Is booking at 7 month window getting harder

[DougEMG]

When I bought one of my BWV contracts it came with 3 years worth of points and the previous owner hadn't been using their points prior to selling and just letting them expire. These days people are buying BWV to stay there and it is way easier to rent points through brokers so less points expiring unused.

 

[n2mm]

When I bought one of my BWV contracts it came with 3 years worth of points and the previous owner hadn't been using their points prior to selling and just letting them expire. These days people are buying BWV to stay there and it is way easier to rent points through brokers so less points expiring unused.

I agree. I only use my Bwv for that resort. I use my BLT points sometimes at BLT, not always. I use my SSR points at the 7 month window.

 

[lovin'fl]

When I bought one of my BWV contracts it came with 3 years worth of points and the previous owner hadn't been using their points prior to selling and just letting them expire. These days people are buying BWV to stay there and it is way easier to rent points through brokers so less points expiring unused.

Yes. I do think there are less points just expiring.

Another thing I noticed on my last trip in Oct. There were conventions all over the place. Every resort we visited. And one time I was on elevator at BwV going to my room. There were two men with convention tags around their necks and they were talking about what great rooms they got this year with bedrooms and full kitchens. They got off on same floor as me and as I walked down the hallway to my studio, I watched them each go into a 1BR of their own. I wonder how many rooms they are using for conventions and how do we know, for sure, they only use their inventory allowed for CRO and they aren't dipping into our inventory??? I wonder if they estimated how many points go unused and expire and figure they can use those also as CRO???? But now less folks are letting points expire...so has the Dis-actuary estimated a new average recently????

We had a split stay in Oct and left BWV to stay at AKV. I was on 5th floor (DVC floor) at Jambo. I was in laundry room and met nice older couple who was also staying on 5th floor and was surprised to find laundry free. So I asked some questions and discovered they booked AKL CRO room only but had been put in a DVC studio on 5th floor. They had no idea they were in a DVC room. I saw them coming out of their room and they were in DVC studio but booked a standard room.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

So I asked some questions and discovered they booked AKL CRO room only but had been put in a DVC studio on 5th floor. They had no idea they were in a DVC room. I saw them coming out of their room and they were in DVC studio but booked a standard room.

I would take the confusion here with a grain of salt. They may have booked that studio CRO but don't know the difference.

 

[lovin'fl]

I would take the confusion here with a grain of salt. They may have booked that studio CRO but don't know the difference.

Yeah, I think maybe. They were very confused as I found them trying to swipe CC at soap dispenser thinking it was paying for washer to run. They said you have to put washer number in to pay for that washer to run. I walked right up and started washer for free and explained it was DVC laundry and is free. They were very sweet older folks but seemed a tad confused.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Yeah, I think maybe. They were very confused as I found them trying to swipe CC at soap dispenser thinking it was paying for washer to run. They said you have to put washer number in to pay for that washer to run. I walked right up and started washer for free and explained it was DVC laundry and is free. They were very sweet older folks but seemed a tad confused.

This happens a lot at the Poly units, since so many have been in CRO while the resort gets declared. People don't really understand the difference when booking.

 

[crisi]

Yes. I do think there are less points just expiring.

Another thing I noticed on my last trip in Oct. There were conventions all over the place. Every resort we visited. And one time I was on elevator at BwV going to my room. There were two men with convention tags around their necks and they were talking about what great rooms they got this year with bedrooms and full kitchens. They got off on same floor as me and as I walked down the hallway to my studio, I watched them each go into a 1BR of their own. I wonder how many rooms they are using for conventions and how do we know, for sure, they only use their inventory allowed for CRO and they aren't dipping into our inventory??? I wonder if they estimated how many points go unused and expire and figure they can use those also as CRO???? But now less folks are letting points expire...so has the Dis-actuary estimated a new average recently????

