Not Feeling The 11 Month Home Resort Love at BWV :-(

[crisi]

At BWV - when booking from the start of Food and Wine through mid-January - hope for standard or Boardwalk view - plan for preferred view - even if you own BWV and can book exactly eleven months out.

If you own a different resort and want to switch in at that time - hope for anything at all at BWV - have a backup plan at a different resort (and that resort shouldn't be BCV which is as difficult or more so during that quarter).

 

[wilma-bride]

Isn't that what they were doing?

Yes, I understand that now but the original post made it sound like they were booking each day at a time - I realised, due to later posts, that it is because day 2 of their stay was unavailabile, meaning they couldn't book all 7 days at once.

I think that they were TRYING to get it all, but the day after arrival wasn't available, which caused them to have to go day by day.

Having that second day NOT open shouldn't happen, right?

I'm not an expert on all of this and my eyes start to go blurry when I read too much, but I swear I keep reading this scenario. That SOMEtimes someone is trying to get their trip, but that SECOND day is blocked. And it seems like that should NOT be happening. But no one ever has an answer. (mainly b/c often the posters are posing it as a "DVC is up to something" post, and people get side-tracked, I think)

It seems odd.

Yes, that can happen. Their 2nd day could have been someone elses 7th day.

Other people have explained that if you book that first day, you get the next 6. The other person I quoted said it, too, basically. I've seen it many times, and your post is the first to refute that. That someone else had their 6th day on the OP's 1st day...so shouldn't they have been locked out of that, too?

Technically, what you are saying is correct in that, if all the standard view studios are booked for the period covering OP's second day then, arguably, the first day would not be available either. BUT, you are forgetting that people are walking reservations. So, if you want a sought after date, i.e. a Saturday night at the start of F&W, you book the 7 days including that Saturday at your first opportunity, then release each day that you don't want (and book any extras that you do) until you are left with the day(s) that you do (i.e. walking the reservation). After all, that is exactly what MS recommended that the OP do. Whether you agree with the practice or not, that is the only explanation as to why day 1 is available but day 2 is not.

 

[maburke]

Technically, what you are saying is correct in that, if all the standard view studios are booked for the period covering OP's second day then, arguably, the first day would not be available either. BUT, you are forgetting that people are walking reservations. So, if you want a sought after date, i.e. a Saturday night at the start of F&W, you book the 7 days including that Saturday at your first opportunity, then release each day that you don't want (and book any extras that you do) until you are left with the day(s) that you do (i.e. walking the reservation). After all, that is exactly what MS recommended that the OP do. Whether you agree with the practice or not, that is the only explanation as to why day 1 is available but day 2 is not.

But you can't walk a reservation all on one day. That is, you can't cancel the Sunday 11 months out from Sunday and keep the Monday. I really do not understand how Day 2 would be booked 11 months +1 day out and Day 1 would still be available. I am not one to be conspiratorial, but unless the rooms were planned to be taken out of service that particular day (11 months out at a peak season) for maintenance, or there were some other explanation (like the split between 2BR lock-offs and separately bookable studios + 1BRs changed), I'm left without another answer.

 

[wilma-bride]

But you can't walk a reservation all on one day. That is, you can't cancel the Sunday 11 months out from Sunday and keep the Monday. I really do not understand how Day 2 would be booked 11 months +1 day out and Day 1 would still be available. I am not one to be conspiratorial, but unless the rooms were planned to be taken out of service that particular day (11 months out at a peak season) for maintenance, or there were some other explanation (like the split between 2BR lock-offs and separately bookable studios + 1BRs changed), I'm left without another answer.

But you CAN cancel one day online (I believe), which can be done a whole hour before somebody can call to book. And, let's face it, if you're walking a reservation, that is exactly what you are doing as, if you need extra days, you will do it as soon as you possibly can to have the chance of getting what you want. I know it sounds highly unlikely but it's the only logical explanation.

