Availability at WM

[Railman83]

While I am perfectly capable of reserving out at near max advance (say a week later as I don’t plan on staying up to midnight the first day of availability or reservations starting on, say Thursdays to beat the heard), I’ve read a number of threads on here claiming WM availability a problem, particularly at Hawaii and more desirable coastal US?

This has me holding off and wondering just how hard it is to get what you want and where, particularly in the summer.

Can the WM veterans tell me which resorts would have to be booked in the first month of the reservation windowin summer months?

 

[bizaro86]

If you have specific resorts you want, let me know.

I checked August 2019 for 1 bedrooms. That has been available to book for 1 month.

Coastal Oregon is completely gone, inland Oregon available. Mariners village in WA us gone, otherwise WA has decent availability.

Park city, west Yellowstone, and Hawaii are all gone. Otherwise good availability in CO/UT.

I didn't check CA, but coastal CA will be booked at 13 months exactly, especially in the summer.

 

[bizaro86]

Also, online booking opens at 6AM Pacific, so no staying up to midnight required. Might need to get up early depending on your timezone.

 

[Railman83]

If you have specific resorts you want, let me know.

I checked August 2019 for 1 bedrooms. That has been available to book for 1 month.

Coastal Oregon is completely gone, inland Oregon available. Mariners village in WA us gone, otherwise WA has decent availability.

Park city, west Yellowstone, and Hawaii are all gone. Otherwise good availability in CO/UT.

I didn't check CA, but coastal CA will be booked at 13 months exactly, especially in the summer.

This seems a bit depressing.

So what I’m hearing is if I want coastal Oregon, Hawaii, Yellowstone or Coastal California I have to book day one pretty much. God forbid if I wanted to make substitutions in a 4-8 week itinerary.

Where there is overlap (Hawaii, Colorado, Etc) I can use Wyndham, but I was looking at WM for coverage where I can’t, and it seems not to be great news. Washington and a lot of inland Western states are on my list, but so is coastal Oregon and Yellowstone. Now I’m thinking a scale back of my buy and work around with half WM and half “other” options.

 

[bizaro86]

This seems a bit depressing.

So what I’m hearing is if I want coastal Oregon, Hawaii, Yellowstone or Coastal California I have to book day one pretty much. God forbid if I wanted to make substitutions in a 4-8 week itinerary.

Where there is overlap (Hawaii, Colorado, Etc) I can use Wyndham, but I was looking at WM for coverage where I can’t, and it seems not to be great news. Washington and a lot of inland Western states are on my list, but so is coastal Oregon and Yellowstone. Now I’m thinking a scale back of my buy and work around with half WM and half “other” options.

I'd say that's accurate. You could substitute out of Oregon/Hawaii/Yellowstone/Coastal California easily, as WM has a flexible cancellation policy, but not substitute back in to those resorts.

 

[ecwinch]

This seems a bit depressing.

So what I’m hearing is if I want coastal Oregon, Hawaii, Yellowstone or Coastal California I have to book day one pretty much. God forbid if I wanted to make substitutions in a 4-8 week itinerary.

Where there is overlap (Hawaii, Colorado, Etc) I can use Wyndham, but I was looking at WM for coverage where I can’t, and it seems not to be great news. Washington and a lot of inland Western states are on my list, but so is coastal Oregon and Yellowstone. Now I’m thinking a scale back of my buy and work around with half WM and half “other” options.

True.... but mainly for the peak season - holidays, summer, etc. In part the lack of availability is driven by speculative booking - which is easy to do since we have no reservation fees and owners can have up to 3 years of credits to play with. As opposed to Club Wyndham - where the rules are more confining after the recent changes.

 

[magmue]

And if I understood data posted in another recent Worldmark thread, reservation cancellation rates average about 40%, meaning if you don't get up at 6am to book, there's still a good chance of eventual success by going on a waitlist.

 

[DaveNV]

Consider too, that WorldMark may not own the entire resort you're trying to book. They often have some/few units in a resort owned or managed by other companies. So the availability of units is kind of tentative, depending on the resort. The super-popular resorts book first, and fast. Waiting a week or so to try and book something during prime time is pretty likely to be all gone. The Waitlist may be a good backup plan, but you can't rely on it.

But if your initial idea of trying to book seven or eight weeks in a row at the same resort during prime time is still your thought, you're going to have to work for it. You're competing with a lot of other folks who also want one of those (perhaps limited) number of units, who are not against getting up early to book exactly what they want. Dawdling will equal disappointment.

If that is your best practice plan, I'd advise making a different plan, because I don't think WM will work very well for you. YMMV.

Dave

 

[ecwinch]

Consider too, that WorldMark may not own the entire resort you're trying to book. They often have some/few units in a resort owned or managed by other companies. So the availability of units is kind of tentative, depending on the resort. The super-popular resorts book first, and fast. Waiting a week or so to try and book something during prime time is pretty likely to be all gone. The Waitlist may be a good backup plan, but you can't rely on it.

But if your initial idea of trying to book seven or eight weeks in a row at the same resort during prime time is still your thought, you're going to have to work for it. You're competing with a lot of other folks who also want one of those (perhaps limited) number of units, who are not against getting up early to book exactly what they want. Dawdling will equal disappointment.

If that is your best practice plan, I'd advise making a different plan, because I don't think WM will work very well for you. YMMV.

Dave

I almost hesitate to mention it, but one of the "oddities" of the WM system is that you can extend any existing reservation - even past the 13month booking window. So it is just a case of grabbing that first reservation. Once you have it, you can make it a 7 or 8 week reservation.

