"Room Holder" - Is that a thing?

[Minnie2114]

So I don't know if this is even a thing, but you are the group to ask! We sent a contract for ROFR the end of June (BRV). I really want to do a 4 night Welcome Home trip in September before the 50th craziness commences (September 22 - September 24), and I want to be able to book our flight now (it's a great price). But, I'm afraid by the time points are loaded (or heaven forbid we don't pass ROFR), rooms won't be available (and flights will be outrageous).

Is there any member site where current owners help someone in this situation by booking the room for someone, and then changing the reservation to us and our own points once the contract is loaded and available for use?

Thanks everyone, you all have taught me so much already!

 

[erionm]

Is there any member site where current owners help someone in this situation by booking the room for someone, and then changing the reservation to us and our own points once the contract is loaded and available for use?

Nothing like that is possible.

 

[robinb]

There is way to book a villa until you have your points and in any case, there is little availability in the fall now. Sorry!

 

[sndral]

…
But, I'm afraid by the time points are loaded (or heaven forbid we don't pass ROFR), rooms won't be available…
…

DVC villas already aren’t available, you may be able to piece together a split stay once you get your points, if your points are loaded in time.
Once you pass ROFR, it’ll take a couple of weeks to close & could take longer, take a look at your contract to see what your closing date is - it could take that long to even close. Then add in a couple weeks for DVC to set up your membership and load your points.
If you want to gamble, then make a cash reservation w/ Disney or a cheaper offsite hotel and grab flights, then cancel the cash reservation if you get very very lucky & are able to piece together a split DVC stay w/ your own points.
Even if someone could figure out a way (and I can’t think of one,) they’d most likely have to ‘recover’ their own points w/in 30 days of arrival putting them into holding status & thus severely limiting their ability to use them.
I suppose if someone had about to expire points they might be willing to rent them to you for a discount price & book a split stay for you and agree that if you got your points in time you’d transfer points to them & they’d refund your rental money to you - but that’d take a whole lot of trust & not something I’d consider personally.
Good luck w/ ROFR.

 

[Minnie2114]

Thanks everyone! For $200 I think I should just book the flight and do as suggested and reserve an off site room as a back up. I fully expect needing to do a split stay, so I'm ok with that.

On a side note, does anyone know how accurate the DVC Vacations availability tool is? That's what I am checking, and it seems the week I'm looking at isn't completely unavailable at this time (for a split stay, of course).

 

[Brian Noble]

On a side note, does anyone know how accurate the DVC Vacations availability tool is?

If it were me, I'd stop looking. There is nothing I could do about it until my points were loaded, and I know enough about myself that I'd be stressed out watching days disappear and reappear.

Once your points are in place, that's the time to try to start piecing something together. I figure that would be more fun if (a) I could view it as a bit of a game and (b) I could remember that I'll have many years to use these points, and this is just one vacation.

 

[RoseGold]

Fall 2021 is going to be incredibly difficult to book and has been booked solid for months.

That would be true without the extra Covid points floating around. To book anything, you are going to have to constantly stalk, and that might not work.

There is a "Welcome Home" trip when you buy direct. They pull cash inventory for you, usually. As a resale buyer, they don't even send you a magnet. There is no Welcome Home trip.

 

[crisi]

If there was availability, you could rent someone else's points, and then rent yours out when you get them to cover the cost. I've done this to get a difficult to get at seven months Summer Hilton Head reservation. But its moot since there isn't availability for anyone else to book for you right now.

 

[scoobdoo]

Fall 2021 is going to be incredibly difficult to book and has been booked solid for months.

It might open up if the CDC reimplements restrictions and mandates...

 

[macman123]

So I don't know if this is even a thing, but you are the group to ask! We sent a contract for ROFR the end of June (BRV). I really want to do a 4 night Welcome Home trip in September before the 50th craziness commences (September 22 - September 24), and I want to be able to book our flight now (it's a great price). But, I'm afraid by the time points are loaded (or heaven forbid we don't pass ROFR), rooms won't be available (and flights will be outrageous).

The Welcome Home Reservation only applies for direct purchase and on your first stay.

So if you have got resale you wouldn't get the Welcome Home Reservation technically......

