Booking At Other Than Home Resort

[jrtoastyman]

I gather that you can book out 11 months for your "home" property, and 7 months for other DVC properties. This raises a couple of questions:

-If you book at your home resort at the 11 month mark (or somewhere between 7 and 11 months out), is it anticipated that you'd be able to book pretty much whatever you want and be accommodated?

-What have people's experiences been booking at other DVC properties at 7 months? Is there generally a fair amount of availability?

To put a little more meat on the bone, my home property is BLT. On an upcoming trip, we'd like to be there at a specific time. We'd rather stay at AKV on this particular trip, but the date is ultimately the most important thing. If we waited to book at the 7 months mark, would there be a reasonably good chance I'd get in at AKV, and if not, am I then risking BLT not having space for me? For the purposes of this trip, if we weren't staying at AKV or BLT, we'd probably prefer to just pick another time to go.

Thanks!

 

[Deb & Bill]

You need to book BLT now. When you get to your seven month timeframe, call MS and see if AKV is available for your dates. If it is, you can cancel the BLT and book AKV. If it is not, you still have BLT.

Otherwise, if you wait to book BLT, it might not be available either at your time. If you want to stay in a themepark view or standard view, you need to book those as soon as you can, otherwise, they book up and aren't available.

But BLT will take more points than AKV, so as long as you didn't borrow points and you still have time in your UY to bank the current year points, you won't lose any.

 

[DMKEDM]

The answer to your question is "it depends" (helpful, right? Grin)

Seriously...if you want AKL Concierge, your chances at 7 months are not good...since there are so few concierge rooms, you chances aren't all that good at 11 months, either! Also--New Year's Eve, Christmas, Thanksgiving, spring break time frames book faster--often early in the 11-to-7 month time frame.

But if you're going at a "non-particularly busy time" (e.g., June), your chances of getting AKV are really good...assuming you don't "have to have" one of the limited number of value rooms or even more limited number of concierge rooms...

The size of the villa you want can affect your chances, too...grand villas, a studio & a 2-bedroom are, as I understand it, the first size villas to book...one-bedrooms last a bit longer--

The PP's advice to book at BLT at 11 months out, and then try to switch over to AKV at 7 months is good, assuming you're still in your banking window at 7 months...

Also, think about using a waitlist...if one or two nights of your desired stay is not available at 7 months at AKL, try using the W/L...chances of that are also good at 7 months, especially if it's just a night or two...you can also choose to waitlist your whole trip, rather than the missing nights, if you don't want to risk having to move...just remember you can only have two active waitlists at once, and there are numerous booking categories at AKV--Kidani or Jambo, value, standard or savannah view--each of those requires a separate wait list...

But I'd say if you're not looking for a concierge AKV villa on New Year's Eve, you have a pretty good shot at getting an AKV villa at 7 months...

Good luck!

 

[jrtoastyman]

very helpful tips, thanks to both of you. Didn't even think of booking BLT as a fall-back, and feel a little silly about it now. Anyway, thanks again.

 

[mjc2003]

-What have people's experiences been booking at other DVC properties at 7 months? Is there generally a fair amount of availability?

We are new members, and got our points end of April inside of the 7 month mark of our desired travel time, which was the 2nd week of November (we were right around 6.5 months). I ended up with an AKV Grand Villa for 4 nights, and BCV 2 Bedroom for 5 nights. We are thrilled. It took a decent amount of legwork, not everything was available right away...I had to call back and got a little lucky adding a day or changing around the Waitlists, but it wasn't difficult and we got it done.
We have also been considering a last minute summer trip. We originally were looking at a weekend near the end of July. We found availability at 3 different resorts for a 1 BR. We then switched our travel time to the end of August; again, 3 different resorts available. So as you can see, inside of 7 months there is availability, assuming you will be diligent and increasingly flexible (to include split stays).



To put a little more meat on the bone, my home property is BLT. On an upcoming trip, we'd like to be there at a specific time. We'd rather stay at AKV on this particular trip, but the date is ultimately the most important thing. If we waited to book at the 7 months mark, would there be a reasonably good chance I'd get in at AKV, and if not, am I then risking BLT not having space for me? For the purposes of this trip, if we weren't staying at AKV or BLT, we'd probably prefer to just pick another time to go.


Definitely do as suggested here and get a backup at BLT. I don't know when you are looking to travel, but assuming it's not a crazy holiday week you should be able to get something at AKV at 7 months (except for Concierge). For our November trip AKV availability popped up quite regularly. It's a very big resort.
Thanks![/QUOTE]

 

[DE_Chris]

We have been members at OKW since 1997 and have seldom had any problems at the 7 month window. I would book your home resort at the 11 month window as a back-up and try to switch at 7 months. I've also been wait-listed a number of times for last minute reservations and always made it (once just the day before I flew down).

 

[Granny]

very helpful tips, thanks to both of you. Didn't even think of booking BLT as a fall-back, and feel a little silly about it now. Anyway, thanks again.

Don't feel silly. It's the strategy that most people use to make sure they have some place to stay for a trip even if they intend to try for another place at the 7 month mark.

Even so, it can be a little tricky depending on the resorts involved and UY timing. BLT has some of the highest points per night of all the DVC resorts. So if you book, for example, 7 nights in a 1BR at BLT then switch to another resort at 7 months you might use fewer points. The difference goes into your points account. Depending on where you are in your UY, it may be too late to bank those points, so you have to watch for that.

There are some other strategies around the point differentials for various resorts, and you just need to be on top of your point status to make sure you don't let points expire.

Good luck!

 

[tjkraz]

...is it anticipated that you'd be able to book pretty much whatever you want and be accommodated?

Absolutely, positively not.

Nationwide hotels average about 65-70% occupancy. Disney hotels are closer to 90%. In effect, that means you could call the day before arrival and most hotels could accommodate you.

But this isn't a hotel...it's a timeshare. Timeshares are designed to be at 100% occupancy year-round. As such, the proverbial early bird gets the worm. There will be times when owners fully book a resort before non-owners even get access at 7 months. There will be times when any 7 month availability is gobbled up within minutes or hours of those dates coming available.

As others said, book your Home and try to change later. Do NOT ever expect that you will have carte blanche access to all resorts and views. And don't think that you can call "just to check" and find the same availability a few hours or days later. At 7 months you're competing with 300,000+ owners for limited availability. First come, first served.

We have been members at OKW since 1997 and have seldom had any problems at the 7 month window. I would book your home resort at the 11 month window as a back-up and try to switch at 7 months. I've also been wait-listed a number of times for last minute reservations and always made it (once just the day before I flew down).

Of course nobody knows what resort you were trying to book at 7 months, what time of year, what room size, what view, or even how many attempts were made.

I would caution anyone against giving a whole lot of credence to general comments like this. I'm not questioning DE_Chris' experiences, but the problem is there is no way of knowing whether this apparent success will translate similarly to the intents of other members.

Without breaking a sweat, I could name a dozen different resort/view/date combos that are highly unlikely to be available at 7 months.