2023 to Present: Vistana On-Line Reservation Experiences (Good/Bad)

[maph]

I was successful tonight booking Sunday check in for my WKORV OFC unit. The 'checking eligibility' step completed much faster, maybe because fewer people trying to get Sunday. Only problem I had was with the 'Confirm Guest' button, had to refresh the page three times before the button would turn blue. On the third try it came back with my Bonvoy account number & let me keep going. After that, everything was fine.

 

[LJT]

I booked our home week WKORV OV Thursday night for Sat Feb 3 2024 and had the same issue with having to refresh. Finally got the confirmation button to work after 15 minutes. I am assuming others had the same issue so maybe my time stamp won’t be too bad - if that is even a thing anymore. So many rumors about how they will assign units floating around. We are on Maui now staying in Kula a few days. Rented OF unit at south from Denise for this year because the system was so squirrelly last year! Will find out Sunday what kind of view we have with that. Hopefully not the dreaded 1st floor but whatever it is - it is still Maui!

 

[SteelerGal]

I was able to reserve a couple of SDO units through the app yesterday. I was in total shock because I normally can not utilize my Iphone for reserving.

 

[Negma]

I booked our home week WKORV OV Thursday night for Sat Feb 3 2024 and had the same issue with having to refresh. Finally got the confirmation button to work after 15 minutes. I am assuming others had the same issue so maybe my time stamp won’t be too bad - if that is even a thing anymore. So many rumors about how they will assign units floating around. We are on Maui now staying in Kula a few days. Rented OF unit at south from Denise for this year because the system was so squirrelly last year! Will find out Sunday what kind of view we have with that. Hopefully not the dreaded 1st floor but whatever it is - it is still Maui!

I had the exact thing happen last night for WKORV-N OV to arrive the Feb 9-2024. It took about 15 minutes as well. Very frustrating, I tried IPad as well and it was the same. Could not get the darn button to light up. Agreed, still Maui.

 

[Dawnwrey]

I had the exact thing happen last night for WKORV-N OV to arrive the Feb 9-2024. It took about 15 minutes as well. Very frustrating, I tried IPad as well and it was the same. Could not get the darn button to light up. Agreed, still Maui.

Happened to me, too.

 

[TARIE7291]

Well it just took me 25 minutes to book 12 months out at WKORV. I kept getting kicked out, couldn’t click on blue buttons. I’ve never encountered this in my years owning. I can only imagine my OV will not be an OV I’ll guess we will see next year.

 

[PamMo]

It was stunningly fast to book my WKORVN OF studio for 2/10, and I received the email confirmation immediately. Just an FYI, oceanfront studios for 2/9 were still available, too.

 

[Henry M.]

I booked 2BR OV WKORV, 1BR OV WKORV and Studio OV WKORV, along with a 2BR IV WKORV-N last night, for 2/10/2024 arrival. Initially, I'd get to the blue button right before the actual reservation, but the button was grayed out. It took 20-25 minutes before everything started working. After that, the reservations were easy and quick. It seems after an initial overload, the system works. On 2/6 I was also able to book a 2/3 reservation at WKORV-N. Availability was good three days after the initial opening of the reservation window.

 

[jsonline]

I'll chime in with my experience on a Home Week reservation from 2022 as well as on a StarOptions reservation from 2023. All reservations were made right around midnight, which like @DavidnRobin I always try to do for the best booking.

** March 2022 >> Home Resort Reservation >> Booked 7 nights in a WKV 2-BR unit starting Saturday 3/11/2023. This is prime Spring Training during Platinum season. I didn't have any technical issues and there was good availability. Rented the unit for 2.3x Maintenance Fees.

** January 2023 >> StarOptions Reservation >> Booked 13 nights in a WKORV-S OFD unit starting Saturday 8/19/2023. This is the tail end of summer season going into Labor Day Weekend. There were two OFD units and one OFC unit in WKORV-South, and numerous OF units in WKORV-North available at booking. I did not have any technical issues. Going for fun on this trip!

** StarOptions Maui Test Bookings: I did a few test bookings the next day for the same date + time period, and the South OFD unit was still available, as were numerous North OF units. What's more, I kept doing test bookings throughout the week, and found continued 2-week availability for North OF units starting in Week 2 of August. This basically means end-of-season availability was strong when generally booking 8 months out. I looked at availability in peak season too (mid-July) and, as expected, there was no OF but I did find 7nights in a North Island View unit available in late July.

** BOTTOM LINE: If Abound is bleeding availability in prime Vistana properties & seasons, I haven't seen it. Fingers crossed things stay that way because I've gotten a ton of benefit from the WKV to WKORV trade over the years, and more recently in renting WKV during Spring Training.

 

[jsonline]

I'll chime in with my experience on a Home Week reservation from 2022 as well as on a StarOptions reservation from 2023. All reservations were made right around midnight, which like @DavidnRobin I always try to do for the best booking.

** March 2022 >> Home Resort Reservation >> Booked 7 nights in a WKV 2-BR unit starting Saturday 3/11/2023. This is prime Spring Training during Platinum season. I didn't have any technical issues and there was good availability. Rented the unit for 2.3x Maintenance Fees.

** January 2023 >> StarOptions Reservation >> Booked 13 nights in a WKORV-S OFD unit starting Saturday 8/19/2023. This is the tail end of summer season going into Labor Day Weekend. There were two OFD units and one OFC unit in WKORV-South, and numerous OF units in WKORV-North available at booking. I did not have any technical issues. Going for fun on this trip!