But assuming you mean your first trip - sadly you can only book once your contract and points have been loaded. Its a slow process but worth the savings

 

[CarolMN]

On a side note, does anyone know how accurate the DVC Vacations availability tool is? That's what I am checking, and it seems the week I'm looking at isn't completely unavailable at this time (for a split stay, of course).

Not very. It's just a snapshot of what was available when the site checked. It says they update twice a day.

Keep in mind that availability is very, very volatile right now due to the amount of excess points in the system (caused by the pandemic closures), and the pent up desire to travel. All you will do by checking that is make yourself crazy.

Hope you can close soon and get your points/account loaded right after that. Good luck!

 

[macman123]

On a side note, does anyone know how accurate the DVC Vacations availability tool is? That's what I am checking, and it seems the week I'm looking at isn't completely unavailable at this time (for a split stay, of course).

Its not. As a member you can search find a room, then do another search straight after and its gone.

The same as it might not show, do another search and its there.

Availability changes all the time.

 

[crisi]

Its also important to realize that no one has any visibility into how many rooms are available. So you could be seeing availability for a single room, or availability for a dozen rooms - no way to tell. With about a quarter million members - availability is going to change frequently. That's why checking in advance of when you can reserve doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[karen4546]

So I don't know if this is even a thing, but you are the group to ask! We sent a contract for ROFR the end of June (BRV). I really want to do a 4 night Welcome Home trip in September before the 50th craziness commences (September 22 - September 24), and I want to be able to book our flight now (it's a great price). But, I'm afraid by the time points are loaded (or heaven forbid we don't pass ROFR), rooms won't be available (and flights will be outrageous).

Is there any member site where current owners help someone in this situation by booking the room for someone, and then changing the reservation to us and our own points once the contract is loaded and available for use?

Thanks everyone, you all have taught me so much already!

Slim pickings as far as availability for that time period. We bought direct in May of 2019 AKV. We got double points and they were able to reserve our "Welcome Home" for 2 studios at Beach Club Villas-now that was some MAGIC because it was prime Food & Wine season (end of September 2019).

 

[stlrod]

I attempted to cancel a reservation and immediately re-book it with a new contract I acquired. It worked in one instance and not in another. It may have made a difference that the one where it worked I did it in the middle of the night while MS was closed and everyone else but me were sleeping. But there is no way to guarantee it. In other instances, I have cancelled and re-booked but in some not.

 

[supersnoop]

Is there any member site where current owners help someone in this situation by booking the room for someone, and then changing the reservation to us and our own points once the contract is loaded and available for use?

What you'd need to do is go over to the rent/trade board and rent the points (reservation) that you need, and then when you get your points, rent them out to someone else. There's no way to move a reservation from one owner to another.

 

[Sandisw]

Just to add, reservations are made on a membership abs because of that, it can not be transferred to another owners.

Even owners like myself who have two UYs which is two memberships can’t move a trip booked on one and not the other.

But more importantly, it would be very unlikely that you close in time and have the contract and points transferred from the other owner to you in time.

 

[macman123]

If you sent the end of June, then assuming ROFT takes 3 weeks, thats mid-late July.

Then you need to wait for the estoppel from Disney. That's another 3 weeks, so mid-August.

Then you have to close, that's another 2 weeks on average. That's beginning September

Once closed it goes to Disney to add points, that's around 3 weeks.

Then it takes around another few days to add points. So you are looking at late September at the earliest I am sorry to say.

Check out the closing thread, this will give you an idea:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/closing-time.3392820/

 

[brazzledazzler]

Lots of good advice on this thread.

Also, there is extremely limited availability from Sept-January.

I’d book cash and enjoy your trip! They’ll be plenty of opportunities to use your points once everything is finalized. Congratulations!

 

[Deb & Bill]

So I don't know if this is even a thing, but you are the group to ask! We sent a contract for ROFR the end of June (BRV). I really want to do a 4 night Welcome Home trip in September before the 50th craziness commences (September 22 - September 24), and I want to be able to book our flight now (it's a great price). But, I'm afraid by the time points are loaded (or heaven forbid we don't pass ROFR), rooms won't be available (and flights will be outrageous).

Is there any member site where current owners help someone in this situation by booking the room for someone, and then changing the reservation to us and our own points once the contract is loaded and available for use?

Thanks everyone, you all have taught me so much already!

Is what you are calling a Welcome Home trip your own invention? Or are you thinking that DVC will book you a Welcome Home trip? That usually only comes with direct purchase.