Except you are not personally using your membership. Your sister is. She is not an owner. I firmly believe that owners should get first priority for hard to book rooms, especially at the 11 month mark. If all owners and only owners had a fair shot at the 11 month mark, that to me is ‘fair’. I realize you disagree. If someone doesn’t want to buy because non owners wait behind owners, I think most owners would approve. I realize you disagree.
I think owners should be getting priority, but I also think owner priority should cover at least one (or more) gift reservations per year—but the devil is in the details on ferreting out gift v rental— not allowing primary guest name changes on reservations booked before say 8 months (I could also be talked into 6 months) out might help?
And this would only apply during the highest demand periods, so depending when/where your sister’s reservation was booked, might not even count.
I like this solution because it’s just targeting the heart of issue without much in the way of unintended consequences. The only people who will absolutely hate everything about it are commercial renters hyper focused on pulling the cream out of the system for maximum profit potential. Owners could still rent out their points too. The only place they’d be limited is those highest demand resorts/periods, and even then still get up to two in that category.
I like the idea of prohibiting renting any reservations more than 6 months out. Give actual owners (and guests!) priority at the hot spots. If all you’re trying to do is cover dues and
a few extra dollars, there’s no need to be walking hard to get reservations or booking the ultra high value rooms.
I really think this overwhelmingly applies to studios with barely any inventory (AK VAL, BW SV, etc) or select resorts during an extremely high demand time of year.
I just don’t believe members are having issues booking 99% of the rooms available at 11m.
I think it applies to studios (and the 2Bd that require available studios) anywhere a commercial renter can easily get $25/pt or more.
As an owner of both BRV and RIV, I agree there is walking other than the value and club level rooms. RIV is constantly being walked and BRV gets walked for the holidays, it’s happening right now.
I am worried (and maybe Disney is already seeing this?) that restricted resale will dramatically exacerbate walking. Millions of points can transfer in, and an increasing number of RIV/VDH points can never transfer out. A recipe for desperation. If I had restricted resale (currently refuse to buy it, might make an exception for a truly exceptional location) and banked points after a trip cancellation, I’d be walking from the first day of my UY so I didn’t lose my points entirely.
I am wondering if part of this thread is because the 11m is close to Christmas 2025 and people are looking at availability at WDW and seeing a lot of the lower cost Studios and 2BD LO’s already booked out…. a sense of heightened awareness if you will….
It’s the most walkable time of the year… (members are walking for Thanksgiving right now, but I suppose a Christmas person might be starting brutally early as well).
I’d rather see them increase the rule to 11 plus 14, but with the limitation that once you make that reservation, it can’t be extended, only shortened until you are 10 months from check in date.
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Shortening would be fine because it releases rooms back to others but the extension just can’t happen until 10 months from the check in date.
Obviously it could benefit larger point owners who can hold a full 14 days, but at least it curbs walking because no one can achieve a walk more than that.
I truly think this would mean most desirable weeks go exclusively to people who can book all 14 days and then dump the first 5+ days.
Then the walk is just limited to how many points you have. Those with more points would just book a really long reservation a month ahead and cancel the first days. Way too much of an advantage to those with a lot of points. You would have to limit modifying that reservation in some way as well for it to actually work
Yes, another proposed modification that would help commercial renters at expensive of middle class families.
Good lord, has anyone here actually come close to doing to this?! When I hear about walking, I'm thinking a couple of days to a couple of weeks. Am I that naive?
I have read reports of people struggling to “start their walk” more than 6 months out. I’m not crazy (or responsible, lol) enough to do it— which is one reason I don’t own at AKV.
I better start walking a standard studio at RIV for the 75th WDW anniversary in October 2046. With the other resorts closing in 2042, there may not be very many rooms!
At least UY makes a hard break each year.
Perfect, so is 4 modifications enough for someone to walk?
A month, if you have enough points.
And in order to secure those hard-to-get "confirmed" reservations, the commercial renters need to walk them.
If DVC cracks down on commercial renting, it won't necessarily eliminate walking entirely, but I'm convinced it will make a huge dent in the number of walked reservations, because owners wanting those dates will no longer be competing against those commercial "uber-renters" with their thousands of points and lightning fast bots snatching up dates, which will reduce the NEED to walk in order to get the dates they want (i.e., a "market correction" of supply and demand by eliminating commercial renting from the equation).
If DVC cracks down on commercial renting, there are a good number of "commercial" owners, who will have a LOT of worthless (to them) points on their hands, since they only have all of those points to commercially rent for profit. If a crackdown occurs, I would expect to see some of these "big hitters" put out of business pretty quickly and needing to dump all of their points cheap. It would be a ROFR bargain bonanza for Disney.
Additionally, all of those commercial renters are in direct competition with Disney cash reservations of DVC rooms. Crushing that competition by enforcing the ban on commercial renting seems like a no-brainer. Disney stands to gain a lot financially, which is why I'm shocked they haven't cracked down on the commercial renters already.
I wish I could like your post twice, I agree with all of it, but I’m certain a major reason they haven’t taken action is it would be harder to sell PoliTow at $230/pt if PVB resale plunged below $100 this fall. I feel like stopping renting before 6m, but allowing it after 6m for the average member (occasional renter or even bought points to pay for points member) would be a good trade off.
Maybe commercial renters can keep renting at VB, HHI, and OKW during slow periods of the year?
