Reservation questions

[Patmcg]

Having read some of the posts, I am beginning to wonder what the advantage is of buying direct at a new or an expensive property, if I do not have any advantage over those of a different less popular property trading into my resort.

For example, as the Disney Vacation Club member at Old Key West Resort, my home resort, I am allowed to make reservations requests, if I chose to stay at my home resort, starting from 11 months of my check out date. That way I am only competing for rooms with other owners of the same resort. If I were a member of the Beach Club Villas resort or some other DVC Resort, for example, and wanted to stay at OKW, I could only start to make reservation requests beginning 7 months out from my check out date. This gives us the owners of our “home” resorts a 4 month priority. Which I believe is more than fare.

If I understand the Marriott reservation system, assuming you’ve purchased a given season at a very popular and expensive resort with the intention of staying a particular week, you can theatrically have the entire Marriott guest population trying to make reservations at your “expensive” resort the same week, regardless of their “home base.” Even though you had attempted to make the reservation 12 months to the day in which you are allowed, I believe in some cases if you own two MVC resorts you may be allowed 13 months in which to make your reservation. That is an expensive price to pay in order to have that one additional month window advantage.

Case in point, my coworker owns at Barony Beach Bay in HH and a year to the day he was allowed to make reservations for his family for yes the Memorial Day weekend of 2005, he was closed out. Not having much of a choice he ended up finding something in Hawaii which ended up costing him additional travel time, additional money to make the “trade” and also extra expenses related to the trip i.e. air fare, more expensive dining, etc.

If the reservation system is as challengeable as I am interpreting to be, then perhaps I should be reconsidering an inexpensive resort in a season that is inexpensive and have as much of a chance at getting a week in a more desirable time frame and location as everyone else?

Does anyone know if the Marriott is looking into providing the owners of their home base resorts any exclusivity in the reservation process?

Thanks

Pat

 

[Elden12]

Let's use Barony as an example. Memorial Day is a Gold week......

ONLY Barony Beach Gold week owners can make a reservation 12 months in advance. Multiple week owners booking their weeks consecutively can book 13 months out.

Your friend tried to get one of the most popular Gold weeks available that kicks off the Hilton Head vacation season. A lot of owners are trying for the same week. (I know, I have been going to Hilton Head for 10 years.)

If your friend had booked another week and deposited it with Interval and made a request for that week at Barony 12 months in advance he would have had a very very good chance at getting his week. (Albeit at an additional $79 exchange fee.)

The only method other Marriott owners or Interval members can go to Barony would be to rent a week or to exchange into the resort. Marriott owners have a 21 day preference window with Interval before the week becomes available to non Marriott Interval members. In the 10 years I have been going to Grande Ocean during Memorial Day week I have yet to meet anyone who was not a Marriott owner. (Exception, renters)

In regards to owning a cheaper resort and exchanging in.....A popular week like Memorial Day will likely require a Marriott week to exchange. It does make a difference where you own, some timeshares are stronger traders than others.

There are pros and cons with the Floating weeks that Marriott offers. It provides flexibility to go different times versus being locked into the same week. On the flip side it can create issues like your friend encountered, lot of demand for the one week.

We are very happy Marriott owners. We have also taken the trouble to learn the system so we can maximize our vacation experiences and satisfaction with the Marriott program.

I hope this helps answer your question.

 

[5infam]

If I understand the Marriott reservation system, assuming you’ve purchased a given season at a very popular and expensive resort with the intention of staying a particular week, you can theatrically have the entire Marriott guest population trying to make reservations at your “expensive” resort the same week, regardless of their “home base.” Even though you had attempted to make the reservation 12 months to the day in which you are allowed, I believe in some cases if you own two MVC resorts you may be allowed 13 months in which to make your reservation. That is an expensive price to pay in order to have that one additional month window advantage.

Pat,

This is where you are slightly flawed in your logic. I am a DVC owner as well, so I can relate to your misunderstanding. Only owners of a particular Marriott property can make reservations at that property - there is no window that allows other Marriott owners at Other Marriott properties to make reservations at properties they do not own. To relate to DVC (if DVC worked like Marriott), if you own OKW you could only make reservations at OKW and no one else could make reservations there if they did not own there. So in the Marriott case, only Barony owners can request a reservation there using the Marriott system, and that can be done 12 months out. If you own 2 weeks at Barony, you can request your reservation 13 months out. I own Maui Marriott. If I want to go to Barony, I have to book a week in Maui, then deposit that week with Interval International (II) and request for a week at Barony. Because I am a Marriott owner, I will get first shot at any Barony weeks deposited for the first 24 days, then II will release any unmatched deposited Marriott weeks to non-Marriott exchangers. So for the first 24 days a deposit is out there, I am competing against other Marriott owners for that deposited week, and II will determine who gets that week (there are a lot of factors). This is why I bought in Hawaii because I did not want to have to wonder if I could get an exchange into the resort, I wanted to make sure I got in. Since I only own 1 week, it may be difficult for me to get a reservation on a hot week such as 4th of July or President's week, but that is ok with me because the Platinum season is big enough where I will find some dates I can go. The same is true for DVC. I own at the Boardwalk Villas and like to stay in standard view rooms to save on points. When I go at Christmas time, I call day by day 11 months out at the second the reservation system opens (which is really early for me being on the West Coast). This way I ensure I get what I want, but I have had to waitlist before with DVC. I think certain Marriott properties are worse than DVC, so you need to be careful where you buy a floating week if you are limited to a fixed week like Memorial week. Hope that helps.