AKV Condo Meeting Discussion

[Wedgeout]

Disney is the King Mouse of online surveys. When a refurb or refresh starts its planning period, owners should be included. Send a survey.

Each resort manager should be more involved with the update & design decisions. They are on the front lines with critical owner critique knowledge.

Finally squeeze the budget & get the most out of it BUT don’t cheapen the product. Don’t pick dollars over creativity. Or time over craftsmanship.

 

[Sandisw]

But they’ve always been interest free if doing the auto payments so taking away the gift card option from monthly payments of dues just increased our expenses when people are now paying in full with a cc instead. The majority of people paying monthly with the giftcards are in the points and miles game so they are most likely paying their dues at once now with a cc to earn rewards rather than have their dues withdrawn from their bank account on a monthly basis.

Yes, but they don’t need to give us that. They could begin charging for it and charge those who pay with CC.

Sorry, but we belong to a timeshare, with an association and expenses are shared.

Expenses are based on what owners are doing and if some want to pay by CC and some monthly, then I am happy to have both options.

 

[eticketplease]

I don't know for sure, that why I wrote "I suspect".

However, let's say "Disney gift card unit" sells a $100 gift card to Target for $90. A DVC member buys that card and pays $95 and uses it for $100 dues.
Now DVCMC claims back the money from Disney, will "Disney gift card unit" give $90 or $100 to DVCMC for the card they got paid $90 for? If they give $100, they're basically subsiding our dues.
If they give them $90, then I imagine 10$ go into the members balance, like the CC fees.

Now, I don't know how much Target originally paid for the $100. Maybe they paid the full $100 and they sell the gift cards, sometime with a discount, as loss leader to get customers in the shops. But I find hard to believe it, I imagine under normal circumstances, Target should get some margin on GC.

They are not being charged to process the gift cards is all I'm saying unlike the CC and ACH transactions that are charged by banks.

Yes GC have a cost as you have explained well for those that are not in the know but that cost is processed upfront once the card is activated. If they are going to examine where each gift card was redeemed for dues, vs hotel charges, vs merch, food, tickets etc it would not be done by someone in MA at DVC but someone on the corporate side in the parks and entertainment division.

 

[eticketplease]

Yes, but they don’t need to give us that. They could begin charging for it and charge those who pay with CC.

Sorry, but we belong to a timeshare, with an association and expenses are shared.

Expenses are based on what owners are doing and if some want to pay by CC and some monthly, then I am happy to have both options.

They could also charge for ACH transaction fees but the point was that it doesn't cost them anything extra to process the Disney Gift Cards which they removed last year as a monthly option.

 

[Sandisw]

They could also charge for ACH transaction fees but the point was that it doesn't cost them anything extra to process the Disney Gift Cards which they removed last year as a monthly option.

They didn’t remove it because of fees, they removed it because of the accounting situation and processing partial payments all year was an issue

So, if you want to use certain types of payments, you can before Feb15th, and after that it’s only monthly debit which is how the program was written.

Regardless, I just don’t agree with the notion now of trying to tease out specific expenses because on owner does something another owner doesn’t, when each one is playing by the rules.

 

[airjay75]

On the credit card fees, one thought. If someone pays their dues in full by credit card in January, is there a slight offset to the transaction fees on account of interest income for ad valorem tax deposits held in escrow?

That is, take 2025 RIV dues/expenses in the annual meeting notice. Dues are $9.4553/point. If you pay in full in January, the way I read the statement is that $1.9774 will go into escrow and earn interest until the taxes are actually due (which I think occurs in the fall). OTOH, if you are paying monthly by another means, you would just be making a monthly deposit into the escrow account in the same ratio for each payment.

It probably wouldn't offset all of the credit card fees, but it does make the picture more muddled. And, if you were to pay in full in January with cash, then no credit card fee and interest earned on that, but I suspect most people paying cash are doing so on a monthly basis because why wouldn't you want to earn interest on that money yourself.

 

[Girlstar30]

**IMPORTANT UPDATES**

There will be a tub with no jets, murphy bed and one of those single sleepers for children that fold down under the tv.

They are keeping MOST of the furniture

The countertops will be changed

Thats all i could squeeze out in my sleuthing Happy Thursday! Im still hoping i can see them tomorrow!

 

[eticketplease]

one of those single sleepers for children that fold down under the tv.

Wait I thought that was for the in-laws!!

 

[Girlstar30]

Wait I thought that was for the in-laws!!

 

[ahalper0227]

**IMPORTANT UPDATES**

There will be a tub with no jets, murphy bed and one of those single sleepers for children that fold down under the tv.

They are keeping MOST of the furniture

The countertops will be changed

Thats all i could squeeze out in my sleuthing Happy Thursday! Im still hoping i can see them tomorrow!

To clarify, is this the 1BR and 2BR? Or are the studios going from 4 to 5?

 

[Girlstar30]

To clarify, is this the 1BR and 2BR? Or are the studios going from 4 to 5?

