Advice for selling points to a friend

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Depends on your relationship. Nothing worse than your friend maybe thinking that you took advantage of them. We overheard a conversation at SSR where family members were discussing how their sister had ripped them off because she get points for free.

You might want to let your friend get her own reservation by renting from another owner.

Bill

Most people really don't understand until they own a timeshare. Agree with Bill, might be best to let them rent their own reservation from another owner.

 

[zavandor]

My rules when using points for friends are:
- if I would have booked the same room for myself, I don't ask anything. For example, I invited a friend to come and run the marathon, I've booked a studio I would have booked anyway for myself and we shared the room, so it was free
- if I invite them and have to book a second room or a bigger one, then I ask just the MF plus a little bit to account for the buy in. I've charged 7$ per point in the past
- it never happened, but if a friend asks to use my points without me, I would charge the going rate with a couple of $ discount

The most important thing to agree well in advance is the no-cancellation policy. It's something difficult to explain to people who never owned a timeshare: cancelling often means that points are lost because they became difficult to use if they go into holding or if they were banked or borrowed. So your friends need to know that when you make the reservation the transaction is final.

 

[Spring0799]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful suggestions, it's helpful to hear what others think. They have never stayed on property, too expensive, neither did we until we bought in and totally loved it. I quoted out the resellers online and what my points cost. Both were too high for her sadly. If I were rich I would just give her the vacation. But this was a huge investment for me, spent almost our entire savings on it. And this is our vacation each year. So looks like we'll be going alone. But I appreciate all the feedback, super helpful. Thank you

 

[Spring0799]

wishicouldgomoreofte - I'd love to know how she got points for free. I want free points.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

wishicouldgomoreofte - I'd love to know how she got points for free. I want free points.

I was quoting Bill, disneynutz. He had overheard the conversation at SSR.
As I said in my response, most people really don't understand until they own a timeshare.
My guess is the family members who were complaining of being taken advantage of really did believe the points were free or almost free out of ignorance, lack of understanding and lack of thought. They may have thought it was a one-time purchase, like buying a vacation home, and no further $ needed after, and the villa is standing empty and ready for the owners use whenever they want, like a vacation home.

 

[Dean]

Hi everyone. Haven't been here in a while looking for some advice.

I'm going to Animal Kingdom lodge April 2018 for a week. I own at The Grand Floridian. I'm taking my friend and her family and they need there own room, we each have lots of kids, lol. I saved my 2016 points, will use all of 2017 and almost all of 2018. Not sure what I should charge for the points. It's 178 points in total for her room and another 237 for mine and I only own 150. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have to think of the cost but also the fact that I probably won't be able to go again until 2018. Ugh...sad

Thank you!

Approach this lightly. You may already know how they view timeshares and their savvy for Disney prices as well as how reliable they are. You stand the chance that even at a great deal, they will feel you're taking advantage of them. And they could change their mind or cancel last minute no matter how much you tell them it's not an option. If you don't need the points to use yourself going forward, I'd charge them a lower than market rated. If you nee the points yourself and would pay cash or rent yourself going forward, I'd likely just point them in a good direction to rent independently.

 

[Spring0799]

I was quoting Bill, disneynutz. He had overheard the conversation at SSR.
As I said in my response, most people really don't understand until they own a timeshare.
My guess is the family members who were complaining of being taken advantage of really did believe the points were free or almost free out of ignorance, lack of understanding and lack of thought. They may have thought it was a one-time purchase, like buying a vacation home, and no further $ needed after, and the villa is standing empty and ready for the owners use whenever they want, like a vacation home.

That makes sense. When I tell people that I own they do think I can go free each year, they don't understand that I still have to pay maintenance. And even though I don't pay out for the points each year, it was a huge financial obligation to first buy the points. But if you ever hear of a point fairy that gives away points, let her know I'm accepting.

 

[icc2515]

I had this long drawn out message written and decided I could summarize it with:

Always assume that the other person thinks whatever you are talking about is free to them.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Our friends and we are all going to WDW for the Marathon in January. Our son and our friend are running the Dopey. My husband is running the 10K. I'm being a spectator. Our friend is bringing his mom and daughter (they both might be running as well). We each have our own points. We were able to add a one bedroom for the last night of our trip when we realized we might not want to leave on Sunday. Our friend hadn't planned that far out. Now he can't find anything for points at OKW for Sunday night. Our son lives in Miami now and will probably need Sunday night to recover from four days of running. We have since moved to SWFL (Marco Island) and we will probably head home on Sunday. We told our friend not to waitlist anything and just use our one night as long as our son can spend Sunday night there as well if he feels the need for a bit more recovery time. These were either banked or borrowed points and we'd lose them at the end of our UY anyway.

If you invited your friends, ask them only for the dues cost of your points or write it off to friendship. If they begged to go along, charge them more.

 

[skier_pete]

If they begged to go along, charge them more.

That may be my favorite thing I've seen written on the DISboards this year.