Day-by-Day Reservations

[themilesfamily]

Is it okay to do day-by-day reservations with DVC, or is that considered poor DVC etiquette?

 

[bobbiwoz]

It is acceptable to do day by day reservations and there are times, such as any time in December, but especially the holiday period that many people do that. I did it for a Beach Cottage and VB and for a GV at BWV, and for SV BWV reservations in December.

Tell the MS CM what you are doing, and you'll be asked for the check out date that you want. Every day after that your call will just be to add another day or two to the ressie. You'll get one paper document, and have one ressie number.

Bobbi

 

[themilesfamily]

Thanks so much for the info! I want to make sure I'm playing by the rules.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I probably would only do it if you are trying for difficult to get accommodations at a high demand time though. It is a lot of trouble to do, and I always hate to tie up MS if I am sure my room type and location are going to be available by the 11 month checkout day anyway. The only time we use day by day is if we are booking a GV. I can see us doing it again for concierge at AKV in the future too.

 

[OKW Lover]

I don't believe that Emily Post as ruled on this.

Many people do make day-by-day reservations, especially for peak periods. Personally, I've never wanted to be bothered by calling every day and haven't had any problems with the conventional all at once method.

Fortunately, the number of people who do find it necessary to call daily is fairly low. If too many of us did that, I'm sure our dues would have to increase to candle the extra MS reps needed. Either that, or there would have to be a charge per call instituted after x number of calls in a year in order to protect the rest of us.

 

[themilesfamily]

That makes sense. So it's doable but use it EXTREMELY selectively -- i.e. Christmas/New Year's -- but preferably go the standard one-call route. Got it.

Yeah, I could see how that would get out-of-hand if everyone started doing it.

 

[DVC Grammy]

That makes sense. So it's doable but use it EXTREMELY selectively -- i.e. Christmas/New Year's -- but preferably go the standard one-call route. Got it.

Yeah, I could see how that would get out-of-hand if everyone started doing it.

Day-by-day booking is also advised if you're trying for a "special" category of villa: BW view or standard at the BWV, value or concierge level at the AKV, etc.
Whenever there's a possibility of either tremendous popularity or limited amount of accommodations, day-by-day is always the safest.

 

[MissMet]

I just called 7 months out day-by-day for my trip May 3-10 @ BWV & they didn't have a single studio or 2 bed that was BW or Standard view. All they had was preferred water/pool view.

I asked, "Since I'm not trying for BW view can I stop calling day-by-day & just call on the 10th?" & she said, "No, still call day-by-day." She continued to tell me to definitely ALWAYS call day-by-day. She said that almost all the members call dbd now & that is what the CM's first hour of the day is, nothing but DBD callers!

So that being said, from now on I'll always call DBD.

 

[dismorgh]

We did day-by-day for our reservation, and the CM actually recommended that we do that, even though it wasn't considered a peak time. The CMs were ALL very helpful. Make sure that you tell them you are doing the dbd, and what the final checkout date really is. That way, you only have one ressie for everything.

 

[helenabear]

I just did a day by day for BCV. I wasn't 100% sure how busy they would be and I chatted with the DVC lady the first day about the availability of the rooms. She said it was wise to call since one day might be tight one day that I wanted. She said it probably wouldn't sell out by the time I called, but if I waited until the end there was a smaller chance of me getting my room for the whole stay. I admit, since I wanted the location that badly and knowing how tight it can be there (espeically during F&GF) that I didn't feel bad at all. The DVC CMs were all very nice and didn't make me feel bad for calling either.

If I didn't care where I stayed (with an infant we are being more selective) I probably wouldn't call day by day for that time of year. I've always had good luck getting a room *somewhere* for the dates I've wanted calling even 3 weeks to 4 months out. But for something really special I see no problem with it at all.

 

[robinb]

I always call day-by-day if I am planning 11 or 7 months in advance.

 

[OKW Lover]

We just made reservations at BCV in the 7 month window without problem. No need for all those extra calls.

 

[ILuvDVC2]

I say day-by-day when you need the larger accommodations. We just did an AKV 2BR for four nights in June this way, and if I was going for a GV, that's what I'd also do.

 

[global_mom]

I called bdb for our Grand Villa at AKV for this upcoming May. I was calling at the 7 month window so I did not want to risk waiting to make only phone call and miss the availability. The CMs were incredibly nice and helpful. I checked the availablity for our entire date range before having the CM book the first day that we needed. That way we knew that we would not be wasting our time, or theirs, by calling each day for something that was non-existent for all of the days that we needed. Of course, someone else could have come along and gotten the days that I needed but we were fortunate that it all fell into place.

It did take 5 seperate phone calls but it was worth it!

All of our other bookings have been made in the traditional manner.

 

[DebbieB]

I made my Dec 1 to 7 BWV bw view studio reservation day by day in January. When I called for the first night, I did not call until about 2:00pm, the cm said I got the last one. He advised to call earlier the rest of the week. There's no way I would have got it other than day by day, at least not without waitlist. I've done it the past 5 years and they have always been very accomodating.

 

[mikeandkarla]

If you really want your vacation time, place, and room type, I would strongly recommend day-by-day reservations. It's obvious to do this for holidays, but we do this all the time to assure our reservations. It really isn't that inconvenient to do, it takes about 5 minutes if you can call right at 9 am. I set my events calendar on my cell phone to remind me to call. It works great. Good luck.

 

[WDWLVR]

I used the day by day calling strategy for the first time last January to book a one bedroom Boardwalk view for early December. I thought it was worth the extra effort at that time to get what I wanted.

For many other reservations I've just called in once. I really think it depends on what you are looking for and what time of year it is.

 

[Inkmahm]

I always call day-by-day if I am planning 11 or 7 months in advance.

Same here. I'm going to use any advantage I have to get the villas that I want.