do people make reservations just in case?

[tripletvan]

We are waitlisted once again @ HH for Thanksgiving Day and the day before but have confirmations for all of our other days of our holiday vacation. I have heard that some will just make the reservation " Just in Case" and cancel at the last minute is this true? Has anyone else heard of this practice?

 

[PamOKW]

I think a lot of people make "just in case" reservations. Many have very good intentions of using the reservation but over an 11 month period plans can change. A family that has spent the last three Thanksgivings at HHI probably automatically calls and books it for this year. Come October, they find out grandson Billy's team is playing the divisional football finals and the family will be going to New Orleans over Thanksgiving -- bang, you get the wait list.

Everything is always in flux with DVC. Holidays tend to book right away and then don't have much movement until the 7 month window and then again around the 60/30 day final cancellation window.

 

[dcfromva]

I would be surprised if a lot of people made "just in case" ressies without first intending to use the reservation. The reason is the points have to be managed--you can't have your points tied up for something you have very little chance of using and preventing you from booking a trip you actually intended to take...

But as PamOKW says, I think things change over the course of 11 months ... In my own case, I had a brillant three year point useage plan (figuring out just when I was going to bank and borrow, et'c) ... I had the illusion that it was working for about 3months after I made my first reservation... Then, I found out we were going to be on another coast during the time of our reservation and I had to switch to plan B! In order to switch to my alternate plan, I had to cancel the original reservation or I wouldn't have had any points to use!

This October, I booked BWV for Fri-Tu stay (day by day at the 11th month window). Well, it looked like there was no way I was going to get off work for a Friday arrival... So, I cancelled Friday and changed my arrival date to Sat... Now that I have cancelled, I've found out there is a slim chance that I can leave on Friday night after all, so I am kind of sad I cancelled. (Oh well. That's the way it goes....) At this point, I think I will just plan on a Saturday arrival.

One thing you could do in case your DVC ressie doesn't come through is to see if you could book the other two nights on a cash ressie. It is a different inventory, so they might have availability and you would have a back up plan.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you will hear something soon on your waitlist!

-DC

 

[Dean]

I believe a lot of people make just in case reservations. But it partly depends on how you define just in case. I define it as they might or might not go so they make tenative reservations. I know I do that at times and many on the board do. There are other variations like booking different room sizes and different weeks with the idea of using only a portion and cancelling the rest. I just did that for next June booking two studios and a 2 Br for the same nights. Reason being that my daughter and son along with a couple of friends are thinking about going down. We don't yet know who is going and one of the questions is whether the parents of the girls will allow them to go if it's ONE unit but they might be more comfortable if there are totally separate rooms for the boys and girls. If anyone goes and their parents have a problem we'll go with the 2 studios. Otherwise, the 2 BR will provide separate rooms and a full kitchen.

Many also don't know when their vacation will be for certain or if they'll actually get it approved or not and make reservations for that contingency as well. Of course the number of variations are many.