 

[CMNJ]

I could be wrong but I didn't think you could modify a reservation online only book one or cancel the whole reservation. I asked MS once when I needed to modify a reservation and they said they same thing (of course that was 6 months ago so it could have changed). Even assuming you can if you modify online and cancel a reservation for 11 months from today you shouldn't be able to maintain a reservation containing any days beyond that since that would essentially be a reservation with a checkin date at 11 months plus 1 day. If the DVC resort in question was one that had fixed weeks I could see how a situation like this could be possible going forward because fixed weeks are reserved prior to the 11 month window opening.

 

[maburke]

But you CAN cancel one day online (I believe), which can be done a whole hour before somebody can call to book.

No, you can't. You can't cancel only part of a reservation online, and if you tried to do it by phone, they shouldn't let you keep the later days.

The crazy thing is that the CM told the OP that the way to avoid this is to walk a reservation. But this is showing a case where walking would fail.

I really wonder what's going on here.

Sorry, OP, that you had such bad luck at the beginning of your membership, but this should not be happening.

 

[bumbershoot]

No, you can't. You can't cancel only part of a reservation online, and if you tried to do it by phone, they shouldn't let you keep the later days.

Exactly.

I really wonder what's going on here.

Same here. Too many posts about it in the last several months, with absolutely no reasonable explanation apart from the conspiracy theories (but with such a highly regulated industry as timeshares it seems impossible that they could be doing something hinky without big trouble).

 

[dmunsil]

Walking a reservation should always work at 11 months, if the number of available rooms is the same on each night. But sometimes it isn't. That can be because rooms are being taken offline for maintenance or because DRC has chosen those room-nights to book for cash, plus probably other reasons I can't think of.

There are 52 standard-view studios, between dedicated and lock-off. Some of them are owed to DRC for cash reservations, which takes them out of the DVC owner pool. There's no requirement that DRC take room-nights evenly, and they couldn't be perfect even if they wanted to; they have to take rooms that add up to the number of points they have from exchanges. I'm sure DRC would love to cherry-pick room-nights they can sell, but DVC would prefer they take no more than x% of any particular room night. We don't know what their system looks like, but there's no way it could always be evenly spread across all nights of the year and room types. So maybe on Friday there were 40 standard-view studios available, but on Saturday there were 39. Or 38. Only Disney knows for sure.

 

[Disneyhappy]

BLT owner here forced to walk for our 10/8 trip. I checked last Wednesday to get a feel for availability and the 1st day of the 11 month booking window for standard studio and 2 BR was booked. Checked Thursday and Friday with same result-booked. I was online Sunday at 8 am and was able to book. By 9:00, the standard views were booked . I've been walking since and hate that I need to. I'm so afraid I'm going to forget to call back. I leave Friday for Disney and I will need to finish walking my reservations for October plus book our FPs for our January trip.

OP- I totally understand your frustration of having to hyper focus on the nuances of booking hard to get dates and the time involved. I work at least 50 hours a week and don't have the time for the upfront planning that is required anymore. I need an assistant!

 

[maburke]

Same here. Too many posts about it in the last several months, with absolutely no reasonable explanation apart from the conspiracy theories (but with such a highly regulated industry as timeshares it seems impossible that they could be doing something hinky without big trouble).

Walking a reservation should always work at 11 months, if the number of available rooms is the same on each night. But sometimes it isn't. That can be because rooms are being taken offline for maintenance or because DRC has chosen those room-nights to book for cash, plus probably other reasons I can't think of.

Here's a question: Is it "hinky" for DRC to take those room-nights to book for cash before other owners have access to them? Whether they are part of the 2% or so that DVD retains ownership of, or whether they are points that owners traded, are they allowed to reserve before the rest of us owners, or should they be following the same rules?
I'm not talking about the possibility that Disney has a computer that books rooms at 8:00:00 am faster than the rest of us can move our fingers; this is showing those are gone at least a day before the 11-month window.

I'm also not talking about maintenance issues here, but rooms to book for cash. Of course they can remove rooms for maintenance, I just find that highly unlikely to be planned more than 11 months out.

