Advice please: What to "charge" my friends for their part of the room

[BEASLYBOO]

When I offer it's for free with that said, not a single person has ever assumed it was free and they've all offered to pay for something. Most have been coming with me since 2000, and generally as others have mentioned, depending on the length of stay firends may offer to pay for a nice dinner or foot the whole bill for groceries, wine and beer, which is I greatly appreciate but not necesarry.

 

[dianeschlicht]

When I offer it's for free with that said, not a single person has ever assumed it was free and they've all offered to pay for something. Most have been coming with me since 2000, and generally as others have mentioned, depending on the length of stay firends may offer to pay for a nice dinner or foot the whole bill for groceries, wine and beer, which is I greatly appreciate but not necesarry.

That has been our experience as well. Only once did we have guests who didn't at least take us out for a nice dinner. Frankly, I would feel cheap if I invited someone along and then expected them to pay me for the room.

 

[dansamy]

That has been our experience as well. Only once did we have guests who didn't at least take us out for a nice dinner. Frankly, I would feel cheap if I invited someone along and then expected them to pay me for the room.

We've had once where we were not "thanked" by doing something like taking us out. However, I didn't expect this family to do so. They are very helpful to me in other ways, so I considered the points a "thank you" to them for all the things they've done for me.

 

[jbish]

Well let me clear up one thing, absolutely this family of 3 would have gotten their own room. I wouldn't make them sleep on the floor and then consider charging them! Lol. Originally I was thinking we would do DDP so figured we would have to pay for that. So with the dining plan, at a minimum I figured they would have to pay us back for that. And when we first talked about this trip, it was a "Hey, let's do disney together!" not "hey, why don't you come down to disney with us the next time we go?" So I don't want it to seem like I was being cheap and needed them to pay us. I mean, this is real money for us and they will get a free place to stay, which they usually do since they get do go with his work a lot already. But DH and I have agreed we will not bring this up and will just wait until they bring it up. Also, we are not doing DDP so they don't really "owe" us anything anymore so this will probably not be an issue.

 

[zavandor]

I'm going to VGC with a couple of friends. I've booked for them their own studio and I'll ask them $6.50 per point, that is how much I've calculated my cost per point: MF + the buy in cost split for the length of the contract. Since I'm not considering opportunity cost and the risk associated with a long term contract I think it's more than fair (I've rented points at $11).
The total ended up being how much they would have budgeted for a 3 stars hotel off site (or even a bit less), so it worked great for them and for me (because I'm happy to be with them).

I discussed this far in advance of making the reservation. And it helped that they have a timeshare so they understand expenses associated with ownership.

 

[crisi]

We don't charge and when people ask we say "you can pick up a dinner or two, whatever you feel comfortable with" We've had our guests pay for the rental car or some other fairly big trip expense. Mostly its dinner (or two) and groceries. And frequently a thank you gift when we get home.

If they insisted, I'd have them pay for dues on the points above and beyond what we'd use anyway. We got ROI out of our contract a few years ago.

 

[MDTerp]

We've done a few "family" trips on points. We are a family of 3, so we only need a studio. We've taken my parents once (1BDR) and my parents and sister's family (4 ppl) twice (2BDR). The first trip we weren't firm on "price" but strongly suggested that $100/night per family would be nice to help offset our cost. We stayed at AKV-Savannah and BLT. My parents gladly gave us $100/night. My sister contributed at total "value" of $125 for the entire 4 night trip. I'm sorry, but $125 for a family of four to stay anywhere near WDW for 4 nights just wasn't gonna cut it with me (my sister has the $$ to spend). The second trip with my sister, I was very clear that I "expected" $100/night for her family? She obliged.

"Charging" is a personal decision, but we all know owning DVC isn't cheap!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[MinnieLee]

We have traveled with both friends and family to WDW and never have charged anyone. Our friends have shown their appreciation by picking up the dinner bill on both trips. We also went to Hilton Head on their RCI and we bought dinner down there. I would not even know how to approach asking them to pay for any or all of their room. It was worth having them with us as we had a blast. P.s. They had their own studio.

 

[NJDVCmember]

I was so surprised to see this question. We have provided lodging to family and friends about a dozen times. Never would I think of charging them. Thats crazy why take them with you? Disney has loads of hotels they can stay in.

If anything take us out to dinner and pick up the tab one night!

