Paying cash for one night?

[MicheleC]

I was wondering what to do if we want to stay and extra night on cash. We've never done this or thought about this before, but we have our trip booked for Oct 04 and to stay an extra night (would be a Saturday) would be so many more points that we'd have to borrow so we only booked the regular 7 night week. We're used to staying 9 to 11 nights but now that DD will be in 1st grade we don't know if pulling her out of too much school would be o.k. Anyway, yesterday we were talking about possibly adding on that extra Saturday night with a cash reservation. Has anyone had experience with this? Do we get a discount? Do I call the regular member services number and tell them I want to add a cash day?? Any experience would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[wdwstar]

you can call members service to add the extra night on for cash,
if the room is available for cash and you may get a discount 25% if available for discount, plus you pay tax on the rate that is quoted, ms will ask for a cc and then when you check in the cc will be charged. you have up to 5 days to arrival to cancel the cash room without any pentalies. when making the ressies ask to have the two ressies linked togther, so you dont have to move for one night.

 

[PamOKW]

You can start by calling MS and seeing whether they have any rooms available for member cash discount. We get 25% off the rack rate and get the same housekeeping as when staying on points. They can then link your reservation together and you won't have to move rooms.

The other option is to book the room through the regular CRO channels. You could take advantage of AP or other available discounts (sometimes making the room less than our Member discount). This is also different inventory so, if MS has nothing available, you may find a cash room here. I'm pretty sure you can also ask them to link the room to your existing MS reservation so you don't change rooms. You would get full housekeeping with this room.

 

[DebbieB]

Call member services and see if a member discount room is available. It's 25% off. Sometimes you have to wait until closer to your date of stay to get the discount.

 

[RLAlden]

Even if you call and the discount is not available on the room, book it anyways and then you can call every week or so to see if the reduced rate is available. We did that recently with HHI where we used points for Sun & Mon and reserved using cash for Sat. At the time I made the reservation, the discount was not available. We did not want to take a chance of not getting the room, so I agreed to the regular price. A few weeks later I called and they were able to change the rate to the DVC discounted rate. Good luck...

 

[lovwdwalot]

Can you get a member discount for a room at any resort? I know this is a dumb question, but I'm new at this.

 

[Gail & Joe]

The 25% discount is for DVC resorts only. I got cash ressies in Dec. for Fri. and Sat. night. The week before and after are on points and MS linked everything together so we won't have to move.

 

[kda]

If the room is booked through CRO, ask them to note your current DVC reservation, and contact Member Services to note the new CRO reservation. Go over this again when you check in, and (hopefully) you won't have to switch rooms. MS has told me they will not guarantee there will be no room change, but they will link the reservations and guarantee the same room if the cash reservation is booked through them.

 

[jaysue]

We have done this for one night at VB - it was a Friday - had a choice of something like 81 points for a 2BR or $325+tax cash rate - we took the cash rate

There were no member or CRO discounts for that night

thanks
jaysue

 

[OneMoreTry]

Originally posted by RLAlden
Even if you call and the discount is not available on the room, book it anyways and then you can call every week or so to see if the reduced rate is available. We did that recently with HHI where we used points for Sun & Mon and reserved using cash for Sat. At the time I made the reservation, the discount was not available. We did not want to take a chance of not getting the room, so I agreed to the regular price. A few weeks later I called and they were able to change the rate to the DVC discounted rate. Good luck...

We've had this same experience on more than one occasion. I don't call back weekly, though. I call back about 2 months before the trip and they change the reservation to the discounted rate. They have always "linked" the reservations to make sure we don't have to change rooms.

This is a great point saver -- paying for weekend nights. Another point saver if you don't mind moving is to take advantage of the low discount rates (see mousesavers.com) and switch to a Disney hotel.