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WKORV Check In Strategy

rocky

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My family is going to WKORV the week of July 1st, we called to reserve on the first day possible, asked for high floor unit, facing the pool, close to the ocean end of the buildings, etc, etc. We are not Starwood Elite, just ordinary WKORV owners.

So say everyone that is checking in on July 1st has made roughly the same sort of room requests, and everyone reserved exactly one year out.

How do they decide who gets the best rooms coming up as available? The person who gets to the lobby first and spends all morning and afternoon waiting until the 4pm room assignment?

I am sort of concerned about getting a decent view for my 2 bdrm lockoff, because my sister is accompanying us and she has MS. So she will spend a lot of time in the unit hanging out, because warm weather can really have a negative impact on MS sufferers. Ability to walk, etc really is impacted.

We are vacationing on another island prior to our arrival in Maui, and will fly into Maui on the 1st and I am wondering, should I get there early and let them know we are there and ready to check in, or does it matter.

Cheers.
 

DeniseM

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That is an excellent question, Rocky. If you read the posts from last July, there seemed to be absolutely no rhyme or reason to the way rooms were assigned, and many owners were very unhappy to find exchangers and people on Promo stays with better room assignments than owners.

We will be at the WKORV in July too, and I certainly HOPE they have room assignments straightened out. We are renting the night before (at the WKORV) so we will see if that makes any difference. I am hoping to be able to stay in the same (nice) unit for both the rental night and ownership week. We also put our request in at exactly 12 mos. out at the butt crack of dawn...so we'll see! I REALLY don't want to be in the building by the highway!!!!!

Year before last we got upgraded to ocean front (pre-Elite program) so a bad location this year, would be a big disappointment for us.
 

azsunluvr

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I'm interested to see how this works as well. We're actually flying in a day early so we can be there at or near check-in time. I figure getting there on time will at least get me a better room than if I'd taken the flight I normally would have--it would have gotten us to the resort after 10pm.
 

ciscogizmo1

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We reserved a year out for our reservation for the last week of July and got the 5th or 6th floor I can't remember facing the pool. However, we weren't the closest to the ocean side. I'd say we were one room from the middle. I was happy with the assignment. It would have been nicer to be closer to the ocean but oh well I was in Maui. We checked right at 4 pm. We do not have elite status. We'll be going in June. However, this year our check-in day is Sunday so it will be interesting to see what we end up with. We'll be arriving at the same time around 4 pm right at check-in time. Just to let you know when we went at the end of July it was very windy. It was difficult to sit out on the balcony very any extended period of time.

Tina
 

Darwin

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Villa assignments

When we were there in December we were assigned the villa listed on our contract. Even though we had requested a higher floor. I was told first floor is the most requested floor. Apparently other owners were also assigned the villa listed on their contract.

People were complaining, one owner was on first floor behind the slide. This villa is considered OV but it is a poor view.

I was told by management at WKORV that corporate assigns the villas according to your contract villas number and, guest services at WKORV is suppose to read your requests and try to accommodate.

I had excellent help talking with quality assurance at WKORV. I talked with Jamie Kane.

Hope this helps.
 

skim118

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rocky said:
How do they decide who gets the best rooms coming up as available? The person who gets to the lobby first and spends all morning and afternoon waiting until the 4pm room assignment?

We went in the first week of August 2005 (an extremely crowded week), and the following describes the procedure they used then; I am assuming they are still using it because it matches what is outlined in the owners manual.

We called on the first possible day, but around 2 PM EST(since we were in Hawaii during 2004). We ended with a priority # 16 and we received 5th floor 2-bed lockoff overlooking the Black Rock; we wanted pool-view but at least we got a high floor and we were happy with our room.

This magic priority number is disclosed to you only when you check-in & if you ask for it and is supposedly determined only on Friday, based on the people checking in that specific week.

Since we had to wait for 2 hours to check-in & again stand in line to get the room keys we talked to about a dozen owners and most of us concluded the priority numbers were accurately assigned.

The OF unit owners seemed to get the highest priority, followed by multiple week WKORV OV owners. There were two OF owners who made their reservations just 5-6 months out and they received numbers #10 and #14 and they received nice pool-view OV rooms. One of them was extremely unhappy that he did not get an OF unit, but the front-office told him that no OF units were available.

BTW the person that had priority #2 was extremely unhappy too(an OF unit owner), because she received the handicapped OF unit and apparently the configuration was not to her liking(but the manager was hiding from her !!).

It was a zoo, but everybody settled down eventually; the most unfair ranking seemed to go to EOY unit owners. We met this nice couple from NY that owned 2 same year EOY weeks and they were staying for 2 consecutive weeks; they called in at 9AM EST and but they still received priority # 34 and they were placed in a bad 2 floor parking lot/OV unit. Their ranking system seems to treat EOY owners badly and actually it is clearly listed in the owner manual.

