BWV - Rooms NA due to rehab

[CarolMN]

Is anyone else wondering how (or if) DVC is "paying" for the BWV rooms that can't be rented due to the outside rehab work? In another thread, one of the posters reported that

"MS told me that BWV was more difficult than usual due to the ongoing renovations throughout the resort taking so many rooms out of availability. "

I know that Disney keeps 4% of the rooms for this purpose, but doesn't it seem like more than 4% of the rooms are "out of service?" When we were there in February, it appeared that all of the rooms overlooking the quiet pool were impacted by the outside rehab work.

What do you think will happen when it is time to rehab the standard view rooms? Do you think MS will upgrade members who book standard view or just not offer any rooms for standard view points?

Thoughts? Comments?

 

[DeeP]

CarolMN,
I am wondering about the rehab but for the preferred view rooms. I have a preferred view Villa booked for next month and am concerned that the preferred view rooms will be closed since I read that the boardwalk views are under rehab and so are the rooms by Luna park so that eliminates a big chunk of preferred views. I called MS on Monday and they told me if there was not a preferred view villa available for my stay they would put me in a standard view and put the extra points back in my account. I thought this was fair and the MS CM even gave me her name and direct phone number to call once I get to BWV, in case there is a problem. I will report on the status of the rehab when I return. 26 more days to go, I can't wait!!!!

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

You can't really think of it as 4% of the rooms, think of it more as 4% of all the available points. Let's say that the total resort has 1,000,000 total points (just an example), that would mean that DVD would control 40,000 points - with 40,000 points they could "reserve" a lot of rooms for a period of time.

 

[CarolMN]

I don't follow you. If all the available points represent what it takes to rent all the available rooms, it seems to me 4% of the available points would equal 4% of the rooms.

IMHO, there were more than 4% of the rooms unavailable when we were there.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

The available points at a resort represent what it takes to rent all of the rooms for 1 year, not any given instant or day. DVD owns 4% of those points. DVD can exercise the points that they own anytime they want - just like a member can. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that DVD was able to bank and borrow points just like a regular member.

What thay've done is decide to use a large amount of points for a rather major renovation - so yes, they probably are currently using more than 4% of the rooms at the resort, but that's allowed because they have the points available to do that.

 

[CarolMN]

Hmmm, the rehab work has been going on for quite some time. Believe it started last fall and is expected to continue into next year.

Perhaps you are right, but I am having major problems trying to imagine banking and borrowing accounting for having every BWV room out of service for several weeks at some time during this period for 4% of the points.

 

[ralphd]

I agree Carol, don't think DVD can bank or borrow points. They can, however, use unsold points and points that members use for exchanges out of the DVC system. Those points become a part of the DVC inventory.
The points must translate into room inventory. The state of Florida requires that the points sold must be stated as part of a units inventory of days. That is why your contract references a unit in the resort. The agreement then says the time will be stated as points. The point system is only to convert the agreement into floating time.

ralphd

 

[Kick it up a notch!]

DVC seems to be pretty smart and plans expenditures out. I would assume they plan out the removal of inventory as part of these expenditures. I'm sure member services could find this information out for you if you ask. They seem pretty smart and plan for these things.

 

[drusba]

Rehab takes out a portion of rooms in a given area, not necessarily all--for example I believe the Luna Park rehab is being done in parts, a portion of Luna will be done, and then another. Standard view will likely follow that kind of schedule also, so that there may be some available when standard is being done. Seriously doubt they will let you reserve preferred with standard points as a result of any standard rooms being out of service (if they allowed that no one would make any "preferred" points reservation). Disclosure documents you receive at purchase warn that rooms may sometimes not be available due to rehab.

As to the 4%, here is how it works. Disney sells 96% of each unit and retains a 4% interest in each unit (in other words it does not own rooms that are actually separate from rooms owned by members). What you are sold is an actual real estate interest which is a percentage of a unit. If you added up all the percentages sold for any given unit, the total sold would be 96%.

Points represent your ownership interest and you need to separate in your mind the 96/4% real estate ownership split from the concept of points. 100% of the points are in the members hands. Disney has none. But if every owner of BWV made a reservation using all their current year points during the year and demand was evenly distributed so that there was no overlap in demand for a room, day, or time of season, the resort would only fill to about 95% everyday by use of all points available to members. Disney then has the right to rent out 4% of the time, and about 1 % is actually allocated to being out of use for maintenance or other purposes.

Obviously that 1% out of use portion is not enough to cover rehabs like the current one, as a larger percentage is out of use at any given time. The net result is that for any rooms left, Disney has the right to rent out 4% of the available rental time and the owners through points have priority to the rest of the time. In other words, if of the 383 total rooms, there are only 300 available because of rehab, the owners get to use points for 96% of the time available for those 300 rooms and Disney gets to rent 4% of the time (Disney of course also gets to rent a portion of the members time if points have been traded out for other resorts or the cruise).

