Thought I'd add our good rent story to cheer everyone's day. As some of you may have noticed several weeks ago I was freaked out because a "friend" cancelled out on us exactly 29 days before the trip. This was a business associate of DH who wanted to go to F&W when we traveled but didn't want to pay rack so asked us to make him a ressie using points. Thought he knew the drill as we had done this once before and because I gave him repeated reminders that it was a non-cancel deal for me at 30 days. Reminded him at the 11 month point when we reserved, reminded him at about 5 months when we gave him the paperwork, reminded him at 8 weeks when we made our flight reservations - LOTS of reminders. So on day 29, he calls and bails - family wedding the day before, just couldn't make the connections conveniently, surely I could just sell the ressie as BWV view for Food & Wine was a "hot ticket". To make matters worse, we have a February use year, so the odds of getting in another trip before Feb 1 was pretty low. 96 points - down the tubes. 
So I put the ressie up on R/T. Lots of inquiries, no takers. Wrong size room, wrong dates, couldn't get good air fare this close to date - nothing was jelling. Reduced to $9/point, still no good. Reduced to $8, still not working and we're only 10 days out. So at 8 days I tell DH I'm going to cancel because we couldn't even get a check to clear this close to travel time nor could we get any written proof of the name switch from MS if I did rent it. Plus I'm wasting a ridiculous amount of time emailing and answering questions - not to mention the thought of the wasted money is pretty much ruining the prospect of my vacation! (And that he and the friend are WAY down on my blacklist).
But I try one more thing. I had rented to a lovely couple about three years ago when we had to cancel because of DH's hip surgery. She had emailed about a year ago asking if I had spare points literally a day after I had banked all my spares. So I emailed her. Knew it was a REALLY long shot, but thought how bad I'd feel if she contacted me after the deed was done. Reduced the point price a bit because I knew it was a 1 bedroom, not a studio and might be a stretch. And we trusted each other - knew the check wouldn't bounce. She emails back!! They had just been discussing that morning that they REALLY needed a break and a Disney fix but that there was no chance anything would be available right now. They absolutely want to buy that reservation!
So I switch the ressie to their name, they send me a check and everyone is happy. They got an extra vacation, I didn't lose my shirt over the lost money, my vacation (and marriage) is saved.
There's more... we go to check in about 5 PM at BWV and the CM looks at the screen and says "just a minute", goes in the back and comes out with this GORGEOUS fall floral arrangement. They have sent me flowers because I gave them such a wonderful vacation! Talk about lovely people. After all, they already kept me from losing all the money that was in that ressie! So we all got Pixie Dusted on this trip. The flowers added that something extra to our room all week, too.
So I put the ressie up on R/T. Lots of inquiries, no takers. Wrong size room, wrong dates, couldn't get good air fare this close to date - nothing was jelling. Reduced to $9/point, still no good. Reduced to $8, still not working and we're only 10 days out. So at 8 days I tell DH I'm going to cancel because we couldn't even get a check to clear this close to travel time nor could we get any written proof of the name switch from MS if I did rent it. Plus I'm wasting a ridiculous amount of time emailing and answering questions - not to mention the thought of the wasted money is pretty much ruining the prospect of my vacation! (And that he and the friend are WAY down on my blacklist).
But I try one more thing. I had rented to a lovely couple about three years ago when we had to cancel because of DH's hip surgery. She had emailed about a year ago asking if I had spare points literally a day after I had banked all my spares. So I emailed her. Knew it was a REALLY long shot, but thought how bad I'd feel if she contacted me after the deed was done. Reduced the point price a bit because I knew it was a 1 bedroom, not a studio and might be a stretch. And we trusted each other - knew the check wouldn't bounce. She emails back!! They had just been discussing that morning that they REALLY needed a break and a Disney fix but that there was no chance anything would be available right now. They absolutely want to buy that reservation!
So I switch the ressie to their name, they send me a check and everyone is happy. They got an extra vacation, I didn't lose my shirt over the lost money, my vacation (and marriage) is saved.
There's more... we go to check in about 5 PM at BWV and the CM looks at the screen and says "just a minute", goes in the back and comes out with this GORGEOUS fall floral arrangement. They have sent me flowers because I gave them such a wonderful vacation! Talk about lovely people. After all, they already kept me from losing all the money that was in that ressie! So we all got Pixie Dusted on this trip. The flowers added that something extra to our room all week, too.
