What can REALLY go wrong when renting DVC points?

Brian Noble · Feb 9, 2016

As others have mentioned, the biggest risk is that your plans change. However, if you have a contract that clearly specifies what is and is not refundable, trip insurance can cover most reasons outside of your control.

DougEMG · Feb 9, 2016

In my opinion, the biggest risk to renting points is if you can't make your trip and need to cancel the reservation. So make sure you understand what the change and cancellation rules are from the person you are renting from.

BWV Dreamin · Feb 9, 2016

Going thru a broker you can purchase travel insurance. Well worth the money in this type of situation.

debg · Feb 9, 2016

KAT4DISNEY said:
That's very new. Can't remember exactly when I looked but definitely within the past month and I think it might have been just a week or so ago.

I rented my points last August and it was 70/30 then.
debg

Deb & Bill · Feb 9, 2016

If DVC forecloses for lack of payment of member fees, the reservation will be cancelled. And if you are booking for Oct/Nov, you won't be able to find another reservation. David may have changed how he communicates with member renting out their points to make sure they are not threatening foreclosure.

DebbieB · Feb 9, 2016

There was a case about 6 months ago with David's where the reservation was cancelled, I can't remember the reason. I believe DVC cancelled it for some reason. David's offered a refund as per the contract but it was last minute and the renter wanted them to book another room. David's would only refund the money, I believe another agent stepped in and found another room.

Edit - here is the info:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/da...rvation-cancelled-something-is-fishy.3420084/

COscrapper · Feb 9, 2016

DebbieB said:
There was a case about 6 months ago with David's where the reservation was cancelled, I can't remember the reason. I believe DVC cancelled it for some reason. David's offered a refund as per the contract but it was last minute and the renter wanted them to book another room. David's would only refund the money, I believe another agent stepped in and found another room.

Edit - here is the info:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/da...rvation-cancelled-something-is-fishy.3420084/

Thanks for the info - I read the entire thread!

So, just for the sake of argument, let's say we do this and the worst happens. Our reservation isn't valid and we need to find a place to stay at the last minute - how likely is it we could find something on Disney property at the last minute? We would do value/moderate if we could? And would we lose all our ADRs and FP reservations?

The only reason we would cancel on our end would be a true catastrophe - someone dies or gets seriously ill...I am currently looking at trip insurance plans for those (unlikely) scenarios.

_auroraborealis_ · Feb 9, 2016

COscrapper said:
Thanks for the info - I read the entire thread!

So, just for the sake of argument, let's say we do this and the worst happens. Our reservation isn't valid and we need to find a place to stay at the last minute - how likely is it we could find something on Disney property at the last minute? We would do value/moderate if we could? And would we lose all our ADRs and FP reservations?

The only reason we would cancel on our end would be a true catastrophe - someone dies or gets seriously ill...I am currently looking at trip insurance plans for those (unlikely) scenarios.

You would not lose ADRs. Anyone can book an ADR, even without a resort stay. Since on a DVC rental, tickets would be purchased and linked separately, your FP+ should be secure, unless your cancel occurred after 60 days but before 30.

Sammie · Feb 9, 2016

COscrapper said:
Thanks for the info - I read the entire thread!

So, just for the sake of argument, let's say we do this and the worst happens. Our reservation isn't valid and we need to find a place to stay at the last minute - how likely is it we could find something on Disney property at the last minute? We would do value/moderate if we could? And would we lose all our ADRs and FP reservations?

The only reason we would cancel on our end would be a true catastrophe - someone dies or gets seriously ill...I am currently looking at trip insurance plans for those (unlikely) scenarios.

October is a very popular month Disney. There is absolutely no way to know if you could get something on site for a last minute booking.

freediverdude · Feb 10, 2016

In the really super unlikely event that a reservation did get cancelled on you at the last minute, there is almost always something available on property at full price with no discounts (I don't think Disney is ever completely 100% booked at every resort at the same time), but that would be up to you to decide. And of course plenty of options just offsite for cheaper. But again this would be super duper unlikely, only heard of it happening a few times in all the years I've been following this (about 15 years). And those times the people were able to get relocated to other Disney resorts (although not the one they preferred).

Much more likely would be you needing to change the dates or realizing you want another resort, and those type of changes are a lot more difficult with a DVC rental than with a regular hotel room directly through Disney.

COscrapper · Feb 10, 2016

_auroraborealis_ said:
You would not lose ADRs. Anyone can book an ADR, even without a resort stay. Since on a DVC rental, tickets would be purchased and linked separately, your FP+ should be secure, unless your cancel occurred after 60 days but before 30.

So does this mean there IS a situation where we could lose our FP+ reservations? If the DVC room is cancelled after 60 days but before 30? Just trying to understand...

If we knew ahead of time what discounts Disney will offer over our trip dates (looking at 10/29-11/5), our options would be more clear - but unfortunately that is not the case. Our original plan was to stay at POR (comes up as $1638 on the Disney website right now with no discounts), hoping we would get enough of a discount to knock off $500 at that time. We never even LOOKED at deluxe resorts because they are out of our price range...then I found out about renting DVC points, looked into it, and learned that we could get a studio at AKL for $1232 ($966 if we'd be willing to downgrade to a value room!) We would have to get the best discount at POR (25%) to match that price for AKL. You've got to admit, that is hard to pass up. We will probably never do another family trip to WDW, and on the small chance that we do, our boys will be older and we will probably stay off-site/do Universal, etc. (This trip is about DOING. DISNEY. ha ha)I love the look of POR and am perfectly happy to stay there, but our boys would choose AKL, hands-down. Having a child care center at AKL is a huge plus, even if it's just so DH and I can have a drink in the lounge one evening...the dining seems to really fit our tastes also. All that said, obviously I don't want to do something stupid that could ruin our entire trip.

