question about waitlist strategy

[SEL]

Our dvc contract just came through, so we are a little late to the booking. But we want to go in November for 4 nights Sunday - Thursday. We need a 2 bedroom. We currently booked SSR as it was the only place available and we waitlisted two different 2 br options at BLT (both lake view 2 br options).

We’d strongly prefer to stay at the same place for all 4 nights.

Should we:
- just wait and see what happens with the waitlist at BLT?
- are there other 2br options that are more likely to come up?
- should we scrap our reservation at SSR and just book single nights at BLT or somewhere else until have our 4 nights (we don’t have enough points to hold our current reservation as a back up plan if this doesn’t work out).

Other thoughts?

First timer here. Would love any insight!

 

[Sandisw]

If you have al 4 nights at SSR, it would be tough to cancel and get single nights to fill all of them at this late date. You may end up with nothing for some of the nights. Waitlists only fill when all 4 nights show up at once. They don’t hold any nights either if they show up individually.

AKV would be the only one I think might have a better chance than BLT. Near park resorts will be tough.

The only way to try to get BLT, if you have enough to secure one extra night is to stalk for the first or last night, book it if it shows, then adjust the waitlists. Shorter ones have better chances.

The problem is then you risk a split stay. I would still stalk the website regularly and if you see something else for the 4 nights pop up, and it works, grab it. But other than that, you may have to be okay with SSR this trip!

 

[PalmettoPath]

If I were in your position I would keep it as you have it. Hopefully one of those two waitlists will come through. I'm not one to mess around with single nights and stalking etc. Some people like that approach, but it's not for me. I have had decent luck with waitlists in scenarios like this, so personally I would keep my fingers crossed that someone cancels and the waitlist comes through. It does happen. We just got one two weeks ago and we have one more right now that we're hoping for. Good luck with it!

 

[Marionnette]

I agree with @PalmettoPath about keeping the SSR reservation as is and hope that the waitlist comes through, although I wouldn't get my hopes up for BLT. AKV or OKW are more likely to become available.

Stalking for 4 consecutive nights this late in the game is just going to be frustrating. You have many years ahead of you for staying in other DVC resorts. You will eventually get to try others.

 

[tim494]

We are going in Nov also. Our strategy was to book a satisfactory stay and then stalk to get something better. Booking and cancelling costs nothing so if you have the points you can stitch some things together. At one point I had pieces for six different scenarios so as more singular days showed up I was able to fill out one of the scenarios but it took time. I then cancelled all of the unneeded fragments.

We were able to do this because we had double points from banking the previous use year which gave me points to play with.

I still have a couple long shot Waitlist options active, but have what we need/want without them.

 

[RoseGold]

Filling all four nights is unlikely. You could split into two 2 night reservations and waitlist those with something that has a lot of rooms, like kidani. At least you could fill half of it. But sounds like that isn’t an option for you.

Waitlisting a lock off is a waste of time, because you need the studio and the 1BR to fill at the same time. It's possible, and I've done it. But for numbers, you need something more likely, and that's the BLT lake dedicated and Kidani savanna dedicated.

Availability DOES open at 31ish days if you are fast and paying attention which requires work. I do it all the time, but I am cool with split stays. People cancel at 30+ days so the points don’t go into holding.

I'd split the reservation into two regardless. That was it's easier to modify or make changes if you see something incredible pop up, like 2 days at Beach Club or something. You can combine it back again in chat if that doesn't happen.