Deposit for reservation

[Fellowship9798]

I have a question. I'm planning a trip for my family the last week of March 2014 and looking at a 2 night stay at RPR. As its in prime Spring Break time the rates are high ($309/nt) and there don't seem to be any discounts available. However there don't seem to be any discounts published yet for 2014 so maybe something will come later.

I am quite willing to make the reservation now and watch for some better pricing to come along, however the reservation requires a deposit of one nights charges. This would be no problem but I'm Canadian and each time I have a credit card transaction in foreign currency (US $ is foreign currency to me) I pay an exchange rate and an additional 2-3% fee that the credit card company tacks on the exchange rate.

If I book now and pay the deposit then find a cheaper rate, canceling and rebooking a new reservation will cost me these fees twice. Basically canceling and rebooking will probably cost me $20 or more which eats into savings.

My question is if its possible for an existing reservation with Universal hotels to be modified to a new rate and applying the original deposit, rather than entirely canceling/refunding deposit and rebooking/charging again. Anyone have any experience with this?

Hopefully any rate reduction will save me more than $20+, but this will be an expensive trip and I would rather spend my money in the parks than on transaction fees.

 

[vacation_junkie]

I have a question. I'm planning a trip for my family the last week of March 2014 and looking at a 2 night stay at RPR. As its in prime Spring Break time the rates are high ($309/nt) and there don't seem to be any discounts available. However there don't seem to be any discounts published yet for 2014 so maybe something will come later.

I am quite willing to make the reservation now and watch for some better pricing to come along, however the reservation requires a deposit of one nights charges. This would be no problem but I'm Canadian and each time I have a credit card transaction in foreign currency (US $ is foreign currency to me) I pay an exchange rate and an additional 2-3% fee that the credit card company tacks on the exchange rate.

If I book now and pay the deposit then find a cheaper rate, canceling and rebooking a new reservation will cost me these fees twice. Basically canceling and rebooking will probably cost me $20 or more which eats into savings.

My question is if its possible for an existing reservation with Universal hotels to be modified to a new rate and applying the original deposit, rather than entirely canceling/refunding deposit and rebooking/charging again. Anyone have any experience with this?

Hopefully any rate reduction will save me more than $20+, but this will be an expensive trip and I would rather spend my money in the parks than on transaction fees.

I hear ya! I'm waiting for January packages to come out for both Universal & Sea World. I am dying to book but have been getting pin codes what seems like every 6-8 weeks for 30-40% off seasonal rates.
The Pin code I just rcv'd was good until the end of the year. With a book by date on Sept 29th. I'm hoping I get another pin code in a few weeks that included 2014.

I signed up on Universal with all of our email addresses. I've rcv'd 2 different codes between the 6 email addresses.

All of the pins have stated new reservations only. Thats why I'm holding off.

The 3% conversion sucks...I was going to get a US Credit card but our annual travel insurance policy is against my BMO mastercard. With my travel policy my trips must be booked with the card.

I'm hoping to have it booked within a month.

 

[RMulieri]

I hear ya! I'm waiting for January packages to come out for both Universal & Sea World. I am dying to book but have been getting pin codes what seems like every 6-8 weeks for 30-40% off seasonal rates.
The Pin code I just rcv'd was good until the end of the year. With a book by date on Sept 29th. I'm hoping I get another pin code in a few weeks that included 2014.

I signed up on Universal with all of our email addresses. I've rcv'd 2 different codes between the 6 email addresses.

All of the pins have stated new reservations only. Thats why I'm holding off.

The 3% conversion sucks...I was going to get a US Credit card but our annual travel insurance policy is against my BMO mastercard. With my travel policy my trips must be booked with the card.

I'm hoping to have it booked within a month.

I just got a pincode(today) for 40% on dates thru March 7, 2014.Hopefully you get one

 

[CareHeartsDisney]

Capital One and Discover credit cards have no foreign transaction fees. Have you considered getting one of these cards? I'm not one to sign up for lots of credit cards but in your case it might be worthwhile, especially if you travel to the States often.

I also received a PIN code that is valid through March 7th. I booked my stay for February with the PIN code. If you haven't already done so, be sure to sign up at Universal Orlando's website to receive promotions via email. Also, if a survey pops up, you might want to participate to increase your chances of getting a PIN code.

 

[damo]

I've had my deposit kept and just put on my account so no changes were made. The reservationist can do that or they will connect you to accounting to do it. Just tell them you are from Canada and don't want them to refund your deposit.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I booked direct through Loews website and got 30% off for next October, no pin needed. I did notice if I tried to book through the link on universal website, it would tell me it was too far in advance Maybe try going to their website direct. There were discount available for next year there.

 

[damo]

I booked direct through Loews website and got 30% off for next October, no pin needed. I did notice if I tried to book through the link on universal website, it would tell me it was too far in advance Maybe try going to their website direct. There were discount available for next year there.

Which dates did you get a 30% discount for and at what hotel?

The two websites are identical in prices for me.

 

[vacation_junkie]

Which dates did you get a 30% discount for and at what hotel?

Stay more...play more gives you 30% off seasonal rates when you book a certain amount of days. I think to get the 30% is a minimum of 7 nights.

 

[damo]

Stay more...play more gives you 30% off seasonal rates when you book a certain amount of days. I think to get the 30% is a minimum of 7 nights.

I was wondering which dates the previous poster was getting conflicting rates for with the two websites so I could check it out but thanks for that information.

 

[bumbershoot]

My question is if its possible for an existing reservation with Universal hotels to be modified to a new rate and applying the original deposit, rather than entirely canceling/refunding deposit and rebooking/charging again. Anyone have any experience with this?

Assuming you're talking about a room-only reservation, because that's what I have experience with, the answer is "yes, absolutely".

I did it just the other day. And a couple months ago. Booked at a higher rate in April, then a couple months later got AP rates and they just rolled the deposit right into that reservation. Nice, because now a higher percentage of my vacation is already paid. Then I got the 40% PIN code emailed, so I called and got it switched to that rate. And the deposit rolled right into that. Pretty cool!


If you're talking about a package, I'm not sure. But please be sure to look into room-only and tickets being separate, because in the US at least it's generally cheaper to do it a la carte. But you might have special deals up there. And if you do, they might have special rules so you would need to check with them!