How come?

[Lasrnw]

A close friend justed called all excited that she booked a 2br villa at OKW the week of the wine and cheese festival thru a travel agent for her family and in laws. Great for them...but how is it that I can sit on the phone day after day for a week to try to get booked for that week and she cal just call a travel agent and have it booked in three minutes? I would think that since that is such a high traffic week rooms would get put on hold until DVC members got to book them first.

 

[fishermouse]

A close friend justed called all excited that she booked a 2br villa at OKW the week of the wine and cheese festival thru a travel agent for her family and in laws. Great for them...but how is it that I can sit on the phone day after day for a week to try to get booked for that week and she cal just call a travel agent and have it booked in three minutes? I would think that since that is such a high traffic week rooms would get put on hold until DVC members got to book them first.

By law a certain number of rooms must be available for cash customers, as well as enough to cover any traded points, may not seem fair but it's the way it was all explained at the time of purchase. I'm sure we'll get all the legal terms over the next few days

 

[Chuck S]

As the previous poster stated, there are almost always a handful of DVC rooms available for cash that are not available to members with points. They are from a seperate inventory of rooms that are made available to CRO (Disney's Central Reservations Office). These rooms come from the percentage of ownership that Disney holds in the resorts as well as members that use their points for cruises, Disney collection, Buena Vista Trading, and Concierge Collection stays...basically all trades except to Interval International. DVC releases those points/rooms to CRO for cash ressies, CRO/Disney keeps a fee for renting those rooms, and the remainder of the cash is turned over to DVC to offset the costs of those trades.

 

[Doctor P]

Putting it a little more clearly, the rooms for cash reservations and points reservations are separate. The way that rooms can be available for cash reservations are basically in three ways: 1) using developer inventory (i.e., points retained by Disney when the resort was built); 2) rooms that were given up by members in trading out for other non-DVC options; 3) breakage (i.e., rooms that were not reserved by members by 30 days in advance can be turned over to CRO to try to get cash guests to occupy the room). Generally, cash rooms are not available for points reservations although within 30 days, MS can sometimes get a room back that has been turned over and not already reserved by a cash guest--we got one such room 6 hours before check in one time.

 

[keys2kingdom]

Hmmmm me thinks someone hasn't read their POS. It's a dry read to be sure but it does have some very valuable info.

 

[Pluto4Pres]

Yeah...She got a reservation, but what did she pay for it?

 

[Lasrnw]

Three kids, two parents, one grandma...2 br OKW, no airfare, park tickets for six niights.......a little over five grand

 

[tmt martins]

Three kids, two parents, one grandma...2 br OKW, no airfare, park tickets for six niights.......a little over five grand

So you could have rented her some points 232 at $10 = $2320

Park tickets non-discount 6 adults 6 day Hopper+water =$1650

for a grand total of $3970 WOW and they say DVC doesn't pay for itself.

 

[Dean]

By law a certain number of rooms must be available for cash customers, as well as enough to cover any traded points, may not seem fair but it's the way it was all explained at the time of purchase. I'm sure we'll get all the legal terms over the next few days

No legal requirement but as noted above, there are totally separate units for points and cash.

 

[mommyceratops]

Three kids, two parents, one grandma...2 br OKW, no airfare, park tickets for six niights.......a little over five grand

WOW! I am glad we joined DVC!!!! Thanks!!

 

[fishermouse]

Three kids, two parents, one grandma...2 br OKW, no airfare, park tickets for six niights.......a little over five grand

WOW!!! I'm really going to enjoy my next trip home! in 49 days

 

[castleri]

WOW!!! I'm really going to enjoy my next trip home! in 49 days

I'm thinking about mine in September from this standpoint- 10 nights 2 BR at OKW , 4 adults, 1 4YO, 1 15 mo old. Actual cost to me of room - not what I can get rental for points - $1704 ( about $6 a point) passes from a ticket broker for 2 adults 1 child (expiring 10 day with hopper option) $683. Have 2 AP's from last year for DH and me so if I divide cost between two trip $318. Total $2705 for 10 nights 11 days. ( We have leftover plus features from other years so didn't get the waterpark etc options so this isn't quite the same comparison) All in all one more excellent return on the money originally spent.
Will definitely enjoy all three trips planned for this year even more. Now to get those low SW fares.

 

[Daitcher]

Putting it a little more clearly, the rooms for cash reservations and points reservations are separate. The way that rooms can be available for cash reservations are basically in three ways: 1) using developer inventory (i.e., points retained by Disney when the resort was built); 2) rooms that were given up by members in trading out for other non-DVC options; 3) breakage (i.e., rooms that were not reserved by members by 30 days in advance can be turned over to CRO to try to get cash guests to occupy the room). Generally, cash rooms are not available for points reservations although within 30 days, MS can sometimes get a room back that has been turned over and not already reserved by a cash guest--we got one such room 6 hours before check in one time.

DoctorP,

Right on the money with this. Once again I'm shocked that everyone doesn't know these basic things. All timeshares reserve a certain percentage of rooms to be booked on cash. This ensures some cash flow over time and introduces potential future owners to the resort.


DAVE

 

[Anewman]

They Paid $4130 plus tax for the villa alone, OUCH.

 

[byoung]

Now I know why I own.

 

[DrTomorrow]

DoctorP,

Right on the money with this. Once again I'm shocked that everyone doesn't know these basic things. All timeshares reserve a certain percentage of rooms to be booked on cash. This ensures some cash flow over time and introduces potential future owners to the resort.


DAVE

Dave, if you keep getting shocked at the, er, lack of knowledge (ignorance is such a harsh word) of average folks, you're going to wear yourself out; and regardless of your feelings on SSR, I know that the DIS DVC community wants you around a long time....

 

[shantay1008]

A close friend justed called all excited that she booked a 2br villa at OKW the week of the wine and cheese festival thru a travel agent for her family and in laws. Great for them...but how is it that I can sit on the phone day after day for a week to try to get booked for that week and she cal just call a travel agent and have it booked in three minutes? I would think that since that is such a high traffic week rooms would get put on hold until DVC members got to book them first.

Well, there might be reasons why your friend was able to get a room, but it doesn't make it less frustrating for you. Were you able to get the room you wanted in the end, I hope?

 

[rinkwide]

A close friend justed called all excited that she booked a 2br villa at OKW the week of the wine and cheese...

I'm not surprised, the West Kissimmee Wine & Cheese Tasting Festival isn't nearly as popular as the Epcot Food & Wine Festival.

Sorry, couldn't help myself (but you know you all were thinking it).

 

[keys2kingdom]

Sorry, couldn't help myself (but you know you all were thinking it).

This post needs more cowbell!!

 

[Daitcher]

Dave, if you keep getting shocked at the, er, lack of knowledge (ignorance is such a harsh word) of average folks, you're going to wear yourself out; and regardless of your feelings on SSR, I know that the DIS DVC community wants you around a long time....

Thanks Dr., and you'll be surprised to hear that your posts have swayed me a little about SSR. I do see the logic that SSR will become a more popular choice as kids age and vacation habits change. I have a 4 year old now so maybe that is why we didn't care for it. We will certainly stay there in the future I'm sure.


DAVE