DVC Booking window problem need a fix???

[dfb]

Booking rooms at the 7 months 7 night window. The first 5 nights are available in the room we want but the last two are not. The last two nights are available in a different room type but in that room would be considered a separate stay and therefore not within the 7 months window. Although my vacation plans are just one stay, room availability is making this two separate bookings.

Anyone have any experience with this and any suggestions to achieve better results. The DVC castmembers and supervisors were not budging.

I'm concerned obviously the room that is still available now will not hold out 5 more days.

Thanks.

 

[marsh0013]

Since it's a separate category, it has its own 7 month window. You can't piggyback reservations like you are suggesting to circumvent the 7 month window. The CMs are correct.

 

[MoreTravels]

+1

Otherwise, I would book first night at Seratoga at 7 months opening, then the remaining at Bay Lake Tower...

Different types of rooms and resorts have different levels of desirability and competitiveness. The CM was right it is those rules that make everyone fair in competing for those limited spaces.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

And this is why home resort booking matters.

 

[dfb]

And this is why home resort booking matters.

Yes, unfortunately home resort for the length of stay was already booked at my 11 month window.

 

[dfb]

I was looking for some magic calling into DVC CS this morning but it's not coming my way obviously.

My initial post I wasn't asking if the CMs were correct or not. They told me the policy, I know that's not going to change, although I did ask if there were any exceptions, answer was no . So there ya go!

As far as my trip accommodations we have 2 studios for the first 6 nights of our trip but studios are not available for the remaining 4 nights. I was going to move to a 2 bedroom preferred not because I desired it but because it was the only thing available. So it's not a matter of trying to book at Saratoga and then slip into something better BLT or other. In this case even though a 2 BR preferred is nice, it is not needed and is costing me way more points than desired.

What I was looking for was other ideas that might help me guarantee a best option to get rooms for my stay. Here's one I came up with: If I book the 2 BR preferred in addition to my studios (7mo 7 nights from today) then I could get the next couple nights I needed in the 2 BR and add one day each day for the remainder of my trip. Once the trip was covered go back and cancel the first 6 nights. Resulting in 2 studios for the first 6 nights and a 2 BR preferred for the last 4 nights. Unfortunately by the time I took with DVC MS and the disboards to the time I figured it out, the night that I needed in the 2 BR preferred became not available.

Oh well I guess I'll live and learn

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You are trying to book a non-home resort during the time that covers the Marathon weekend. IMO those dates are probably the worst with DVC availability and you should always book your home resot. There's no magic to be had when rooms are already booked so stating that MS won't budge or won't help you is not actually an issue.

Yes, you could have walked your 2BR since it sounds like you had points to do that. Just keep watch on the 2BR as you never know what might happen right around the 7 month mark and you may luck out. Same with studios although that's less likely to see much happen.

 

[1momof3boys3]

Yes, unfortunately home resort for the length of stay was already booked at my 11 month window.

Do you mind me asking which home resort you have? I'm wondering which location/room types are difficult to get into even at the 11 month window.

 

[CarolMN]

Do you mind me asking which home resort you have? I'm wondering which location/room types are difficult to get into even at the 11 month window.

Check out these posts by drusba, one of our resident gurus on availability:

Potential reservation Issues at 11 months by drusba

Availability Summary for 7 month booking by drusba

 

[dfb]

Do you mind me asking which home resort you have? I'm wondering which location/room types are difficult to get into even at the 11 month window.

Home resort is BLT. Room type studios or 2 BR. Near any holiday, race weekend or basically any busy time of the year, BLT can be hard to book even at 11 months. The problem I have is our stay is a somewhat lengthy one spanning over the Christmas/New Years/ Marathon weekend. I forgot to use the 11 month + 7 night trick and the walk days into my window. I checked shortly into my 11 month booking window and days available were sporadic at best.

So now I'm fighting the 7 month window at Saratoga with other marathoners. Surprisingly I made it thru the new Year by walking my reservation day by day.

