Walking Reservations?

[Subrbnmommy]

I am currently waiting on ROFR for our first DVC points so I’m trying to understand the intricacies of the DVC reservation process.

Could somebody explain what “walking reservations” means?

How do you book for stays longer than 7 days?



I hope I am posting this in the correct forum, if not, apologies and feel free to move.

Thanks

 

[Subrbnmommy]

anybody

 

[chalee94]

i'm not super clear on it myself, since it's not something i'd do.

but it goes something like this: if i want dec 24th for 7 nights, i might be worried that owners who wanted to book 7 nights with the last night being the 24th or 25th might get there first.

so i'd call at 11 months on jan 18 to book dec 18-24. then wait and walk it forward to the actual dates i wanted of dec 24-30...cancelling the earlier nights that i don't want and booking the 25th through 30th.

but i can never remember if you need to call day-by-day or can wait a few days to walk it forward.

anyway, the key is booking an earlier reservation to lock in your early dates so they aren't taken by the time you called (on jan 24 in my example). otherwise, you might call on jan 24 and find the first date of your stay has been booked and you cannot make the reservation at that point. it's only an issue for certain hyper-in-demand situations...

edited to add: naturally, this is only an issue for your home resort at 11 months out...by the 7 month window, the owners have probably booked up all of your dates if it's that competitive.

 

[Subrbnmommy]

Thanks!

So, if you want to book a 10 day trip then I guess you would follow same principal. ie book original 7 day then call and add?

 

[DenLo]

If the trip is not during a busy period like December especially Christmas or New Years or in October for F&W, we make our reservation for the first 7 days and then wait three days and then call back and add the last three days. One further qualification, if you are reserving a Concierge room at AKV you might want to call each day. There just are not very many of those villas.

I pretty sure on our very first reservation we called each day. We were just too nervous to wait. But we didn't really need to.

 

[Sandisw]

When you "walk" a reservation, you start booking it before you really want to so that you can get a jump on your "real" 11 month window.

IMO, unless you are trying for such a very difficult time period (ie: NYE), then walking is not necessary. But, the way it would work is that you might call 11 months ahead from 1 week prior to your real stay. You then call back 6 days later and drop days from the beginning and add them to the end. Since no one can book your room until your check out day, this allows you to get the room for what you really want.

For example, you really want to stay Dec. 21st to Dec. 28. Your 11 month window opens Jan. 21st. Instead, you call on Jan 15 and book Dec 15th through Dec 22nd. On Jan 21st, you call and modify your reservation to by dropping the days prior to the 21st and add the days until the 28th to the end.

For reservations of more than 7 days, just call at the 11 month window, book the 7 days and then call back 3 or 4 days later and extend the trip.

 

[Subrbnmommy]

THanks! That clears things up!