 

[DaveNV]

I almost hesitate to mention it, but one of the "oddities" of the WM system is that you can extend any existing reservation - even past the 13month booking window. So it is just a case of grabbing that first reservation. Once you have it, you can make it a 7 or 8 week reservation.

I agree, but doesn't it require starting with the first day/week? And therein lies the problem. You can add onto the back end, but not on the front end without combining reservations, correct?

Dave

 

[ecwinch]

I agree, but doesn't it require starting with the first day/week? And therein lies the problem. You can add onto the back end, but not on the front end without combining reservations, correct?

Dave

Correct.

 

[bizaro86]

It sounds to me like he wants 7-8 weeks at various resorts the whole summer. I agree a long stretch at any one resort would be much easier, because you only need to "win" once at 13 months, and then extend out for the rest of the summer.

However, under the current grouped reservation rules that isn't possible with multiple resorts.

 

[DaveNV]

It sounds to me like he wants 7-8 weeks at various resorts the whole summer. I agree a long stretch at any one resort would be much easier, because you only need to "win" once at 13 months, and then extend out for the rest of the summer.

However, under the current grouped reservation rules that isn't possible with multiple resorts.

The posting he made in another thread gave me the understanding he wanted to book 7-8 weeks at the same resort, i.e. Whistler, in June and July. He was asking about credits needed to do that. Regardless, it comes back to being able to book that first week at 13 months out, to anchor the reservation in the resort he'd like to see. And that requires being there at that first moment at the 13-month mark in most cases, to ensure he can get the first week to start things off.

Dave

 

[bizaro86]

The posting he made in another thread gave me the understanding he wanted to book 7-8 weeks at the same resort, i.e. Whistler, in June and July. He was asking about credits needed to do that. Regardless, it comes back to being able to book that first week at 13 months out, to anchor the reservation in the resort he'd like to see. And that requires being there at that first moment at the 13-month mark in most cases, to ensure he can get the first week to start things off.

Dave

Oh, my mistake then. I would say an 8 week reservation is doable, because if you don't get July 1st try again for July 2nd or July 3rd. You would only need to get one and could then extend through the summer.

Making one reservation a year at 6AM doesn't seem like a big deal to me, but YMMV. I don't think I'd leave it to a week after the deadline.

 

[breezez]

And if I understood data posted in another recent Worldmark thread, reservation cancellation rates average about 40%, meaning if you don't get up at 6am to book, there's still a good chance of eventual success by going on a waitlist.

I wanted an extra week in Hawaii to add to a Hilton week I am taking Aug next year. Put waitlist in 3 days later got it.

 

[Railman83]

It sounds to me like he wants 7-8 weeks at various resorts the whole summer. I agree a long stretch at any one resort would be much easier, because you only need to "win" once at 13 months, and then extend out for the rest of the summer.

However, under the current grouped reservation rules that isn't possible with multiple resorts.

Various resorts is the plan, skipping one to the next every week. But it need not be Sat to Sat or Fri to Fri. I wonder if it would be easier to book a summer of Wed to Wed stays?

 

[DaveNV]

Various resorts is the plan, skipping one to the next every week. But it need not be Sat to Sat or Fri to Fri. I wonder if it would be easier to book a summer of Wed to Wed stays?

I’m fairly new to the WM process, but from what I’ve seen, weekends tend to book first. Since you can check in any day, I don’t think it really makes a lot of difference. If the consecutive days aren’t there, you’re kind of stuck.

Dave

 

[bizaro86]

Is having an exact week important to you?

One thing you could do is book July 1-14 at the first resort.

Then, start trying for the second resort for July 8th. If you didn't get it, you could then try the 9th, 10th, 11th, etc.

Once you had a check in, you could shorten the first reservation to match.

This improves your odds dramatically, because you get multiple tries. However, those tries should probably still be at 6AM Pacific 13 months out for a number of resorts...

 

[ecwinch]

Various resorts is the plan, skipping one to the next every week. But it need not be Sat to Sat or Fri to Fri. I wonder if it would be easier to book a summer of Wed to Wed stays?

For some Uber high demand resorts, the checkin day does not really matter - they tend to book up right at 13 months during July (ie Depoe Bay).

What may work for you is alternating between high-demand resort and one with lesser demand like Running Y, Eagle Crest, Birch Bay, etc. to fill in the gaps. And then using the waitlist to try to build reservations.

That is somewhat what we do when we do our big road trips. Since it takes a day to just get out of Texas, we tend to be gone for 6+ weeks. We usually do not have a problem booking, but are flexible.

 

[K2Quick]

So what I’m hearing is if I want coastal Oregon, Hawaii, Yellowstone or Coastal California I have to book day one pretty much.

Not just day one, but for the high-demand resorts, you need to be booking within the first few seconds of day one to get your reservation. But as has been pointed out, the waitlist is very effective. In the cases where you strike out on day one, if you immediately put a waitlist request on day one, your chances of getting your request filled are very good if not almost 100%. If you're on the east coast, the reservation system opens up at 9:00 a.m. so there's no waking up early.

 

[Tahiya]

I've had what seem like remarkable successes with the waitlist--like getting Labor Day weekend in a 2 bedroom penthouse at the Camlin, waitlisting only 3 months out. But, I've also been skunked twice with a waitlist request made 13 months out: the two instances were both summer, once at Depoe Bay, and once at Worldmark Yellowstone.