Best Way to Make/Manage Reservation

[Maxwell42]

Tomorrow is the opening of my 7 month window to reserve our 5 night stay in the fall. My wife and I are traveling with friends and want a 2BR. My preferences for resorts that I can afford to book are as follows:

1. AKV Jambo (4 of 5 nights currently available - only missing our 1st night)
2. BRV
3. CCV (not currently available for our dates)
4. AKV Kidani - if I can't get Jambo, I'd rather stay at BCV/CCV

Considering my top 2 priorities, what I would like to end up with right now is our first night at BRV, then moving to AKV Jambo for the rest of our stay. Then I'll waitlist our arrival night at Jambo and try to get in there for our entire stay. I can book BRV tomorrow and then AKV on Wednesday, but the 2BR at Jambo might be gone on Wednesday if someone grabs up the available studios before I can book it (as all 2BR at Jambo are lockoffs).

I also need to add that I'm borrowing points for this stay. Our use year is December, so if I borrow more than I'm going to use, then I'll lose them. So I don't want to double book anything that I have to cancel, and I also don't have enough points available to hold two separate bookings at once.

So what's the best way to handle this?

1. Book one night at BRV tomorrow, then book the other 4 nights at either AKV or BRV on Wednesday depending on availability, OR
2. Book all 5 nights at BRV tomorrow to ensure that I have a reservation in hand, and then try to modify it and grab AKV on Wednesday if it's available.

One more thing - I know and appreciate that many of you are Kidani fans and might be inclined to ask why I don't just book there. I have stayed at Jambo and visited Kidani several times, so I'm familiar with both. Having the grand lobby and amenities of Jambo right outside my door is a major factor to me personally, so that's why I have them ranked that way. I'm not opposed to staying at Kidani - it just wouldn't be my preference.

Thanks in advance for your expert advice!

 

[WinterSolider]

Tomorrow is the opening of my 7 month window to reserve our 5 night stay in the fall. My wife and I are traveling with friends and want a 2BR. My preferences for resorts that I can afford to book are as follows:

1. AKV Jambo (4 of 5 nights currently available - only missing our 1st night)
2. BRV
3. CCV (not currently available for our dates)
4. AKV Kidani - if I can't get Jambo, I'd rather stay at BCV/CCV

Considering my top 2 priorities, what I would like to end up with right now is our first night at BRV, then moving to AKV Jambo for the rest of our stay. Then I'll waitlist our arrival night at Jambo and try to get in there for our entire stay. I can book BRV tomorrow and then AKV on Wednesday, but the 2BR at Jambo might be gone on Wednesday if someone grabs up the available studios before I can book it (as all 2BR at Jambo are lockoffs).

I also need to add that I'm borrowing points for this stay. Our use year is December, so if I borrow more than I'm going to use, then I'll lose them. So I don't want to double book anything that I have to cancel, and I also don't have enough points available to hold two separate bookings at once.

So what's the best way to handle this?

1. Book one night at BRV tomorrow, then book the other 4 nights at either AKV or BRV on Wednesday depending on availability, OR
2. Book all 5 nights at BRV tomorrow to ensure that I have a reservation in hand, and then try to modify it and grab AKV on Wednesday if it's available.

One more thing - I know and appreciate that many of you are Kidani fans and might be inclined to ask why I don't just book there. I have stayed at Jambo and visited Kidani several times, so I'm familiar with both. Having the grand lobby and amenities of Jambo right outside my door is a major factor to me personally, so that's why I have them ranked that way. I'm not opposed to staying there - it just wouldn't be my preference.

Thanks in advance for your expert advice!

I loathe split stays so my personal recommendation would be to just book 5 nights at BRV and be done with it. I also really like staying in newly-refurbished rooms so that's an added plus.

You can also add OTUP in lieu of borrowing if you want to consider that route.

 

[Maxwell42]

I loathe split stays so my personal recommendation would be to just book 5 nights at BRV and be done with it. I also really like staying in newly-refurbished rooms so that's an added plus.

You can also add OTUP in lieu of borrowing if you want to consider that route.

Thanks - we've never done a split stay and I'm not philosophically opposed to it, but I agree it's not ideal. I'm just thinking we have a pretty good shot at getting that other night at AKV via waitlist, so I'm kinda banking on that. But I'd be really happy with BRV too.

We're also looking at booking another trip in December for my daughter's college graduation trip, and she wants to bring a friend and do a split stay then. I don't really want to do a split stay on both trips, so that's another thing to consider. Maybe I'll book all 5 nights at BRV and waitlist 5 nights at AKV - then I'll be happy either way.

 

[Disdreaming479]

I would book whichever is 100% available and then set a waitlist for top choice. That way you are booked and no stalking needed ( unless you like to do that).

 

[intamin]

Thanks - we've never done a split stay and I'm not philosophically opposed to it, but I agree it's not ideal. I'm just thinking we have a pretty good shot at getting that other night at AKV via waitlist, so I'm kinda banking on that. But I'd be really happy with BRV too.

We're also looking at booking another trip in December for my daughter's college graduation trip, and she wants to bring a friend and do a split stay then. I don't really want to do a split stay on both trips, so that's another thing to consider. Maybe I'll book all 5 nights at BRV and waitlist 5 nights at AKV - then I'll be happy either way.

Just as a counterpoint my partner and I are big fans of split stays. Personally I'd book all 5 nights at BRV first. After the first 2 days pass, modify down the reservation to just the first 2 nights and book the remaining 3 nights at Jambo House if they're available. If you want to split stay, cool. Leave it as is. If you want all in Jambo, waitlist Jambo for the first 2 nights to replace BRV. Just make sure you're not over-borrowing for this reservation by switching from 5 nights at BRV to 5 nights at AKV. I don't know which one is more expensive for your time frame tbh. Once the waitlist comes through (if it does), just contact member services and ask them to link the reservations.

If you loathe split stays like @WinterSolider up there though, don't even risk it. Just book all 5 at BRV and be done with it. I've stayed in the 2BR at BRV since they renovated it and they're nice rooms. If anything, something to consider is AKV does not yet have murphy beds so if you have people who are going to be using potentially pull out beds, BRV may be the better option.

 

[Maxwell42]

Thanks, @intamin. I booked this morning and saw a lot of changing availability throughout the first 2-3 hours that the booking window was open - presumably, people are booking what they want and canceling at their home resort. So I lost out on BRV initially and settled for Kidani, and I waitlisted Jambo and BRV. Then, about an hour later, I saw CCV available and jumped on that. But that was fewer points than I had borrowed, so I called to see if I could get a kind soul in member services who would push my handful of borrowed points back into my 2024 use year. She said no, but while I was on the phone with her, my waitlist at Jambo opened up and I jumped on that.

But this is all good thinking in preparation for booking our December trip in a few months. My daughter wants to do a split stay for Dec. 17-22 (5 nights), and I'm really concerned about what will be available at 7 months for that time frame.

Her first choice is a 3/2 split at BRV and Riviera (2BR at both, preferred is fine at Riviera). I think we're going to try for 5 nights initially at BRV/CCV, and then see if we can modify it to 3 nights and pick up Riviera. But I'm advising her to have a few other options in mind, including a "safe" option that we're likely to be able to get (SSR or Kidani), and to be happy sticking with our initial 5 night booking if nothing else good is available for the final 2. Also, I'm thinking we'd have pretty good odds picking up a good waitlist for those last 2 nights if we can't get what we want initially.