How far in advance are people walking reservations?

[ED9]

Looks like the point reallocation worked - May is now locked up for SV BW - going to have to wait for the walkers to pass to book.

Luckily I was able to finally snag something this morning but yes just checked and seems like May 1 & 2 are gone already

 

[Nursemanit]

Luckily I was able to finally snag something this morning but yes just checked and seems like May 1 & 2 are gone already

I am trying for a 2br BWV no luck

 

[ED9]

I am trying for a 2br BWV no luck

Hope you can get something when people start dropping them off

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Some resorts will not rent if it is not the cheapest view.

You will have to sweat it out until all of the SV rooms are gone on the rental site before your reservation is purchased.

Sorry but that's not true. Every resort will rent out.
Renting the cheapest view is a fallacy and non-beneficial to the point owner. At best it's the same amount of work and usually it's more to secure it. An owner is doing themselves no good unless they have exactly that amount of points to rent.

 

[Nursemanit]

Sorry but that's not true. Every resort will rent out.
Renting the cheapest view is a fallacy and non-beneficial to the point owner. At best it's the same amount of work and usually it's more to secure it. An owner is doing themselves no good unless they have exactly that amount of points to rent.

The rental sites were just discounting rental because they were not renting - many did not rent in the past 6 months.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

The rental sites were just discounting rental because they were not renting - many did not rent in the past 6 months.

I'd never use a broker so there's that.

 

[AZMermaid]

I walked VGC race weekend from the day it was announced. I think it was 5-6 weeks. Then I switched to a 1 BR once I got through the holiday points- Im sure making someone happy to grab the studio!

 

[wilckepedia]

Fingers crossed that stalking and waitlisting comes in for me. I'm attempting a BWV Standard (risky I know) in May 2024 and am fairly flexible on dates. I've been attempting to get my foot in the door with something to start with, but no luck at all this month. As a West Coaster, there's only so many 5 am alarms my sanity will agree to, so it's obsessive checking throughout the day for me.

 

[ED9]

Fingers crossed that stalking and waitlisting comes in for me. I'm attempting a BWV Standard (risky I know) in May 2024 and am fairly flexible on dates. I've been attempting to get my foot in the door with something to start with, but no luck at all this month. As a West Coaster, there's only so many 5 am alarms my sanity will agree to, so it's obsessive checking throughout the day for me.

Fingers crossed for you! It really is insanity and stalking was seriously my full time job! I have noticed around midnight (cst) I can grab a day and right after booking time when people start dropping off days. I’ve put together things this way but it definitely took time. Super frustrating. This year has been hard. I’ve always booked standard rooms for May and March every year for 5 years now and this has been the toughest year.

 

[Nursemanit]

I was quick enough on the “ day of “ to get my BWV BW view 2BR - all my attempts to break into the walk the week before were failures. Early May is tough like September - the end of April had plenty of open dates so this is a points distribution issue.

 

[DaveNan]

Early May is tough like September - the end of April had plenty of open dates so this is a points distribution issue.

Agreed! Follow the point charts....

 

[wilckepedia]

I have noticed around midnight (cst) I can grab a day and right after booking time when people start dropping off days. I’ve put together things this way but it definitely took time. Super frustrating.

Yes, I've been seeing this happen and have a single night right now, so it's going to be having the search set up on my phone and random refreshes throughout the day.

I was quick enough on the “ day of “ to get my BWV BW view 2BR - all my attempts to break into the walk the week before were failures. Early May is tough like September - the end of April had plenty of open dates so this is a points distribution issue.

This morning was my preferred "day of" and I thought I had snagged it, then the got the error message. Totally recognize that I'm in the group that is trying to take advantage of the lowest points season, and it will make competition tough. This is also looking to be after the refurbs on BWV are done, and 9 points a night for a newly redone room is only going to make booking harder.

Ultimately, I have a second contract at OKW, so I can absolutely get a stay booked sometime in May. I'm just an Epcot/HS girl, so Crescent lake really is where I'd love to be. Send any booking pixie dust you can spare!

