SVN NEWS: Online booking now available at mystarcentral.com! [+ Resv. rules changes]

Quiding said:

Might be a stupid question.. But when will the availability come up on the webpage? At 09:00 so the phones get the same possibility to book or is it at midnight so the internet has an advantage?

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It's midnight Eastern for home resort reservations, so this should be the same.

DeniseM said:

It's midnight Eastern for home resort reservations, so this should be the same.

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And even better - 9PM PST !!!
No more having to call at 6AM

The next question is whether the page refreshes it self - or do you continuous have to refresh? (like trying to buy a popular ticket)

I am assuming continuously refresh. I am preparing for a high-season HomeResort reservation of our OFD at WKORV. I think I will check it out.

This is good news. I will have to check it out. Thanks for the post.

DavidnRobin said:

And even better - 9PM PST !!!
No more having to call at 6AM

The next question is whether the page refreshes it self - or do you continuous have to refresh? (like trying to buy a popular ticket)

I am assuming continuously refresh. I am preparing for a high-season HomeResort reservation of our OFD at WKORV. I think I will check it out.

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I think you have to refresh.

DavidnRobin said:

And even better - 9PM PST !!!
No more having to call at 6AM

The next question is whether the page refreshes it self - or do you continuous have to refresh? (like trying to buy a popular ticket)

I am assuming continuously refresh. I am preparing for a high-season HomeResort reservation of our OFD at WKORV. I think I will check it out.

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I'm curious to find out how your booking goes for a high demand OFD week! I used to want to own an OFD but was worried about availability. Given that we are still chained to the school holidays, there isn't any flexibility in our travel dates so OV will have to do, for now. Good luck!

Will the system allow you to load the requested information at, say, 8:50 pm PDT and then punch the Reservation button at 9:00 or can you only start the process at 9:00 (for home resort at exactly 12 months out)?

MON2REY said:

Will the system allow you to load the requested information at, say, 8:50 pm PDT and then punch the Reservation button at 9:00 or can you only start the process at 9:00 (for home resort at exactly 12 months out)?

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You can only start the process at midnight. The search results won't present a button allowing you to reserve until the booking window has opened.

I did find one hitch to this process.

If you are borrowing from next years star options by pre-paying your MF's, you are unable to make your reservation online at 12am ET. You must wait until you can get a live person on the phone in the am to override your yearly balance.

Even when you set it all up to be "on the ready" a week beforehand.

DeniseM said:

There is a pecking order for views, so it really depends on how full the resort is, and how many Elite Owners with more priority than you have reservations that day. An early time stamp does put you at or near the top of the heap of other single week O.V. owners reserving the same day.

The resort no longer accepts requests that are that specific (floor and forward of elevators.) But of course, if you put it in online, you weren't speaking to a human who could reject it, but Starwood is going to interpret your request as "a high floor in bldg. 2 or 3."

Currently, they will only accept a request for a building, and a high or low floor. You will probably get an emailed response stating that they no longer accept specific location requests.

But hey - it doesn't hurt to ask! Good luck!

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Do you recommend that I call to make building/floor requests? I did not see anything online when I was booking, but I was in a hurry to get a timestamp.

Denise L said:

Do you recommend that I call to make building/floor requests? I did not see anything online when I was booking, but I was in a hurry to get a timestamp.

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I don't - I hate to call - I do it online-

Log into your Acct. and the Resv. will pop up on the main page with an "Available Actions" button:

Available Actions > Add Special Requests > (scroll down to bottom box, skip everything else) > enter special requests > Submit Request

OR - you can use the "Live Help" function.

Not sure, but I think I may have found a 'bug' in the on-line reservation system on MSC.
I had already booked my 2 weeks (HomeResort) at WKV, and was going to cancel my SB week reservation, and re-book in March.

When I went on-line (to check HomeResort availability in March), it was allowing me to make another HomeResort at WKV (at least the option came up). I didn't follow-through to see if it would actually book a 3rd HomeResort reservation at WKV since I am not looking to (I only own 2 weeks at WKV), but interesting that it came up as an option.

DeniseM said:

I don't - I hate to call - I do it online-

Log into your Acct. and the Resv. will pop up on the main page with an "Available Actions" button:

Available Actions > Add Special Requests > (scroll down to bottom box, skip everything else) > enter special requests > Submit Request

OR - you can use the "Live Help" function.

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Thanks, Denise. I am the opposite, normally. I like to call and don't like online. BUT, it seems that I should get with the program and make the request online. Thanks!

DavidnRobin said:

Not sure, but I think I may have found a 'bug' in the on-line reservation system on MSC.
I had already booked my 2 weeks (HomeResort) at WKV, and was going to cancel my SB week reservation, and re-book in March.

When I went on-line (to check HomeResort availability in March), it was allowing me to make another HomeResort at WKV (at least the option came up). I didn't follow-through to see if it would actually book a 3rd HomeResort reservation at WKV since I am not looking to (I only own 2 weeks at WKV), but interesting that it came up as an option.

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Decided to check out (as above) - it allowed me to choose the HomeResort week, but after continuing it stated to call OS.

I spoke to OS today and they mentioned that you can only book this years points in this year. So if I want to book Christmas week and need to borrow against next years options...you have to call! I hate the 9 hour lag!

How to use web reservation for 2 separate weeks?