 

[freediverdude]

BLT owner here forced to walk for our 10/8 trip. I checked last Wednesday to get a feel for availability and the 1st day of the 11 month booking window for standard studio and 2 BR was booked. Checked Thursday and Friday with same result-booked. I was online Sunday at 8 am and was able to book. By 9:00, the standard views were booked . I've been walking since and hate that I need to. I'm so afraid I'm going to forget to call back. I leave Friday for Disney and I will need to finish walking my reservations for October plus book our FPs for our January trip.

OP- I totally understand your frustration of having to hyper focus on the nuances of booking hard to get dates and the time involved. I work at least 50 hours a week and don't have the time for the upfront planning that is required anymore. I need an assistant!

That's interesting, I didn't know that BLT booked that quickly where anything would have to be walked. Is it just that one particular week that is super popular?

 

[lovin'fl]

Well...I thought being an owner would get me BWV at 11 months out easily. I want to book a SV studio as well, for Nov 4-8, 2016. I wouldn't have thought anything of it and might have waited until 10 months out to book. Now I know I better be on top of it and maybe even walk it. So I want a Friday to Tuesday...when should I start to walk? MAybe Wednesday?

 

[paults]

There are 52 standard-view studios, between dedicated and lock-off. Some of them are owed to DRC for cash reservations, which takes them out of the DVC owner pool.

I could be wrong but I thought that only DVCers could book Standard view and Boardwalk view villas. Cash ressie can only be use for P/G views. When you book cash on line it says standard room but means P/Garden. All standard and boardwalk villas are for DVC bookings only unless there are some left at (I think the 30 day mark) then Disney can use as cash rentals.

 

[drusba]

I am not sure what actually happened to the OP but I do not think it was finding at exactly 11 months out that only the second night he wanted was gone. I have been following BWV daily since 11 months out from late Sep and I have not seen any issue of a day greater than 11 months out disappearing for standard studios/2BRs before the day that is 11 months out. What did happen is that Sep 30, 2016 (the firsdt date OP wanted) was open throughout Oct 30 to Nov 2,. On Nov 1, 2015, Oct 1, 2016 disappeared very quickly at 8 a.m.. The same happened to Oct 2 on Nov 2 and Oct 3 on Nov 3. AKV value and club level, BLT standard, and VGF standard studios/2BR lock-offs have followed a similar pattern. BWV boardwalk view joined that group starting with Oct 2. Those, along with VGF lake view studios/2BR lock-offs are the rooms most vulnerable to disappearing quickly at 11 months out some times of year, particularly at times during this last quarter of the year. What is different this year than the last two years is that it has started happenning a week before Columbus Day weekend while in the previous couple years that blocking pattern at 11 months out held off until the Thursday before Columbus Day. Likely we are just seeing more owners who lost out in the last couple years becoming more atune to the issue and adopting offensive strategies including walking.

 

[dmunsil]

Here's a question: Is it "hinky" for DRC to take those room-nights to book for cash before other owners have access to them? Whether they are part of the 2% or so that DVD retains ownership of, or whether they are points that owners traded, are they allowed to reserve before the rest of us owners, or should they be following the same rules?

I really don't think they could reasonably follow the same rules. The DRC booking system is a completely separate system, and they would need to transfer inventory from one system to the other. They'd have to have some kind of bot that tried to snag the specific room nights that DRC wanted. It would need to have fallbacks if the rooms DRC wanted to take weren't available, etc. And we already know that DRC isn't looking at a live view of what's available to DVC owners; they routinely have rooms available when that category is booked solid by owners.

So I assume they transfer DRC's room nights at some point before opening up booking for owners. I point to this phrase, repeated multiple times in the public offering statement for Utah, which is available online:

"The managing entity shall have the right to forecast anticipated
reservation and use of the accommodations of the timeshare plan and is authorized
to reasonably reserve, deposit, or rent the accommodations for the purpose of
facilitating the use or future use of the accommodations or other benefits made
available through the timeshare plan."

