Can you get a Grand Villa at the 7 month Window?

[rstackjd]

I'm wondering what the group thinks the chances are of getting a GV at OKW in August (not this year, just in general) when booking at the 7 month window? OKW is not our home resort but for GV in August they are A LOT less points than AKV and would make the trip easier to pull off. There will be a fair amount of flexibility in dates - it will jsut have to be sometime in July or August, so maybe that helps. We are also looking at Sunday to Friday (five nights).

The fear of course is that if we skip the 11 month window at AKV and then can't get one at OKW at 7 months, then we're screwed.

Thoughts?

 

[hellerjw]

I too would like to know everyone's experience with doing something like this. We are looking at this exact situation for June 2009. We can try for a GV at AKV at 11 months but the point costs are 200+ pts higher than one at OKW.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Not very likely. It might be possible, but not really probable. You need to book at your home resort first and then see if you can rebook at 7 months exactly, day by day. But at your home resort, book at two bedroom and studio to use less points - unless you really don't want to be in two different villas. But you will have points left over that you will have to try to bank if you have at least four + months left in your use year. And if you borrow you can't unborrow and put them back.

 

[Coastie]

An option to consider if you want to use your points and reserve at the 11 month window. We did not have enough BWV points to book a GV for the week of Christmas for 7 nights so we swapped reservations from our VWL for BWV with another member. I booked the first 6 nights and they booked the last night for us. Then I booked a reservation for them at the 11 month window at the VWL. This is the second time doing this and has worked great. No money exchange... just one-for-one point exchange.

 

[rstackjd]

An option to consider if you want to use your points and reserve at the 11 month window. We did not have enough BWV points to book a GV for the week of Christmas for 7 nights so we swapped reservations from our VWL for BWV with another member. I booked the first 6 nights and they booked the last night for us. Then I booked a reservation for them at the 11 month window at the VWL. This is the second time doing this and has worked great. No money exchange... just one-for-one point exchange.

Ok, so for example, if we needed say 225 points at OKW for what we want to do, I might find someone with OKW with as their Home resort (who had 225 points available) and who wanted to book at the 11 month window at AKV (our home resort) and then swap 225 AKV for 225 at OKW? Then we make simultaneous reservations for each other under the home resort priority and everyone is happy. Cool, that actually makes sense.

Thanks

 

[sarhenty]

An option to consider if you want to use your points and reserve at the 11 month window. We did not have enough BWV points to book a GV for the week of Christmas for 7 nights so we swapped reservations from our VWL for BWV with another member. I booked the first 6 nights and they booked the last night for us. Then I booked a reservation for them at the 11 month window at the VWL. This is the second time doing this and has worked great. No money exchange... just one-for-one point exchange.

How did you go about getting that done? As far as posting here on the boards or someone you knew personally? I imagine there had to be quite a level of trust??

 

[Coastie]

The process actually started on the rent/trade bulletin board. The DVC member had rented points from me before many years back and we developed a high level of trust over the years. Keep in mind, in this type of transaction, both members have control over the other's reservation and written confirmation is provided by DVC. The level of risk is the same for both DVC members... no way near the risk associated with renting.

rstackjd... If I understand your question correctly... yes, you make the reservation at the 11 month window for the other DVC member. Then, they, likewise, make a reservation for you at the 11 month window. I would think AKV is probably in higher demand than OKW and you should not have any trouble.

Keep in mind the posting rules and you can ask for references.

 

[glovelsu]

we were able to get one for the first week of may doing day by day reservations. i think a lot of it is luck and being able to go at a slower time of year.