 

[dfb]

Check out these posts by drusba, one of our resident gurus on availability:

Potential reservation Issues at 11 months by drusba

Availability Summary for 7 month booking by drusba

Thanks for the links. A lot of good info there. We have experience with many of those scenarios and know them to be true. For this trip I used many of those booking thoughts and techniques except for one important one, "Book what you can early and fill in the blanks/modify later." That cost me with this trip. Days available at 11 months at BLT were so sporadic, I just didn't have it in me to book a day here and there over that period of stay. I don't remember which days were available but some probably could have helped me now. We've usually had good luck with Saratoga at 7 months, even during marathon time but having some difficulty this year. All is not lost, I still have a couple tricks up my sleeve just can't quite implement them just yet but hopefully soon.

Again thanks for the info.

 

[1momof3boys3]

Home resort is BLT. Room type studios or 2 BR. Near any holiday, race weekend or basically any busy time of the year, BLT can be hard to book even at 11 months. The problem I have is our stay is a somewhat lengthy one spanning over the Christmas/New Years/ Marathon weekend. I forgot to use the 11 month + 7 night trick and the walk days into my window. I checked shortly into my 11 month booking window and days available were sporadic at best.

So now I'm fighting the 7 month window at Saratoga with other marathoners. Surprisingly I made it thru the new Year by walking my reservation day by day.

Thank you for the information!!

 

[1momof3boys3]

Check out these posts by drusba, one of our resident gurus on availability:

Potential reservation Issues at 11 months by drusba

Availability Summary for 7 month booking by drusba

Thank you!!

 

[dfb]

Do you mind me asking which home resort you have? I'm wondering which location/room types are difficult to get into even at the 11 month window.

Don't know if you have looked at this thread. it gives some pretty good graphical views of how the rooms are booked at various resorts.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...-some-1-bedrooms-vgc-update-10-21-15.3419112/

I'm not sure how much you use DVC or if you are asking because you are looking to buy? In general the monorail resorts and VWL, Boardwalk and Beach club usually go first- Can be tricky to get at certain times of the year even 11 months out. Animal Kingdom usually holds out a while longer but mostly gets gone between the 11 & 7 mo mark. Saratoga and Old Key west usually hold out the longest and are usually not hard to get full weeks even well past the 7 mo window. (some holidays & marathon the exception). I've booked many trips within a month of arrival at Saratoga or Old Key West. My home resort is BLT but I've stayed more at other resorts, mostly because of my booking habits plus I like staying at Saratoga Springs.

 

[1momof3boys3]

Don't know if you have looked at this thread. it gives some pretty good graphical views of how the rooms are booked at various resorts.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...-some-1-bedrooms-vgc-update-10-21-15.3419112/

I'm not sure how much you use DVC or if you are asking because you are looking to buy? In general the monorail resorts and VWL, Boardwalk and Beach club usually go first- Can be tricky to get at certain times of the year even 11 months out. Animal Kingdom usually holds out a while longer but mostly gets gone between the 11 & 7 mo mark. Saratoga and Old Key west usually hold out the longest and are usually not hard to get full weeks even well past the 7 mo window. (some holidays & marathon the exception). I've booked many trips within a month of arrival at Saratoga or Old Key West. My home resort is BLT but I've stayed more at other resorts, mostly because of my booking habits plus I like staying at Saratoga Springs.

Yes, I am looking to buy. Just doing as much research as I can before we make any offers. Thank you for the information!

 

[dfb]

Good. There is a lot of info here and you can also check out dvcnews.com for more good info on DVC purchase. Resale or direct.

Remember the only thing your contract guarantees is the purchase/use of a room at your home resort under contract - all other perks offered may go away at any time. I've seen some handy little perks disappear over time.

Also, If they tell you to expect a 3% increase in your maintenance dues from year to year. Don't count on it. I've seen anywhere from 3 - 8% increase. It is true that fees associated with DVC's portion mostly stay with in 3% or less. It's the local county/state/ whatever fees and property taxes can increase at a higher rate.

They will also restructure points allocation from time to time. If they tell you the number of points required to reserve a room never increases. What they mean is if you total all points in the entire points chart the total points don't change. But for example, as in my case, if you research and determine you want to always have the ability to stay 1 week at BLT 2 BR with a theme park view during the economy season, which would cost 360 points(in 2009). I purchase 360 points to find out the next years reallocation of points the same trip cost 366 points. This is how I learned that lesson. But also somewhere else in the chart something/s else has dropped 6 points, so it might work to your benefit as well.

