Renting points

[BridgetR3]

Not sure if this is a controversial topic so if it is please just close it before I get flamed but......

I'm looking at booking a Disney trip for Thanksgiving week. I looked into two options.

Option #1 - AOA Little Mermaid room $1346
Options #2 - Renting DVC points for BWV studio $1364

I'm just curious as to why more people don't rent points instead of booking direct. What are your reasons?

 

[DebbieB]

Not sure if this is a controversial topic so if it is please just close it before I get flamed but......

I'm looking at booking a Disney trip for Thanksgiving week. I looked into two options.

Option #1 - AOA Little Mermaid room $1346
Options #2 - Renting DVC points for BWV studio $1364

I'm just curious as to why more people don't rent points instead of booking direct. What are your reasons?

One thing to consider is that a BWV studio will have 1 queen bed and 1 double sleep sofa. Little Mermaid will have 2 doubles. The studio will have kitchenette, including a microwave, small fridge, toaster, coffee maker, sink. BWV is a great location, walking distance to both Epcot & DHS.

Renting points is usually a final transaction, no cancellations. You will not be in control of the reservation, everything has to go through the member. That scares some people from renting.

 

[unionville]

We rented points for our Thanksgiving 2012 vacation. We rented through Davids and stayed at Saratoga Springs. This was our first experience renting points although we have stayed at the Disney Vacation Resorts multiple times with my sister. We prefer the Vacation resorts and will definitely plan to rent again in the future. It was so easy and we saved lots of money. One thing to remember is that when you rent you are treated as a member. That means your room gets trash and towel service on the 4th day but will not receive a daily full cleaning. For us, this works but I can see this would be a problem for some.

 

[Kingdome8]

I just rented. Going soon. I feel pretty comfortable about it. the girl I worked with was great. Don't think I could do it though without a broker.
But the deal is great. I'd probaly stay in a value place if it wasn't for renting points. But I do want to buy dvc in next year or so

 

[AliceIn]

One thing to remember is that when you rent you are treated as a member. That means your room gets trash and towel service on the 4th day but will not receive a daily full cleaning. For us, this works but I can see this would be a problem for some.

I keep looking at the DVC rentals, but I do like to come back to a nice, tidy room every day. We're a family of 5, so we go through a lot of towels and the room can get pretty messy. I don't want to cook or clean AT ALL on vacation, so the villas don't seem as appealing on the rental basis. I would probably do cash for it if there was a really good discount.

 

[nkereina]

I don't love relying on the member to do everything for us. We also like to do DDP and we don't like paying that to the member up front to book it for us. We also don't like that there isn't daily maid service.

 

[eliza61]

It's really about comfort level and what you want. renting is actual how we got our first exposure to the dvc.

for us it was all about space and location. my sons and husband are all tall and big so we loved the space.

Now i don't cook on a vacation but we love, love having the full sized refrigerator (we usually go with a 1 bedroom). no more running to fill mugs and we had bottles of water, milk and soda at our finger tips.

We don't do the ddp so that's not an issue for me.

Lastly, for us there is nothing like being able to walk to epcot.

 

[fla4fun]

I keep looking at the DVC rentals, but I do like to come back to a nice, tidy room every day. We're a family of 5, so we go through a lot of towels and the room can get pretty messy. I don't want to cook or clean AT ALL on vacation, so the villas don't seem as appealing on the rental basis. I would probably do cash for it if there was a really good discount.

You do have the option of paying for extra housekeeping, if that is important to you. It might still be cheaper to rent points and pay for extra housekeeping than to go with a cash reservation. Just a thought to throw in the mix. . . .

 

[patty57]

I have rented a couple of times, and would do it again. What prevents me from renting all the time is the no cancellation policy. Sometimes I know before I reserve, that there is a possibility I might have to cancel. You can't rent DVC points in that instance. I've also started staying at the Swan/Dolphin which is usually a comparable savings to renting DVC points, with the added bonus of being in control of my reservation and being able to cancel. If I utilized the dining plan, I'm sure I wouldn't stay at the Swan/Dolphin, but I don't.

 

[mymickeyfans]

I believe you can buy into the Dining Plan when using Davids.

 

[patty57]

I believe you can buy into the Dining Plan when using Davids.

You can buy the dining plan when renting points from David or anyone else. You can't get it at the Swan/Dolphin, which is what I was referring to.