Need help.

[auntsue]

A friend will be joining us in May. I didn't want to book before she got her airfare. I called today for Fri - Tues Memorial Day weekend. They have no studios or 2 BR's available for Sunday, and only had preferred studio for the other three nights. I am on the wait list for Sunday but I am nervous about not getting any room at all. Does it make any sense to book a 1BR for the last two nights - Sun & Mon - just to be sure? (I don't want her to have to move twice in a four day trip) Will they let me do that, considering I already have Monday reserved in a studio? What are the details of cancelling? Are there penalties? Should I have booked it last month and then cancelled if she changed her mind. If I book the 1BR and the studio comes through, can I just cancel the 1BR.

Considering that we are at seven months and four days, I assumed that I wouldn't have this problem. Have many studios do they have?

For future reference, are there any penalties at all for cancelling?

 

[drusba]

As you have discovered, it can often be difficult to get exactly what you want at BWV if you wait too long particularly for holiday times. Nevertheless, you probably have a good chance of getting that one day in a studio that is wait-listed. But as to your question about multiple reservations, you can do what you suggest as long as I understand it correctly:

1. You will reserve a studio for Fri, Sat, Mon.

2. You will also reserve a 1BR for Sun, Mon.

3. If the studio comes through for Sun you will cancel the 1BR. If not you will cancel the studio for Mon.

If I have it right, you can do that as long as you have enough points to make all those ressies--in other words to do it you must have enough points now to reserve the studio for 3 nights and separately to reserve the 1BR for 2.

You have two risks:

1. Regardless of what happens, you are going to cancel something (the 1BR nights or studio night). That means there will be points leftover that you will not use. The question is what do you plan to do with those leftover points? If you plan to bank them after the cancellation then you must cancel within time to be able to bank them (you have until the end of the 6th month of your use year to bank up to 100% of your points, the 9th month to bank up to 50% and the 10th month for 25%). Thus, depending on amount you want to bank you must cancel by the applicable banking deadline.

2. You must cancel at least 31 days before date of arrival to avoid points becoming "Holding" points. Cancelations at 30 days or less out result in any points going into a holding account and they must be used by the end of the use year; they cannot be banked and they can only be used for a reservation for a trip that begins 60 days or less from the time you call to reserve.

Other than the above there are no possible penalties.

 

[auntsue]

Thanks drusba. I obviously should have booked for her and then cancelled. I didn't realize I could do that. Well, I won't make THAT mistake again.