Varying Quotes for Bonnet Creek?

[aubriee]

I got quotes from four different people for ten nights in a Wyndham Bonnet Creek one bedroom for mid May (10th-20th). I got a wide range of quotes and am just curious as to why the price difference is so much.

1. Vacation Strategies--$896.00

2. Vacation Upgrades--$1000.00-$1090.00, depending on if the 60 day discounts are available

3. Ferrell Vacations-- $1290.00

4. a seller recommended by another DISer at VRBO-- $1553.00 if paid in full at time of booking and $1848, if not

I booked with Vacation Strategies because they were cheaper, but am now second guessing myself. How are their prices that much cheaper? My understanding is that I won't hear anymore from them, until 5-20 days out when I should get a confirmation, at which time I can call Wyndham and verify I have a reservation, before paying my balance. Correct? I'm just a little worried about waiting until that close to the trip and then me not having a place to stay. Any horror stories out there? However, I also like having my trip paid in full, well before I leave, and don't like having to wait until 5-20 days out before I can pay it off. I'd rather pay it off now. Is that possible, but then again I hate not being able to get a confirmation until 5-20 days out, so that may not be such a good idea anyway. I guess I'm just feeling nervous that something may go wrong and I'll be stuck paying rack rate at Disney.

 

[softballmom3]

I got quotes from four different people for ten nights in a Wyndham Bonnet Creek one bedroom for mid May (10th-20th). I got a wide range of quotes and am just curious as to why the price difference is so much.

1. Vacation Strategies--$896.00

2. Vacation Upgrades--$1000.00-$1090.00, depending on if the 60 day discounts are available

3. Ferrell Vacations-- $1290.00

4. a seller recommended by another DISer at VRBO-- $1553.00 if paid in full at time of booking and $1848, if not

I booked with Vacation Strategies because they were cheaper, but am now second guessing myself. How are their prices that much cheaper? My understanding is that I won't hear anymore from them, until 5-20 days out when I should get a confirmation, at which time I can call Wyndham and verify I have a reservation, before paying my balance. Correct? I'm just a little worried about waiting until that close to the trip and then me not having a place to stay. Any horror stories out there? However, I also like having my trip paid in full, well before I leave, and don't like having to wait until 5-20 days out before I can pay it off. I'd rather pay it off now. Is that possible, but then again I hate not being able to get a confirmation until 5-20 days out, so that may not be such a good idea anyway. I guess I'm just feeling nervous that something may go wrong and I'll be stuck paying rack rate at Disney.

There was a large thread on here recently where someone called vs a scam--found out to not be true--and I have also read throughout that thread of many happy people who rented there. If you search I bet you could find if if you really wanted to read it. The op or someone changed the title thread due to the word "scam" in there and it really seemed like someone just maybe didn't really know how timeshare rental process worked. If I was to stay at bonnet creek I wouldn't hesitate to rent from vs.

 

[blessedby3]

We rented through VS for our October trip and had no problems at all. We paid the deposit and waited for our final payment email. It came at about 23 days out (If I remember correctly) and we paid that and then I called BC to make sure they had the ressie in our name and everything was perfect. VS was also the cheapest price quoted and we went with them because of that reason. I dont think you will find any horror stories on the Dis from them.

There was that poster that softballmom3 was talking about, but her information was so confusing and I dont think she knew what she was doing at all. Everyone else on that huge thread posted they had good experiences with VS.

 

[wgeo]

We also used VS and stayed at Bonnet Creek, would recommend them. I haven't seen any horror stories other then that confusing thread recently.

As for why they are cheaper than everyone else, someone with a lot of knowledge about timeshares has explained it in the big "we looove bonnet creek thread", sorry I don't have time to dig for the post right now. It has to do with how many points they are able to use to book and how they use their upgrades and stuff, ok sorry that is a really poor explanation , but mainly it's because they must have a lot of points/vip status to work with when they are booking there.

 

[manhattanman]

I got quotes from four different people for ten nights in a Wyndham Bonnet Creek one bedroom for mid May (10th-20th). I got a wide range of quotes and am just curious as to why the price difference is so much.

1. Vacation Strategies--$896.00

2. Vacation Upgrades--$1000.00-$1090.00, depending on if the 60 day discounts are available

3. Ferrell Vacations-- $1290.00

4. a seller recommended by another DISer at VRBO-- $1553.00 if paid in full at time of booking and $1848, if.

to answer the bolded part it is simply supply and demand. You are not booking with the resort itself you are exchanging money for " points" that the person taking your money ( or their agent) has with WBC. Not all point holders are equal so that they could get better or worse deals and pass the savings on ( or not ) to you.

If you booked with VS you should be fine but it is not like using hotwire or priceline where the intermediate passes on the bid "directly" to the resort.

If you want to pay it all upfront ( I understand this idea) then you could always look at Ebay with a buy it now option, but since you went with VS it looks like that ship has sailed. But my understanding is that some of the companies will take a deposit in case they can get a "better" deal closer to the travel date which means you would ultimately end up paying less.

I think that if you went with any of the companies that are frequently mentioned here, you should be fine. It is really unlikely that they will take you money and not arrange for the stay.

I also was very suspicious about how all of this worked because it is so "un-hotel" like but I ended up going with Ebay after asking for a number of quotes from different places and I'm happy with the deal I got.

 

[JimMIA]

I got a wide range of quotes and am just curious as to why the price difference is so much?

There is also a wide range of answers to this question. Obviously supply and demand are the most important. Secondly some renters may be willing to accept less -- either because they have VIP status and therefore get lower points costs, or simply because the renter REALLY wants to rent points they can't use.

There is another technical reason that has to do with the timeshare weeks calendar. If you check in from May 10-12, you are in Week 18, which is Value season and the points requirement is less. If you check in on May 13, it's High season and the points go up.

In addition, each timeshare contract is tied to a specific unit at the resort and that means that some units may be in one week, and other units may be in another week. When we stayed at WBC last May, I saw points costs for one-bedroom deluxes of 9,000 for a weeknight, and others that cost 15,000 (NO, they were not 1 BR Presidential) for the same checkin-out.

In checking your target period, I see weeks in 1BR Deluxes at 84,000 points and 96,000 points -- same size, same dates. I also see 1 BR Presidentials for 112,000 and 141,000 -- same size, same dates. Moving out just two days for checkin (to the 13th-14th), I see 1 BR deluxes as high as 108,000 and 1 BR Presidentials as high as 160,200.

Variations like that can cause the price quote differences you are seeing.