Originally Posted by
gregorygrady
Can you please give an example of a Telluride property that is not available (and for which dates)? I am really curious because I haven't run into this issue, including a nice Park City Vacasa option. However, I do have a hunch that not all agents know how to make these bookings properly. Because once I called to make a reservation for a Vacasa that was under $500 all-in. The agent punched some keys and said "Sorry, that property is not available". On a hunch, I called back about 3 seconds later. Got a different agent and requested to book the EXACT same property for the EXACT same dates. This agent booked it just fine, no problems at all. So it's either that some agents don't know how to do it, or agents are graded on a "time spent per call" scale, and this agent simply didn't want to waste the time booking it.
Honestly, it was all properties in Telluride or Mountain village between dec-apr. I don't think it's a CSR issue because before it was vacasa, these properties were listed under wyndhamvacationrentals.com When it was under that branding, there were some properties that weren't allowed to be booked via points even though they were only $100-$200/nt, and it definitely wasn't the $500 limit, because I rented some vail properties that were $1000+/nt (best redemptions I've ever made outside the few 1st class airline redemptions I've had). I noticed later they put some blackout dates(on the old system) on lion square lodge, and now almost all dates are $500+ so I'll never be able to stay right next to the gondola again lol. On the old website you could use the coupon code "wyndfre" or something similar to that to test whether it was bookable via points. You couldn't book online, it was just a way to test if it was bookable so when you called in you knew it was available for points. When it was wyndhamvacationrentals I was never able to get telluride properties to work so it doesn't surprise me it doesn't work now.
Unfortunately that doesn't work anymore and most CSR takes ages just to test 1 property + 1 date. They had an IT solution in the past, but maybe when they migrated system, it didn't transfer. It's unfortunate b/c I'd rather test on my own than be on the phone with a super slow CSR testing dates. I had one agent who was willing to search so many properties for me, and was so nice. I only made 1 booking, but searched maybe 20+ properties for 3 different dates (Park City, Avon, Vail). She was patient when I feed her all the property #s and dates and basically batched tested them and came back to me about 5-10min later after every batch. I wish I could get her every time. Most agents are much slower + and their headsets muffle their voice so they're hard to understand. They also said that they have to manually input some of the data into a spreadsheet, so maybe your previous agent just mistyped a date or something.