Best Use Year?

[Buzzw0rthy]

In the market for a resale contract. Looking at 150 to 175 points. In stalking the resale sites I noticed a ton of February contracts for example at BLT. This led me down the path of points distribution for the various use years at each resort. I came upon this info from the fine folks at DVC news.

Was curious on opinions of the best use year to look for? (example ~38% of BLT contracts have a Feb use year) Should I be looking for a Use year with a lower allocation? Does it really matter?

We will always book at 11 month mark and can travel at any time of year with our family situation.

Thanks all!

 

[huskerfanatic7]

Use year importance is only determined by you. It really depends on when you usually travel if you usually travel in the fall/winter an August or September use year would probably be best. All it is kinda like travel insurance. It's best to travel in the early part of your use year so if something happens and you have to cancel you have more time to use the points or bank before the 8 month deadline. If you plan on traveling sporadically through out the year then use year doesn't mean much

 

[princessbride6205]

I haven't found number of contracts per use year to matter much on the resale or booking DVC market. Buy whichever time of year makes sense for you. If you think you may want to add on BLT via resale in the future, it may help that you have the most common UY (Feb) to find those listings pop up more often than other UY. But when you travel is the biggest factor to consider.

 

[gharter]

I think the best UY is the one that works best for the time of year that you travel.
Yes, thats a wimpy answer, but its true.
When we were looking at purchasing both or our contracts, I didn't notice a difference in price based on UY.
If it was a small contract, the price per point was definitely higher, and if it was a very larger contract, the price was lower.

 

[CarolMN]

If you haven't already, check out this thread:

Understanding Use Year

 

[katandmouse]

I picked a February use year for 3 reasons:
(1) we usually travel in spring or early summer,
(2) looking at the UY distribution charts, it looks like Feb has a fairly high % of contracts (should add-on-itis strike - better chances to match my UY),
and (3) it just seemed easier to keep track of each year’s points if UY was mostly the same as calendar year (vs Dec which would confuse me to no end!).

In the end though I’m not sure it matters that much beyond the banking deadline that PP mentioned.