Big Island - walk reservation?

[Jamills]

Hello all, we just got a smoking deal for flights to Kona in November 18-28 so we booked. We are hoping for a 2 bedroom at KL but will really take wherever if needed. Should we walk the reservation to be safe or will we be ok in club season. Thanks.

 

[Talent312]

Given that your dates are fixed, I'd play it save and walk it.
A thought: Look at what you could book now in October.
What's available in October will likely hold true for November.
.

 

[GregT]

That’s a great suggestion from Talent. I would walk the reservation if I had to match airfare dates but I suspect the reservation will be widely available. Good luck and enjoy it!

Best,

Greg

 

[brp]

If you're open to other locations in Waikoloa, there should be no problem. I walked once (for Thanksgiving at Bay Club) and simply did not need to.

Cheers.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

We had no trouble booking two consecutive weeks at KL in February 2017. We booked soon after the club season dates opened without having to walk it. Would think late November shouldn't be much different.

 

[alwysonvac]

Just note that the lower point rooms tend to book up first.
So if you need a specific room type then it won’t hurt to walk it to be safe.

Some room categories might be limited in quantity and/or in higher demand.
Just take a look at the existing online availability to get an idea. For example the standard three bedroom (3BR) seems to go first than the higher point three bedrooms (3BX or 3LX).

 

[Tamaradarann]

We had no trouble booking two consecutive weeks at KL in February 2017. We booked soon after the club season dates opened without having to walk it. Would think late November shouldn't be much different.

What about the availability near Christmas season weeks 51 and 52 when the other resorts have event weeks in Hawaii?

 

[CanuckTravlr]

What about the availability near Christmas season weeks 51 and 52 when the other resorts have event weeks in Hawaii?

Weeks 51 and 52 show as event weeks at both Kings' Land and Kohala Suites. On the current 2019 seasons chart for HGVC, neither Bay Club nor Ocean Tower are showing weeks 51 and 52 as event weeks. Have no real interest in booking too close to Christmas or New Year's, so cannot comment on availability then.

 

[Tamaradarann]

Weeks 51 and 52 show as event weeks at both Kings' Land and Kohala Suites. On the current 2019 seasons chart for HGVC, neither Bay Club nor Ocean Tower are showing weeks 51 and 52 as event weeks. Have no real interest in booking too close to Christmas or New Year's, so cannot comment on availability then.

Yes so does anyone have thoughts about the need to walk a reservation at Bay Club or Ocean Tower during weeks 51 or 52?

 

[Sandy VDH]

Yes so does anyone have thoughts about the need to walk a reservation at Bay Club or Ocean Tower during weeks 51 or 52?

I know for a fact that Bay Club weeks 51 and 52 were sold as event weeks, as all other inventory was sold as 1 - 50 floating.

Problem with trying to walk something into those weeks, is that those weeks are automatically booked for those owners. The weeks only become available once a event week owner cancels the automatic reservation. Herein lies the issues. It is very unlikely that cancellation is happening at exactly the 9 month mark.

 

[alwysonvac]

Yes so does anyone have thoughts about the need to walk a reservation at Bay Club or Ocean Tower during weeks 51 or 52?

It’s been a few years but I’ve seen availability on the Big island during that timeframe at the 9 month mark, so I think it’s possible if you have flexibility (any resort in any unit type).

Previous discussion - https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/what-is-the-deal-with-hgvc-honolulu-and-dec-24-25.240129


Also remember there’s a limited number of units available in the Ocean Tower.

From Club Traveler:
The six-story tower is located within Hilton Waikoloa Village and will open initially with 72 units, expanding as additional phases are completed. Ocean Tower’s initial phase will feature 18 studios, 24 one-bedroom suites, 24 two-bedroom suites and six three-bedroom suites.​

 

[SmithOp]

I booked Kingsland for May of this year and walked it at 9 months because:

1. I booked 17 nights and didn’t want to wait until 276 days before check OUT day.
2. It’s Gold Season, cheap points stretcher play
3. I wanted the phase 2 standard two bedroom, lowest point cost unit in that size.

13,800 points, had 600 left over. Not bad averaging $100/night.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[MrPipman]

Hello all, we just got a smoking deal for flights to Kona in November 18-28 so we booked. We are hoping for a 2 bedroom at KL but will really take wherever if needed. Should we walk the reservation to be safe or will we be ok in club season. Thanks.

I am new to HGVC and don't know all of the booking tricks, how does walking a reservation work?

 

[MikeinSoCal]

I am new to HGVC and don't know all of the booking tricks, how does walking a reservation work?

Follow link: Can someone explain walking a reservation?

 

[dayooper]

Can someone explain walking a reservation?

It's a method of getting high demand weeks at high demand resorts. When booking a club reservation, you can only go 276 days out from your last day. Walking a reservation is where you book the length stay at a certain time before your and you move your reservation up by one day everyday until your desired reservation is booked.

Example. You want to reserve a week starting October 28 and ending, November 4 (283 days from now) and are worried that you won't get your desired reservation. You would book your stay today for October 21 through October 28. Each day, you would change your reservation one day. So you would change your reservation to be October 22 through October 29, then October 23 through October 30 and so on until you get the dates you want. You are basically holding your place and preventing anybody from booking your room at an earlier time than you. Since you can change your reservation without being charged extra, you can do this as many times as you want until December 31.

 

[brp]

I am new to HGVC and don't know all of the booking tricks, how does walking a reservation work?

And, FYI "walking" is not specific to HGVC. It will work with other points-based systems. It works with DVC as well, and probably others.

Cheers.

 

[Tamaradarann]

And, FYI "walking" is not specific to HGVC. It will work with other points-based systems. It works with DVC as well, and probably others.

Cheers.

Not with RCI Points. Once you book after the 24 cancellation period you need to cancel and rebook losing your expensive reservation fee. That is one of the reasons that we love the HGVC internal reservation exchange system as opposed to the RCI exchange system. We own a resort in the Vacation Village Collection as well as HGVC and we always tell them that not having an internal reservation system is a real drawback. They then tell us that they have their own RCI number and contact, but that is a bogus situation that is not manned all the time and the call flips over to the regular RCI person. When you do contact them, it is still an RCI reservation with RCI rules.

 

[brp]

Not with RCI Points.

Right. I'm talking about native-to-the-timeshare-program points.

Cheers.