All About Fixed Weeks (RIV/CCV/AUL/VGF/POLY/TOWER/VHD/FWC Charts)

[Brian Noble]

If I remember correctly, the first resort to offer them was Aulani. This makes a certain amount of sense. A good chunk of that market is Japanese customers who happen to have a Disney relationship, and that plan on visiting Hawaii regularly. For that market, the competition is not "cash Disney resort stays". The competition is "other name-brand timeshare developers." And, in that market the week-long stay is quite typical, particularly for specific holiday weeks in Japan. Having FWs allowed DVC to offer a guarantee to that market that they could have the week they wanted, in order to compete with the Marriotts, Westins, and Hiltons on the islands.

Once they had the mechanism in place, it was natural to extend it to the mainland resorts that came after. But it is definitely a niche product in the mainland resorts (and probably is at Aulani too).

 

[J-Dog]

If I remember correctly, the first resort to offer them was Aulani. This makes a certain amount of sense. A good chunk of that market is Japanese customers who happen to have a Disney relationship, and that plan on visiting Hawaii regularly. For that market, the competition is not "cash Disney resort stays". The competition is "other name-brand timeshare developers." And, in that market the week-long stay is quite typical, particularly for specific holiday weeks in Japan. Having FWs allowed DVC to offer a guarantee to that market that they could have the week they wanted, in order to compete with the Marriotts, Westins, and Hiltons on the islands.

Once they had the mechanism in place, it was natural to extend it to the mainland resorts that came after. But it is definitely a niche product in the mainland resorts (and probably is at Aulani too).

Thanks for the history lesson! That absolutely makes sense for Aulani. Still, seems like the downsides of FWs being a hassle for them outweigh any benefits for them. But maybe I'm wrong, or I would guess that they would have stopped selling them by now.

 

[JackosinDIS]

I think the 10% premium work in their favour for the vast majority of weeks, there are only 1 or 2 weeks that work out better for owners. So 95% of the fixed weeks are paying an extra 10% dues every year for the life of the contract. That probably more than makes up for the hassle.

P.s. I was another FW owners whose week was not booked last year, on the basis that they thought I had opted out (I had used a separate contract in the same membership to make a different reservation). They fixed it, by booking a room out of cash inventory I believe, as the dates were sold out in the DVC inventory. I can’t prove that one way or the other though!

 

[J-Dog]

I think the 10% premium work in their favour for the vast majority of weeks, there are only 1 or 2 weeks that work out better for owners. So 95% of the fixed weeks are paying an extra 10% dues every year for the life of the contract. That probably more than makes up for the hassle.

P.s. I was another FW owners whose week was not booked last year, on the basis that they thought I had opted out (I had used a separate contract in the same membership to make a different reservation). They fixed it, by booking a room out of cash inventory I believe, as the dates were sold out in the DVC inventory. I can’t prove that one way or the other though!

Not sure that I would agree with that. I read somewhere once that something like 40% of all the FW sold are early December weeks. I have no idea how accurate that is, but if at all true, I would imagine over half of all FW are for the fall, in which many of those sold before 2023 have a points benefit for the owner when fall points were increased.

So I would guess it's far less than 95% who are paying a premium. I'm not, and I don't consider myself super savvy when it comes to money-saving-dvc-tactics, and didn't buy a FW for that.

 

[Brian Noble]

I would be paying a premium, but expect to opt out most years for the foreseeable future. And, if anything my underlying week will go down, making the premium more costly. It is already in Season Six, and not one of the more in-demand periods in that season. I bought it as a hedge against future availability problems.

 

[emchen]

Kind of an unrelated/philisophical question, but I've often wondered what the point of offering FW's are for DVD. What's in it for them?

Based on these reports of delayed bookings of FW's, it seems like it's kind of a PITA for the CM's making those reservations.

And the 10% premium to buy has been negated in many cases for people that bought more than a couple of years ago (i.e. they are losing points with the reservation in many cases).

Also, in my case and from what I've heard of others, most guides don't promote FW's when you are inquiring about buying. You have to specifically ask them about buying a FW.

It just seems like a lose-lose for DVD, so why do they have them?

Is there an advantage to DVD for offering FW's that I'm not aware of?

Great question.

encourages people to stay for a whole week, and buy enough points to do so

Maybe, but I think the people who buy it tend to be veterans of DVC, and therefore don’t need encouragement to buy more points.

Using my own rationale as an example, I figure I want 150 points because of a firesale incentive at 150. I then take a look at the FW charts and see if a hard to book room type during walker season can be had for under 150 or a little above.

So incentives play the dominant role in buying more points. Hedge against future availability problems?

I would be paying a premium, but expect to opt out most years for the foreseeable future. And, if anything my underlying week will go down, making the premium more costly. It is already in Season Six, and not one of the more in-demand periods in that season. I bought it as a hedge against future availability problems.

I agree this is where owners find the most value and the 10% premium is where DVD finds theirs.
I tend to agree with this take:

I think the 10% premium work in their favour for the vast majority of weeks, there are only 1 or 2 weeks that work out better for owners. So 95% of the fixed weeks are paying an extra 10% dues every year for the life of the contract. That probably more than makes up for the hassle.

 

[ShaneDJ]

I bought it as a hedge against future availability problems.

Agreed. We own a Fixed Week in December (which may be the hardest-to-book month).

We bought the Fixed Week solely to guarantee that we get our room during the Christmas season.

And we love the "auto-booking" nature of this. We hate walking reservations, so paying the extra 10% to solve a problem was worth it to us.

 

[atthebeachclub]

I would be paying a premium, but expect to opt out most years for the foreseeable future. And, if anything my underlying week will go down, making the premium more costly. It is already in Season Six, and not one of the more in-demand periods in that season. I bought it as a hedge against future availability problems.

This was my plan. But then today I actually took a good hard look at the available room sizes....and I'm most interested in the most common room size, at an uncommon time. Maybe I don't even need a fixed week. I just like the mental thought of "I'm going on vacation every winter."