We could rent, but we couldn't use points

[Guitarmom]

Last week was a very interesting week for us at Hyatt's The Welk. A few months ago, our adult children asked me to get us all villas at Escondido/San Diego The Welk. I could get a number of days that they wanted, but not all (we were bumping up against Labor Day weekend, so this wasn't outlandish).

I sent everyone a spreadsheet of the reservations I'd made. One branch of the family wanted two extra nights in a two bedroom. We could not book these nights using points. So they went onto Booking.com and spent $1,100 to book two more nights.

Then, another branch of the family made plane reservations two days after check out and said, "Oops." Again, we could not book two extra nights using points, but went onto Booking.com and got those nights in a one-bedroom for $750.

The resort was at 77% capacity. There were only three families at the Mountain Springs pool.

Can anyone give some insight about why I, an owner who pays thousands of dollars each year in MFs, couldn't book these unused rooms using Platinum Points? There's obviously something I don't understand about Platinum Points.

 

[Guitarmom]

Anyone have any insights?

 

[rickandcindy23]

All of the hotel companies rent a certain amount of nights at resorts. It's partly to get new people in the door, and it's also important for the health of the resort to have unsold inventory available for rent. I don't know how it works for your resort, but for last-minute anything, I wouldn't count on getting anything with points.

This is one the reasons people become disenchanted with timeshare. They feel they should have inventory available all of the time. Doesn't work that way at all.

 

[Guitarmom]

All of the hotel companies rent a certain amount of nights at resorts. It's partly to get new people in the door, and it's also important for the health of the resort to have unsold inventory available for rent. I don't know how it works for your resort, but for last-minute anything, I wouldn't count on getting anything with points.

This is one the reasons people become disenchanted with timeshare. They feel they should have inventory available all of the time. Doesn't work that way at all.

Fair enough. I appreciate your insight.

In this case, almost a quarter of the rooms were unused, according to the staff. Why wouldn't the resort want the extra money from food sales, gift shop purchasees, golf, and the like? But what you say does perfectly explain what we experienced.