 

[CarolMN]

In other words, if of the 383 total rooms, there are only 300 available because of rehab, the owners get to use points for 96% of the time available for those 300 rooms and Disney gets to rent 4% of the time (Disney of course also gets to rent a portion of the members time if points have been traded out for other resorts or the cruise).

Thanks for the explanation. When we were there in February, scaffolding and plastic was up over the entire area overlooking the quiet pool/Community Hall area. (This area was also behind scaffolding when we visited the previous December). It looked to me that all the rooms behind the scaffolding were empty. If there had only been a part of this area under rehab or it went moe quickly, I may not have wondered how this could be done. If they do the "next chunk" the same way, I would assume that most, if not all of the rooms facing Luna Park would be empty for several weeks.

I am really wondering if any BWV owners will end up losing their points because of the rehab. If what you say above is true, aren't there more points out there than there are rooms this year? Doesn't DVC have to provide enough inventory so that (if demand is equally spread and everyone follows the rules) the inventory matches the points sold?

That said, I actually believe that DVC knows exactly what they are doing. I am not looking for an upgrade. I am just curious about the process DVC uses to ensure that members do not lose their points. I do not anticipate it to be a problem for me or anyone else who usually books at the 11 month window.

 

[drusba]

DVD cannot over "sell" the resort, meaning total points issued to owners cannot equal more than it would take to reserve the rooms 96% of the time for the year (Disney keeps the other 4%). That has not been done. However, when it comes to actual ability to "use" the rooms there are exceptions and total points can exceed the ability to reserve all the rooms; for example:

1. During rehabs or even rebuilding after a catastrophe. The fact that less total room time is available during a period of rehab than the total points that could apply does not violate the over "sell" rule.

2. Banking and Borrowing. The existence of banking and borrowing actually makes it possible and often likely for there to be more total points available to members in any given year than the total room time that could be reserved. Again, this does not violate the over "sell" rule.

3. DVC members from other resorts. The 7 month ressie rule allowing non-BWV members to reserve BWV means the total demand for BWV in any given year could exceed, even by a large amount, the total supply. Again, this does not violate the over "sell" rule.

In other words, you are protected from DVD's overselling a resort, not from events describe in the disclosure documents that could lead to actual demand at times that is in excess of supply. Your ability to reserve a room is on a first come first serve basis and if you are unable to do so due to events such as the above, there is no violation of the over "sell" rule.

 

[CarolMN]

So, it is possible that the rehab work could result in some members not being able to use all of their points before they expire. Although, I suppose one could always take advantage of the non-DVC options (subject to the booking rules).

I didn't realize that "when it comes to actual ability to "use" the rooms there are exceptions and total points can exceed the ability to reserve all the rooms".

Thanks for taking the time to spell it out. The ability to plan ahead is definitely an advantage in this case.

 

[RLMS56]

We just returned last night from BW. The rehab is only on preferred view rooms and it has definitely decreased the number of rooms available. I had a preferred studio booked and they only had 3 left none being acceptable to us. The mgr rebooked our reservation to a standard studio and the difference in pts is now in a holding account.
The construction seems extensive and makes the pool area noisy IMHO.

 

[Mary Ellen]

I 'think' they said at the last annual meeting that BWV was only going to operate at 79% occupancy during the rehab because of rooms being closed.

Not all BWV members will be wanting to stay at their home resort diring this rehab anyway due to banking/ borrowing and there are others who will be using points for DCL and II. We are spending a years worth of points at AKL concierge. I think we can safely assume DVC knows what % of rooms they can usually have unavailable to members without running into TOO many problems.

Of course, if anyone is among the few who will have problems, that is small consolation.

 

[Dean]

I concur with the idea that if there are not enough rooms for all the members due to repairs or the like, the member are out of luck. The way I recall the POS, if this is the case, the members also would not be able to reserve other DVC units at the 7 month window. I suspect DVC has worked it out so that in the long run things will even out. DVC could not use the points given up for exchanges unless they compensated the budget for those points using cash.

As for the percentage of rooms available, here's how I think of it. They could take 4 rooms a week for 50 weeks or 200 room for one week, it would be the same. If that week they took 200 happened to be the one you wanted to go, you'd be out of luck.

 

[joepoe]

It looked to me like the siding was very badly faded so they had to re-side the buildings. Hopefully the new siding will last longer than 6 or 7 years! I'd rather they fixed it and kept up a deluxe, fresh appearance than not fix it and rent the rooms out.