Same resort VS different resorts & UYs

[wheelcap]

I bough at SSR, and added on at SSR with the same use-year. To me, it just makes more sense to have all of my membership in one nice bundle under the master contract. BUT, I've seen lots of people say they think it's better to own several small contracts at different resorts and with different use years -- WHY?? The more I read, and the more I understand, the more I'm confused at how different resorts and/or use years is beneficial at all. Anybody want to give a stab at benefits for diversifying contracts?

 

[DVC Mike]

I have 25 contracts split across 6 resorts, but all in the same UY.

The primary reason I own at more than just one resort is the home priority booking advantage -- having points that I can book at 11 months instead of waiting to see what might be available at 7 months.

 

[ChrisAlli]

So they are all your home resort allowing you to book at either 6, 11 months out?

 

[DVC Mike]

So they are all your home resort allowing you to book at either 6, 11 months out?

Yes, I can book at any of them at 11 months out using just the points I own at a particular resort, or at 7 months using any points I want.

 

[Sandisw]

Another reason that some own different UY's is because of the times they travel and the banking windows.

For example, someone might own an Oct UY at either BCV or BWV so they can travel to Food and Wine every year.

But, they also might own BCV for a summer trip with an April UY. Since traveling at the beginning of the UY allows for a lot of flexibility, owning different ones for different purposes can make sense.

I think that if you are going to use the memberships exclusively at their home resorts, and own enough points to do what you want there, then it doesn't really matter.

However, when you want to be able to use all the points for the same trip, owning at the same resort and UY is probably a bit easier to manage as you can book everything at the 11 month mark at the same place.

 

[chalee94]

So they are all your home resort allowing you to book at either 6, 11 months out?

to clarify- if you own 200 BCV pts and 50 SSR pts, then both BCV and SSR are your "home resorts" BUT you cannot book BCV at 11 months with SSR pts nor can you book SSR at 11 months with BCV pts.

if you want to book a treehouse at 11 months, you could use banked SSR pts, current SSR pts or borrowed SSR pts (which would be 50+50+50=150 SSR pts every third year) - but your BCV pts would have to wait for the 7 month window...and vice-versa....

 

[LisaS]

So they are all your home resort allowing you to book at either 6, 11 months out?

To book in the Home Resort Booking Window (11 months to 7 months plus one day from check-in) you need to have enough of that resort's points in your account to pay for the reservation. You don't even have to own there. Since transferred points retain their home resort, you could have points for that resort transferred into your account from another member who does own points there and use them to book that resort 11 months from check-in.

 

[Vickis3js]

We chose to do the same UY since it would be easier to manage. We bought into AKV since thats what they were selling and thats where we wanted to buy. We bought enough for our once a year trip. Then SSR added the THV and I wanted to stay there and we wanted to be able to maybe take another trip each year. So we knew we had to add on at SSR to even think about getting a THV. We added on enough points to do a THV every 3 years for 7-10 nights by banking and borrowing. It gives us a whole years worth of AKV points to bank and making it possible for DH and I to do a short trip in a studio at the slower times each year as well as our yearly trip with the kids.

So for where we wanted to stay and when we travel it was a must to have 2 home resorts. Now if we were to add on again I would just add on at either one of our home resorts already since not sure if we have much desire to stay anywhere that would be hard to get at 11 months out.