhotoDave219]

No I'm talking resale too. Think stubhub.

Disney should not allow resale of reservations.

 

[FettFan]

No I'm talking resale too. Think stubhub.

You really can't compare the two, as services such as StubHub are either buying up unsold tickets that have already been discounted or are purchasing bulk quantities at a discount price and then passing that discount on to the final ticketholder....either way, they are doing it as an authorized ticket dealer working in conjunction with the event venue.

That is not the case here, where it is someone actively working to game the system and make a quick buck off of something that most people ostensibly can get for free if they plan far enough ahead and don't cancel.

The other drawback is that it creates an artificial scarcity. Someone calls up to get a reservation, but they can't because this hackjob already has it...it's really not fair to the people who actually take the time to plan.

 

[flynnibus]

You really can't compare the two, as services such as StubHub are either buying up unsold tickets that have already been discounted or are purchasing bulk quantities at a discount price and then passing that discount on to the final ticketholder....either way, they are doing it as an authorized ticket dealer working in conjunction with the event venue.

The point is in both cases you are moving the availability to the resale market... Which means ultimately the "face value" goes away and people usually end up paying more. In both cases the reseller is taking away availability from the primary point of distribution in a proactive mAnner which also helps create artificial scarcity... Further the value in the resale market.

It's a bad slope to be in when you start taking availability away from the regular point of distribution because the secondary must make a cut too

 

[PhotoDave219]

There's a giant difference IMO between the resale of tickets for sport events, concerts, etc., on a secondary market versus trying to to get a restaurant reservation in a theme park.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Constantly checking availability is fine IMO, but a third party holding reservations to sell them later crosses a big line IMO... does anyone actually do that? I've seen a service that alerts you when something is available, but nobody selling an actual reservation.

 

[HolleBolleGijs]

Constantly checking availability is fine IMO, but a third party holding reservations to sell them later crosses a big line IMO... does anyone actually do that? I've seen a service that alerts you when something is available, but nobody selling an actual reservation.

This thread is about a "company" that does just that. @PhotoDave219 didn't post a link because he didn't want to give them any publicity.

 

[Baltar]

While it is a free market, if they are booking massive amounts of reservations up front to then hopefully sell later, I hope Disney squashes these people. Doing things like this brings dissatisfaction to Disney's customer base and that can affect their bottomline. I bet they''ll sweep in on this soon.

 

[lunchbox1175]

At present, anyone can make any ADR. But I agree they should make it the same as FP+, and only allow booking if you have a valid park ticket for the park you want to dine in. Obviously anyone can still then book at restaurants outside the parks, but at least this should stop people holding too many reservations too early.

Are you saying you have to have your tickets first, because that would be unfair. For example, we have a trip coming up first week of December, I have all of my dining reservations made, but I don't have ticket package yet, because I haven't decided if I am going to get AP's or just do tickets.

 

[asianway]

Disney should not allow resale of reservations.

Wait till they create the Buena Vista Ticket Company to mark up their own tickets, ADRs, le merch, etc

 

[Cosmic Commando]

This thread is about a "company" that does just that. @PhotoDave219 didn't post a link because he didn't want to give them any publicity.

I found the website, and this company is booking reservations and canceling them at a predetermined time to give their customer a good chance of rebooking them. This is awful. I reread the first page of the thread, and it wasn't clear exactly what was happening-- whether they were holding reservations or just sending availability notices.

To stop this, I think they should hold cancelled reservations in the system for some random amount of time before it becomes available again. If enough people have "their" reservations from this company booked up before they get them because it didn't show up until 13 hours later, it might help shut them down.

Edit: @dreamfinder found it on page 4, but I missed it when he/she posted it.

 

[lunchbox1175]

This is an interesting conundrum...

Requiring Resort Reservation when making Dinning Reso = Unfair to guests staying off Property
Requiring Ticket Package = Unfair to those who purchase tickets just before trip arrival

There doesn't seem to be a good way to handle it. Even if you wanted to try to require ID, it would be easy to get around by making a reservation for 5 people then selling it to a party of 4, adding their names to the reservation, and then the primary just wouldn't show up. They would just say they weren't feeling well, went back to the room and it isn't like the host or hostess would reject the party.

 

[Jon81uk]

Are you saying you have to have your tickets first, because that would be unfair. For example, we have a trip coming up first week of December, I have all of my dining reservations made, but I don't have ticket package yet, because I haven't decided if I am going to get AP's or just do tickets.

You have to have tickets first to get FastPass+ reservations so extending this to dining reservations (and shortening the booking window to 90 days) would still be fair. If you aren't purchasing tickets until later how are you going to book FP+?