Inconvenient timing of reservations

[Honor]

We own a ton of DVC points and like to stay 2 to 3 weeks at a time, several times a year. DVC does not permit you to make reservations until 11 months (home resort) before your check-out date, not your check-in date. So a family staying a shorter period of time has an advantage and can book sooner than we can. If we check in January 1 and check out January 5, 2008 I can call for reservations on February 5, 2007. But if we check in January 1 and check out January 31, 2008, I cannot call for reservations until March 3, 2007. And the room we want may be gone by then because of the shorter stays already booked. So we end up calling several times: book a trip, call back and add days, call back again and add days and on and on. Inconvenient but that's the game we have to play to book a longer vacation. Any clue why DVC does the reservations 11 months from check out rather than from check in?:veryconfu

 

[maelstrom]

That does seem rather odd. Are you sure that's the policy?

 

[emmersandjack]

yes, that is the policy and it stinks.

we wanted to stay in a three bdrm villa at okw in october, but our home resort is bcv, so we actually can't book until 7 months prior to our check out date. thank goodness i called in early jan. just to check availablity of the 3bdrm villa, because they were already booked-kinda crazy, huh? luckily we were able to book a 2 bdrm villa and a studio at bcv for less points then if we were to stay at okw. i can't remember the man's name i spoke to at dvc member services but he was so helpful and gave me the advice to book at our home resort.

i also find the 11 month/7 month window a bit annoying. i can get behind 11 months for home resorts but the 7 month for outside home resort is so limiting. with attendance up in months it becomes difficult to book within a limited time frame, especially when you're looking for larger rooms. i wonder if it some kind of conspiracy to get you to buy more points....:drevil:.

 

[Aurora_25]

I don't know why that is their policy, but honestly I have never had any trouble getting rooms before. We have gone on points in June, December, and January and none of those times were hard to get rooms.

 

[socalkdg]

Nothing wrong with making day to day reservations. They keep your ressie open, you call the next day and reserve your next day. Do this until you have your vacation completed. Takes 2 minutes in the morning.

Considering less than 1% of the owners have the points that you do I don't see major changes coming. Having said that I could see something similar to the ADR's and giving a 10 day window, but then again that still wouldn't help you since you stay 30 days.

By the way, a month at a time at WDW, very jealous here.