Need advice for reserving 2009 week for MGV new owner

[bogeygolf]

I'm in the process of buying platinum at Grande Vista. First year usage starts in 2009 but the current owners have not reserved any week for 2009. Platinum season for MGV is 1-17, 22-34, & 51-52 weeks. By the time that everything is said and done and marriott transfers ownership it will probably be late Oct. timeframe. And by that point, I will only have the opportunity in the last 2 week of this year to reserve for 2009 weeks 51-52 (assuming that all other platinum weeks for 2009 have been already reserved by other MGV owners).
My questions is what are the chances of reserving the last 2 weeks (51-52) for a new owner? I do plan on calling marriott owner services as soon as I am able to reserve for weeks 51 & 52. This is the only marriott I own so I won't have the 13 month window to reserve in advance. I always have the option of asking the current owners to reserve a week now til end of august(weeks 30-34) but not crazy about these weeks (august) for trading purposes b/c most likely we will trade our 09 week. My concerns is not being able to reserve in the last 2 weeks due to lack of availability and popularity of these weeks. Don't know what happens if you don't reserve b/c I can't exchange for points (resale).

 

[Cindala]

Definitely ask the current owners if they can reserve something for you now. It's possible that not all weeks between 22-30 are all booked. The owners have access to the demand chart which shows which weeks are the best, so they should try to pick the highest demand week they can for you. I agree that the last two weeks of August are probably not good to reserve. Too many kids are back at school and summer vacation is over for a large part of the south.
If all else fails, you can always go with either week 51 or 52 which are high demand weeks. You can book it yourself on line at vacationclub.com, the Marriott owners website.

 

[reedps]

I own MGV and haven't booked my 2009 week yet. I've looked online through the Marriott website, and there is plenty of availability for the platinum season thus far. There were some February weeks and Easter that looked like they were unavailable, but there seemed to be plenty of other platinum weeks available. I checked for booking the full villa, as well as locking off into the smaller units. I'm not sure what it will be like in October, but for now, there's a lot still open.

 

[tlwmkw]

What size unit did you buy and how much did you pay?

Hope I'm not being too nosey but am curious how much you paid. We bought from Marriott prior to finding TUG and paid too much so I'm curious what resale prices would be.
Thanks in advance, tlwmkw

 

[m61376]

Ask the current owners to reserve a good trading week for you. Then, after you become an owner, when reservations open up for weeks 51 ans 52, you can try to get one of those weeks. If you are successful, you will have to pay a $29 change of reservation fee, but you will have secured a good back-up week in the interim.

 

[bogeygolf]

Thanks for all the input. I think I will ask the owner now to reserve and pay the $29 fee later if I can reserve christmas week.