Booking - speed question

[supercarrie]

I'm getting ready to make my first DVC 7 month booking. When you go through the process of booking, once you select a reservation to make, does it put it in a "cart" like system where you have a few minutes to review and check out before it dumps your hold, or is it literally the fastest finger gets to book situation?

Trying to determine if I need to sync everything up like we do with virtual queues for attractions and be prepared to "click click click", or if I have a little bit more leeway while I review my booking, point allocation, etc.

ETA - Sorry! realized this should probably not be in "Purchasing DVC" but "DVC Member Services."

 

[eticketplease]

If you’ve clicked on your resort and accommodation level and selected your dates and after pressing continue, it takes you to a new page that says your room is available you can then sort of take your time. That next page will allow you select your contract(s) and what order to pull the points from. Ie if you were booking PVB and had SSR and BCV points you would probably select to use the SSR contract first.

 

[DVChris]

You will need to be quick. I would practice in the days prior to make sure you are familiar with the info on each of the screens to book a reservation. There’s not much time to review so you will need to click through quickly until you get final confirmation.

One tip - add other people to the reservation later after you get the room. This will help save time so you are faster than others. Good luck!

 

[davidhr]

Once you click continue and the system tells you that there’s a room available, it’ll hold that room until you complete the booking (I guess at some point it’ll time out, but I haven’t waited for that long lol). No need to rush.

 

[davidhr]

You will need to be quick. I would practice in the days prior to make sure you are familiar with the info on each of the screens to book a reservation. There’s not much time to review so you will need to click through quickly until you get final confirmation.

One tip - add other people to the reservation later after you get the room. This will help save time so you are faster than others. Good luck!

They changed that some time ago. There’s no need to rush now as the system holds the room for you.

 

[eticketplease]

Once you click continue and the system tells you that there’s a room available, it’ll hold that room until you complete the booking (I guess at some point it’ll time out, but I haven’t waited for that long lol). No need to rush.

Yup just like I said above

Your words are certainly clearer though

 

[MagicDVC]

Once you click continue and the system says your room is available, you do have about 20 mins to choose the contracts and list the people. I know once you get to that screen and somehow the browser closes, that room will be unavailable until the system times out for 20 mins. Unfortunately, I speak from experience. I had a BCV studio and when I got to select my contracts, my browser closed unexpectedly. I was able to book the room once it was released after refreshing the booking tool what seemed to be about 100 times.

 

[Sandisw]

They changed that some time ago. There’s no need to rush now as the system holds the room for you.

I lost one not to long ago as I was choosing the contracts…and the dwarves showed up…room was gone…I definitely would not take time to add other names since I lost out…

 

[supercarrie]

Thanks all for the input! So speedy but not lightspeed seems to be the consensus.

 

[drusba]

I lost one not to long ago as I was choosing the contracts…and the dwarves showed up…room was gone…I definitely would not take time to add other names since I lost out…

Agree. There is always a risk that the DVC system could experience a problem and shut down for a while. For that reason, I go through the entire process of reserving a room as quickly as I can, including by providing only the lead name on the room occupancy page when doing it, and add others via a modification after I have already completed reserving the room.

 

[TheLyinKing]

Book ASAP. And if you have more than 1 traveler in your party, you can always modify it later. Just do yourself and book. If you try to add your other travelers it could be too late.

 

[davidhr]

Agree on doing it quickly. Just pointing out that you don’t need to be lightning fast.

Even being quick through the screens, the system can crash at any point.

 

[CarolynFH]

I lost one not to long ago as I was choosing the contracts…and the dwarves showed up…room was gone…I definitely would not take time to add other names since I lost out…

I'm curious - when booking, do you put into the search boxes the actual number of guests you'll have, or do you always search for just 1 adult even though your actual party will be larger? I ask because when I was booking a villa for our visit in January, when it will be 4 adults and an infant, that's what I put in the search boxes, and when I got to the page to enter guest's names it seemed as if it wouldn't let me continue to the next page until I filled everything in for every guest. It was frustrating because I just wanted to leave myself as lead guest and get on with choosing contracts, etc.!

 

[sndral]

I avoid the 7 month dance, but thought I’ve read about people who’ve lost time by getting too far before the window opens & having to start over after it opens?

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I'm curious - when booking, do you put into the search boxes the actual number of guests you'll have, or do you always search for just 1 adult even though your actual party will be larger? I ask because when I was booking a villa for our visit in January, when it will be 4 adults and an infant, that's what I put in the search boxes, and when I got to the page to enter guest's names it seemed as if it wouldn't let me continue to the next page until I filled everything in for every guest. It was frustrating because I just wanted to leave myself as lead guest and get on with choosing contracts, etc.!

If I remember correctly, the default when booking is it comes up with 2 adults. I don't ever worry about that - I just leave it and move on to availability. Then, as mentioned above, I go back and add the actual people on the reservation later during a 'modify' stage of the reservation, after I have the room reserved. If you're the person making the reservation, you'll be primary on the reservation, and can modify later.

So, yes, you can have yourself as lead guest, fill in your info, and move on during that actual reservation process.

 

[Sandisw]

I'm curious - when booking, do you put into the search boxes the actual number of guests you'll have, or do you always search for just 1 adult even though your actual party will be larger? I ask because when I was booking a villa for our visit in January, when it will be 4 adults and an infant, that's what I put in the search boxes, and when I got to the page to enter guest's names it seemed as if it wouldn't let me continue to the next page until I filled everything in for every guest. It was frustrating because I just wanted to leave myself as lead guest and get on with choosing contracts, etc.!

Leave it at one…get booked and then go back and add the rest!!

 

[CarolynFH]

So, yes, you can have yourself as lead guest, fill in your info, and move on during that actual reservation process.

Leave it at one…get booked and then go back and add the rest!!

Thank y'all both - in future when time is of the essence (when is it not, when booking nowadays) I'll tell the search page I'm a party of 1 and then just surprise it when I add guests later, after I get the villa I want!

 

[eticketplease]

You can actually just leave it at two. When you get to the guest section it will have your information filled out. There are no boxes to fill out for guest 2. You can click the plus to add the guest but if you’re trying to complete this asap I would just click continue and then take the suggested address that pops up.

If I remember correctly it used to require guests 2’s information but they seemed to have removed that awhile ago.

 

[LadybugsMum]

If I remember correctly it used to require guests 2’s information but they seemed to have removed that awhile ago.

I've been a member since summer 2020 and have never been required to put in more than one guest.

 

[Genie+]

Thank y'all both - in future when time is of the essence (when is it not, when booking nowadays) I'll tell the search page I'm a party of 1 and then just surprise it when I add guests later, after I get the villa I want!

Surprise! That is the way to do it if you want to be a ninja. Just book lead guest at first.

The specific occupancy is likely to help prevent people from booking a villa that cannot fit them all. It can be tricky with studios that sleep 4 or 5, 1BRs that sleep 4 or 5, etc. If you already know your target room/resort works for your group, you can update occupancy later by modifying the reservation.