Booking at 7 month online

[Paticake]

Tomorrow is my 7 month window. I am going to try to book for the first time online. All 3 of my choices are available today. MS said booking begins at 8:00am. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. TIA

 

[jjb52]

Tomorrow is my 7 month window. I am going to try to book for the first time online. All 3 of my choices are available today. MS said booking begins at 8:00am. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. TIA

Have you investigated the online site and practised so you know the format?You will have a 1 hour head start over those calling so be ready with your info right at 8am. Once you have what you want you have time to get all the details in. It is very painless and easy to do. Good luck.

 

[Paticake]

I have been fooling around with online booking but only checking availability. I actually cancelled my current 5 nights so I can book online as I know you can't modify an existing ressie. Hoping for the best!

 

[drusba]

Just make sure you are ready to go at 8 a.m. eastern meaning that you have already filled out the lead page for resort wanted, category, dates, and number of guests and are ready to click continue as soon as 8 a.m. eastern occurs (but not before). Once you are to the second page and then confirm what you want and click, you thereafter get twenty minutes to do everything else needed to complete the reservation while the room is held.

For most things, doing it exactly at 8 a.m. probably does not matter. However, I have seen some rooms, like an opening at 7 months out for a boardwalk view studio, disappear entirely within a minute after 8 a.m.

 

[wdrl]

Do you have multiple deeds that you'll use to draw points from, or just a single deed? If you have just a single deed, then the Online Reservation System will automatically determine which points to use to book the reservation.

However, if you have multiple deeds from more than one home resort, you may want to consider ahead of time how you want the system to draw the points from your deeds.

I booked our upcoming stay at Aulani using the Online Reservation System. The following post shows how the system drew points from four of my deeds: http://dvcnews.com/forum/showthread.php?9877-Booked-Aulani-via-Online-Reservation

Good luck on making your reservation!

 

[Breyean]

Just make sure you are ready to go at 8 a.m. eastern meaning that you have already filled out the lead page for resort wanted, category, dates, and number of guests and are ready to click continue as soon as 8 a.m. eastern occurs (but not before). Once you are to the second page and then confirm what you want and click, you thereafter get twenty minutes to do everything else needed to complete the reservation while the room is held.

For most things, doing it exactly at 8 a.m. probably does not matter. However, I have seen some rooms, like an opening at 7 months out for a boardwalk view studio, disappear entirely within a minute after 8 a.m.

I did exactly this. I had made reservations online before, but for this one yesterday I knew it w/b a pressure packed few minutes. So the day before, I got up at 4:45a (I'm on West Coast time) and got my pc up and running, went to the DVC member page, and saw the room at the resort I wanted was available. Except this was actually a day BEFORE I really wanted to start my reservation - it was just for practice.

At 5a, my time, I pretended to cancel my reservation at my home resort then went back to the booking page. I needed to free up those points before I could book the resort I wanted to switch to. Took maybe 3-5 minutes. The room was already gone. Happened that fast.

So I decided for yesterday I had to take a chance and I canceled my home resort reservation before 5a. I once again saw the room at the resort I wanted was available starting the night I wanted to begin my stay. Right at 5a I grabbed the room and went through the rest of the booking process.

This took under 10 minutes. When I finished I went back out of curiosity and checked the resort again for that date - the room was blocked out, gone. Same as the day before, except this time I was the one who got it.

Later I called MS to make my room requests, and the CM commented that I had gotten the last studio at that resort for that date. I didn't know they could tell that, but he brought it up - I didn't ask.

So, yes. Practice. Have your fingers all loosened up. Especially if it's a resort with limited availability (which you can see based on the prior days according to the online booking system).

 

[Paticake]

Easy, peasy. I got my BLT lakeview studio right at 8:00am.

 

[Paticake]

That's not my post! Not sure why that came up weird. Anyway I got on just before 8:00am. and had my confirmation for Bay Lake Tower by 8:07. Easy, peasy!

 

[bobbiwoz]

That's not my post! Not sure why that came up weird. Anyway I got on just before 8:00am. and had my confirmation for Bay Lake Tower by 8:07. Easy, peasy!

Great!

 

[soulmates]

Great thread. We are new to DVC and will be making our first ressie in August. This is valuable information, thanks!

 

[DizDays]

This was really helpful information. I have to admit I'm a little nervous about those "stress-filled" moments waiting to see if you get ahead of someone else trying to get the same room. It's like sniping on E-bay. I don't think I have the nerves for it.

 

[Starr W.]

This was really helpful information. I have to admit I'm a little nervous about those "stress-filled" moments waiting to see if you get ahead of someone else trying to get the same room. It's like sniping on E-bay. I don't think I have the nerves for it.

It was no problem booking VGC right at the 7 month window last week while on vacation at 8am using one of our notebooks I'm not used to and worrying about the hotel's WIFI working.

It's the same as calling in and worrying if someone called a few seconds earlier. At least you can see it and once you click on the villa you have 20 minutes to type in your information.

 

[Buckeye Bob]

Are you able to check availability at a non-home resort prior to the 7-month window? I thought the only way to check availability prior to your 7-month window for a non-home resort was to ask another DVC member whose home resort you're hoping to get a reservation for to check the reservation system for you.

Is there another way? Thanks in advance for getting back to me and have a magical day!

 

[soulmates]

Good question, I'd like to know as well.

 

[DebbieB]

Are you able to check availability at a non-home resort prior to the 7-month window? I thought the only way to check availability prior to your 7-month window for a non-home resort was to ask another DVC member whose home resort you're hoping to get a reservation for to check the reservation system for you.

Is there another way? Thanks in advance for getting back to me and have a magical day!

You put in an earlier date and check up to 7 nights. So if you are arriving on 11/15 for 5 nights, you could go into the system today and check 11/13 for 7 nights to see if there is availability for your nights. You could even do a form of "walking" by booking all 7 nights and then canceling the first 2 on Sunday (assuming you don't need to borrow points).

 

[Buckeye Bob]

You put in an earlier date and check up to 7 nights. So if you are arriving on 11/15 for 5 nights, you could go into the system today and check 11/13 for 7 nights to see if there is availability for your nights. You could even do a form of "walking" by booking all 7 nights and then canceling the first 2 on Sunday (assuming you don't need to borrow points).

Of course, that makes perfect sense! Thanks for the information!

 

[soulmates]

You put in an earlier date and check up to 7 nights. So if you are arriving on 11/15 for 5 nights, you could go into the system today and check 11/13 for 7 nights to see if there is availability for your nights. You could even do a form of "walking" by booking all 7 nights and then canceling the first 2 on Sunday (assuming you don't need to borrow points).

AWESOME! Makes total sense, thanks!

 

[Paticake]

I kept checking all week prior to my 7 month to see availabilty. I wanted to know if I even had a chance. For the first part of our trip I needed a 2 and a 1 bdrm for 4 nights. I was able to see ahead of time that BLT was not available, the 1 bdrm at VVWL was not available so we decided to leave those ressies alone. (Family and inlaw weekend). DH and I are staying by ourselves for the 5 days after they all go home and really wanted to try BLT. It was so easy.