Availability Question

[riggins]

Hi Everyone-
In an attempt to be a good "renter" and avoid having owners search for dates that are booked, can I rely on the availability at Expedia or Travelocity to give me a sense for availablity using points? In other words, if there are cash rooms available for my dates on Expedia, does that mean that there are also rooms that can be booked with points?

Thanks for your help!
-Leslie

 

[CarolMN]

No, you cannot rely on the availability shown on Travelocity or Expedia to give you a sense of what might be available to DVC members using points.

The "cash inventory" of rooms is separate from the "points inventory".

That said, it is my understanding that the two inventories "merge" 60 days ahead of time. (In other words, excess point inventory becomes available to CRO to rent for cash at that time, and excess cash/CRO inventory becomes available to MS to use for point reservations at that time. If this is incorrect, someone will correct me, I'm sure).

So, if you are looking 60 days or less ahead of your desired check out date, availability shown by Expedia or Travelocity MAY be a good indicator of the rooms available for points. I say MAY because I am not sure if either of those two online services show "real time" inventory - they may need to confirm availability with the Disney system prior to issuing a valid reservation/confirmation.

HTH.

 

[brittsmum1998]

We tried to rent my parents a studio in the BWV's and could only get waitlisted for all 6 nights. I called within the same hour and was able to book CASH ressies for 6 nites in a studio Only two weeks till our trip so I couldn't trust the waitlist .

 

[RayJay]

Britt

That would kind of tick me off a little, why can't they give you the nights using your points, is it because they want you to book way out? I realize they split the inventories, but the least they could do is give you the studio for your points brfore they expired.

Have a great week.
RayJay

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by RayJay
That would kind of tick me off a little, why can't they give you the nights using your points, is it because they want you to book way out? I realize they split the inventories, but the least they could do is give you the studio for your points brfore they expired.

RayJay, the points days and cash days are two separate issues. They are handled by different entities and in effect 2 different companies are involved. Once a day is taken from or given up from the points group, it is gone forever and even if DVC wanted to get it back, I suspect they couldn't. It's no different than having 2 hotel companies owning rooms in one hotel. You say this is far fetched, well, there are a number of timeshares where there are two and sometimes three different companies involved. Of course they usually manage different units within the resort but still I think the analagy holds pretty well.

 

[Dumbo]

When a DVC member trades out of DVC for a Disney cruise or for a week at the Grand Floridian, DVC must then recoup the money to pay the cruise line or the hotel. DVC then makes these points available for CRO to sell to get the money to pay the cruise line or the hotel.


Dumbo

 

[RayJay]

Dean

Yes, thank you, good explanation, so basically there's only so many rooms available to timeshare owners. Once booked you could try a cash ressie, but I don't think I would do that unless I absolutely had to.

Thanks for the clarification.
Have a great weekend.

RayJay

 

[brittsmum1998]

Was a bit disappointed I couldn't do this for my parents. I was relieved I could get them a studio...hopefully it will be connected to our one bedroom (another post I guess ) Thank goodness they could afford the cash cause we sure as heck couldn't. Thats why we bought DVC.

 

[riggins]

Thanks to all for your posts . . . you are correct . . . and in this case, it worked out to my benefit. I was able to get a 1-bdrm at BWV in April for points, but Travelocity and Expedia showed it was booked for cash.

-Leslie