I still have no idea about how Starwood Elites from other resorts are handled, since there were mostly owners that week; Clearly checking-in early is of no use and they do seem to give a high priority to the order in which you make the reservation.

Sara
 

Pedro

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I'll be interested in finding out how the assignment of units really works and how consistently the process is followed. I'll be there early in June, but first I'm staying at the Westin (hotel) for two nights before checking at the WKORV for a 1-week stay. I was planning on stopping by the day before mi check-in date to say "I'm here - what room am I getting tomorrow?" and see if I like it or not. If not, maybe they can asssign a different one since no one would have checked in just yet. I don't know if it will make a difference but it's worth a try.
 

dss

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For what it's worth, they won't disclose your specific room info until it's ready for check-in. When we were there last April, we got there early as well and were told our room had been assigned on Friday but until the guests were checked out and it was clean, they won't check us in/disclose the specific room number.

They really need to continue to educate owners aout the room assignment/home priority booking period process as it's something that tends to be confusing to most people and lends itself to frustration at check-in, etc... A good part of the reason we upgraded from OV to OF was to avoid the hassle and stress of the room assignment issue, etc...
 

rocky

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skim118 said:
We went in the first week of August 2005 (an extremely crowded week), and the following describes the procedure they used then; I am assuming they are still using it because it matches what is outlined in the owners manual.

We called on the first possible day, but around 2 PM EST(since we were in Hawaii during 2004). We ended with a priority # 16 and we received 5th floor 2-bed lockoff overlooking the Black Rock; we wanted pool-view but at least we got a high floor and we were happy with our room.

This magic priority number is disclosed to you only when you check-in & if you ask for it and is supposedly determined only on Friday, based on the people checking in that specific week.

Since we had to wait for 2 hours to check-in & again stand in line to get the room keys we talked to about a dozen owners and most of us concluded the priority numbers were accurately assigned.

The OF unit owners seemed to get the highest priority, followed by multiple week WKORV OV owners. There were two OF owners who made their reservations just 5-6 months out and they received numbers #10 and #14 and they received nice pool-view OV rooms. One of them was extremely unhappy that he did not get an OF unit, but the front-office told him that no OF units were available.

BTW the person that had priority #2 was extremely unhappy too(an OF unit owner), because she received the handicapped OF unit and apparently the configuration was not to her liking(but the manager was hiding from her !!).

It was a zoo, but everybody settled down eventually; the most unfair ranking seemed to go to EOY unit owners. We met this nice couple from NY that owned 2 same year EOY weeks and they were staying for 2 consecutive weeks; they called in at 9AM EST and but they still received priority # 34 and they were placed in a bad 2 floor parking lot/OV unit. Their ranking system seems to treat EOY owners badly and actually it is clearly listed in the owner manual.

I still have no idea about how Starwood Elites from other resorts are handled, since there were mostly owners that week; Clearly checking-in early is of no use and they do seem to give a high priority to the order in which you make the reservation.

Sara

Thank you for that information! That was a great summary of the process, and some of the best new information I've seen on WKORV in a long time!

Mucho, mucho gracias to Sara and to all!

Shelley
 

DeniseM

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Darwin said:
When we were there in December we were assigned the villa listed on our contract.
Hope this helps.

OK - Our contract says Villa #251816 - Where is that unit???
 

Denise L

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DeniseM said:
OK - Our contract says Villa #251816 - Where is that unit???

Original building (my favorite), north facing, 5th floor, past the halfway point away from the ocean, but not that far down.

We have been in 2404/06 (north facing), 2521/23 (south facing) and 2513/15 (south facing). 2518/16 would probably be across the hall from our 2513/15, which was a great location for us.
 

baz48

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I'm not so sure about the villa number on your contract having anything to do with what you're assigned. The contract also has a specific week assigned, but that is meaningless as far as reservations go with a float system. The week and unit number is only for accounting purposes to make sure they don't sell more total units than they have.

The last time we were there in July 2005 we had a 2 BR LO and a 1 BR unit for additional family. When we checked in, the res agent noticed that the 1 BR was on a different floor, so she changed it to be on our floor right then. So I'd say that changes can be made on the spot as necessary.
 

DavidnRobin

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I spoke with a SVO/SVN representative today and brought this up. He stated that reservations/villa priorities are made on a first come-first served basis as to when the reservations were made starting at 12 months out.
 

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Where would room #2207 be?

Traded into the WKORV and my room number says #2207, 1 bed/1bath. Anyone know where this room would be? Ocean, pool, parking lot view? Floor?
 

Denise L

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2 = building number, so it's the first building (northmost) with villas (1 is the lobby)
x2 = floor, so second
xx07 = villa, and odd is south facing, so you are facing the interior of the complex (pool, a bit far from the ocean but still with a view)
 

ripshion

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deniselew said:
2 = building number, so it's the first building (northmost) with villas (1 is the lobby)
x2 = floor, so second
xx07 = villa, and odd is south facing, so you are facing the interior of the complex (pool, a bit far from the ocean but still with a view)

Thanks for the info Denise! I just didn't want a view of the parking lot :eek:
 

Denise L

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Unit on confirmation not necessarily the unit you will receive

Just keep in mind that the unit on your exchange confirmation may not be the one you are assigned. You could get any villa really, and exchangers generally are not high on the priority list. Units in theory aren't assigned until check-in, and while you can make modest requests, there is no guarantee.

