Can I see availability online ?

TimRLewis

Earning My Ears
Joined
May 10, 2018
Messages
4
I am looking at possible DVC Ownership (via re-sale) .... as a member is it possible to look online and check availability at different resorts before male a reservation request ?
 
Members can log into their accounts on the website and check availability prior to actually booking using the “resort availability tool”. This is not avail for nonmember use.
 
Also members don’t have to make a “reservation request” like a renter does. As long as they set up their web account they can go right from the checking availability tool to booking the open room online as long as they are withing the 7/11 month booking window.
 
Generally speaking, remember it is hard to book studios at the 7 month mark, especially in the Fall, Oct-Dec. Not impossible, but limited perhaps to the larger resorts at most times of the year. Of course there are exceptions, I mean in general. So if your plan is to buy in a location that you are not planning on staying, in a studio, you may have a hard time. 1 BRs are much easier.

The resort availability tool is wonderful, I wish I could use something similar to book cash rooms. Haha.
 

Thanks guys ... so I could look at good flights prices and check availability at Home and other resorts ( 7 months out)..... what is short term availability like eg 4-6 weeks out for a 7 day plus stay ? I understand it is dependent on time of your ... or is it a case of if your not booked in at a 7 month window forget it ?
 
Not necessarily forget it but for a good portion of the year it will be slim pickings for a 7 day stay at 4-6 weeks out. You may be able to swing it sometimes (summer tends to be easiest I think) but still I don’t think I would count on it working for the next few decades. Also chances are you’d have to piece the stay together at different resorts and/or move rooms for that many days (unless SSR is avail). If you routinely can’t book more than 4-6 weeks out DVC may not be the best fit for you. The fall through early Jan is especially tough and can be hard to even get a place at SSR at the last minute for a week stay.
 
This is a link to the 60 day availability page on the Disney vacation club website. Keep in mind this isn’t updated in real time but gives you a snapshot of what availability looks like over the next two months. In general this is probably the easiest time of year for last minute bookings so keep that in mind. The fall would be MUCH harder.

https://disneyvacationclub.disney.go.com/vacation-planning/resort-availability-stays/
 
This is not real time, but it is pretty good. If you pick various dates from now to year-end, you'll see a pretty wide range of availability. Keep in mind that what is available may be a single unit; even in RAT we cannot see how many of something is available:

https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator
 
Thanks guys ... so I could look at good flights prices and check availability at Home and other resorts ( 7 months out)..... what is short term availability like eg 4-6 weeks out for a 7 day plus stay ? I understand it is dependent on time of your ... or is it a case of if your not booked in at a 7 month window forget it ?
If you can only book 4-6 weeks out, DVC will only frustrate you. There are times you need to book no later than 10.5 months out or you are going to be frustrated. Seven months out is only getting harder.
 
Thanks guys ... so I could look at good flights prices and check availability at Home and other resorts ( 7 months out)..... what is short term availability like eg 4-6 weeks out for a 7 day plus stay ? I understand it is dependent on time of your ... or is it a case of if your not booked in at a 7 month window forget it ?

4-6 weeks out you can hope to luck into something for 7 nights but mostly it will take a lot of work and probably lots of split stays and moves if that's the idea for normal use of DVC. I would never recommend someone purchase thinking that would work out for them.
 
Thanks guys ... so I could look at good flights prices and check availability at Home and other resorts ( 7 months out)..... what is short term availability like eg 4-6 weeks out for a 7 day plus stay ? I understand it is dependent on time of your ... or is it a case of if your not booked in at a 7 month window forget it ?

You'll have to learn to love making DVC reservations before flight schedules are released, nevermind waiting for a good price.
 
One of the other things about any availability tools you get as a member is that they don't tell you how many of anything is available. With hundreds of thousands of members, room inventory can move quickly, and availability means that there is at least one of whatever you are looking at. So if you aren't ready to book, especially within seven months of your trip, its pretty useless.

With a timeshare - and this is pretty true of any timeshare - you need to plan your accommodations far in advance of your trip. There are some people who can make "I just want to get away in a few weeks, where is there a cheap flight and timeshare availability last minute" work - but that often involves RCI last minute deals, and that won't be on site at Disney or any high demand resort.
 
You'll have to learn to love making DVC reservations before flight schedules are released, nevermind waiting for a good price.
On our upcoming Thanksgiving trip, it is actually costing a few hundred less for us to fly in the day before our DVC reservation starts, and spend 1 night at the Hyatt at the airport. DVC reservation was booked in December 2017. 8am at the 11 mo window. Hyatt and flights booked a couple of months ago.
 
We book the stay we want and find flights to match. We will add a day at Value etc on front end if we end up finding a flight that we like for a day earlier. Not sure where you fly from, but flights for us at 4 to 6 weeks are not deals like they use to be, especially during peak times.
 















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