Accountant Question - Why use points for Fri / Sat Night?

[KelNottAt]

When I make a ressie, I look at the number of points needed for a week , not a day. I don't concern myself with weekend points, as I purchased the points to use them--and to not spend any more $ on hotels.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[kathleena]

I haven't read the whole thread so excuse me for repeating anything. My opinion is:

1. You aren't guaranteed the $10PP
2. You carry risk with renting
3. You carry risk of not getting the room at a good cash price
4. You carry some risk of having to move rooms or at least having some mix-up with it if the cash and points ressies are connected.

I had definately thought the same thing when we paid 75pts per night for a 2br at BCV in March. The cost of the room per night would have been $800 - so the 75pts was a better deal. Made me believe that the argument for renting points only hold for certain room types/certain times of the year.

For me, the hassle of renting would be far greater than the gulp of paying the points.

 

[marathonmommy]

My 2 cents.

For those who do not want to rent, I highly advise transferring to another DVC member. It is much less risky. I have done it from a DVC memebr and it went flawless.

Hope this helps.

For those who choose to do this, how does this generally work? Do you post your want/need in point values on this website, PM someone, and work out the details? Personal check? Just wondering . . . sounds like a great alternative.

 

[jade1]

We avoid weekends (usually-not always) to conserve points for future trips. Ex is next spring break we are at BCV during the week and Clearwater for the weekend. This is mainly because we like Clearwater anyway after a long winter. We are then using the weekend points we saved for VWL in August and US on the weekend-mostly because we like US and FOTL. Otherwise a full week at spring break would leave no points for August.

 

[CarolA]

I use them a lot.. Sorry, but moving doesn't cut it for me and I bought the points to use them.

(And I am an Accountant... from a real accounting point of view, not sure I could justify buying at all LOL!)

 

[spiceycat]

I generally only stay 5 days. if I am staying longer I get an offsite resort and stay 7 days there then 5 days at OKW - or that was the plan.

I hate to be gone that LONG from home.

Anyway I think that DVC thru WDW can rent the weekends easier than weekdays. Why let us have something they can rent pretty easily.

and yes we get some of the money but only some. the cost of during business with WDW is pretty high. So for the money they collect in rent I think 50% or 40% makes it to the general budget. 50% for having your people just rent the rooms is a pretty good profit that goes directly to WDW bottom line. WDW does not upkept DVC resorts - we do.

 

[Deep-Thots]

I haven't read the whole thread so excuse me for repeating anything. My opinion is:

1. You aren't guaranteed the $10PP
2. You carry risk with renting
3. You carry risk of not getting the room at a good cash price
4. You carry some risk of having to move rooms or at least having some mix-up with it if the cash and points ressies are connected.

Exactly.

Plus, we bought the points to use them for pre-paid deluxe accomodations, not to hoard them or make money/save money ( ) on them!!

While we haven't done it yet (so far they've been separate trips), I can see doing Portofino at Universal on a weekend for FOTL, too, as others have mentioned.

 

[LIFERBABE]

for 12 nights. Check in on Sunday and depart on Friday with 1 weekend in between on points.

Our last 12 night stay at BCV was 188 points or 15 1/2 points per night averaged. So staying the weekend added 2 1/2 points to each night.

It was worth it not to move, and most people don't factor in the cost of the move, which requires time, effort and tipping of bellman both on departure and return. There will also be food storage issues or food thrown away.

It's also a worry, to be in the parks and having to worry about your room ready and what if a squeaky wheel shows up and you get the undesirable unit.
Checkin is the most stressful aspect of owning DVC for me (and its like this at all places) not knowing what your gonna get so once I get something acceptable to me, I dont want to mess it up by rolling the dice again.

I've read cash ressies can be linked, but also you are not guaranteed your same unit. Is that correct?

 

[Pinmaniac]

I use them a lot.. Sorry, but moving doesn't cut it for me and I bought the points to use them.

(And I am an Accountant... from a real accounting point of view, not sure I could justify buying at all LOL!)

I'm with CarolA, I'm an accountant and stay mostly during the weekends. My calculations said that long term it was nearly break-even with staying in a moderate Disney resort on cash, but hopefully in a few years we will change from weekend stays to week long stays. That being said we will still use points on the weekends.

 

[DisFlan]

A good reason to stay Saturday night: my husband told me he wouldn't move. So we're staying Saturday night.


DisFlan

 

[FLYNZ4]

Under what circumstances can you be guaranteed that you do not have to change rooms for cash/point combinations? To me... moving (other than possibly the first night of arrival) is a major hassle that I would try to avoid.

/Jim

 

[Deep-Thots]

Checkin is the most stressful aspect of owning DVC for me (and its like this at all places) not knowing what your gonna get so once I get something acceptable to me, I dont want to mess it up by rolling the dice again.

ITA!!!!

 

[CarolMN]

Under what circumstances can you be guaranteed that you do not have to change rooms for cash/point combinations? To me... moving (other than possibly the first night of arrival) is a major hassle that I would try to avoid.

