Reservation Questions

Hi all,

Brand new owner and avid reader of the forum. A question or two around reservations made via the mywyndham portal:

1) If I make a reservation and get charged the $30 which I subsequently cancel, do I get a refund?

2) If I am unable to find openings at a given resort, does the system have the ability to take a request and let me know if a spot opens up?

Thanks again for your continued guidance to a newbie.

kcs1965 said:

Hi all,

Brand new owner and avid reader of the forum. A question or two around reservations made via the mywyndham portal:

1) If I make a reservation and get charged the $30 which I subsequently cancel, do I get a refund?

2) If I am unable to find openings at a given resort, does the system have the ability to take a request and let me know if a spot opens up?

Thanks again for your continued guidance to a newbie.

Click to expand...

Welcome. To answer your questions, no and no.

kcs1965 said:

Hi all,

Brand new owner and avid reader of the forum. A question or two around reservations made via the mywyndham portal:

1) If I make a reservation and get charged the $30 which I subsequently cancel, do I get a refund?

2) If I am unable to find openings at a given resort, does the system have the ability to take a request and let me know if a spot opens up?

Thanks again for your continued guidance to a newbie.

Click to expand...

Item #2 is an important / sensitive point. While it would seem fair and right to be able to take a 'waiting list' as I believe RCI does, that has not been a part of the Wyndham reservation system. Conversely, if it were possible then this would cause a big disadvantage to VIP members because VIP members get a points discount for reservations made in the last 30/45 or 60 days before travel. One strategy VIP members use is to cancel their reservation within that number of days hoping nobody else gets it including Wyndham themselves who sometimes takes back canceled reservations automatically if they have overbooked due to a maintenance problem or even if they want to rent it out in their own rental program. Then after canceling the VIP member immediately re-books that same room for the discount. If there were a waiting list then there would be little chance that the room would 'come back' after canceling during high demand seasons.

If Wyndham does upgrade their system (has been talk of doing so for several years) to handle waiting lists, then maybe they would come up with some other benefit to incent owners to buy directly from them and become VIP members.

Bob

On item two, I was not aware of any cancel and rebook through the portal, or any VIP discount.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

raygo123 said:

On item two, I was not aware of any cancel and rebook through the portal, or any VIP discount.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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This only matters if you have VIP status.

Anybody can cancel and attempt to rebook on the website. But non-VIP do not have a reason to do so (i.e., to get a discounted booking inside of 30/45/60 days, which is strictly tied to one's VIP level).

uscav8r said:

This only matters if you have VIP status.

Anybody can cancel and attempt to rebook on the website. But non-VIP do not have a reason to do so (i.e., to get a discounted booking inside of 30/45/60 days, which is strictly tied to one's VIP level).

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Although, we used to be able to, when they were still doing substantial resort specials. I know I did once for a January stay at WBC, but it's been a good couple of years since they've had actual specials. Or, if you're trying to get a reservation for a weird number of days, I know I've heard talk of booking a full week or 3 or 4 days during the standard reservation period to "hold your spot," then canceling and rebooking the actual days you want during the express period once the restrictions are lifted. I've never done this, but I'm sure I've seen people talk about it here on the forum.

OutSkiing said:

Item #2 is an important / sensitive point. While it would seem fair and right to be able to take a 'waiting list' as I believe RCI does, that has not been a part of the Wyndham reservation system. Conversely, if it were possible then this would cause a big disadvantage to VIP members because VIP members get a points discount for reservations made in the last 30/60 or 90 days before travel. One strategy VIP members use is to cancel their reservation within that number of days hoping nobody else gets it including Wyndham themselves who sometimes takes back canceled reservations automatically if they have overbooked due to a maintenance problem or even if they want to rent it out in their own rental program. Then after canceling the VIP member immediately re-books that same room for the discount. If there were a waiting list then there would be little chance that the room would 'come back' after canceling during high demand seasons.

If Wyndham does upgrade their system (has been talk of doing so for several years) to handle waiting lists, then maybe they would come up with some other benefit to incent owners to buy directly from them and become VIP members.

