Questions about when to book Room Only...

[ColoradoK]

So, we aren't planning to go till next January (2012). I realize that there aren't any discounts out yet for that time of year. Can I make a room only ressie and then apply a PIN or general public discount if one becomes available later? What about ADRs? I'd like to make some of them at 180 days out, of course, and having a room reserved we can do that, right? What if we later modify our reservation...would we lose our dining reservations???

Thanks in advance!

 

[vicki_c]

Yes, you can book a room only now if you want - think you will have to do that on the phone since it's so far out. The rate you will be quoted will be the highest rate of the year and you will have to pay your deposit based on that rate (one night's rate is the deposit for room only).

Later you can change it as needed - for a new offer, change to a package, etc. Always subject to availability for your dates and also what resort you are planning on.

ADRs will not be impacted in any case. And you don't need a reservation to reserve ADRs 180 days out. You only need it to use the 180+10 on-site guest booking window, which can be relatively unnecessary, depending on where you want to dine and when you are going.

Some have suggested that many early bookings though may impact the discount offers that come later. It's an interesting theory and seems valid to me - they only offer discounts to fill rooms, so if they see that the rooms are all filled already, maybe they won't think they need to offer any. Of course, your one little reservation is unlikely to tip the scale in the big scheme of things.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Some have suggested that many early bookings though may impact the discount offers that come later. It's an interesting theory and seems valid to me - they only offer discounts to fill rooms, so if they see that the rooms are all filled already, maybe they won't think they need to offer any. Of course, your one little reservation is unlikely to tip the scale in the big scheme of things.

Using that example for us it wasn't true. This past December while we were at the Boardwalk Inn and made a regular room only reservation without any discounts for August 2011. The on Janurary 1, 2011 we were able to take advantage of the 35% room only offer for August 2011 and switched our reservation to get the discount. Now the difference is we needed to change our dates because we were originally going from August 8 - 22. With the 35% discount we are now going from August 17 - 31 and the discount starts on August 14. Now I highly doubt our original reservation is the reason the 35% off was not released earlier that month, because had we kept it we would have been there on August 14 when the discount dates started.

 

[Mamu]

So, we aren't planning to go till next January (2012). I realize that there aren't any discounts out yet for that time of year. Can I make a room only ressie and then apply a PIN or general public discount if one becomes available later? What about ADRs? I'd like to make some of them at 180 days out, of course, and having a room reserved we can do that, right? What if we later modify our reservation...would we lose our dining reservations???

Thanks in advance!

I do this all the time, book the resort (with a AAA rate) I want to stay at. Make my ADR and sit back to see what available for pins or codes. Have them applied as them come out, sometimes changing 3 or 4 times.

 

[Rachaelt]

Using that example for us it wasn't true. This past December while we were at the Boardwalk Inn and made a regular room only reservation without any discounts for August 2011. The on Janurary 1, 2011 we were able to take advantage of the 35% room only offer for August 2011 and switched our reservation to get the discount. Now the difference is we needed to change our dates because we were originally going from August 8 - 22. With the 35% discount we are now going from August 17 - 31 and the discount starts on August 14. Now I highly doubt our original reservation is the reason the 35% off was not released earlier that month, because had we kept it we would have been there on August 14 when the discount dates started.

That's because rates are announced in August.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

That's because rates are announced in August.

I knew that and our original reservation was made in December 2010, four months after the 2011 rates were released and that had nothing to do for the dates the room only discount would be.