Room Discounts

[Kimi313]

I understand that the discounts they released lately are unheard of and I am NOT counting on them. But did anyone who already have a room get to apply the discount to an existing reservation? We are planning on going in May, first time to Hawaii, kinda a once in a lifetime trip, so I would like to have everything booked early make sure I get the room when I want the room. Thanks for any information!

 

[goofymom74]

I did. We had booked about 2 months before they announced the sale. I always plan our vacations way in advance. I just called and they applied the new price & deal to our reservation. Easy peasy! Happy planning!

 

[BayGirl22]

I did. We had booked about 2 months before they announced the sale. I always plan our vacations way in advance. I just called and they applied the new price & deal to our reservation. Easy peasy! Happy planning!

Same here. Should not be a problem.

 

[alohamom]

I actually think a lot of people do it this way because, as @goofymom74 said above, this method makes sure you get the room choice you want and with the very liberal cancellation policy you kind of can't loose.

 

[scottmel]

I understand that the discounts they released lately are unheard of and I am NOT counting on them. But did anyone who already have a room get to apply the discount to an existing reservation? We are planning on going in May, first time to Hawaii, kinda a once in a lifetime trip, so I would like to have everything booked early make sure I get the room when I want the room. Thanks for any information!

We are hoping to go in July. Have you looked into Costco packages? they are not out for 2018 but I want to compare that against DVC point rental...

 

[Kimi313]

We are hoping to go in July. Have you looked into Costco packages? they are not out for 2018 but I want to compare that against DVC point rental...

We don't have a Costco near by but if the discount is worth it I could definitely get a membership! Tell me more about these packages please!

 

[scottmel]

We don't have a Costco near by but if the discount is worth it I could definitely get a membership! Tell me more about these packages please!

Go to costco website select travel tab and Hawaii and price out the hotels. You don't need a membership to price out. We saved a lot of money booking adventures by Disney this way.

 

[Elima2015]

If looking at the room rate alone, I am confident you will have a better deal renting DVC points than booking direclty with Aulani or via Costco. Plus, if you stay on points, parking is free otherwise it is $37/day.

If you include airfare, then it is worth evaluating the package price via Costco Travel (as the pp said, you don't have to be a member to price out a vacation). We are going to Mexico this winter instead of Hawaii and we saved over $150 per person by including airfare in the package vs. pricing out the airfare directly on the airline's website. The resort price was a small savings. Combined with the Costco cash card, we are saving about $1k booking with Costco Travel rather than separately on our own. Last fall, the Aulani Costco packages reflected the same promo Aulani was offering (I think it was like up to 30% off stays of 5 nights or more) and then the Costco package added on a daily meal at Ulu cafe. It was a better deal to book the hotel and rental car package through Costco Travel than through Aulani. All that said, if we had been able to rent points, it would have been a greater savings (all DVC rooms were gone for the week we needed to go).

 

[scottmel]

If looking at the room rate alone, I am confident you will have a better deal renting DVC points than booking direclty with Aulani or via Costco. Plus, if you stay on points, parking is free otherwise it is $37/day.

If you include airfare, then it is worth evaluating the package price via Costco Travel (as the pp said, you don't have to be a member to price out a vacation). We are going to Mexico this winter instead of Hawaii and we saved over $150 per person by including airfare in the package vs. pricing out the airfare directly on the airline's website. The resort price was a small savings. Combined with the Costco cash card, we are saving about $1k booking with Costco Travel rather than separately on our own. Last fall, the Aulani Costco packages reflected the same promo Aulani was offering (I think it was like up to 30% off stays of 5 nights or more) and then the Costco package added on a daily meal at Ulu cafe. It was a better deal to book the hotel and rental car package through Costco Travel than through Aulani. All that said, if we had been able to rent points, it would have been a greater savings (all DVC rooms were gone for the week we needed to go).

I feel in a tough spot b/c I am torn between renting points NOW and paying a higher cost vs. waiting for a 7 month window and renting from a friend for a lower rate. I am afraid if I don't grab them now at 11 months out it will be hard to get at 7 months out. Thoughts? THEN if renting I am locked into it vs. the flex of a Costco package were if rate dips you can rebook etc. I definitely need airfare yet if I try to price out on Costco they won't show airfare that far out (july). Advice?

 

[blondietink]

I have never had an issue reserving Aulani 7 months out.

 

[scottmel]

I have never had an issue reserving Aulani 7 months out.

Thanks! That makes me feel better. Do you recommend one view over the other?