This seems to me like a long-winded way of saying that DVD can pull rooms out in advance, because they forecast that they will be part of the allocation used for other purposes, as allowed by the rest of the declaration.

Clearly DVD gets to hand over some of the room-nights to DRC for cash booking. To do so, they need to pull rooms out, and it's not reasonable to assume they only get the dregs of whatever's left over after the owners pick. That would mean DRC would only get the off-season nights no one wants, which wouldn't rent well and wouldn't provide the cash DVD needs to offset the cruises and so forth that people have exchanged.

Exactly how Disney picks the room-nights to go to DRC is unknown, but it's just not likely that they're evenly spreading them across the whole calendar and all room types.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Could a villa be out for renovation?

 

[dmunsil]

I could be wrong but I thought that only DVCers could book Standard view and Boardwalk view villas.

I don't think that's correct. Cash bookings for Boardwalk Villas are all labeled "Standard View" but I they can be either Standard or Garden. The description online for them is "Can have a view of parking lot or resort grounds."

 

[Disneyhappy]

That's interesting, I didn't know that BLT booked that quickly where anything would have to be walked. Is it just that one particular week that is super popular?

I honestly don't know. Its the first time I wanted to book standard view. I kept reading how busy Columbus Day weekend is prompting me to check current availability because it was incredibly important to book standard view foor our large group due to the points I had available. I really don't understand the whole walking thing but everyday, the current 11 month booking day is unavailable and the prior day that was unavailable becomes available. I am assuming that is because a reservation(s) is being walked.

 

[drusba]

As I noted above, certain room categories including BLT standard view have in the past demonstrated a risk of being unavailable at 11 months out. The risk mainly exists during DVC's high demand season which runs from late Sep to marathon weekend in Jan. During the rest of the year, all of which is DVC's "off season," the risk is very low. In the last quarter of the year it is highest during the Thurs thru Sun of each of Columbus Day weekend, the weekend immediately after Columbus day, the weekend in Nov that has the Wine & Dine Race, the Tues to Fri of Thanksgiving week, the first two weeks of Dec, Christmas week, and the Thursday to Sun of marathon weekend in Jan. It may not happen all the time during those periods but what I am beginning to see this year is that the risk is actually spreading out a little more during that high demand last quarter since it is happenning already for early Oct 2016.

As to Disney reserving rooms based on what it owns so they can be used as rentals, Disney is subject to the same reserving rules as the owners, i.e., it cannot reserve rooms based on its ownership holdings in the DVC resort untill beginning 11 months out. However, Disney is not required to actually have renters for the rooms when it reserves a time, so it can if it wants pick up some rooms at 11 months out before it even has a renter for them. Nevertheless, in the past as to BWV, it has rented only rooms it classifies as "standard" which could be the DVC pool/garden or standard views, and was mostly pool/garden. In any event, what you are seeing now with BWV stand, BLT stand, and some others having issues at 11 months out for early Oct is highly likely a problem caused by owner, not Disney, reservations.

 

[Lurch]

Hello all. I see this thread has grown and I wanted to update/clarify. I missed the first day booking at the 11 month and tried to book at 11month -1 day. I was able to get Friday 9/30 no problem, 10/1was sold out so I waitlisted it. The problem came when I got up the next morning to secure the remaining time for my trip at exactly 11 months. From reading the other posts, as the days became available, it appears that the people who booked 10/1 exactly already had everything else locked up. So, I just moved my trip to a week earlier which was still available (10/1 still waitlisted, but I will just pay cash for one night somewhere else if it doesn't come through. Work and school will be a problem next year, but I will figure something out. I will just have to be more diligent and walk the next reservation I wish to make. I really hate to do this as I think it creates other problems and creates too much stress. However, if I am the only one trying to play things straight it appears I will lose. This makes me sad, but I invested too much not to be able to use the points I purchased at the time I can travel.