The villas are spectacular (okay, I own there so I am biased), and I would say that you should have a great time wherever your unit is! Great job getting the exchange. What did you deposit & what size unit do you have?
 

LauraS93

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Rocky,

Maybe a letter from your sister's doctor would help? The doctor could at least confirm her diagnosis. If she/he could outline the reasons why you need the view due to her spending lots of time in the unit, and how the weather affects MS, etc. If the doc doesn't go into that kind of detail, you could in a cover letter.

I would fax the letter to the hotel approx. 4 weeks out, then follow up by mail at 3 weeks out. Addressing it to the manager would be helpful, or if you can find out the name of who actually makes these decisions, even more helpful.

I am very sympathetic to the sufferers of MS - one of my oldest and dearest friends has recently been diagnosed. If I were the manager, you'd get the exact villa that you requested. :)
 

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deniselew said:
Just keep in mind that the unit on your exchange confirmation may not be the one you are assigned. You could get any villa really, and exchangers generally are not high on the priority list. Units in theory aren't assigned until check-in, and while you can make modest requests, there is no guarantee.

The villas are spectacular (okay, I own there so I am biased), and I would say that you should have a great time wherever your unit is! Great job getting the exchange. What did you deposit & what size unit do you have?

Yes, I figured since the units are all unassigned I assumed that rooms will be assigned at check-in etc.

I used a Renaissance Aruba for the exchange, 1 bed for 1 bed. I'm headed down there in Dec 2006.
 

azsunluvr

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No villa assigned

Our confirmation doesn't have a villa number. When we went a few years ago, there was a villa number assigned on the confirmation, but not this time. Is that usual?
 

DeniseM

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azsunluvr said:
Our confirmation doesn't have a villa number. When we went a few years ago, there was a villa number assigned on the confirmation, but not this time. Is that usual?

Our current confirmation (for July) doesn't either - I was asking about the Villa number on our deed.
 

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Hi all. I'm new to TUG and find it full of info already. We just purchased an IV unit at WKORV-N and are curious where the contract unit is (knowing we will probably never actually stay in that unit). The unit number is 665152. Also, at time of sale they told us that occupancy would be 2008 but I have read various sites that say villas will be available the latter half of 2007. Does anyone know anything about this?

Thanks in advance.
 

Denise L

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Hi and welcome to TUG!

I can't say where that unit is because I'm not sure how the buildings are numbered, but I'm sure it doesn't matter. Once the villas are open, it will be obvious.

Re: occupancy, I know that Starwood sold out occupancy for 2007 and that's why you have occupancy in 2008. A portion of the resort will be open in 2007, but it will only be able to fit those owners who bought early on. As each year gets sold out, they sell occupancy for the next year. When we bought at WKORV, we had occupancy for 2004, and others had occupancy in mid-2005.

Hope this helps!
 

DavidnRobin

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MON2REY said:
Hi all. I'm new to TUG and find it full of info already. We just purchased an IV unit at WKORV-N and are curious where the contract unit is (knowing we will probably never actually stay in that unit). The unit number is 665152. Also, at time of sale they told us that occupancy would be 2008 but I have read various sites that say villas will be available the latter half of 2007. Does anyone know anything about this?

Thanks in advance.
Welcome to TUG -

It doesn't matter what the specific unit # is. As an WKORV-N owner, at 8-12 months out - you have the opportunity to reserve a week in an IV unit - you do not get the specific deeded unit as they float - unless you purchased a fixed unit. Also, the week floats (unless you purchase a fixed week) - that is why you need to call 8-12 months ahead to reserve, and if you really want to go during a popular week - then call exactly at the 12-month point at 8AM EST.

From my understanding - the IV units are opening last with the OV/OF units opening first. So if they are telling you - 2008 - then your IV week won't be until 2008 - that sounds right. In the contract that I rescinded at WKORV-N for an OV/OF unit - I was told I would have occupancy in early 07. :doh:

btw, always remember the joke... How can you tell a TS salesman is lying?
His lips are moving... :D
 

DavidnRobin

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Also - in regards to reserving a float unit. I spoke with a SVN person today - they said (and looked it up for me) that room assignments are given out based on when the owner called to reserve the unit on a first call - first served basis. The owner I purchased the OF WKORV from called at 9:15 AM at the 12 month point with a request for the highest floor. So we will be given the highest roon based on how many other OF owners called before 9:15 AM.

Your deed unit and deeded week are of no importance unless you fixed them when purchasing from the Developer for 10% (week) + 10% (unit) more.
 
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