Although this info sounds like I don't favor DVC, that's not really true. We have purchased as a family and have enjoyed every second of our stays with DVC and have saved some money. But they are very clever and deceptive in their language when selling points. I don't have any experience with resale purchases /agents but can imagine some same info might get passed on similarly as direct sales.

I don't regret purchasing DVC even with some of the disappointments and would do it again, but probably not direct at the current prices.

 

[Dean]

I was looking for some magic calling into DVC CS this morning but it's not coming my way obviously.

And it shouldn't, they should be following the rules. As for dues, I use 4%, they can be up and down. There have been no special assessments with DVC though.

 

[dfb]

And it shouldn't, they should be following the rules. As for dues, I use 4%, they can be up and down. There have been no special assessments with DVC though.

I wasn't asking them to break the rules. Was looking for other options, like the one I came up with. Wasn't breaking the rules but didn't work anyway because was too late by the time I thought of it!

 

[Dean]

I wasn't asking them to break the rules. Was looking for other options, like the one I came up with. Wasn't breaking the rules but didn't work anyway because was too late by the time I thought of it!

I apologize, I was pulling from you OP and I thought you were asking them to give you the reservation for the last 2 nights that were available in a different room category than the one you had. Essentially before the reservation window would open for those nights. You said they weren't budging and my point was they should not have. Booking rooms then canceling part later will work if you have the extra points though I personally feel each change should be a cancelation and rebooking. But you'd need enough points to do it all either without borrowing or by trying to arrange the points so you could bank any points that ended up being freed up. Just wait list the 2 days and stalk the website, you should get them fairly easily.

 

[dfb]

You are trying to book a non-home resort during the time that covers the Marathon weekend. IMO those dates are probably the worst with DVC availability and you should always book your home resot. There's no magic to be had when rooms are already booked so stating that MS won't budge or won't help you is not actually an issue.

Yes, you could have walked your 2BR since it sounds like you had points to do that. Just keep watch on the 2BR as you never know what might happen right around the 7 month mark and you may luck out. Same with studios although that's less likely to see much happen.

I apologize, I was pulling from you OP and I thought you were asking them to give you the reservation for the last 2 nights that were available in a different room category than the one you had. Essentially before the reservation window would open for those nights. You said they weren't budging and my point was they should not have. Booking rooms then canceling part later will work if you have the extra points though I personally feel each change should be a cancelation and rebooking. But you'd need enough points to do it all either without borrowing or by trying to arrange the points so you could bank any points that ended up being freed up. Just wait list the 2 days and stalk the website, you should get them fairly easily.

I was walking 2 studios trying to get 29 Dec - 8 Jan. For a few weeks prior 4,5 & 6 Jan studios were not available. Then the 2 BR Standard went away. The 2 BR preferred was still available. In my few years as DVC member, I have never had to walk a reservation before and had questions, made calls to DVC MS with questions to get my game plan for when the window came up. The plan was at the 7 mo 7 night window I would obtain the studio reservation and walk it to the 4th of Jan. I already knew the 4,5,6 were gone so the plan was to move to the 2 bedroom preferred. This plan is what I discussed with the DVC CM so I thought it was OK. When I tried to do that and couldn't I asked why. Since I had some conflicting info I asked to speak to supervisor and she confirmed so no big deal. I came to the disboards looking for ideas, the kind that are not against policy but thinking outside the box. What I got people was telling me I'm wrong! Then later I got some, much appreciated, info that is very helpful for future ressies. I thought about just getting the second res with the 2BR preferred for the whole time. Unfortunately the 2BR preferred was not available by the time I had that idea.

So now I'll just wait, get what I can, waitlist what I can't and go to the Marriot for the rest.

Everything is not as dastardly I you might think. I do admit if they would have made an exception to the rule I would have taken it but they did not. They explained the rule and that's OK. I gave the CMs high marks on the post call survey because they were nice and professional. I had just got my hopes up due to a misunderstanding. The disappointment probably bled over into my first post.


As far as staying Saratoga at marathon week. I have been there a few times during marathon week (not intentionally) and got rooms without trouble. Maybe luck, maybe magic, maybe the alignment of the stars I don't know. But that's what I had in mind at the 11 month window with several nights at my home resort BLT already gone. Home resort for this trip was not the desired location and it took to many points that we will use for later planned trips. As I mentioned in other post I should have used my home resort as a back up for some of the available days but I didn't - my mistake. Wasn't blaming CMs!