Weird November Availability

[AndreaDM]

So I just need 3 nights in November for the F&W half marathon weekend. Stayed at AS Sports last year and it fit the bill perfectly for our needs. So, there was virtually NO availability at all for 3 nights, Nov. 2-5, but a handful of resorts including the All Stars had availability for Nov. 2-8. Why?? So I booked that and will just call to cancel the nights I don't need. Anyway, just wanted to share because it seems a lot of folks are having trouble booking for this fall.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

They may not let you do that.

 

[AndreaDM]

Why? It says one night minimum stay. I'm truly curious because I've never encountered anything like this before. I didn't book with any discount, free-dining, etc., just rack rate.

 

[wilkeliza]

Why? It says one night minimum stay. I'm truly curious because I've never encountered anything like this before. I didn't book with any discount, free-dining, etc., just rack rate.

It is what Disney (and many hotels actually) are going to. The shorter your stay and the less availability. They want to encourage longer stays and so months out they will show nothing available for short stays (especially during race weekends) but somehow magically have longer stays. The reasoning behind it is they would rather offer that room last minute to APs or FL residents at a discount then to have a rack rate person come for 3 of the 5 days the rooms are available and have a room sitting there practically unbreakable since hardly anyone picks a M-W vacation in November.

 

[VeronicaZS]

It is not just the short stays, I have been seeing weird availability for a week long trip ever since they released the last discount.

 

[AndreaDM]

Hmmm, well I will update after I call.

 

[ChristineOH]

So I just need 3 nights in November for the F&W half marathon weekend. Stayed at AS Sports last year and it fit the bill perfectly for our needs. So, there was virtually NO availability at all for 3 nights, Nov. 2-5, but a handful of resorts including the All Stars had availability for Nov. 2-8. Why?? So I booked that and will just call to cancel the nights I don't need. Anyway, just wanted to share because it seems a lot of folks are having trouble booking for this fall.

The PP is right, they may not let you cancel just the nights. It's kind of like free dining. If it's not available to book on its own, you can't modify your current reservation to make it that way.

They will, however, let you cancel the whole reservation, so you may want to have a back up plan.

 

[ChristineOH]

I had trouble booking what I wanted just for this past June-- so I can only imagine how tough it is to try to book what you want during a marathon weekend. Good luck!

 

[JimmyBean42]

I'd keep the booking, then wait a month or so and call up personally and tell the CM you had some "work plans" change so you need to cut your trip short. If you still are within the refundable window and get a friendly CM, you should hopefully be ok.

 

[ILikeWaffles]

This happened to me a few years ago with a reservation for the Boardwalk. I'd made a reservation for 10 nights, but later decided to stay at POFQ for most of the stay so that it would be cheaper. I wanted to keep the room just for 3 nights, so that I'd be closer to Epcot for Food and Wine. When I called to do this, I was told that I'd lose my whole reservation at the Boardwalk because of length of stay requirements for a weekend with Food and Wine happening. The CM eventually was able to change my reservation without too much trouble, but I would suggest being very polite when you call to ask about it (because I don't think she would have done it for me if I had been rude).

 

[DisMommyTX]

Sometimes when Disney has only longer stays available, the shorter stays will magically be possible when booking through Orbitz. Especially helpful when you can combine with their 15% off coupon!

 

[jms25]

I agree it's being very weird. We are going 11/2-11/7 and POFQ is not available for those dates unless I want to book each night individually. I tried different combination of dates and double checked room type thinking that maybe just the room category was not available every night of our stay, but no there was availability. I just looked and sports has a standard room available each night of your stay if you are willing to book it night by night.

 

[wilkeliza]

Sometimes when Disney has only longer stays available, the shorter stays will magically be possible when booking through Orbitz. Especially helpful when you can combine with their 15% off coupon!

That's because Orbitz buys a block from Disney to sell on their website. So Disney no longer has those rooms on their books. It is up to Orbitz how they choose to sell the days in those blocks and if they can't fill all the rooms and days then they eat the unused stuff.

 

[Rory_Chapman]

Welcome to my world when it comes to trying to book in Mid-October

 

[Aurora0427]

You may have better luck taking off days if you go through guest services. Otherwise, good luck. We haven't been able to take off, add, or move days in several years.