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Welk Northstar - Christmas seemed impossible to book?

CaliNS

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Hi all - First, I have to admit, I found this forum way too late. If I had known what I know now, I wouldn't have gone to the sales pitch. Now I'm a Welk Platinum owner with 19 month booking window. I bought Welk TS primarily to use in Northstar since my family go ski at Northstar every season.

Now, the challenge is, it seemed impossible to book the Christmas week. I saw One Village Place for Christmas 2018 earlier this year on the site but the inventory was not really available after calling. I was like, okay, being a new owner, trying this Christmas is likely a stretch.

Then the 2019 Christmas week supposed open for me this past week and I actually stayed up to check mid-night and after single day this week. No luck. I just called Welk and they told me the inventory for my tier is not available, but there's inventory for the next lower tier (15-month) and I need to wait till September to book.

Does that sound reasonable? I am very frustrated now as it defeats the main reason why I wanted to get in to Welk TS. If this is the norm, I need to figure out how I get value out of my TS in other ways.

Thank you very much!
 

JohnPaul

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Does it have to be Chistmas week? I wouldn't be surprised if those were deeded Holiday weeks so they don't become available unless someone gives it up. How is availability at other times during ski season?
 

nuwermj

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Does it have to be Chistmas week? I wouldn't be surprised if those were deeded Holiday weeks so they don't become available unless someone gives it up. How is availability at other times during ski season?

My understanding is that Welk put all the Northstar inventory into the points system. They never sold deeds at this location.
 

RX8

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Are you certain you are checking at the right time? For example, if you are checking at midnight PST but it opens at midnight EST you missed three hours of opportunity (note I don’t own Welk so I don’t know when it actually opens).
 

CaliNS

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Thanks all! we have annual family gathering during Christmas week so that would be ideal. But you are right it doesn’t have to be that 1-2 weeks - I just did not expected no opening after staying up (at least not what sales rep told us when they recommended us to buy at this level based on our holiday needs). We use the rental rate for weekends since we bought from developer...so we saved points for this :(

I guess I was just so frustrated to be told that tiers below us have their own inventory protected till their window is open, but tiers above us can access our inventory before our window is open - that means we’re squeezed in between! That doesn’t make any sense to me.

I did try figure out the time zone...unless the Northstar inventory is set differently than the other properties, otherwise i should have it right...I tested GMT, EST and PST :)

Thanks again. I think I’ll try learn more about the exchanges. We “supposed” have access to Aulani too so hopefully get more value that way for holiday needs.
 

nuwermj

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@CaliNS: I am a "Select" tier member with a 19 month expanded reservation window. You may know this already, but in case not ...

When looking for availability more than 4 months out, you must look for 7 contiguous nights and the check-in day must be on a resort check in day (typically a Friday or Saturday, but I don't know the specific days at Northstar). If, for example, you search for a five day reservation or any reservation beginning on a Sunday, the online system says "their is no availability." (In my view the programmers could have done a better job informing the user that their search is out of range ... Oh well.)

Because you said: "We use the rental rate for weekends since we bought from developer" I'm thinking you may have searched for something less than 7 days.

A "split-week" reservation can not be made until 4 months prior to check in. Here is the text for this rule:

"You may reserve split-week reservations four (4) months prior to the requested check-in day (2-night minimum) and 60-days prior to a holiday week. A split-week stay is less than seven nights with a minimum of two nights, or a stay that is greater than seven nights but not in seven night intervals.

"Split-week reservations that occur during major holiday weeks may only be made less than 60 days from the requested check-in date."
 

CaliNS

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Thank you nuwermj! I was looking for a whole week and you are correct Northstar is Friday/Saturday check in. Sorry I should’ve been clear! I was looking for Christmas week or the subsequent week with either Friday or Saturday check-in. I was talking about weekend rental rate because that was our strategy to save all points for annual gathering (which I now can’t find availability sadly).

Interestingly we just received a call from Welk checking in on our experience so far (welp they were trying to talk us into upgrading to pinnacle...). We just complained about the situation - that we were told tiers higher than us can book our inventory before we have access but we can’t do that to tiers lower than us. Sounds like there may not be inventory available for the lower tier either....the whole inventory reserved for point owners at Northdtar sounds like a tricky thing and our complaint was not a surprise to them.

Thanks all for great advice so far. Hopefully this serves as a data point for people who consider Welk for Northstar like I did. Don’t believe what sales people told you...it’s harder in reality to get a room in red season.

@CaliNS: I am a "Select" tier member with a 19 month expanded reservation window. You may know this already, but in case not ...

When looking for availability more than 4 months out, you must look for 7 contiguous nights and the check-in day must be on a resort check in day (typically a Friday or Saturday, but I don't know the specific days at Northstar). If, for example, you search for a five day reservation or any reservation beginning on a Sunday, the online system says "their is no availability." (In my view the programmers could have done a better job informing the user that their search is out of range ... Oh well.)

Because you said: "We use the rental rate for weekends since we bought from developer" I'm thinking you may have searched for something less than 7 days.

A "split-week" reservation can not be made until 4 months prior to check in. Here is the text for this rule:

"You may reserve split-week reservations four (4) months prior to the requested check-in day (2-night minimum) and 60-days prior to a holiday week. A split-week stay is less than seven nights with a minimum of two nights, or a stay that is greater than seven nights but not in seven night intervals.

"Split-week reservations that occur during major holiday weeks may only be made less than 60 days from the requested check-in date."
 
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I'm just a platinum owner with only 240k annual points. If I try to book Northstar on a holiday I get this message:
"Holiday reservations may only be booked within 90 days of the check in date. To reserve on the required date, you will need to wait till 09/23/2019. For more information, please refer to Reservation Options." But I guess Thanksgiving doesn't have that same rule cuz I can book a studio at Northstar for Turkey week 2019 and I can see 2, 2br options available.
There is a 2br available 12/14-21/2019 :D for 420k, so there ya go sir.
PS, I know this post is old, just trying to help Welk Owners
 

boraxo

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Just finished a sales presentation, they never mentioned the split week restriction despite the fact I specifically mentioned this concern as we have the same split week restriction nonsense at the nearby Hyatt property. Of course the 15-month booking window was the primary pitch to upsell us to 420k platinum. I guess the sales team hasn't learned anything despite all the settlements with state AG...
 
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Every annual owner has a 15 month booking window for a full week.....

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