Walking a ressie?

[LaurenT]

I've read that people do this to have a better shot at a hard to get ressie. Looks like I'll be trying to book 2 studios out of a total of 16 or 18 available.
We'd like to stay 9 days, from Tuesday to the following Thursday.
Dates would be Aug 20 to 29, 2013 in an AKL Value Studio.
Anyone kind enough to talk me through this?
TIA!

 

[chalee94]

see if these threads help explain it:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2402343

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2539204

edited to add: the short answer is that it deals with the booking rules of "check in date + 7". you want aug 20 but there is a risk that 15-ish people call in on sept 14 and book aug 14 + 7 nights...which wipes out the inventory for the 20th...

so instead of calling 11 months from your check-in date, you'd call on the first day that you can book your first day, which is sept 14 - and book 6 nights you don't want in order to lock in the one that you do. then you have to walk it forward to drop the unneeded nights and book what you really want...but that's where the details get a little murky to me. hope the other threads help.

 

[LaurenT]

see if these threads help explain it:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2402343

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2539204

Perfect, thanks!
So, I call on Sept 13 and book Aug 13 to 20.
Then I call on Sept 19 and cancel the 13th to the 18th, and add the 20th to the 26.
Then I call on the 23rd, cancel the 19 and add the 26th to the 29th. That would leave me with a ressie from Aug 20 to the 29.
And once I have those initial dates secured, the rest should be guaranteed because my own ressie is keeping others from booking.
If I call the first day and it's not available, just try again the next morning...right?
Thanks!

 

[lions1995]

Actually, I think you would call EVERYDAY to add a day and drop a day. So on September 14th, you would call to drop August 13 and add August 21st. You would do this up to September 20th at which point you would have August 20 - 27. You would have to call the next two days to add the two remaining days (August 28 and 29).

It is called walking because you move your reservation 7 day range one day out, every day. Thus walking your reservation into the week you want.

I have never done this. It would seem that if everyone did it, people would have to start calling weeks before their reservation and walking. Not that I object to people using it to get what they want. I am an extreme planner. As such, I think those who plan and reason out their attack should get the benefits of their efforts.

 

[chalee94]

Actually, I think you would call EVERYDAY to add a day and drop a day. So on September 14th, you would call to drop August 13 and add August 21st. You would do this up to September 20th at which point you would have August 20 - 27. You would have to call the next two days to add the two remaining days (August 28 and 29).

nah, i think some of us (me included) tend to get confused since we used to do day-by-day booking when you booked based on your check-out date.

when you book a room for aug 13-20, no one else has access to booking that room until it opens back up on the night of aug 20 (bookable on sept 20). no one can call on sept 19, for example, and book that room for aug 19 for 7 nights because it isn't available for the 1st night...so the OP could wait and call to add nights to their already existing reservation for the 19th with no risk.

 

[drusba]

You are probably concerned about nothing. You should be able to get what you want by booking the reservation for the first 7 nights on Sep 20 and the two extra nights Sep 22. Walking is usually needed only for concierge or possibly value at Christmas time. You will be seeking two values in a slow DVC time. Based on what I saw this year, you could even get value for that time of year at 7 months out.

 

[luckyman_apd]

You are probably concerned about nothing. You should be able to get what you want by booking the reservation for the first 7 nights on Sep 20 and the two extra nights Sep 22. Walking is usually needed only for concierge or possibly value at Christmas time. You will be seeking two values in a slow DVC time. Based on what I saw this year, you could even get value for that time of year at 7 months out.

I agree. Walking is a strategy for hard to get rooms. I have run the scenario's in my head. Being a new member, I don't know how the CM react to someone doing that, but I don't think it's against the rules as I know of.

Even with 11 month priority booking, you still run the risk of having your dates booked by people arriving up to 7 days before you. A CM strategy I was told for the 7 month mark is to use the online booking system to start viewing 8-10 days before your booking mark. That way you can gauge how popular that time is. You can also see if the dates you want are available BEFORE your eligible to book them.

Ex. I was waitlisting a BLT room for Fri Nov 9th. If that date was going to remain unavailable I needed someplace else to stay and since it is during F&W, I figured demand was going to be heavy for the 7 month mark. So on April 3rd I started to check availability at VWL for 11/3 - 11/10. That way even though I could book JUST 11/9 at VWL yet, I could see if it was open. Each day I checked until the morning I could book.

This strategy could work for viewing demand leading up to times you need. I don't see a problem with walking a reservation. It's seems like a bit of work and extra planning, but you know what they say.....The early bird catches the worm. I could see myself doing it in order to get a Standard View somewhere if I needed to stretch my points, but we have planned accordingly so we don't HAVE to do that.

 

[chainkid]

For most reservations at the 11month mark you do not have to walk a reservation but I always do it for tough to get things like a BWV Grand villa or a concierge villa at AKV. I even had to do it at AKV for thanksgiving ressie as i kept watching and waiting for my 7 montn window to open up and everything was going more and more each day so i decided to book four nights instead of just two and then drop the first two nights later. If I had not done that i would not have gotten a room. sometimes you can only do it if you have enough points to cover the extra nights . with more and more people buying into DVC at the bigger resorts it is becoming alot harder to get space at the smaller resorts like BWV,BC and WVL if you don't book far enough out especially at the Nov-Dec time when points are lower

 

[LaurenT]

Thanks for all the help!
Since it won't cost anything but little effort, I think i'll go the walking route.
There are only 16 rooms in the AKL Value Studio category - i'mm not sure what qualifies as hard to get, but with me needing 2 of those sixteen, it'll just take a load off my mind to know I have them secured.
My biggest fear would be to go ahead and book the first studio on-line and then, when I try to repeat for the second one, it's not available! If I start a week ahead, I'm pretty sure, I won't run into that!