 

[Nursemanit]

Yes, I've been seeing this happen and have a single night right now, so it's going to be having the search set up on my phone and random refreshes throughout the day.

This morning was my preferred "day of" and I thought I had snagged it, then the got the error message. Totally recognize that I'm in the group that is trying to take advantage of the lowest points season, and it will make competition tough. This is also looking to be after the refurbs on BWV are done, and 9 points a night for a newly redone room is only going to make booking harder.

Ultimately, I have a second contract at OKW, so I can absolutely get a stay booked sometime in May. I'm just an Epcot/HS girl, so Crescent lake really is where I'd love to be. Send any booking pixie dust you can spare!

I spent the extra points hoping the BW view rooms would be renovated before I go - I am putting family members in the room as the rest of us are at Riviera and I don’t want hurt feelings with a worn out room. Just don’t have enough direct points for everyone to do RR.

 

[KalamityJane]

I spent the extra points hoping the BW view rooms would be renovated before I go - I am putting family members in the room as the rest of us are at Riviera and I don’t want hurt feelings with a worn out room. Just don’t have enough direct points for everyone to do RR.

We were in the BW view rooms in Sept and they did not look worn out imo hth!

 

[wilckepedia]

Fingers crossed for you! It really is insanity and stalking was seriously my full time job! I have noticed around midnight (cst) I can grab a day and right after booking time when people start dropping off days. I’ve put together things this way but it definitely took time. Super frustrating. This year has been hard. I’ve always booked standard rooms for May and March every year for 5 years now and this has been the toughest year.

Reporting back, it looks like this strategy is working. Still haven't been able to get in at all when the window opens, but an hour or two later I'm able to pick up a day or two as people modify. I've got 4 nights at the moment, so well on the way to the desired trip, or at least a split stay I'd be satisfied with. Nerve wracking though!

 

[TinkB278]

Reporting back, it looks like this strategy is working. Still haven't been able to get in at all when the window opens, but an hour or two later I'm able to pick up a day or two as people modify. I've got 4 nights at the moment, so well on the way to the desired trip, or at least a split stay I'd be satisfied with. Nerve wracking though!

Are you picking up the nights by waitlisting or stalking (or logging on at just the right time)?

 

[wilckepedia]

Are you picking up the nights by waitlisting or stalking (or logging on at just the right time)?

Mostly stalking. For example, I’ve been trying to get 5/11-5/19. I haven’t been able to pick up any days as soon as the window opens, but on the evening of the 11th, I picked up 5/10. Then on the 12th in the evening, I picked up 5/11. Then this morning about 90 minutes after the window opened, apparently enough people had modified that I got 5/12 and 5/13.

I have been putting in a waitlist for the remaining desired dates to increase the likelihood of availability and getting at the front of the list.

 

[CWTC]

We generally stay at our home resorts (BCV, VGF, and BLT) or easy to get 7 months resorts/rooms (AUL, Poly bungalows) so in the past we have never needed to walk.

We’ve been able to get VGC four times - once for a whole week with a studio and two times for a whole week with a 1 br. The fourth time we were only able to get a partial week at VGC with a 1 BR and had to split the stay by staying at the Westin Anaheim. This go around we don’t want to move hotels so we started our 7 months VGC walk as soon as the points charts switched (so that as we modified the point total would be the same).

 

[wilckepedia]

Finally made it in yesterday and picked up the last 4 nights I was looking for. Just down to a middle Tuesday connecting night that I'm missing. Feels like the waitlist odds are decent on that. Will likely still stalk periodically, but feeling much more solid in my options

 

[n2mm]

It's too much work for less return actually. Brokers still tend to pay by the point. You see some rentals on a nightly basis that inches the price/pt up higher but really if someone is booking standard view as a speculative rental I don't know that they are maximizing anything other than their own time to rent out points. For personal use it can absolutely be worth it though and I think a lot more people have realized that.

I thought this too. Why would they bother with standard when they are being paid by the point. Get a pool view that cost more points which equals a higher payout.