Unable to book our preferred room at 11-month mark!

[MommyTo5]

I never expected this to happen...

I contacted Member Services at the 11-month mark and was unable to book 5 nights in a 2-bdrm Standard View @ BLT for October 2010. Lake View is available for an additional 30 points, but since we've already borrowed from our 2010 Use Year, I was really trying to use only the points we'd have available at that time without having to borrow from the following year.

[Snow Shoe]

Remember that it's F&W Festival time then, and rooms at BWV and BC go very fast. Did you get your request waitlisted? Keep calling back and see if by chance some thing opens up.

[disneynutz]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

At least you bought at your favorite resort. As more members are added, booking at 7 months is going to get tougher.

Can you book the LV and wait list for the SV?

Bill

[Crystal_27]

WOW - I'm sorry to hear that!! Did you waitlist? Hopefully, with BLT continuing to sell, your waitlist would come through because DVC will keep adding inventory as more points get sold. Either way, good luck. As an aside, your report worries me in that we are set to book our Christmas, 2010 trip in January, 2010 and I have exactly the number of points needed for our stay with a standard view (the remaining points were used to book our 2011 cruise). Yikes.

[erionm]

Lake View rooms at BLT comprise about 70% of all rooms. IIRC, only about 10% of the rooms are Standard View with the Magic Kingdom View being about 20%.

[canwegosoon]

i agree- it is probably due to not enough closings...should come through on a wl

[MommyTo5]

Thanks so much for the responses. After reading what you all have to say and weighing my options, I've decided not to book anything right now and just go ahead with the waitlist. I realized that it's only a 20-point difference between Lake and Standard View instead of the 30 that I originally thought, but 18 of those points would have to be borrowed due to the fact that we've already used 106 points from our 2010 Use Year. If the waitlist doesn't work out for us by the 7-month mark, I've decided to go ahead and check into booking elsewhere - preferrably at AKV (Jambo or Kidani).

We're planning on doing a DVC Hawaii trip during our 2011 Use Year and I think we'll end up needing every single one of our points, as well as borrowing the majority of our 2012 points... that's why I'm so hesitant to keep borrowing at this point!

[Maistre Gracey]

Sounds like your a victim of the new & "improved" booking policy.
I'm truly sorry to hear this. Good luck with your waitlist..

MG

[SuzanneSLO]

Originally Posted by Maistre Gracey

Sounds like your a victim of the new & "improved" booking policy. . . .
MG

I am confused as to why you think this. Certainly there were people who did not get the reservation they wanted at the 11 month window even before the change to booking at the start of the stay. If the OP was on the phone with MS at 9 AM when it opened, then I would be more inclined to agree that she did not get her first night due to the change in booking, but with limited inventory such as for SV rooms, it is always possible that someone else had booked the room you wanted that same day.

To the OP, you might want to try calling back tomorrow to see if you can book any of the remaining nights you want. If you can reduce your WL to only the night of the 18th, you will be more likely to be successful. Best of luck -- Suzanne

[wdrl]

Originally Posted by Crystal_27

Hopefully, with BLT continuing to sell, your waitlist would come through because DVC will keep adding inventory as more points get sold.

Your right. As DVD declares more units for the DVC Membership, more villas will become available for bookings by Members. The last BLT Declaration was made on 9/2/2009, so we are long overdue for another Declaration.

However, I wonder whether more declarations will increase the number of Standard View villas available for bookings. We might already have access to 100% of the Standard View villas. Under the reciprocal clause in the Declaration, on each Use Day members can book up to the number of declared villas. Since 53% of BLT has been declared to date, we can book up to 53% of the villas. However, the reciprocal clause makes no mention of villas by view category. I don't know if members can currently only book 53% of the Standard View villas, or if we can book up to 100% of the Standard Views, and DVD then reduces the DVC inventory in the other view categories. If anyone knows the answer, please let me know.

[DenLo]

It's my understand that when you call MS and request a reservation for multiple days, that sometimes MS will tell you there are no rooms available even if only one of the days is not available. Eg. you requested 10/15 through 10/19/2010 but 10/13 is not available so MS cannot fill your request.

Since you are wait listed, perhaps you should call MS back and see if any of your days are available and then change your wait list for the one day not available. Some pixie dust to help either way.

[robinb]

Bummer. I hope your waitlist comes through. I missed the 11-month deadline by one day for our December AKV Concierge trip but I popped off the waitlist a couple of months later.

I'm still on the WL for a MK View for NYE. I got on the WL at exactly the 7-month mark. A girl can dream ...

[CarolMN]

Originally Posted by Maistre Gracey

Sounds like your a victim of the new & "improved" booking policy.
I'm truly sorry to hear this. Good luck with your waitlist..

MG

Originally Posted by SuzanneSLO

I am confused as to why you think this. Certainly there were people who did not get the reservation they wanted at the 11 month window even before the change to booking at the start of the stay. If the OP was on the phone with MS at 9 AM when it opened, then I would be more inclined to agree that she did not get her first night due to the change in booking, but with limited inventory such as for SV rooms, it is always possible that someone else had booked the room you wanted that same day.

To the OP, you might want to try calling back tomorrow to see if you can book any of the remaining nights you want. If you can reduce your WL to only the night of the 18th, you will be more likely to be successful. Best of luck -- Suzanne

I wondered if the OP called 11 months before check in or if she called 11 months before check out.

I interpreted her signature to mean the October BLT trip was supposed to begin 10/10 and her post reporting the booking trouble was made earlier today, 11/18. That suggested to me she may have called using the old booking window rules.

OP - Use the waitlist. I was able to get a standard view 1 bedroom for the week after Thanksgiving by waitlisting and I couldn't book until the 7 month window opened. You have an excellent change of getting it, IMO.

[Sandisw]

I hope things come through for you. As someone else suggested, I might call back to see if you can get some of your rooms is a SV and then just WL the other nights. YOu can have 2 WL at a time. It might help it come through easier than just having to do all the nights.

But, this certainly sounds like those SV rooms are pretty popular and that there will be times when they won't be available even to owners.

It makes me happy that I bought there as I only want SV (to save points since the view isn't that important) and at least, it should help.

Here is pixie dust to hope things open up for you!

[Maistre Gracey]

Originally Posted by SuzanneSLO

I am confused as to why you think this. Certainly there were people who did not get the reservation they wanted at the 11 month window even before the change to booking at the start of the stay. If the OP was on the phone with MS at 9 AM when it opened, then I would be more inclined to agree that she did not get her first night due to the change in booking, but with limited inventory such as for SV rooms, it is always possible that someone else had booked the room you wanted that same day.

To the OP, you might want to try calling back tomorrow to see if you can book any of the remaining nights you want. If you can reduce your WL to only the night of the 18th, you will be more likely to be successful. Best of luck -- Suzanne

Putting Carol's possible explanation aside, and assuming she tried on the first available day, it sure sounds like she was a victim of the new rules.
Just by the mere fact she tried to book 5 days and couldn't get it, really only means the first day was unavailable, and uncertain about the rest. That would not have likely happened under the old policy. Possible?? Yes. Likely?? No. It's much more probable with the new policy.

MG