Borrowing question

[honeymo78]

Can you borrow only once, only in certain increments. We might need to borrow 8 points for our 2009 vacation. What happens if we change our mind and stay either fewer days or in a studio instead of a 1 bedroom - do those points just go back to the next year.

Also question regarding owning at 2 resorts - here is the scenario: we want to stay 7 nights however our current contract doesn't have enough for the whole week - we'd be about 20 short. Could we book the whole week under the home resort contract, techinically using borrowed points for the last night, then at 7months try to get that last day out of the current year's pooled points from the nonhome resort. Would rather not have to borrow from the home resort's pool, because each year we would end up having to borrow more and more if we kept up the same vacation schedule. The other contract would likely end up banking points, especially if some of those points didn't go to the larger length of stay at resort 1.

Did that make any sense at all?

 

[MAO]

According to the book, you borrow only those points you need to fulfill a specific reservation. Once borrowed, you can't return them (via banking or transfer) to the system. Presumably, if your reservation is cancelled the borrowed points are somehow held though the book does say that if they aren't used by the end of the UY you borrowed into they will expire.

So I think the answer to the second question is one you won't like -- yes you can borrow the points to make the reservation but no, you can't then turn around and use the points from the second Home Resort and return the borrowed points back to their original year.

 

[honeymo78]

okay makes sense.,and in the long run if we end up not being able to use those borrowed 8 points no big deal.

In the second situation, it might be better to just book the 6 nights at the home, then try to add 1 more night on with the 2nd home resort points. Unless we absolutely have our hearts set on the 7night stay and then just suck it up and take the hit from next years points.

Ultimately it will probably end up depending on how hard/easy it turns out to be to book nights at our 1st home at the 7 month window.

 

[MAO]

I don't know how your vacation schedule works out, but you might consider setting the 6 day reservation to start/end during the middle of the week. I'd think (though I have no experience with this so you might want to talk to MS first) that it would be easier to get a one night stay with the points from the second contract on a Tue/Wed/Thur night than over a weekend.

 

[honeymo78]

I never thought about that, however we usually start our vacation on a wed so that might work out well, even trying to add on at the beginning or end

 

[drusba]

Once you borrow points, you can never send them back to the year from which they are borrowed and must use them in the year into which you have brought them by borrowing; so you cannot make that desired switch at 7 months. There are no limits to number of times you can borrow but you only borrow when you are making a reservation and need to do so. The limit to number of points you can borrow is up to your total annual allotment of points in the year from which you will borrow.

In your situation, best strategy would be to book 6 nights with the regular home resort points and then try to get extra night at 7 months using non-home resort points. Moreover, if you do that you should plan a trip that has you arriving on a Sat or Sun (not during the week as mentioned above) so you can get six consecutive nights and make the one night you need to get at 7 months a Fri or Sat night; reason: those weekend nights, which cost more points than Sun through Thurs night, are very often wide open at 7 months out even when Sun through Thurs nights are fully booked. Note, that strategy may not work for certain times of year, particularly the whole month of December, DVC's highest occupancy season, when it can often be impossible to get anything at 7 months out.