How much leeway does your guide have with first reservations?

[FloFlo71]

I have read that a guide can get you difficult first reservations to push a sale through. Just wondering what they can swing. Can they book reservations before your 11 month window? Has anyone managed to get AKV concierge with a push from their guide?

 

[disneynutz]

It's unknown on what they can do for a new owner reservation.

Existing members can be told that nothing is available and the Guides seem to come up with a magic room.

I say that if you can get some magic from them go for it. It will probably be your last time.

Bill

 

[Crystal_27]

I don't think that *anyone* can book before the 11 month window, but I do know that there have been many reports that Guides have been able to secure reservations for new members that they themselves have not been able to get. If you are considering a purchase and are less than 11 months out, it certainly wouldn't hurt to make the reservation contingent on the sale. Good luck.

 

[crisi]

We suspect they can move inventory from developer inventory over. They might be able to reclaim some trade inventory. Since Conceirge rooms are all declared and aren't traded, my guess is that if they are booked, that request isn't going to happen. They can't (obviously) make rooms appear out of pixie dust and hopefully don't take rooms away from guests who have already booked them (but we know that has happened for the PGA tournament or to rehab the rooms in the past).

 

[went503]

I think they have a lot of leeway on booking. I just recently became a DVC member and i havent even closed yet. They have all my signed paperwork but not closing date. However i booked a 5 night stay at Bay Lake MK view for April and it was available through him but when i tried renting points from others there was nothing so they surely have some pull on making reservations. I think they want to you have a good first magical experience. Problem with me is i only booked a studio and now i have 2 more adults going and there is no 1 bedrooms available so we are slumming it in a studio. Should be fine were disney who spends there time in there room.

 

[DisneySJB]

When we first bought DVC, our guide was able to get us BCV ressies when they were booked. She made a call and voila, they had a studio available. This was about 3-4 months in advance.

 

[Cricket2]

Our new guide (old one retired) just snagged a night in the middle of our reservation we were waitlisted for. Took her about 15 minutes. We had just done the deposit for a new add-on the day before and called her about something unrelated. She asked if we made the reservation we needed the points in the system for and I told her about the waitlist night. I never even asked for it, she just put me on hold and came back, poof, no more waitlist hassle.

That says something. Not sure what, but it is something

 

[wildernessDad]

My guide has never made any reservation for me.

 

[DebbieB]

I don't think they can book a reservation before your 11 or 7 month window but they can pull rooms out of developer or cash inventory for points. There have also been posts where new members are given priority on the waitlist, which I don't think is fair to current members already on the waitlist.

 

[exwdwcm]

We just experienced this.

We just paid our deposit a few weeks ago and i called immediately to bank our points (june 09) and make a ressie.

I was disappointed when i called and couldn't get the full week of 12/4-12/11 we wanted at BLT. They didn't have the 5-6 available, which is odd, since that is a sunday/monday. Of course we were at the 10 month mark then, so we had missed the 11 month opportunity. I knew it could be tough to get exactly what we wanted in terms of view- as I knew early dec is very popular, but i was surprised. We tried for 2 studios vs a 1bedroom and still nothing.

i knew DH wouldn't be happy about this, since he had already prematurely promised his mom the trip and those dates. I told our guide I would have to talk to DH and call him back with what we wanted to do. then he called back just a short bit later and managed to find the full week at BLT lake view. We wanted standard, but couldn't make that happen for us, so we just took lake view. So he did manage to pull something out that MS couldn't.

 

[kamikazecat]

We had a cash reservation for two weeks at BLT this summer and they were able to convert it over to a points stay for the same time frame. I am sure it wasn't a huge deal since we already had the room reserved but this was a selling point for me and I am glad they were able to do it.

 

[BuzzLightYear3]

We had been thinking about purchasing for about a year when my DH ended up being asked to attend a work conference. Being faced with a week home alone with 3 young children, I convinced DH that that was the time to buy. We called and told our guide we would buy in if he could get us reservations. That was with just a few weeks notice in October. He came up with a 2BR at Old Key West (even though we were buying BWV), but after a few days there I realized how he was able to get it.....we were in a building that was being completely painted.....they were sanding and scraping morning through night. After a day or so, I realized they hadn't booked anybody else in that building. It was a bit aggravating when I was trying to get kids to take naps mid-day, but I didn't actually care. I was just happy to be there.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

They have a lot of leeway if it means closing a sale. On our first visit to a DVC resort was in 2001 over February break. We were paying cash for a 2BR villa for a week. We had already stayed a couple of nights when we did the tour. I told the Guide we would purchase if she could switch the rest of our nights to points. It took her about 10 minutes but she made it happen, she had a sale and we used the cash we were going to spend on the room for a down-payment instead. We didn't even have to change rooms.

Moral of the story: It doesn't hurt to ask.

HBC