Which Resort Should I buy

[PirateJohn]

Originally Posted by ELMC

Same thing happened to me for F&W. I had to make 3 reservations for 3 studios so I had to wait until the exact day the 11 month window opened up to make the ressies and I got shut out.

What's happening is that people are walking the reservations. So someone who wants to go the same dates as you are booking on the day that is 11 months and 7 days before Dec 7 and booking the full week, with the 7th being the last night of their trip. Then they go on the next day and cancel the first day of their trip and add Dec 8. And so on, and so on. So by the time you go on to book your Dec 7 trip, they already have Dec 7-13 booked. They just need to compete with you for the 14th.

Walking down a reservation? Can this really be done? Seems like a lot of trouble. Why do people feel the need to bend the rules. Just makes things harder on the rest of us.

[chalee94]

Originally Posted by PirateJohn

Walking down a reservation? Can this really be done? Seems like a lot of trouble. Why do people feel the need to bend the rules. Just makes things harder on the rest of us.

1) lots of people bought into BWV specifically for access to BW view and low-cost standard view villas.

2) all of december is a peak season for DVC bookings.

3) MS hasn't identified this ("walking a reservation") as a violation.

so if you really want a peak season, in-demand reservation, you might need to go through a little extra trouble.

if you want to book dec 7, the first night you can theoretically call to book it is by calling jan 1 to book dec 1 for 7 nights, and then walk that reservation forward.

if that's too much trouble, i expect that BWV owners who call in on jan 7 to book dec 7 and find the high demand rooms booked up will probably have success if they waitlist the reservation when they call on jan 7.

but this is one of those things about owning a points-based timeshare: there is often competition to use those pts at your favorite times...that's just reality.

[ELMC]

Originally Posted by PirateJohn

Walking down a reservation? Can this really be done? Seems like a lot of trouble. Why do people feel the need to bend the rules. Just makes things harder on the rest of us.

I understand your frustration, but try not to think of it like that. It's not really bending the rules, and any attempt to prevent it from happening will most likely result in undesirable booking/cancelling restrictions. Given that the option is available to all owners, I don't really think it's unfair. And now that you know about it, maybe you'll do it next year and I wouldn't fault you for it.

But you're right about one thing...it is a lot of work to do this. I chose not to do it for my three room (Columbus Day weekend) F&W stay because I didn't want to have to do everything three times. The result is that we are staying in garden view and not boardwalk view. I'm not upset, but next time I will probably end up walking the reservation to make sure I get what I want. Just know that this is really only for high demand rooms at high demand times. The rest of the year it's not really necessary.

[MickeyFan612]

Originally Posted by ELMC

Same thing happened to me for F&W. I had to make 3 reservations for 3 studios so I had to wait until the exact day the 11 month window opened up to make the ressies and I got shut out.

What's happening is that people are walking the reservations. So someone who wants to go the same dates as you are booking on the day that is 11 months and 7 days before Dec 7 and booking the full week, with the 7th being the last night of their trip. Then they go on the next day and cancel the first day of their trip and add Dec 8. And so on, and so on. So by the time you go on to book your Dec 7 trip, they already have Dec 7-13 booked. They just need to compete with you for the 14th.

Thanks for explaining this "walking the reservation"! I had an idea of how they were doing it but wasn't quite sure! I hear you on not trying for three reservations! It is difficult enough to get one!

[PirateJohn]

Originally Posted by ELMC

I understand your frustration, but try not to think of it like that. It's not really bending the rules, and any attempt to prevent it from happening will most likely result in undesirable booking/cancelling restrictions. Given that the option is available to all owners, I don't really think it's unfair. And now that you know about it, maybe you'll do it next year and I wouldn't fault you for it.

But you're right about one thing...it is a lot of work to do this. I chose not to do it for my three room (Columbus Day weekend) F&W stay because I didn't want to have to do everything three times. The result is that we are staying in garden view and not boardwalk view. I'm not upset, but next time I will probably end up walking the reservation to make sure I get what I want. Just know that this is really only for high demand rooms at high demand times. The rest of the year it's not really necessary.

Actually. I am not frustrated. I just bought into DVC and am learning the ins and outs. I do, however, have a problem with people taking advantage of a situation at the expense of others. I should not be surprised though, I see it happening everyday. Don't want to get political here, but, I think I pay more than my fair share in taxes and now I have DVC members gaming the system as well. Come on.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by PirateJohn

Actually. I am not frustrated. I just bought into DVC and am learning the ins and outs. I do, however, have a problem with people taking advantage of a situation at the expense of others. I should not be surprised though, I see it happening everyday. Don't want to get political here, but, I think I pay more than my fair share in taxes and now I have DVC members gaming the system as well. Come on.

Timeshares essentially pit one member against another. This is the way all timeshares work that have a reservation component. The rules of engagement are put in place by the state, POS and management company. As I noted on another thread, I think changes should be a cancelation and rebooking thus stopping much of the walking but not necessarily all. The only way to stop it completely (or as nearly as possible is to have changes as a cancelation/rebook on separate calls with a certain amount of elapsed time and/or to institute fees related to such changes.

[myxdvz]

Originally Posted by PirateJohn

Actually. I am not frustrated. I just bought into DVC and am learning the ins and outs. I do, however, have a problem with people taking advantage of a situation at the expense of others. I should not be surprised though, I see it happening everyday. Don't want to get political here, but, I think I pay more than my fair share in taxes and now I have DVC members gaming the system as well. Come on.

I don't really see the unfairness of it all. The rule is you can book 11 months in advance up to 7 nights of stay. When a room is not available, there has not been any proof that this is because of members "walking" their reservations, or if they are actual members checking in 7 days before you are.

They can do it. You can do it. It's available for everyone to do - how is that unfair?

[Deb & Bill]

Some members have asked MS about "walking". MS said there wasn't any problem with it at this time. However, if they start to charge to cancel or change and rebook, this might not work so well.

In the old days when you booked by the last day (check out day) of your stay, members would book a day at a time, adding one more day and linking the reservation. That also was not frowned upon.

The other problem some of you might be having is numerous members booking the first days of December (plus seven more nights). So they booked seven nights and you just happened to want one of those nights. But since they booked a few days ahead of you, you lost.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by Deb & Bill

Some members have asked MS about "walking". MS said there wasn't any problem with it at this time. However, if they start to charge to cancel or change and rebook, this might not work so well.

In the old days when you booked by the last day (check out day) of your stay, members would book a day at a time, adding one more day and linking the reservation. That also was not frowned upon.

I'm not sure either were totally OK from an upper management standpoint but since both were within the rules (as walking is now) MS is OK with it. As you know, MS simply works under the rules and systems at hand, their only not OK if they see something as not within the rules. Sometimes they see it wrong as some have told members that renting was against the rules but it's not and an example of something that's frowned upon by some but contractually allowed thus not able to be taken away.

The system is a balance between the good of the members and the good of the system. As such some changes will be for the system and some will be a win-win with a few being for the good of the member usually without much cost to the system ($ or personnel time). As a rule the systems never get better for the member at the expense of the system. Put another way, almost all changes are for the worse for a significant group of members.