So I'm just trying to look at every possibility...not an easy choice. DH is already saying he's fine with the risk; if something happened at the last minute and we were forced to stay off-site, that would be fine with him! Not sure about the kids though.

Really appreciate everyone's feedback.

_auroraborealis_ · Feb 10, 2016

COscrapper said:
then I found out about renting DVC points, looked into it, and learned that we could get a studio at AKL for $1232 ($966 if we'd be willing to downgrade to a value room!

The Value Rooms are already gone for your dates.

COscrapper · Feb 10, 2016

_auroraborealis_ said:
The Value Rooms are already gone for your dates.

That's fine, our first choice was standard view anyway...and honestly, if everything is booked now that is A-OK. We will be just fine staying at POR...staying at a deluxe is so tempting we have to at least consider it though!

auroraborealis - sorry if this is a dumb question, but can you elaborate on the loss of our FP+ if our reservation was cancelled during the 30-60 day mark?

DisDadDVC · Feb 10, 2016

KAT4DISNEY said:
That's very new. Can't remember exactly when I looked but definitely within the past month and I think it might have been just a week or so ago.

This is over a year old. I rented out points via David around this time last year and got 70% up front.

_auroraborealis_ · Feb 10, 2016

COscrapper said:
That's fine, our first choice was standard view anyway...and honestly, if everything is booked now that is A-OK. We will be just fine staying at POR...staying at a deluxe is so tempting we have to at least consider it though!

auroraborealis - sorry if this is a dumb question, but can you elaborate on the loss of our FP+ if our reservation was cancelled during the 30-60 day mark?

Fairly sure that if you lose your on-site reservation during the on-site priority period, your FP+ will be cancelled. Otherwise, people could book packages, book FP+ at 60 days, then cancel before 45 days and still get the benefit of the on-site booking. Disney has no reason to let that happen.

COscrapper · Feb 10, 2016

_auroraborealis_ said:
Fairly sure that if you lose your on-site reservation during the on-site priority period, your FP+ will be cancelled. Otherwise, people could book packages, book FP+ at 60 days, then cancel before 45 days and still get the benefit of the on-site booking. Disney has no reason to let that happen.

Ah, OK! That makes sense, thank you.

KAT4DISNEY · Feb 10, 2016

_auroraborealis_ said:
Fairly sure that if you lose your on-site reservation during the on-site priority period, your FP+ will be cancelled. Otherwise, people could book packages, book FP+ at 60 days, then cancel before 45 days and still get the benefit of the on-site booking. Disney has no reason to let that happen.

I'm not so sure about that - in fact I'd lean more towards that you wouldn't lose them. I've shortened by a day and had the FP's remain. I think the verification only happens when you reserve but it's too much for Disney to continually check that every still remains qualified for the FP's.

One other thing - now that reservations can be linked in MDE you're not likely to get an unexpected surprised at check in of a room being cancelled. You'd know by looking if you still have a reservation or not unlike years ago where you couldn't verify at all.

DizBub · Feb 10, 2016

crisi said:
DVC reservations are not easy to move or cancel if you are the owner. Which is one of the reasons brokers don't even bother with the option.

This point exactly.

I have never rented my own points out but have rented points from other members several times to add an extra trip. As an owners we fully understand the unique structure that is DVC, the benefits and limitations. Most people don't understand how restrictive DVC's cancellation policy is for their members. Try to explain holding points, banking deadlines and Use Year for example.

Renting points takes trust on both sides.

freediverdude · Feb 10, 2016

I agree that I don't think the fastpasses can ever disappear once they are booked. They will only let you book them at 60 days if you have a reservation, but after that they are not linked to the hotel stay. Otherwise there would be mucho problems with people changing resorts etc. and losing them, would be a nightmare for Disney, lol.

Just a suggestion, if you can afford it, and if this is a once in a lifetime trip, go ahead and get the Savannah view room at AKV so the animals will be viewable from your room. It will be very special and worth the upgrade from moderate to deluxe.

_auroraborealis_ · Feb 10, 2016

freediverdude said:
I agree that I don't think the fastpasses can ever disappear once they are booked. They will only let you book them at 60 days if you have a reservation, but after that they are not linked to the hotel stay. Otherwise there would be mucho problems with people changing resorts etc. and losing them, would be a nightmare for Disney, lol.

I can think of a few ways that it could be validated as a cron job (automated process). Basically a check on if there is a live reservation Y/N; if N fails over X days, POW KABOOM. Fairly easy database confirm, although given the known brilliance of Disney IT systems, who knows.

Reports (via Google) vary about what happens if a room cancels before 30 days out, so hard to say. Most people who talk system gaming talk about not canceling their throwaway until 29 days out.

What can REALLY go wrong when renting DVC points?

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