 

[DeeCee735]

Charging is a personal decision and owning is not cheap. But to us, it was our choice to buy and pay for our points and MF. We never charge anyone to come with us. I wouldn't charge them to stay at my house for a weekend (and our house costs a heck of a lot more to run than our timeshare), why would we ever think to charge to stay in our timeshare?

Of course, that being said, we do not provide transportation (except ME) or park tickets. We've taken our parents, cousins, friends and kid's friends. If they want to buy us dinner or groceries or something like that, then we don't say no. But we don't expect that or ask for it either. No more than we would ask them to provide meals while staying at our house.

Choosing to invite guests, is exactly that...our choice. I would never expect my guests to pay for a room that was paid for 14 years ago and I would never expect anyone to chip in with our decision to carry MF's either.

Again, it is a personal choice and this is just the way we roll
to each his own....

 

[jbish]

I was so surprised to see this question. We have provided lodging to family and friends about a dozen times. Never would I think of charging them. Thats crazy why take them with you? Disney has loads of hotels they can stay in.

If anything take us out to dinner and pick up the tab one night!

Well, perhaps you haven't read some of my responses throughout this thread, but I just want to make it clear - we are not "taking them to Disney World." These are great friends of ours that are in a similar financial position as we are - I only say that to point out that we are not "treating" them to a vacation. We have talked for years about taking a vacation together with our kids. If they stay at a different hotel, we would probably have to split up for the day after dinner as our kids are still very young and would be in bed by 9, the latest. By staying in a villa together, the kids can go to bed and we, the adults, can hang out afterwards, drink wine and talk. We don't get many opportunities to do that - while the kids are awake, it's all about them. No "adult conversations" to be had. LOL They said, from the very beginning, "what will we owe you for the place?" I'm not springing this on them or anything. Sheesh. Further, again if you had read my responses, I will likely not be charging them anything after DH and I talked more. Maybe they'll offer to buy us dinner one night and, if they do, we would graciously accept it. But I'm not seeking it at this point.

Just so that you don't think we are super cheap or something, we did "take" our mothers to Disney World, where we treated them to the accommodations, park tickets and meals. They just had to pay for their airfare. That was a completely different scenario, in my mind.

 

[DVCmember1992]

We never charge. In the past, family has made it up with a dinner tab or buying my children souvenirs. I would never ask for anything in return, and have even sent my parents and family members away (without me) on my points at no charge.

 

[dismedvc]

Well, perhaps you haven't read some of my responses throughout this thread, but I just want to make it clear - we are not "taking them to Disney World." These are great friends of ours that are in a similar financial position as we are - I only say that to point out that we are not "treating" them to a vacation. We have talked for years about taking a vacation together with our kids. If they stay at a different hotel, we would probably have to split up for the day after dinner as our kids are still very young and would be in bed by 9, the latest. By staying in a villa together, the kids can go to bed and we, the adults, can hang out afterwards, drink wine and talk. We don't get many opportunities to do that - while the kids are awake, it's all about them. No "adult conversations" to be had. LOL They said, from the very beginning, "what will we owe you for the place?" I'm not springing this on them or anything. Sheesh. Further, again if you had read my responses, I will likely not be charging them anything after DH and I talked more. Maybe they'll offer to buy us dinner one night and, if they do, we would graciously accept it. But I'm not seeking it at this point.

Just so that you don't think we are super cheap or something, we did "take" our mothers to Disney World, where we treated them to the accommodations, park tickets and meals. They just had to pay for their airfare. That was a completely different scenario, in my mind.

We have charged our extended family the dues per point. However, when they asked "what do we owe you" We sent what I thought was a fun reply that said the cost to book directly from Disney would be $565 per night for 5 nights, ($2825 total) but we would charge them $565 total for all 5 nights, since that covered our yearly dues on the 95 points their reservation used. If you give them that kind of break/discount, I do not feel it is bad to let them know how big of discount they are getting and charge them at least the maintenance dues per point. (Note: this was when they were getting their own room, but similar logic would work if they were getting a portion of a 2 Bedroom)
We might charge more for non-relations, but I would still let them know about the "deal" they are getting.

 

[curan69]

I suppose it's how you look at it. I can't see inviting someone and then charging them, but in our case it was a decision to go on vacation together. Knowing that we only have 100 points and getting the Treehouse significantly impacted our ability to go on other vacations, my BIL insisted on paying. We had such a good time we are planning on doing it again once we are in a position to bank/borrow enough points to make it work.

