quick help with room request at kidani?

[COscrapper]

I emailed another broker (that I had actually received a quote from a month ago), but haven't heard back yet today...since I already submitted a quote request with them previously, I'm not sure what my next step with them would be. I also know of one other rental broker company (the last of the big 3) that is slightly more expensive, but I don't want to get in over my head. I have to pay (refundable) fees to most of these places for them to even try to find an owner, so...if I have active requests with several of them, I don't know how that would work - what if they both suddenly find owners with points and both book me? I would probably lose some money in that case.

I will say the broker co. I spoke to this morning, who already has a small deposit from me and put me on the waitlist, said that "AKL has suddenly become very popular" and they received "a ton" of emails last night (when I sent in my confirmation to go ahead and book the savannah view)...so it doesn't sound good. I have no idea what kind of chance I have. I knew I shouldn't have opened my mouth about AKL in front of the kids! They were looking at the computer over my shoulder, though!

We willl keep our names on the waitlist but I think we will go ahead and book a POR room on Disney's website as backup. Disney will give us a refund if we have to cancel that one, right? I hate to do that but I want to make sure we have SOMEthing lined up so I can relax.

 

[COscrapper]

Just a little update in case anyone has further advice for us - the other rental company I emailed also has NO AKL points available. Not sure we should pay to be on multiple wait lists (that would be bad, right?), so I didn't do anything further with them. The 3rd major rental company I know of is a little more expensive but I did email them too. I have no idea if they will tell me anything without me paying for a request though. Is this unusual for AKL? Everything I read said that it's usually not a problem to get something 7 months out - we started all this at 8 months out, so I thought we were ahead of he game!

DH and I are now reading up on renting directly from an owner - trying to figure out if we are ballsy enough to go that route! We have a backup plan so we just need to decide how important this is to us...

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The third has a pretty hard backlog for AKL bookings according to their (not quite hidden) Open Listings page.

 

[COscrapper]

THANK YOU aurora! That is helpful info. Will check your pm too.

 

[COscrapper]

Just wanted to post a quick update since I was asked to do so...

After tons of research, and learning that all 3 of the major point rental brokers had long waitlists for AKL, and our first room choice (standard studio at JH) started getting booked up for our dates, we took the plunge and rented points directly from an owner here on the DisBoards. Even that proved to be highly competitive, as this nice owner's points were disappearing even as I was trying to nail down the reservation...in the end we were able to nab it for Jambo House! We did have to upgrade to a savannah view, though, since standard view became unavailable for the end of our stay.

Just purchased the trip insurance today...FYI the "Worldwide Trip Protector" plan by Travel Insured was very affordable and one of the few plans that covered cancellation due to Hurricane Warnings, in case that is useful to anyone. Only cost $100 for the 4 of us, but we are only insuring our hotel reservation and park tix, since we are not flying.

So glad it is over, and thankful for all the help I got here! Now just hoping WDW gets its act together with dates for MNSSHP and park hours for Oct/Nov, so I will be able to book a few ADRs in time!