We have 2 individual owner weeks at the same resort and we usually use them at different times of the year. I want to make a res now for next year but use only one of the weeks. How will the system know which week I want to use for my reservation?

ragdoll said:

We have 2 individual owner weeks at the same resort and we usually use them at different times of the year. I want to make a res now for next year but use only one of the weeks. How will the system know which week I want to use for my reservation?

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It does list which weeks it is applying. I have a lockoff and it listed each side separately. I didn't have any excess SOs after my reservation, so I don't know if you're given the option to select another week.

The biggest downside, IMO, is that it doesn't let you instantly cancel reservations online. You can do it via an MSC request, but I was afraid to use it because I didn't have faith that it would be completed quickly. Most of my MSC requests take days to get answered, and I didn't want to lose my original reservation. So I waited until the reservation line opened at 9am and did both transactions back to back.

Home Resort >7 days at 12 mos out

If I want to stay in the one bedroom side of the lockoff for 11 nights, can I book all 11 nights at the 12 month mark? I would be using the staroption value of the studio and convert those options into the equalivent of 4 days in the one bedroom side. Or can I only book the 7 days at 12 months and add the 4 days at 8 months? Or is there another way to accomplish my goal of staying 11 consecutive nights in the one bedroom side of the lockoff without losing our view or having to change rooms?

MON2REY said:

If I want to stay in the one bedroom side of the lockoff for 11 nights, can I book all 11 nights at the 12 month mark? I would be using the staroption value of the studio and convert those options into the equalivent of 4 days in the one bedroom side. Or can I only book the 7 days at 12 months and add the 4 days at 8 months? Or is there another way to accomplish my goal of staying 11 consecutive nights in the one bedroom side of the lockoff without losing our view or having to change rooms?

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No. You can only book exactly what you own, in the season that you own, during the Home Resort Priority period. Since you'll be converting to SOs, you'll have to wait until the 8 month period to book those 4 nights.

But you can book a lock off of your own week at 12 months? And the rest of it at 8 months?

suzannesimon said:

But you can book a lock off of your own week at 12 months? And the rest of it at 8 months?

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Yes, you can book one side at 12 months, then convert the other side to SOs and book the remaining days at 8 months out. Three major downsides to this:

1) There's no guarantee that the extra days will be available at 8 months out.
2) Since it'll be two separate reservations, you'll probably have to change rooms, even if it's the same size unit.
3) You'll lose any view that you paid for on those extra days.

ALL reservations made at 8-0 mos. from check-in are Staroption (floating) reservations, even at your home resort.

To get your deeded unit type, you must make the Resv. from 12-8 mos. before check-in.

ragdoll said:

We have 2 individual owner weeks at the same resort and we usually use them at different times of the year. I want to make a res now for next year but use only one of the weeks. How will the system know which week I want to use for my reservation?

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LisaRex said:

It does list which weeks it is applying. I have a lockoff and it listed each side separately. I didn't have any excess SOs after my reservation, so I don't know if you're given the option to select another week.

The biggest downside, IMO, is that it doesn't let you instantly cancel reservations online. You can do it via an MSC request, but I was afraid to use it because I didn't have faith that it would be completed quickly. Most of my MSC requests take days to get answered, and I didn't want to lose my original reservation. So I waited until the reservation line opened at 9am and did both transactions back to back.

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That solution does not work when you have 2 separate ownership weeks (one with staroptions and one without staroptions) at the same resort and you are trying to reserve one of those weeks. The system does not differentiate between the weeks and makes a random reservation using one of the weeks, but not necessarily the ownership you wanted to use. I am referring to developer week vs resale week at the same resort. I had to call Owner Services to straighten this out and we discovered that the system is not yet set up to allow you to select your week in this case. They are only set up to allow you to select a specific week if you own at different resorts. She suggested I make 2 reservations (one for each ownership week) and cancel the one I don't want to use. Eventually we will be able to choose weeks automatically online for whatever ownership we have.

Word of caution: The online reservation system is having some glitches. I had a confirmed SO reservation at WSJ for 1/17-1/24. I checked the Online reservation system and it showed 3 units available from 1/31-2/7. It very clearly stated on all 3 reservations that it was for 7 nights. So I decided to switch to those dates.

I called the Reservation line at exactly 8:59am and got right through. However, the reservationist was not able to find those dates. I kept refreshing and the dates were still available. She asked me if I wanted to cancel my current reservation and try to complete it online, and I said yes because there were 3 units, and I thought that surely I'd be able to complete one of them.

Nope. When I clicked on the button to reserve the week, it switched from "Complete this Reservation" to "Call Starwood Reservations."

Yikes. Even after I supplied the CSR with the code listed on the reservations, nothing turned up on her end. After a bit of investigating, it turns out that there were only 4 nights available, which is why she couldn't see them on her end. The screen that indicated 3 different units available for 1/31-2/7/15 for 7 nights was mistaken.

Luckily, she was able to grab my initial reservation again or I'd have been S.O.L.

If you have enough SOs remaining to book a reservation, you won't ever run into this situation. I only had enough to book the one, and my original reservation used these, so in order to book another week, I'd have to cancel the original one. That comes with a risk, especially if there's misleading information on the Online booking tool.

Just a watchout so that someone doesn't lose a valuable reservation.

WSJ online booking blocked?

Are online reservations blocked for WSJ? I've seen availability (within 8 months) but when I click on the "more information" button it says "call for assistance" with my reservation, where the same dates for other resorts it will bring me to the "reserve your villa" button.

I'm finding the same.

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