[Problems making VISTANA reservations - official thread]

[maph]

This is not what we bought into ten years ago. Yet another bad experience trying to book my KORV South Ocean-Front Ownership. For the second year in a row both availability and system crashing issues.

Pressed the search button seconds after midnight last Wednesday for a 2/9/2018 booking - zero availability. Tried for over two hours. Tried again last Thursday night for a 2/10/2018 booking - availability for the one bedroom we were interested in but the system crashed saying "sorry we are having difficulties please refresh your browser" after pressing confirm button during the 5 minute counter. Immediately started over and was able to get a studio, but message came back "booking already in progress" and had to try again. Finally able to book a studio on my third try after two crashes. Then, received separate confirmations for both the one bedroom and the studio! Appears my original booking went through after all, so ultimately I got what I originally wanted, albeit through a ridiculous process.

Then I received a satisfaction survey on the booking process. I've all but given up filling out these surveys but this was so egregious I went ahead and responded. Very poor ratings and no, I'm not likely to recommend Vistana ownership. Of course this is not life and death and in the grand scheme of things not worth getting exasperated over. However, it continues to be more and more difficult to book what we own such that the value we all paid such a premium price for (and continue to pay in rising Maintenance Fees and now 3rd Party Booking Fees that apparently even apply to our immediate family members) just is not there.

Are you sure about your dates? If I'm reading this right, you probably mean a 2/2/2018 booking failed? That would be for a Friday check in, which doesn't exist for OFC or OFD. Maybe that explains why you didn't see any available units? I was able to book a 2/3/2018 2bd OFC last Thursday without any problems.

 

[NVPatriot1959]

Ah, it was for 2/9 which is a Friday. I was not aware there were no Friday check-ins for the Ocean Front units. We only bought this two years ago. Very helpful. Thank you.

 

[The Haileys]

Not my post, but I have been told what my queue number was at check-in, but never saw one during online reservation process. I suspect that was the justification the Front Desk gave for the 3rd floor location.

I was #1 in queue for a WPORV 1Bd reservation - and pretty much was allowed to choose my villa location (when I inquired at the Front Desk the Wednesday before our Saturday checkin).

Which villa do you recommend?
We're going next month ... I was lucky to get a SO ressie at 8 months - I checked again first thing next morning and it was all booked up, so will we even have a chance at getting a request considered? Am I in line after all the HO ressies?

 

[DeniseM]

You are in line behind all the home resort reservations, so I would expect to get an Island View, and consider anything else an upgrade. Did you reserve the North or South? Did you log onto your account and submit a special request online?

 

[DavidnRobin]

As this was an issue last year (Prez Day week) - I was able to reserve at WKORV OFD (studio) for 2018, Feb17-24 - got my online confirmation in about 90 seconds.

 

[PamMo]

I couldn't get my 2018 WKORVN weeks booked last week, so tried again tonight. Could only get one 1BR week booked for 2018 - all the 2BR's were gone. Oh, my goodness, is everyone really booking online at midnight now????

 

[DeniseM]

If you don't book online at midnight, it's impossible to get high season weeks, so yes, I'd say that the people who know the system book at midnight.

 

[Dawnwrey]

Island view 2 BR was available at WKORVN about 2 minutes ago.....

 

[Denise L]

As this was an issue last year (Prez Day week) - I was able to reserve at WKORV OFD (studio) for 2018, Feb17-24 - got my online confirmation in about 90 seconds.

Congrats! I was also able to get our OV, which was super painful last year. I had no trouble this time. It was a little slow to log in, but I was able to click through quickly. When do the email confirmations show up?

 

[Dawnwrey]

Congrats! I was also able to get our OV, which was super painful last year. I had no trouble this time. It was a little slow to log in, but I was able to click through quickly. When do the email confirmations show up?

I got ours within about 2 minutes.

 

[Denise L]

WKORV OV 2 bedroom was fast to book, and I checked availability again just for fun after about 10 minutes, and it still showed up, but I didn't have any SOs left to play with. What time did you try for WKORVN?

 

[Denise L]

I got ours within about 2 minutes.

That's fast! The online confirmation popped up in about a minute or less, so in theory my timestamp is golden, but the email didn't arrive until 9:30 PM Pacific. Well, it was a much better online experience than last year...took 45 minutes last year and I gave up and went for a walk around WKORV.

 

[PamMo]

I own oceanfronts, and was online at midnight. The only thing available was a 1BR (which I booked), and when I tried to book the next unit, there was nothing left. Hard to believe EVERY oceanfront unit was booked in three minutes! Actually, I'm super impressed if so many owners have figured out the system.