Im sorry I dont want to give the wrong info so I cant confidently answer about the studio but this is the info I found out for the one bedroom. I havent seen the room yet myself but spoke to people who have. Off to magic kingdom!

 

[VGCgroupie]

They are not being charged to process the gift cards is all I'm saying unlike the CC and ACH transactions that are charged by banks.

Yes GC have a cost as you have explained well for those that are not in the know but that cost is processed upfront once the card is activated. If they are going to examine where each gift card was redeemed for dues, vs hotel charges, vs merch, food, tickets etc it would not be done by someone in MA at DVC but someone on the corporate side in the parks and entertainment division.

Yeah I dont buy into using gift cards someone got at a discount as it somehow costing DVC money. Gift cards are bought by many people not just DVC people paying dues. Many people buy gift cards and lose them or buy them for someone else who doesnt use it. Gift cards are money makers for companies it in no way is costing DVC money when we use them.

If they start charging to use a GC or stop allowing GC payments for dues I can guarantee you I will sell most if not all of my contracts.

 

[airjay75]

Although gift cards get discounted, I think they are money makers for most companies.

One, Disney gets the cash from the gift card purchase before the corresponding purchase with that gift card is made. So, it creates a potential future liability for Disney, but it gives them access to the full amount of that cash now. They can invest that money in any number of ways that will benefit them. And, lots of time can pass before someone actually uses their gift card.

Two, a certain percentage of gift card purchases will go unused. I'm sure that percentage varies by company, but I would not be surprised in the least if 5% or more of all gift card funds are never used. That is essentially free money to the company.

Also, Disney doesn't discount the gift cards it sells directly. They may well discount some of their gift cards they sell to other retailers at a discount, but I would think most retailers paying bigger discounts are bearing most of the costs associated with that discount.

 

[Hubalorian]

To clarify, is this the 1BR and 2BR? Or are the studios going from 4 to 5?

based solely on the 2027 point charts, I think it’s safe to assume studios will remain at 4.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Although gift cards get discounted, I think they are money makers for most companies.

One, Disney gets the cash from the gift card purchase before the corresponding purchase with that gift card is made. So, it creates a potential future liability for Disney, but it gives them access to the full amount of that cash now. They can invest that money in any number of ways that will benefit them. And, lots of time can pass before someone actually uses their gift card.

Two, a certain percentage of gift card purchases will go unused. I'm sure that percentage varies by company, but I would not be surprised in the least if 5% or more of all gift card funds are never used. That is essentially free money to the company.

Also, Disney doesn't discount the gift cards it sells directly. They may well discount some of their gift cards they sell to other retailers at a discount, but I would think most retailers paying bigger discounts are bearing most of the costs associated with that discount.

Yeah I would need to verify all the logistics but I dont believe it's Disney giving the full discount. Each retailer has its own discounts and choses what savings to pass on to the customer, they bare the cost of the discount.

 

[Girlstar30]

It just dawned on me now why they answered the question of what theyre going to do with the furniture with "we will let you know" and why they said they will be preserving the authenticity of the rooms and seemed pleased with the question

 

[mkatsy]

It just dawned on me now why they answered the question of what theyre going to do with the furniture with "we will let you know" and why they said they will be preserving the authenticity of the rooms and seemed pleased with the question

It’s nostalgic and all, but it’s very dark heavy furniture. I’m going to be stalking that OKW refurb. I want that turquoise sleeper chair. I’ll steam clean that thing new.

 

[Girlstar30]

It’s nostalgic and all, but it’s very dark heavy furniture. I’m going to be stalking that OKW refurb. I want that turquoise sleeper chair. I’ll steam clean that thing new.

The fact that they told me their not replacing most of the furniture is interesting to me. Because they def have to replace the drawers under the tv to put the single sleeper

So it will be interesting what furniture is kept. I was told it was going to be the kitchen tables, island and everything the same but im finding it kind of hard to believe. We will see soon enough.

I guess only the really rough furniture went to cast connections which explains why its going for so cheap.

 

[Cfabar1]

Disney is the King Mouse of online surveys. When a refurb or refresh starts its planning period, owners should be included. Send a survey.

Each resort manager should be more involved with the update & design decisions. They are on the front lines with critical owner critique knowledge.

Finally squeeze the budget & get the most out of it BUT don’t cheapen the product. Don’t pick dollars over creativity. Or time over craftsmanship.

Agreed... and it feels like a downgrade... like they put these premium touches in and then remove them...

 

[Leight19]

based solely on the 2027 point charts, I think it’s safe to assume studios will remain at 4.

My memory may be off but I recall when ssr and okw added 5th to 1br the documentation still said 4 until 100% of the rooms were converted. Now you could argue since this should be done before 2027 it could have been made accurate but wouldn’t surprise me if the system is holding to announce then.

That said I do think current best guess is they will not add the 5th. Guess we’ll know in 18 hours or so lol.