General rankings - tough-to-get reservations?

[cigar95]

I've been out of the loop for a while, just booking simple reservations for a couple years. But now I'm interested in something out of my usual pattern.

Has someone compiled and published a general list of which resort/room type combinations tend to be tough to book, and which tend to be easier? (For example, I thought I recall that AKL standard view studios was generally among the toughest to book because there are not many of them and they are among the lowest point options available.)

My interest at the moment is in my chances of getting a studio (either view) at the Floridian at the seven month point for a stay next January. It looks like there just aren't very many studios in the building to start with, and I suspect VGF is popular with its owners.

While that's my particular interest, I'd also like to find a general list of room types which tend to be hard to get, and those which tend to be easier, like a 1BR at Saratoga, presumably.

Any directions on this welcome.

 

[DWorldOrBust]

Davids rental website has a chart that breaks down which rooms generally are unavailable at certain timeframes. http://www.dvcrequest.com/how-soon-should-i-reserve.asp

 

[cigar95]

Thanks, that's just the sort of thing I was looking for.

From my experience over the years, there seems to be somewhat more availability at the times of year I typically travel, so perhaps his listing of 8 months for a VGF studio means I'll have a reasonable opportunity to get a room at 7 months, and a good chance to get in via a waitlist.

If there are any other similar lists compiled, I'd be interested in seeing those for comparison.

 

[Minniesgal]

I would say VGF studios would be the exception. Most of the year there are so few owners are even having trouble getting them at 11 months.

We have just added on so we can consistently book a 1 bedroom at VGF for this reason.

 

[drusba]

Go to this thread from May 2014 and review my post http://www.disboards.com/threads/an...r-days-7-11-months-out.3281173/#post-51506136

VGF is approaching sell out and has had further developments since my post from May 2014. There are only 47 VGF studios and more and more it is becoming clear that you should not count on getting one at 7 months out at any time of year anymore although you could get lucky particualrly during the slowest DVC demand times of the year (first half and end of Feb, first two weeks of March, last week of April, last two weeks of July) or if looking only two or three nights in a row at some other times during the mid-Jan to late Sep period. Those chances will be slim during the last quarter of the year during which there were a number of times when the studios were not even available at 11 months out. We are now 10 months out from Jan 2016 and standard VGF studios are already gone for 17 nights in Jan and there are no blocks longer than three streaight nights still open. Lake view studios are gone for 12 days with the latter part of the month still fairly open but not likely to be for long. The Wed through Sat of marathon weekend disappeared at exactly 11 months out.

 

[disneynutz]

Bottom line is that you won't know until you book. Disney is doing their best to increase attendance and to fill the resorts. As additional DVC resorts are built and points sold, competition for all resorts at 7 months increases.

Bill

 

[mrsmarilyn]

I'm a tad frustrated. We own GF and have yet to stay there because it's constantly booked. We have 5 days booked and wait listed 2 in October (naturally not consecutive), trying for a while week, and I have to decide in the next week whether to hope my wl comes through, or book something else at the 7 month window. Not too happy about either choice. I can understand Disney trying to increase attendance, but I can't even book at my home resort.

 

[disneynutz]

I'm a tad frustrated. We own GF and have yet to stay there because it's constantly booked. We have 5 days booked and wait listed 2 in October (naturally not consecutive), trying for a while week, and I have to decide in the next week whether to hope my wl comes through, or book something else at the 7 month window. Not too happy about either choice. I can understand Disney trying to increase attendance, but I can't even book at my home resort.

Did you try to book at 11 months? VGF is a very small very popular resort that isn't even sold out yet. Booking competition will only increase as additional contracts are sold.

Bill

 

[Dis_Yoda]

At 11 Months at VGF, I've had trouble booking a few times now.

 

[Minniesgal]

At 11 Months at VGF, I've had trouble booking a few times now.

We decided to add on at VGF as the 1 bedrooms are much easier to get than studios.

It helps we actually prefer 1 bedrooms.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

We decided to add on at VGF as the 1 bedrooms are much easier to get than studios.

It helps we actually prefer 1 bedrooms.

As its just the two of us, we really don't want to spend the points on the 1 bedrooms.

I'm just going to end up spending my VGF points elsewhere for my November Wine & Dine Trip - hopefully PBV will have studios available.

We'll probably just end up adding onto our points at PBV come this summer after we get some other things paid off.

 

[skier_pete]

It's a real problem they're having with VGF. The point price was so expensive, a MUCH larger percentage of owners booked with the intention of booking studios than there are studios available. My guess is this at least partly led to them putting all studios in at the Poly, though eventually they may add some new larger units there.

To go back to the original question: I've never seen the David's list but it's a pretty good one. "Hard-to-book" is usually easy to figure out.

(1) Any resorts that have a less available unit type option are hardest to book all year (AKV club and value rooms, BWV standard & Boardwalk view rooms, BLT standard and MK view rooms) with the "cheaper" option usually the hardest - though AKV club level is pretty tough too because there are only 5 rooms.
(2) After that, smaller resorts go next. VGF as pointed out rarely makes it to 7 months (over even 10 months) with studios, BCV goes quick, then usually WLV. BLT & BWV aren't THAT hard to get into even with their prime location because they are pretty big. AKV is next, followed by OKW and SSR as the easiest.
(3) The final issue is seasonal. Oct - Dec is hard to get in, with certain times being especially hard (early-December, mid-October, early-November). The rest of the year is fairly easy with marathons and holidays like Easter and 4th of July spiking up. Easiest is mid-January to mid-February and well as early September.

That pretty much sums it up. In 100% of the cases, the earlier you can book the better.

 

[cigar95]

My thanks to everyone for their input.

I didn't realize just how tough a ticket I was trying to get. But since we're looking for a mid-week three-night stay in late January, and since we can put those three nights at either the beginning or the end of a nine-night trip, seems like we may have at least a chance with a waitlist request (or two) at seven months. And in the meantime, we can probably book something at BWV or the Sandwich (my wife's second favorite after AKV, where we just stayed last month).

And in the process, I learned a lot more details about how to gauge availability. Maybe I should think about a contract at GFR.

 

[Dean]

I'm a tad frustrated. We own GF and have yet to stay there because it's constantly booked. We have 5 days booked and wait listed 2 in October (naturally not consecutive), trying for a while week, and I have to decide in the next week whether to hope my wl comes through, or book something else at the 7 month window. Not too happy about either choice. I can understand Disney trying to increase attendance, but I can't even book at my home resort.

IMO this was predictable with VGF. There will be 7 month successes but also a lot of 11 month failures. This is why I've touted buying a fixed week there for anyone where it's close to the amount of points they wanted. IMO that is far more important than the ability to break up into smaller sized contracts.