Bob

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Bob

its neither important or sensitive for any owner other than the few that make a living doing rentals (at least not yet)

You are absolutely right that a wait list would be a problem for those of us that do rentals in any significant numbers because that 50% discount is often the only thing that separates profit from loss. But we know its a scam and everyone Ive talked to is making their plans to deal with the change if it happens> I, for example, expect to concentrate my efforts with the high demand,/ low supply stuff like summers in Myrtle Beach and winters in South Florida, These are reservations where I can charge enough that even if I have to pay full price I can still profit. Profit less than with a 50% discount but still profit. Ill make up for any reduction in profit per reservation, by buying more points and doing more rentals at these high demand locations

As I see (if a wait list is introduced) it ought to free up a ton of availability at places like Las Vegas and Orlando but close down places, like the two I mentioned above, to the average owner.

I think a wait list is inevitable but I also think that it will only give the illusion of a fairer system. In the long run it will hurt the average guy more than it helps. Myrtle Beach will become just a couple of pretty pictures in the book, but it will be impossible to reserve at 10 months and I would bet end up like Glacier Canyon.. filled with more renters than owners.

kcs1965 said:

Hi all,
...2) If I am unable to find openings at a given resort, does the system have the ability to take a request and let me know if a spot opens up? ...

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Am I the only one who thinks that there will be unintended consequences which will negatively affect the average owner.

Mega-renters will be placing waitlist requests at a level where average owners won't have a chance to get anything. If we thought bots were bad, a waitlist could be much worse. Mega-renters don't need a bot when a waitlist works even better for them.

And when it comes to cancel/rebook, wouldn't we expect the mega-renters to place a number of entries in a waitlist days, weeks or even months before initiating the cancel/rebook. If the waitlist triggers a buy for the mega-renters before the VIP benefits kick in, they will take the reservations. When they are working with 50,000,000 to 200,000,000 points, there is room to do it. This will just give them a bigger backup when the cancel/rebook time arrives.

Waitlist lovers, watch what you wish for.

Jim

One wait to help control a Wait List (WMTC uses one) is to limit the number of Wait List a member can have pending. It is going from 8 to 4.

Worldmark has a waitlist and they don't have an opportunity to get discounts and yet renting still happens

I wonder if adding a waitlist and eliminating the almost routine 50% discounts the megarenters enjoy will have any effect on rental activity at all

geist1223 said:

One wait to help control a Wait List (WMTC uses one) is to limit the number of Wait List a member can have pending. It is going from 8 to 4.

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Maga-renters don't deal with just one account. A mega-renter may have at least 25 Platinum accounts that are being managed all at the same time. Even a limit of 4 times 25 accounts leads to putting 100 entries in a waitlist.

I still think that a mega-renter will love a waitlist. It will automate an existing manual operation that they must now perform, ie. continually searching for the right reservation.

Jim

jebloomquist said:

Am I the only one who thinks that there will be unintended consequences which will negatively affect the average owner.

Mega-renters will be placing waitlist requests at a level where average owners won't have a chance to get anything. If we thought bots were bad, a waitlist could be much worse. Mega-renters don't need a bot when a waitlist works even better for them.

And when it comes to cancel/rebook, wouldn't we expect the mega-renters to place a number of entries in a waitlist days, weeks or even months before initiating the cancel/rebook. If the waitlist triggers a buy for the mega-renters before the VIP benefits kick in, they will take the reservations. When they are working with 50,000,000 to 200,000,000 points, there is room to do it. This will just give them a bigger backup when the cancel/rebook time arrives.

Waitlist lovers, watch what you wish for.

Jim

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Jim and Ron make good points. I am NOT wishing for a wait list.

Bob

raygo123 said:

On item two, I was not aware of any cancel and rebook through the portal, or any VIP discount.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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cancel and rebook and VIP discount were not referenced as a benefit through the RCI portal. The only reference to using the RCI portal was that it did have an option for a waitlist in the form of an ongoing search.