Currently at Day 22 of ROFR — Hoping to Book Outside SSR for late Sept.

[gvel]

Hi all,

I'm currently on day 22 of the ROFR process for a Saratoga Springs contract. Our plan is to travel 9/27–10/3, and we're aiming to book a 1-bedroom. Assuming the contract passes, I'm expecting the points to be loaded sometime around mid-June.

While I’m confident we could book a 1BR at SSR at that point, we’d prefer to stay elsewhere—ideally BoardWalk Villas or Bay Lake Tower. I’m open to other resorts too, and I’m absolutely willing to put in the effort to stalk availability daily or set up waitlists.

In your experience, how realistic is it to snag a 1BR at another property booking in mid-June for late September? Any strategies that have worked for you? Appreciate any insight!

 

[Frederic Civish]

Hi. If you can get it soon, you should be able to get your time at SSR. As for other resorts and places? Well, AKV often has a fair number of 1 bedrooms available, this far out, but they are going fast. Since you are also specifically looking for Boardwalk they tend to fill up their 1 bedrooms GARDEN VIEW, last, so some might be available.

In general, at most resorts, the RESORT VIEW (Standard View) studios go first. And then the PREFERRED VIEW Studios. Then the Resort View 2 bedrooms before the Preferred View 2 bedrooms. And finally, the Resort View 1 bedrooms followed by the Preferred View one bedrooms. Of course, ALL of these things are happening at once, and it also deponds on the RATIOS of these different categories at each resort.

Learning to use the Waitlist is one of the best things you can do, when you are looking for a particular type of unit at a particular resort, and when you are still AT LEAST 2 or 3 or 4 months out. Of course, you are also much more likely to have Waitlist requests filled, if it is a LARGE resort with lots of rooms, since this tends to provide more turnover. So SSR, OKW and AKV tend to top this list of places where you are likely to get your waitlist requests.

So learn to use the Waitlists, and use them as early as possible. I have had great success with them. Always make sure to reserve SOMETHING, SOMEWHERE (If anything at all is available) and this will be your FALL BACK reservation if the waitlist doesn't come through. And then set up 1 or 2 waitlists and specify that they should REPLACE the current reservation, automatically, i they come through.

Good luck.

 

[Sandisw]

Reminder to everyone…do not sure availability showing today!

That is a busy time but you never know. Things change all the time so until you are ready to book, what is there today could be gone, and what is gone today could show up!

Being willing to check constantly will be the best way to try and stay elsewhere!

 

[Frederic Civish]

Reminder to everyone…do not sure availability showing today!

That is a busy time but you never know. Things change all the time so until you are ready to book, what is there today could be gone, and what is gone today could show up!

Being willing to check constantly will be the best way to try and stay elsewhere!

Yes. People that check back frequently and do it themselves usually have the best success.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Stalking is key. Waitlists are a good back up but nothing beats stalking. People cancel all the time. You might have to be open to a split stay with it being that many days.

 

[sndral]

Hi all,

I'm currently on day 22 of the ROFR process for a Saratoga Springs contract. Our plan is to travel 9/27–10/3, and we're aiming to book a 1-bedroom. Assuming the contract passes, I'm expecting the points to be loaded sometime around mid-June.

While I’m confident we could book a 1BR at SSR at that point, we’d prefer to stay elsewhere—ideally BoardWalk Villas or Bay Lake Tower. I’m open to other resorts too, and I’m absolutely willing to put in the effort to stalk availability daily or set up waitlists.

In your experience, how realistic is it to snag a 1BR at another property booking in mid-June for late September? Any strategies that have worked for you? Appreciate any insight!

If your plan is for a 7 day stay from 9/27 - 10/3, getting anywhere other than SSR may be challenging & even SSR isn’t guaranteed, according to the charts here https://dvcfieldguide.com/availability-tables 1 br. preferred views at BWV, BLT & AKV Kidani are unlikely. W/ the food & wine festival, the Halloween parties, & the reasonable point charts, fall is in demand.
When your points load after you close book what you can - likely SSR. If there’s an available night or 2 at one of the other resorts you want & you’re willing to do a split stay then book it that way. So, for example, you might book nights 1-3 at SSR, night 4 at BLT, nights 5-6 at SSR. Waitlist both SSR stays w/ BLT. Then start stalking & adjust your SSR reservations as you grab any nights that pop up at your target resort - BLT. Hopefully you’ll end up where you want to be rather than having multiple moves. I’m a bit risk averse & like to stay put, so I’d likely just book SSR if I could & try a very long shot 6 night waitlist at BLT & AKV - Kidani (I wouldn’t try for BWV, it’s too popular during F&W,) but if you’re more adventurous & ok w/ a split stay - good luck.

 

[Frederic Civish]

Somebody in our group just got a reservation for 5 days at Beach Club, scheduled for about 20 days from now, and they didn't use the waitlist (since we are within 30 days and it works less well when you get that close.). First, they got 2 days, then over the next week, they checked multiple times per day - I think they essentially had a browser open on their computer - and they were able to find and add one day at a time, until they got them all.

 

[Brian Noble]

how realistic is it to snag a 1BR at another property booking in mid-June for late September?

You can get an approximation of what is gone already using this tool. It is not real-time, but if something shows booked now, it is unlikely to be "not booked" in a month.

https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator

For future availability, I used to like this site, though it looks like they have been having data collection problems. Data for bookings attempted (i.e. date-making-the-reservation, not date-checking-in) in February, March, and April seems to be missing, and that's consistent across all of the charts. We will see once May is over what happens to that set, but I am not sure these are meaningful anymore.

https://www.dvchelp.com/page/saratoga-springs-resort-spa-availability-charts

 

[intamin]

I honestly wouldn't even be confident in a SSR 1BR without potentially having to piece together a stay. You're still in ROFR and the contract still needs to close and get your points added. I would just be trying to get whatever 1BRs I can get and likely split stay it.

 

[gvel]

You can get an approximation of what is gone already using this tool. It is not real-time, but if something shows booked now, it is unlikely to be "not booked" in a month.

https://tools.dvcvacations.com/points-calculator

For future availability, I used to like this site, though it looks like they have been having data collection problems. Data for bookings attempted (i.e. date-making-the-reservation, not date-checking-in) in February, March, and April seems to be missing, and that's consistent across all of the charts. We will see once May is over what happens to that set, but I am not sure these are meaningful anymore.

https://www.dvchelp.com/page/saratoga-springs-resort-spa-availability-charts

This is great info! Thanks!