 

[BayGirl22]

We are going in Nov and booked direct for a 1BDR villa. Once the discount was applied (30%) our rate is about the same as what the DVC rate would have been. It's hard to guarantee that the discount will be there, but it does tend to cancel out the premium for booking direct.

 

[scottmel]

, but it does tend to cancel out the premium for booking direct.

can you tell me what you mean by that? Do you know when the discounts of the 30 percent are released typically for summer season? When I price a studio ASSUMING 30 percent off I still come out a fair bit more expensive than David rental....trying to figure out why NOT to rent I guess!

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I feel in a tough spot b/c I am torn between renting points NOW and paying a higher cost vs. waiting for a 7 month window and renting from a friend for a lower rate. I am afraid if I don't grab them now at 11 months out it will be hard to get at 7 months out. Thoughts? THEN if renting I am locked into it vs. the flex of a Costco package were if rate dips you can rebook etc. I definitely need airfare yet if I try to price out on Costco they won't show airfare that far out (july). Advice?

We just booked renting points right about 11 months out. We were a few days late due to trying to find points and whatnot. By the time we booked we had dates unavailable during our vacation dates in studio standard and garden. If we had waited until 7 months we would probably be moving rooms more than once, or just booking our entire stay in a more expensive room than we would have liked if we didn't want to move.

We wanted to book a garden studio for out whole stay and chose to book a pool view for our whole stay rather than move around. We are going during peak time though.

 

[scottmel]

We just booked renting points right about 11 months out. We were a few days late due to trying to find points and whatnot. By the time we booked we had dates unavailable during our vacation dates in studio standard and garden. If we had waited until 7 months we would probably be moving rooms more than once, or just booking our entire stay in a more expensive room than we would have liked if we didn't want to move.

We wanted to book a garden studio for out whole stay and chose to book a pool view for our whole stay rather than move around. We are going during peak time though.

Thank you. We are peak time to as well, July. Did you rent from David or are there other places? Did you consider booking direct, no points rental, and hope for a deal like the current one 30 percent off, etc.?

 

[scottmel]

I have never had an issue reserving Aulani 7 months out.

Do you go in summer months or more off season?

 

[Elima2015]

As for availability at 7 months...that really depends. We are not DVC members and attempted to rent points for a peak week (President's Day week in February), requested in the morning right at 7 months from two different rental agencies. There were no rooms of any size with any view available for the days we needed. Our plans were not flexible as we already had air booked due to a group event. If we had been able to move our dates around by +4 days there was some limited availability. As long as you don't book a Costco package with airfare, you can always make a cash reservation and then change/cancel up to right before you leave with no penalty via Costco or direct with Aulani.

 

[BayGirl22]

can you tell me what you mean by that? Do you know when the discounts of the 30 percent are released typically for summer season? When I price a studio ASSUMING 30 percent off I still come out a fair bit more expensive than David rental....trying to figure out why NOT to rent I guess!

The "best option" depends on timing and your tolerance for risk. For us, we booked about 6 months out for the week after Thanksgiving. Most of our 5 nights are off peak. I didn't bother trying to rent points because it was unlikely much was available. Around late July was when they announced the fall offers so I called and adjusted my rate down, it saved a little more than $800. I just checked David's rental cost again for our dates and it is $300 more than what we're paying for a 1BDR villa.

Booking direct we have the ability to book later and cancel up to a few days before. Booking with points needs to be done earlier and is harder to cancel. When I first booked we weren't sure of our plans so having the ability to cancel for just a few hundred dollars more was also a benefit.

 

[scottmel]

Thanks for the thoughts sorry to hijack the thread! My dd19 will be with us and part of me ponders if aulani is worth the extra hassle as I don't want it to kid oriebtsted. I've examined every hotel on the beach but if someone has first hand dealings with another hotel beachfront there please lmk! Thx

 

[heaven2dc]

can you tell me what you mean by that? Do you know when the discounts of the 30 percent are released typically for summer season? When I price a studio ASSUMING 30 percent off I still come out a fair bit more expensive than David rental....trying to figure out why NOT to rent I guess!

Generally during the summer months there are no discounts because it's peak season (usually from the middle of June until the third week in August). The 30% discounts vary at times throughout the year and cannot be guaranteed to happen each year. The current Fall 2017 discount is "up to 30%" meaning if you book a studio as in your case, the discount would be varying from 25-30% depending on view on 5 nights or more for poolside and ocean view for deluxe studios. Sometimes when you call in to book your reservation instead of booking online, there are additional perks.