/Jim

The only way that I know of to guarantee that you will stay in the same room is to book the entire stay (cash & points) with Member Services.

Any time you book the cash portion through CRO or WDWTC, there is a risk that you will have to move. At a minimum, you will have to check out and back in again between the points stay and the CRO-booked cash stay. Most (but not all) who post here report that they do not have to move.

FWIW, I believev that once the DVC reservation system is upgraded (and thus compatible with the CRO system), this won't be a factor and even CRO -booked cash stays will be properly linked so as to guarantee not moving. Have no idea when the "upgrade" will occur or even if it is scheduled in the near future, though.
Best wishes -

 

[Dean]

I haven't read the whole thread so excuse me for repeating anything. My opinion is:

1. You aren't guaranteed the $10PP
2. You carry risk with renting
3. You carry risk of not getting the room at a good cash price
4. You carry some risk of having to move rooms or at least having some mix-up with it if the cash and points ressies are connected.

I had definately thought the same thing when we paid 75pts per night for a 2br at BCV in March. The cost of the room per night would have been $800 - so the 75pts was a better deal. Made me believe that the argument for renting points only hold for certain room types/certain times of the year.

For me, the hassle of renting would be far greater than the gulp of paying the points.

I agree to a degree however. You are far more likely to be able to get more than $10 pp renting than less. The risk with renting is dramatically low if you do it correctly and far less than the issues associated with any cash type trade such as DCL. Even at rack rates, it's usually better to do cash for weekends. And while there's a chance to have to move, we use that opportunity when appropriate to try other resorts or even off site like US.

 

[Dasha]

We always go for 10 days and make a cash reservation for the weekend. Renting the weekend points covers the cash reservation and leave $ for dinners. Plus when you link the reservations you get the same room for your entire stay.

All this talk of risk -- is it from people who have actually rented their points or just the crowd that's against renting?

We have never had a problem renting and most of the time it's to other members needing points. What's the risk? People pay in advance and if they don't you can cancel the reservation and get the points back.

 

[Sammy]

You accountant types just may choke when I tell you that DH and I usually schedule a.....ready for this?......weekend only {GASP} trip every Fall using our DVC points.......LOL!! All kidding aside though....we purchased our points based on knowing what our vacation style was. It didn't include moving from resort to resort to save a few bucks, so we purchased points accordingly. When I go on vacation, I like to unpack and stay put....especially if it's only a 4-day get-away. Same goes for the family vacations. With 3 kids to pack and unpack, I have no desire to pack it up after a couple days, only to unpack again at another resort.

JMHO and I'm stickin' to it!!

 

[Dean]

You accountant types just may choke when I tell you that DH and I usually schedule a.....ready for this?......weekend only {GASP} trip every Fall using our DVC points.......LOL!! All kidding aside though....we purchased our points based on knowing what our vacation style was. It didn't include moving from resort to resort to save a few bucks, so we purchased points accordingly. When I go on vacation, I like to unpack and stay put....especially if it's only a 4-day get-away. Same goes for the family vacations. With 3 kids to pack and unpack, I have no desire to pack it up after a couple days, only to unpack again at another resort.

JMHO and I'm stickin' to it!!

It doesn't bother me. You can throw your money away if you want to. My goal is to make sure people have the information then they can do what they bloody well please no matter how poor a choice it is.

 

[drakethib]

I use them a lot.. Sorry, but moving doesn't cut it for me and I bought the points to use them.

(And I am an Accountant... from a real accounting point of view, not sure I could justify buying at all LOL!)

I am not an accountant, but a Cost Analyst for a Refinery in South Texas.

I will not move in the middle of a vacation but after burning through points on our last weekend stay, I refuse to waste (IMHO) so many points and I will definitely use cash in lieu of points.

 

[TnRobin]

It doesn't bother me. You can throw your money away if you want to. My goal is to make sure people have the information then they can do what they bloody well please no matter how poor a choice it is.

That is what is great - we all think our money means something different. My co-workers think I have thrown away too much money on Disney. I think they have thrown away too much money on monster SUVs and gas just as a means to get to work. It all comes down to individuality.

 

[Dean]

That is what is great - we all think our money means something different. My co-workers think I have thrown away too much money on Disney. I think they have thrown away too much money on monster SUVs and gas just as a means to get to work. It all comes down to individuality.

LOL, Robin. Unfortunately many people delude themselves into thinking they are getting a good deal when they are not and this is never more true than when dealing with timeshares, including DVC. If one wants to pay for convenience, that's cool, but that is NOT the same as a good value, IMO as always.

And an Expedition that gets 15 miles to the gallon for someone with a 25 mile each way commute is a good value compared to my little car that gets twice the mileage for half the price. I also have had the same discussions with the people who have 42' plasma screen HDTV. We have all agreed at work we each have our own value system.

I like to think of weekend as an okay deal and weekdays as the awesome deal that I purchased DVC for. Just my opinion.