Q. I am trying to book a year out, and everything is already booked!! Why???
A. It’s always frustrating when you have a hard time getting what you want. To answer the question about why you are not getting what you want or seeing limited availability we have to consider a few factors.
Booking Window
If you’re booking more then ten months out, you are booking in the Advance Reservation Priority (ARP) window. The ARP window is 13 months to 10 months and one day. Deeded owners can only book deeded inventory at their home resort. CWA owners can only book CWA inventory at 68+ resorts. You have to make sure you’re eligible to book that far out, at that particular resort. If you try to search availability and see the message “This location is not eligible for the selected date range,” then it’s because you are booking outside the booking window. You will have to try another date. Try choosing a date, within the Standard booking window which 10 months from check-in. If you get the message, “There were no search results found for the entered criteria.”, then you are eligible, there’s just no availability.
If you are booking 13 months out at a resort you are eligible to book that far out in advance, and everything is gone, try again at ten months. At ten months, deeded and CWA can reserve the same inventory. So, if you own CWA and are trying to book a resort that is mostly deeded inventory, you will have more luck booking at ten months. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to find out what percentage of each there is. You’ll have to try again at ten months to see if something shows up that wasn’t there at 13 months.
Resorts with a limited number of accommodations
Associate and affiliate locations and some Club Wyndham resorts have limited availability. If you log in to the website and click the “Resorts” link, look up the resort you are trying to book. On the resort page, if you see the words “Limited Number of Accommodations” In the Resort Information section, then that means there are fewer than 50 units available. Less than 50 could mean 10. To top it off, some of those affiliate and associate locations will not let you book ten months out. I ran across one that wouldn’t allow you to book more than six months out. It didn’t say it on the resort page. I just saw that availability went to zero after six months. Thankfully, there are not many locations like that. For resorts that have limited accommodations, be ready to book as far out as you are allowed. Most of the time, it’s only ten months unless you own at that resort. Check the availability calendar to see if it’s showing availability further out then six months. If you don’t see availability past six months, the resort may not allow you to book until six months out. If that’s the case, you’ll have to wait for the six-month mark.
Last minute
If you’re one of those people who can only plan last minute, you’ll have to be flexible. Timeshares are not like hotels. There are a set number of them, and the only inventory you can book is inventory owned by another owner. Club Wyndham Plus is an exchange program. If you own Bonnet creek and book Grand Desert, you are trading your bonnet creek inventory for Grand Desert. That means someone else can book your bonnet creek inventory. If there is inventory not owned by an owner, it is not made available. Wyndham holds back rooms, but they don’t hold back owner owned units. The units they hold back are inventory they own and pay the maintenance fees. They, like you, can (and do) rent out that inventory. The further out you can plan, the better your results will be. If you can travel during off seasons, you’ll have more choices. If you cannot plan far out, keep checking for inventory every day. People cancel all the time. If you catch it outside the 60 days window, you’ll have a better shot at the bigger rooms. After the 60-day window, the bigger rooms go to VIP’s who requested an upgrade.
Available points
If you are trying to book in the ARP window, and you are getting a message that you do not have enough points, you want to make sure you are not booking a reservation that cost more than the number of points you own at THAT resort. Or in the case if a CWA owner, a CWA resort. You cannot combine points from multiple contracts in the ARP window unless they are the same contract. So, you can combine two Bonnet creek contracts for a Bonnet creek reservation. You cannot mix a CWA contract and a Bonnet creek contract until ten months from check-in.
Also, I often see people who say they can never get what they want, only to later find out they are trying to find a four-bedroom presidential for a week, for 84,000 points. If the sales guy told you that you could book a four-bedroom presidential for a week, with 84,000 points, he lied. However, he may not have specified a week. More likely said you could book a four-bedroom presidential for 84,000 points, but didn’t say for how long. If so, he is technically right. You can book a four-bedroom presidential for 84,000 points. You may only be able to have it for a night or two, depending on the time of year, but you can book it. If you are having trouble finding what you want in your point range, consider buying more points resale. Resale does not count towards VIP, and cannot be used for Club Pass (WorldMark) locations, but they can be used at all Club Wyndham resorts. To get VIP status or more points for Club Pass, you have to buy points directly from Wyndham. If you want more points to stay at a Wyndham location, or an RCI location, resale will work just fine.
Room type
Make sure, whatever size room you are trying to book is available at the resort you are trying to book. Just because they have 1, 2, and four bedrooms, doesn’t mean they have three bedrooms. Look at the resort information on the website, or the points chart, to see what is available. Since Wyndham doesn’t force you to choose a room type when you check availability, you might not see that the room type you want, is grayed out. If it’s grayed out, that means it’s not a room type that the resort offers. If you look at availability and forget to choose the room type, you’ll see 1,2 and four bedrooms, and assume the three bedrooms are booked up, when in actuality, they were never an option.
A note about availability on hotel booking sites and Extra holidays
Many owners think that just because they see a room available on Orbitz, that its inventory being taken from them. It’s not. That is the inventory that is owned by Wyndham. The inventory owned by owners is made available to owners. Extra holidays are rentals from both Wyndham inventory, and inventory owners are renting out. Many resorts have a hotel side too. National Harbor, Bonnet Creek, Clearwater, etc., all have hotel sides that are cash only. You can book them through hotel booking sites. So just because you see availability on Expedia, doesn’t mean its owner inventory being withheld from you. Extra holidays, RedWeek, eBay, VBRO, etc., all have rentals from owners who booked owner owned inventory and are trying to rent it out.
