With so many people starting to travel again, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to get a great villa, so I’ll remind everyone what you should be doing before every reservation — either at a Marriott hotel or MVC property. The process works the same for both.
Have you ever driven up to your resort, and deep down inside thought, “Man!! I’d LOVE to get that room”? MVC does a great job of making every room amazing, but there is usually one that has the best view, or is the most convenient to the elevator, or the closest to the pool. Let me tell you how you can greatly increase your chances of getting a villa or hotel room with the location you want.
Typically the resorts make room assignments about a week before your arrival. You should call about 7-10 days before you arrive at your resort to ensure they haven’t made your room assignment yet. They (usually the front desk) are very accommodating to note your request on your reservation. It should be somewhat general, like “top floor with the best view”, or “lower floor near the main pool”, or even “top floor away from any noise”. After I started doing this, I noticed a huge difference in the location of villas I got — case in point the photo above. This tip works wonderfully for hotel reservations, too.
I realize that you use more points for better locations for some reservations, and you won’t be able to be in an Ocean View villa if you reserved a Garden View villa. BUT even an Ocean view villa can be tweaked to have a better view with a simple phone call.