** StarOptions Maui Test Bookings: I did a few test bookings the next day for the same date + time period, and the South OFD unit was still available, as were numerous North OF units. What's more, I kept doing test bookings throughout the week, and found continued 2-week availability for North OF units starting in Week 2 of August. This basically means end-of-season availability was strong when generally booking 8 months out. I looked at availability in peak season too (mid-July) and, as expected, there was no OF but I did find 7nights in a North Island View unit available in late July.

** BOTTOM LINE: If Abound is bleeding availability in prime Vistana properties & seasons, I haven't seen it. Fingers crossed things stay that way because I've gotten a ton of benefit from the WKV to WKORV trade over the years, and more recently in renting WKV during Spring Training.

P.S. Just realized that I forgot to mention that all the StarOptions bookings (real and test) were for 1BR units. Thought everybody would want to know that.

 

[SteelerGal]

Well, I did have an issue today when I was booking. I had to close the page and was able to book on the 2nd try.

 

[WI GAL]

Does anyone think there is a difference in when you log into your Vistana account? In the past I heard not to log into your account until the 5 minutes before midnight EST if that really was an issue? Also, once you click on "make a reservation" from the dashboard do you feel you can enter all your information except the date and then do you wait til it hits midnight EST to click thru the months and see if when you get to the correct month your release date is available to click on to book? Or do you have all entered and then advance to just before the month you need and then advance to the correct month from there once it hits midnight? Just looking for anything that might save any seconds on booking. Thanks.

 

[zdarskyjim]

Was able to book an 8 month out star options exchange tonight for October 14 At St John. Timed out once and got a 11:03 time stamp. Last week reserved a home resort reservation at WKORVN for February 10 after 6 time outs. Got a 11:07 time stamp. So overall not as good as it used to be reasonable

 

[eunsill]

I have been trying for a couple days now to grab a president's day week reservation and I keep getting the timeout message and then when it eventually goes through, it says that there is no availability. Based on what another owner said above I'm going to keep trying to search for a bit longer tonight (yesterday I quit after 30 minutes). But this is honestly such an annoying experience. I didn't used to have so many issues booking my home resort even for holiday weeks.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I had success in reserving our WKORV OFD studio - as I reserve this week almost every year.

I got through to 'Confirm Guest' relatively easy after logging on at exactly at 9pm PST - took about 2-3 minutes. But then had grayed out blue confirm guest button for 8 minutes while countdown clock counted down from 10 minutes. Then it went blue - took another minute to confirm reservation - then success!

Received confirmation at 9:12pm PST

 

[DavidnRobin]

Another reservation rant thread...

Reservation rant

Just tried to book for Presidents day week, clicked in right as it turned 9pm pst / Midnight EST. Got all the way to the confirmation screen only to have an "error" pop up. Tried to reserve again and it kicked me all the way back to the starting reservation/pick a date screen. Now it just gives...

tugbbs.com

 

[NVPatriot1959]

Another reservation rant thread...

Reservation rant

Just tried to book for Presidents day week, clicked in right as it turned 9pm pst / Midnight EST. Got all the way to the confirmation screen only to have an "error" pop up. Tried to reserve again and it kicked me all the way back to the starting reservation/pick a date screen. Now it just gives...

tugbbs.com

 

[eunsill]

I guess persistence really does win out in the end. After 20 minutes of trying I finally got a result to pop up, but after getting all the way to the confirmation screen, it died on me and then kicked me out back to the reservation search window. After being annoyed for another 5 minutes of timeout errors - another finally popped up and this time it went through to the end with only a couple glitches along the way. I am finally booked! hallelujah.

 

[NVPatriot1959]

Same results for me this evening. Failures at each step multiple times only to end up with no availability. Marriot knows the issues with their platform and refuses to address them. Why? Other than perhaps this is all intentional, all part of their business model - create dissatisfaction and convince owners that buying whatever we are currently selling will solve their problem.

 

[WI GAL]

I guess persistence really does win out in the end. After 20 minutes of trying I finally got a result to pop up, but after getting all the way to the confirmation screen, it died on me and then kicked me out back to the reservation search window. After being annoyed for another 5 minutes of timeout errors - another finally popped up and this time it went through to the end with only a couple glitches along the way. I am finally booked! hallelujah.

I had the same situation where I was all the way to the very last screen and got thrown back to starting over from scratch. I thought for sure all the oceanview 2 bedrooms would be gone at WKORV but I got one! So happy my sister and her significant other will be able to now join us for their first hawaiian experience!! Amazing at 11:45 central there is still all 3 unit types available in oceanview!

 

[NVPatriot1959]

I’m 38 minutes in. Found availability. Waited for confirm guest button to enable, at 2:00 minutes remaining on the ten minute clock I refreshed the page, the button went hot, clicked it and success. It’s now 9:46 pm. Unbelievable.

 

[pchung6]

I had 2 br OF Maui WKORVN at 9pm, but couldn't click confirm reservation. After trying for 40 minutes, I scored Studio. This is ridiculus. I will try again tomorrow for 1 bedroom.

 

[j59kim]

Was attempting to get a 2-bedroom OF at WKORVN…got a studio to show up and booked it at 9:35 then was able to book a 1-bedroom at 9:50.

 

[pchung6]

I just booked 1 bedroom at 10:05pm after booked studio at 9:39pm. It was a nightmare refreshing like 500 times in the last hour. At least I got what I want. Thanks everyone!

 

[Denise L]

I tried to reserve our WKORV OV villa tonight and was able to get all the way to the last page at 3 minutes in and then after clicking the final confirmation button, the spinning ended in being kicked out to the beginning of the reservation page where we have to enter in the date, number of nights, etc. Had to start all over. Then lots and lots of retries, timeouts, special popups I haven't seen before that are red writing on white background and pop up at the top of the page and not the bottom. Finally worked with a timestamp of 9:15:26.