DVC availablility vs. regular avail.

[tizzo]

I just purchased and called to see if there was availablity in certain resorts for my dates and was told nothing is available except at Saratoga. But if I go online to the regular resort reservations there is availability at a resort I would love. Why is this? I thought we would have first dibs on a place if it as available. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Sammie]

a certain percentage belongs to Disney reservations for cash reservations. Also at 60 days out anything that is not booked in points, is turned over to them for cash booking.

 

[Sandisw]

It is a whole different set of inventory. There is a certain percentage of all DVC resorts that is still owned by the developer and those rooms can be booked by cash guests.

In addition, when members trade out of DVC (ie: RCI, cruises, Concierge Collection, etc.), those rooms are given over to the developer to be booked for cash to recoup the costs for the trade out.

Lastly, there is something called breakage inventory (and I am not that well versed on this one so someone with better knowledge will correct anything I say that is wrong). These are DVC rooms that have not been reserved by members that are sent to be booked. The revenue is then returned to DVC's budget. I believe it happens at 60 days. I don't know exactly how they determine how many rooms to release--I don't think it is all unbooked rooms (or no one would ever get a reservation with less notice than that).

HTH!

 

[crisi]

Welcome to the big frustration of new DVC members!

As Sandy said, different inventory.

Unsold inventory (lots at BLT) members can't book because we don't own it.

Inventory turned over to CRO for trade members can't use because we are already using it. Someone has used that room at BCVs in order to cruise - and Disney is selling that BCV room to CRO to pay for their cruise. No one knows how Disney decides which rooms at which times to turn over, but they have to be attractive choices, or Disney won't get revenue to pay for the room and if they don't get revenue the whole idea of using your points somewhere else falls down.

A very small number of those rooms might be "breakage." The ones turned over at 60 days. CRO can sometimes reclaim these rooms - you'll occasionally hear of someone calling member services and being told to hold while a room magically appears - we think that thats these rooms.

Finally, Disney retains some ownership (3-5%) for maintenance purposes. Members don't own those rooms either. But they aren't showing up on CRO. On occasion, rooms will appear from nowhere for an emergency (a DISer tells the story of a kid getting sick and having to stay at a fully booked resort one more night - they had to move rooms and it was pretty obvious that the room they were in had been pulled for maintenance - but they found a room).