 

[jbish]

I suppose it's how you look at it. I can't see inviting someone and then charging them, but in our case it was a decision to go on vacation together. Knowing that we only have 100 points and getting the Treehouse significantly impacted our ability to go on other vacations, my BIL insisted on paying. We had such a good time we are planning on doing it again once we are in a position to bank/borrow enough points to make it work.

This is similar to our situation, too. We didn't "invite" them. And we are using almost two years' worth of points to book a 2BR villa, which we would not need if we were going just as a family of 5.

 

[pfp258]

Wow, I would never think of asking someone to join us on a vacation, stay in accommodations we choose and then ask them to pay. We have had friends join us a few times but as our guests. ( would I have guests come to my home to stay and then charge them part of my mortgage?). If you are asking people to join you and your family on a vacation using your timeshare you should not expect them to pay. It is simple good manners.
And for those of you that own and rent to family and friends because you value your points to much, then why not keep your points to yourself and point family and friends to the WDW website where they make their own arrangements for accommodations?

 

[jbish]

Wow, I would never think of asking someone to join us on a vacation, stay in accommodations we choose and then ask them to pay. We have had friends join us a few times but as our guests. ( would I have guests come to my home to stay and then charge them part of my mortgage?). If you are asking people to join you and your family on a vacation using your timeshare you should not expect them to pay. It is simple good manners.
And for those of you that own and rent to family and friends because you value your points to much, then why not keep your points to yourself and point family and friends to the WDW website where they make their own arrangements for accommodations?

"Wow"? Seriously?! Have you NOT read my post and my responses? I don't know how many times I have to say that I NEVER asked them to "join" us on our trip. We decided to go together. If we were going anywhere else, say the beach, and were splitting a house, would it be so ridiculous for me to expect that we would split the costs? I didn't want to be in different hotels so that we could spend more time together. I don't know why I feel so compelled to defend myself when, clearly, some people are just not bothering to read the responses.

I'm so glad that YOU have the fortune to be so generous with your vacation points. Or are so quick to point someone in the direction of the disney website to make their own accommodations.

 

[k3chantal]

I suppose it's how you look at it. I can't see inviting someone and then charging them, but in our case it was a decision to go on vacation together. Knowing that we only have 100 points and getting the Treehouse significantly impacted our ability to go on other vacations, my BIL insisted on paying. We had such a good time we are planning on doing it again once we are in a position to bank/borrow enough points to make it work.

I agree with you; it is certainly how you look at it. We have done this 'scenario' twice with friends and have always been the 'askers'. In our case, one set of friends did not know we were members and the second set, never in a million years, would have asked to go to WDW with us. So, since we completely understood what we were giving and giving (up) we happily shared our points. The second family really didn't even understand what we were giving them. They could never afford to be members or really to go to WDW, it was a once in a lifetime event for them, so if I had asked for monetary compensation, nothing would have made sense to them. It was better to have given the gift, knowing that they and their children now have memories of that very special place.

 

[holula]

This is one of those different in every situation decisions. With our points we have splurged on a 2 bed at HHI and OKW with my parents (we usually do a studio) and didn't expect them to pay anything. When we stayed at OKW they took us to Narcoosee's as a thank you. We recently invited friends to stay with us and didn't charge them either, they just took us to dinner. However, if it was the other party who had talked about going on vacation WITH US, then I would probably price out what their part of the room would cost (upgrade from a 1 bed to a 2 bed etc) and charge them the MF for that part of the room.

 

[DeeCee735]

One thing I, and this is just me personally, would not do is bank and borrow to accommodate a trip with anyone outside of my immediate family. I would just miss it way too much to skip a year (or two) to make one trip for/with friends or extended family. If it was for our kids, or us with our kids (adults) and their significant others, then I'd consider the banking & borrowing. We are always in a state of borrowing at least some points, but with 2041 & 2057 expiration dates, we can live not going in the last year we own Especially since we'll be well into our 80's But the banking and skipping a year, at least at this point in time, isn't something I'd consider for accommodating guests.

As it stands now, we've enjoyed trips with our parents, cousins, and friends multiple times. In all size rooms...sometimes booking studio's for each couple, sometimes a 2 bedroom, sometimes a 1. Whatever works.

I think every owner has the right to do whatever works for them and their family and friends. If people want to charge, it's their business, for those of us who don't, why not

Most important thing is time together! Enjoy your trips!