Renting Points: Good, Bad & Ugly?

[coopersmom]

We are planning a fall vacation and are considering using one of the services, I know David's is mentioned frequently here, to rent points in order to stay in a one or two-bedroom villa.

Can someone who has done this fill me in on the positive and negative aspects of the experience?

I know you don't get daily housekeeping--but you can pay for it, correct?--and we are hoping to stay at Bay Lake Tower, so I also know that you can't use the Top of the World lounge because we are not DVC ourselves (correct?).

I also know cancellation is an issue, changing dates once booked is hard (if not impossible), and that we should look at trip insurance.

Anything else to be watchful/wary of in points rental vs. regular Disney hotel stays? I'm pretty specifically looking for "gotcha" things I may not have considered, not really advice/info on the specific hotel/DVC locale, since I've kind of looked into all of those already and feel more confident about that.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help out!

 

[sechelt]

A DVC rental is final and no refunds issued whereas a regular hotel reservation can be cancelled and you get your money back. DVC rentals are generally less expensive than regular hotel rentals.

 

[WiggleWorm]

We used David's and are DVC members as well. David's was great. As was mentioned, canceling is an issue, but I can't think of any other downside. (And actually, while something could come up, it's unlikely, for us anyway, that we would cancel.) The non-daily housekeeping is really not a problem for us. The upgraded room for the lower price really can't be beat. Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[drusba]

David's has received many favorable comments on this site. I have not done a rental from him or rented my points through him but have sent non-members to him and they were satisfied. Understand David's is a rental broker. The person who actually makes the reservation for you is the owner who is renting points through David's. Thus, though he seems to have a very high success rate, there is always some risk he cannot make a reservation because of the lack of any owner at the time willing to rent. Moreover, owners at a resort can reserve 11 months out while all DVC owners can then reserve any other resort at 7 months out. Rooms can fill and thus if you are going to make a reservation it is ideal that you start looking a little before 11 months out virtually necessary that it be done no more than 7 months out. An example of the issue you face is your mention of fall as the vacation time and BLT as the resort.DVC high demand times differ from Disney in general times and late Sep through the Monday after Marathon weekend in January is DVC's highest demand quarter. Thus if you want BLT, you should consider making the reservation earlier rather than later.

An owner faces certain rules for reservations. One is that a cancellation 30 or fewer days out is virtual death to the points used and can leave the owner losing the points and their value. Also points must be used during an owners use year unless banked into the next year for use in that year. Banking must be done by the end of the eighth month of the use year. The effect on renting is that even a cancellation that is months out from the trip can result in the owner's being unable to bank them or use them within the use year. Because of those and other reasons, David's and the owners impose certain non-cancellation rules upon rentals.


You do not get daily housekeeping except on the fourth day you get a change of towels and small items such as soap and they empty the trash. If you reserve 8 nights or more, you actually get a full cleaning on the fourth day and then the trash towel service on the eighth day. You can purchase additonal full cleaning days, any one or more days, while you are there by just calling housekeeping, but it is expensive ($30/45/60 for studio/1BR/2BR).

DVC is a room reservation only. You have to buy tickets separately. You can order the Disney Dining Plan but that must be done through the owner and done two or more days before arrival.

As a non-DVC member you are not supposed to be able to use TOWL. Whether that is always enforced is not clear and you might attempt to get access by showing room key.

As a room guest of an owner you are subject to the same rules as the owner including that you cannot do things to the room to change or damage anything and can be liable, potentially to the owner or Disney, if you do so. If when you get there you find something not working or a light bulb out you should call housekeeping promptly so it can be rectified (they usually come quickly).

 

[BLeeS]

Has this been an issue you've come across?

I don't know where to post this question so I'll start here... If I should go elsewhere please point me in the right direction if you can... My family rented a weeks long stay at AKV through David's, And now I am concerned that I will not be able to purchase travel insurance to cover that portion of our trip. I keep getting conflicting information from the travel insurance companies where sometimes the service rep will say no we will not cover your stay because it is a time share you are renting and only a penalty fee for the redeposited points would be covered... And a few times with the exact same company but with different customer service representatives have said yes your stay is absolutely covered ... with David's rentals there are no refunds whatsoever regardless of the reason for a cancellation... So my question is does anyone have any experience where you can purchase travel insurance for rented points from a broker in a time share environment as the renter where a claim was filed for cancellation due to illness or weather for example and it was covered? If so, which company was used? Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Has this been an issue you've come across?

I don't know where to post this question so I'll start here... If I should go elsewhere please point me in the right direction if you can... My family rented a weeks long stay at AKV through David's, And now I am concerned that I will not be able to purchase travel insurance to cover that portion of our trip. I keep getting conflicting information from the travel insurance companies where sometimes the service rep will say no we will not cover your stay because it is a time share you are renting and only a penalty fee for the redeposited points would be covered... And a few times with the exact same company but with different customer service representatives have said yes your stay is absolutely covered ... with David's rentals there are no refunds whatsoever regardless of the reason for a cancellation... So my question is does anyone have any experience where you can purchase travel insurance for rented points from a broker in a time share environment as the renter where a claim was filed for cancellation due to illness or weather for example and it was covered? If so, which company was used? Thank you in advance for your help!

Well, since you are renting a timeshare from an individual and not a travel agency, I doubt you will find anything different than you have already found. Those of us who are DVC members are able to get trip insurance for out own usage of our timeshare, but it is not transferable to non-owners.

 

[BLeeS]

Well, since you are renting a timeshare from an individual and not a travel agency, I doubt you will find anything different than you have already found. Those of us who are DVC members are able to get trip insurance for out own usage of our timeshare, but it is not transferable to non-owners.

Thanks for your response...but maybe you can help me further...while David is an individual, he is a broker and not a DVC owner himself...I rent through his company and other DVC'ers offer their points to him to rent on their behalf? Am I missing your point? I'm sorry if I am...the insurance companies don't appear to be clear either...I would think that this issue has come up before for folks? Maybe they just don't buy travel insurance? We are going to WDW for 6 days, followed by a 7 day Disney cruise, paired with air travel...all during hurricane season. I thought it would make sense to insure the entire trip?