We had a split stay in Oct and left BWV to stay at AKV. I was on 5th floor (DVC floor) at Jambo. I was in laundry room and met nice older couple who was also staying on 5th floor and was surprised to find laundry free. So I asked some questions and discovered they booked AKL CRO room only but had been put in a DVC studio on 5th floor. They had no idea they were in a DVC room. I saw them coming out of their room and they were in DVC studio but booked a standard room.

We know because every year DVC is audited, and something like that would be easy for the auditors to find. Since doing that would violate timeshare law and is easy to find in audit - and would come with hefty fines and bad PR, it isn't likely to be done.

 

[lovin'fl]

We know because every year DVC is audited, and something like that would be easy for the auditors to find. Since doing that would violate timeshare law and is easy to find in audit - and would come with hefty fines and bad PR, it isn't likely to be done.

That's what I was wondering...if there was a way to know for sure. Glad to hear.

 

[DisneyHumbug]

What about Sunday night? Hope you booked something then. At least BCV for Fri through Mon morning (three nights).

oops I meant to say S/S is BCV!

 

[keishashadow]

Problem is everyone seems to want studios but not many want OKW or SSR and then AKV is next....so location is important as are saving points by booking a studio. OKW, SSR and AKV are large resorts so if owners there are vying for the others as well as owners at the others, it makes it hard. Plus the monorail resorts take soooooo many points that those owners may also be vying for elsewhere in order to save points once the studios are booked there. I don't look at those resorts but I suspect VGF and BLT 1BR and 2BR are available well into the 7 month window whereas my standard view studios at BWV are booked at 11 months.

The end of June was thrilled to piece together a stay @ SSR which starts next Saturday (5 months out).

I've been checking & waitlisted for 2 other studios, but never more than a day or two here or there has opened up.

I will continue the Thanksgiving vibe and be thankful there was room at the inn.

RE AKV & BWV-Standard, frequently the value studios for dates I've attempted to book at the 11 month date have obviously been walked Not sure if more people are catching on or the professional 'renters' are now employing that tactic.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Walking really is not worth it for a rental. If I were to walk I would want to hike the per point cost up, and the thing about renters looking for Value/Satdnard is that they want them because they see the prices as near those of Pop and they tend to be price inelastic.

 

[SL6827]

I am thinking we will buy in at SSR, and I am hoping we will have some good luck in the off season with a few other resorts after we have tried out SSR. But the one thing I know is during the months of say October-December we will be staying where we own at. That is one disadvantage of buying in at Hilton Head or Vero Beach, during those months you may not get an actual reservation at the world.

 

[Tenacious K]

I’ve only had to reserve one trip so far as a new member, but in my experience I got my room 2 days AFTER my 7th month window by picking up what I expect was someone’s cancellation or someone who was walking a reservation and thus dropping some rooms. I reserved a few nights that were available, and then three days later there were more cancellations and I was able to reserve my entire stay. I think there’s a lot of opportunity to pick up rooms that first week after the 7th month window and after that it dries up. I ended up getting a jambo value room

 

[SL6827]

I’ve only had to reserve one trip so far as a new member, but in my experience I got my room 2 days AFTER my 7th month window by picking up what I expect was someone’s cancellation or someone who was walking a reservation and thus dropping some rooms. I reserved a few nights that were available, and then three days later there were more cancellations and I was able to reserve my entire stay. I think there’s a lot of opportunity to pick up rooms that first week after the 7th month window and after that it dries up. I ended up getting a jambo value room

That's a great theory!

 

[mlayman7]

We have VGF points that we have no intention of trading out of. We also own blt and really enjoy the resort but use those points if we want to stay elsewhere. We wanted to do a mostly non park stay for swimming and other activities so we were lucky and we're able to get a 2 br bcv for late May right on the 7 month stay, after a few hour wait list completion! I had been watching and noticed everything was filling up the day of so was very excited for the wait list to come through so quickly. Suprised to see people walking reservations at 7 month window.