Last week, there were lots of studios available after midnight.

 

[Dawnwrey]

That's fast! The online confirmation popped up in about a minute or less, so in theory my timestamp is golden, but the email didn't arrive until 9:30 PM Pacific. Well, it was a much better online experience than last year...took 45 minutes last year and I gave up and went for a walk around WKORV.

Agree! Last year was horrible! This is the fastest I have ever gotten an email confirmation.

 

[Negma]

I booked 1 bedroom premium for WKORN for Feb 10 and the studio side for the Feb 17 2018 without problem. A totally different experience than last year.

 

[SMHarman]

You need to keep checking. Abandoned bookings hold reservations for 5 minutes then release like the countdown clock shows.

 

[The Haileys]

You are in line behind all the home resort reservations, so I would expect to get an Island View, and consider anything else an upgrade. Did you reserve the North or South? Did you log onto your account and submit a special request online?

I thought all of WPORV was considered "Island View" ... and yes, I realize that since we're trading our Maui ownership for Kauai, we're in line behind the owners there. I was going to try a request anyway, but was just wondering which buildings are considered to be better than others.

 

[DeniseM]

I'm sorry - I didn't understand which resort you booked.

 

[Mauiwmn]

My recent experience booking WKORV-OFC at exactly 12am EST (with continuing to check availability) one year prior for 2018. I wasn't able to get the weeks of 2/3 and 2/10 consecutively but I was able to book weeks of 2/17 and 2/24 which will work for us. Interesting that 2/17-President's week was available and 2/10 was not. It it certainly the luck of the draw and very competitive to get home resort reservations during prime season. Glad to see the units are in the system on time this year.

2/3-2 BED LO
2/10-Nothing*
2/17-1 BEDRM Prem
2/24-Studio

 

[NVPatriot1959]

My recent experience booking WKORV-OFC at exactly 12am EST (with continuing to check availability) one year prior for 2018. I wasn't able to get the weeks of 2/3 and 2/10 consecutively but I was able to book weeks of 2/17 and 2/24 which will work for us. Interesting that 2/17-President's week was available and 2/10 was not. It it certainly the luck of the draw and very competitive to get home resort reservations during prime season. Glad to see the units are in the system on time this year.

2/3-2 BED LO
2/10-Nothing*
2/17-1 BEDRM Prem
2/24-Studio

We are using the reservations the Resolution Specialist helped us book during last year's February debacle. Last week the 1 bedroom South OFD and this week the Studio. Of course we are fortunate that she was able to book them at all, however unfortunately because of the time stamp we were relegated to bldg 2 North facing on the second and third floors. As OFDs go not the best.

I continue to feel one has to work way to hard to get the value one has paid for and even then it's a 50/50 proposition. Of course the proposed solution is to fix your weeks but to do so you have to buy more. I've offered to write them a check to fix our OFD but they won't do it unless I buy more weeks. Rather than delighted clients we seem to be dealing with a company philosophy that wants customers that have problems with the only apparent cure being to buy more.

 

[DavidnRobin]

They can't just fix your float villa.
Why the Resolution Specialist?

There are 24 OFD and 12 OFC for any given week (knowing that some event weeks were fixed back when sales were active >10 years ago) - regardless, if more that 1/52 of Owners want a given week - somebody is going to lose out. This is why many are denied high demand weeks.
#Math

 

[Markus]

Great experience booking last night at midnight. My reservations were made without issue.

Markus

 

[tborr123]

Tried to book my wkorv ofc tonight exactly at 9 pm pt. All taken. However, if I wanted to use my week 51 ofc there was lots available. Same thing last week. They wouldn't want me to give up my week 51 that they could then rent for a boatload, would they? Couldn't be.

 

[astorms]

I've been trying to book at Sheraton Broadway Plantation, Myrtle Beach for the last month now and have not been able to get a 2 bedroom, or 2bedroom lockoff. I have been logging in at midnight and I'm only seeing a 1 bedroom premium villa. When I talk to customer service, they saying that the small half of the lock off are being take up, therefore no 2 BR lock-off avail. Have anybody else had a hard time booking a reservation at a resort when they log in at midnight? I've done this three weeks consecutively. So I booked the 1 BR hoping to get the smaller one later.

I've never had this problem in the last 4 years. I was always able to call and get the 4th of July week with no problems.

 

[Markus]

Weeks 51 and 52 are already showing no availability at Lagunamar, yet booking window is not even open yet. I hope Vistana gets this fixed before we get to the booking window.