Upgrade to a grand villa?

[disneyatheart]

I've never done this before, but I thought I would give it a try. This next vacation we are taking the grandparents with us to celebrate their grandsons birthdays. We would really like to impress them with the accomodations. Currently, we have a 2 bedroom villa at OKW for Nov. 16-23rd. We will be having 3 additional adults who live in Florida who will be joining us off and on during the week.

Anyway, how do you ask for an upgrade without the additional cost? Do you think it is possible that a 3 bedroom villa maybe available during this time? Any helpful suggestions that might increase my chances of being upgraded would be great.

We are trying to convince the grandparents that DVC is a great investment.

Thank you so much.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You are joking, aren't you?

Are you staying on points or do you have a cash rental? If you are paying cash, you still won't be able to get a free upgrade to a GV. These are in great demand by members. If you are staying on points and you don't have the points, you won't get the upgrade. There are very few GVs and if you don't have it already, you probably won't get it.

If you were staying in a studio and were requesting an upgrade to a one-bedroom (paying cash, not using points), it might happen.

 

[kem330]

Disneyat heart,
Hi Neighbor! Unfortunately DVC as a rule does not upgrade- especially not to a GV. Very rarely people have reported being moved up from SV to a PV at BW or from a studio to one BR when the resort is sold out. But my guess is the GV's are booked anyway and even if they weren't, they wouldn't just move you up. Because its a point system and not a hotel it's just not done much. Have a wonderful trip !

 

[Shadeaux]

There was a post recently on the resort board from someone who was upgraded from a 2br to a grand villa at OKW. The search function isn't working and I can't find the post. I think it was posted within the last few weeks. I was going to post something about it here when I first read about this upgrade but forgot.

 

[Werner Weiss]

There's a reason why DVC doesn't provide free upgrades. The DVC points correspond to real estate ownership, and reservations must correspond to specific unit sizes, or the math doesn't work out. A DVC resort can't give a away 500 points worth of capacity for a 300 point reservation without winding up 200 points short on capacity.

In comparison, a conventional hotel can book reservations in one category and fulfill those reservations in another category. For example, a resort in Hawaii might offer a $150 garden view room special and accept more reservations than they have garden view rooms -- knowing that the guests who get free upgrades to $300 ocean view rooms (that would otherwise have been empty) will be thrilled. A hotel tries to maximize REVPAR (revenue per available room). A timeshare resort (like DVC) needs to accomodate all owners.

That doesn't mean that nobody has ever been given a free upgrade at a DVC resort. A few posters on this board have reported upgrades. But upgrades only seems to happen when something goes wrong and there is no other way that the DVC resort can honor the booking.

 

[disneyatheart]

Thanks everyone!

Yes, I thought it was crazy too, but I do remember someone recently being upgraded. Also, we had some friends (not DVC members) who last year were upgraded to a grand villa in October, but neither they or us remember how or why.

We are not using our points for this trip to OKW, we are using somones reservation through Interval International that they couldn't use. I was not sure if the same rules apply.

Thanks

 

[mikesmom]

Most of us would be happy if we could get them at all!! Points, money, the firstborn child (just kidding). They are much sought after, there are not many, and they are hard to get when you want to pay for them!

 

[sumessefui]

If my senior moment prone memory serves me well, I think the recent upgrade to a GV was at HH because a 2BR was not avialable.

 

[LoveRafiki]

Okay all you experts -- GV question for you? Maybe this shouldn't be a reply - but should be its own question -- but here goes:

We have VWL as our Home. We are thinking about bringing Grandparents and Aunt/Uncle/cousin next year with us (we are two adults and DD 21months). Our trip would be next year beginning of December after Thanksgiving. Will it be impossible using a 7month window to get a GV?

We are going to VWL in 4 weeks Checkin 11/30 -- I made resv. at 11month window for that.

If I hedge my bet and reserve a 2bd and a studio at VWL -- it is more points than a GV at OKW. So, if at 7month window I can switch, I'm worried about losing the extra points that I now wouldn't need?

Any suggestions/opinions???

Thanks

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Originally posted by LoveRafiki
... Our trip would be next year beginning of December after Thanksgiving. Will it be impossible using a 7month window to get a GV? ...

1) My guess is you will be VERY lucky to get the GV.
2) These are slow weeks for the general public.
3) However, these are VERY busy weeks for DVC.

 

[lehrsj]

Originally posted by LoveRafiki
If I hedge my bet and reserve a 2bd and a studio at VWL -- it is more points than a GV at OKW. So, if at 7month window I can switch, I'm worried about losing the extra points that I now wouldn't need?

Any suggestions/opinions???

Thanks

By 'losing' the extra points do you mean it will be too late to bank them?

 

[Richyams]

I tried to book any week in early December about nine months out, nothing. I changed it to four consecutive nights. I had three nights that I booked, the first Wed, Fri, and Sat...the first week, I waited about a month and a half on the waiting list. Then I called back to check the next week, they had the Fri and Sat and said that they just had a cancelation and could give me the next Thurs, Fri and Sat.

I figured that since weekends were so easy to get, I would reserve the Thurs night, waitlist the Wed night and not tie up the points reserving the weekend. I was still waitlisted for the first week's Thurs night.

I figured that one of the waitlisted nights would come through and Thur-Sun was better than nothing. Around two months later the second week's Wed came through. I called and checked for that Fri and Sat, of course they were available, cancelled the first week's trip and now have Wed thru Sun, Dec 11 - 15 booked in the OKW GV.

Your best bet would be to trade points with an OKW owner. There is no way in the world that you could wait till the seven month window and be assured of getting one for anything other than Fri ans Sat nights.