RSG auction winners - do you have a plan B?

[Musky]

I won an RSG auction on Skyauction about 6 weeks ago. I have been checking availability every day since (sometimes several times a day), and there has never been anything come up in the WDW area for the dates I want (second or third week of June). Now I wish I hadn't bought it. I'm starting to panic. I have to make reservations somewhere else for our second week anyway, so now I'm wondering if I should make them for the entire time and then cancel the first week if something becomes available on the RSG list. Those of you who have won RSG auctions, did you make cancellable back-up reservations in case there was nothing available for the dates you wanted? Or did you just cross your fingers and trust that something would come up? How long did you wait? I want to know where I'm staying - I can't stand having loose ends when it's less than 90 days away! Help!

Becky

 

[momto4obkids]

Nothing ever showed up when i won my auction last year. I was looking for the first week of march 2004. I ended up calling them about a month before my dates and they offered me Summer Bay Villas.


It was very nerve racking!




Amanda

 

[bearzabout]

It is too early to panic. The best availability is often two weeks to one month before your travel date. I have never been shut out. A few times, I have had to wait until less than a week before my travel date before an ideal unit showed up. It is hard to wait since I often pass up several options waiting for my favorites.

I have never made a back up reservation and have never needed one.

Skyauction is meant to fill unsold units. Most complexes will keep their units available for owners until it becomes unlikely that the units will be booked.

They are just starting to release mid to late April dates. It will likely be more than a month before you start seeing many postings for mid June.

If you just can't wait, a phone call may get you an available unit before they have a chance to list it on the website.

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

..........you say you won 6 weeks ago. Was there availability anywhere when you bid on the auction?? You know, when you go into the RSG auction and see what is available for the dates you are looking for?

I've never bid on an auction that didn't have availability for my dates.........I have even put a hold on the available place before the auction ended.

I didn't even know people bid on auctions that don't show their dates. Wow. That would be scary to me, but I guess it has worked for some of you. That's good.

I know I would panicking and would want a back up. But it is true that the availability opens up later on. Here's some PD...

 

[lawgs]

skyauction does allow you to apply the funds from a RSG auction to another "standard" auction if you do not or are not finding the "resort" you want through RSG


we did this last year, were looking for something in Williamsburg but ended up going to Las Vegas ( just applied what we had bid on RSG to the Las Vegas auction )

call 1-800-929-9929 they can tell you what your options are

 

[Straitlover]

lawgs, where did you end up staying at in LV? I won an auction for Carriage House in LV that I plan on using this October.

I won a RSG auction w/ no dates picked out. I won it in Aug 2003, and it was valid until 5/31/04. My original plan was to use it in the Daytona/Ormond Beach area in March 2004, but they never had any availability. So, we ended up going back to Orlando in May 2004 instead.

 

[lawgs]

we stayed at the cliffs at peace canyon.....a bit from the strip, but it did not matter to us since we were there sight seeing....Grand Canyon and Death Valley being two places we went to.....

it was in a quiet neighbourhood on the west side of town off Flamingo

think at the time we only paid 12$ more than our RSG auction price ...so we were happy

 

[26555]

They are only going to have availability in offseason. With RSG, I'd always plan on finding something, holding it, then going out and winning one of the avail RSG auctions. I usually like to rotate offsite and onsite for fun so was thinking I'd stay at a Disney mod in Sept. I became less certain about AP discounts so browsed on skyauction, found 3br at cypress pointe grandvillas in Sept. I don't really need a 3br or 7 nights but for 51(bid)+195(taxes)+15(skyauction fee) = 261 it just made sense, even if just 4 nights there. I held it in the morning, won RSG auction in afternoon, and had it confirmed that night. Now I'm not worried about hoping for Sept AP discounts. We decided we'd drive over to POFQ to look around and eat some beignets, that will work just fine. September is a great month to find deals on skyauction, summer really isn't. For summer I would book CPR thru HK very early while have availability, that is still a great deal and you can cancel if needed.

 

[Musky]

..........you say you won 6 weeks ago. Was there availability anywhere when you bid on the auction?? You know, when you go into the RSG auction and see what is available for the dates you are looking for?

No, there wasn't anything available then, but I had already read the reports on this board saying that availability wouldn't open up til 2-4 weeks in advance of my dates, so I wasn't worried. I just trusted that something would become available. But I have not found that to be the case, which I guess is the reason I am panicking. Just to find out what *might* be available when I hit that 2 week mark, I have routinely been putting in dates anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks from the current date. I never find a thing. I've checked pretty much every date from now until the end of July (can't go any later than that cause our APs expire), and pickings are very slim. Mostly VV at Parkway in May, which doesn't work for us. I feel really stupid now (I need an icon with a dunce hat to put here). I thought the great deals were available pretty much year round. I guess I'll give it another month or so and if nothing comes up by then I'll call them. I know there's no way in you-know-where that I could wait until the week of my trip to decide where I was staying - I'd be eating my hypertension medication like candy!

Thanks for the pixie dust and for everyone's responses.

Becky (embarrassed is the closest thing I could find to really stupid)

 

[Local_Girl]

Musky,

Sorry to hear you're having a hard time with the RSG availability. We went ahead and booked Cypress Pointe through Hotelkingdom, but I've been hoping and checking daily for availability through both Skyauction and AFVC (for military folks) for early April but there's been nothing we can use. A couple of years ago, there was much more available, and at "better" resorts too, but recently the choices and dates have become very limited. It is more likely that you'd have luck off season, but of course June is part of the busy summer season. Anyway, you may want to book something else that you can cancel if you do get lucky and find a great deal.