Can Someone Explain This?

[mustinjourney]

This is very true. A huge issue is\was seasonal demand. Take Poly and CCV where the Bungalows and Cabins exist, during the summer studio availability lasts for longer periods at 11 months (actually CCV had some studio availability at 7 months for 2020 summer). However once Fall Frenzy hits availability starts to get sparse (CCV is more pronounced simply because it isn't all studios). The Cabins and Bungalows aren't likely stressing the 7 month trade in the Fall Frenzy simply because most resorts are already mostly booked solid in the studios and 2 bedrooms in the home resort period (for movement to be possible those rooms need openings, thus no movement no stress). If I had to guess those extra points from the Cabins and Bungalows get traded into the Disney Collection (when all else fails it's pretty much just getting a moderate room for the same points, which we know renting points costs about the price of a moderate room, so kind of is a wash cash wise if you have to go during that period of time) or Cruises (no matter how bad of a trade) or they get used in the summer where they do stress the 7 month trade. I would have to see how large the lockoff premium is across the entire DVC ecosystem. It is likely most lockoffs are split, thus that premium eats away at some of the bungalow and cabin points.

To be fair to CCV the cabins do disappear way more frequently than the bungalows (at least from tracking the RAT). And have had times of disappearing within the home resort period (especially October and December and some holidays). So there is definitely a market at a certain price. DVC just was too greedy with them.

my guess is the bungalows are about 15-20% overpriced from a points perspective.

I’d love to know if there’s anyway they could fix that without altering the studio points.

 

[crvetter]

my guess is the bungalows are about 15-20% overpriced from a points perspective.

I’d love to know if there’s anyway they could fix that without altering the studio points.

I would imagine the only way is a lawsuit and Disney being forced to buy back the points. Which would take a long time for them to recover those points on the resale market. More than likely if their is a suit DVC just settles and agrees to pay members some $ amount.

But I agree they are about in that range of being overpriced.

 

[Noodlez]

it certainly didn’t help matters, but is bcv or BWV that much harder to get the last two years during F&W?

I just checked BCV for October next year (our next visit) and it seems there are only two nights that studios are sold out. There is still one bedroom availability for the whole month. We’re well past 11 months so it seems we’re definitely not at the walking stage yet. Phew.

 

[Noodlez]

I really don’t understand why people would cram in 5 people in a studio.

...

I know it’s a financial decision ...

I think you answered your own question! My childhood vacations involved at least 4 of us in a tent about quarter of the size of a studio. We’d have jumped at an opportunity to stay somewhere like this and would have fit in as many as we could!
I’m really fortunate these days with the kind of places I can afford to stay, but it’s not difficult to see that not everyone can do this.

 

[Sandisw]

I just checked BCV for October next year (our next visit) and it seems there are only two nights that studios are sold out. There is still one bedroom availability for the whole month. We’re well past 11 months so it seems we’re definitely not at the walking stage yet. Phew.

I have been monitoring things and what I have noticed is that people have started walking because rooms are now opening back up I that you couldn’t get right at 11 months.

 

[Noodlez]

I have been monitoring things and what I have noticed is that people have started walking because rooms are now opening back up I that you couldn’t get right at 11 months.

That’s such a shame, particularly when it seems unnecessary. I guess that the more we hear about it the more people panic and decide to do it. Let’s just keep telling everyone how it’s not needed for BCV owners.

 

[CarolMN]

That’s such a shame, particularly when it seems unnecessary. I guess that the more we hear about it the more people panic and decide to do it. Let’s just keep telling everyone how it’s not needed for BCV owners.

This"panic" booking is what caused Disney to change booking from 11/7 months prior to check OUT" to 11/7 months prior o check IN. People were even calling every day to book a villa at SSR, which was absolutely not necessary. I couldn't believe some DIS posters were recommending this because of "why take a chance" logic!

I see "walking" happening now for many situations because of the same reason. However, I doubt DVCMC cares since it is done mostly online. This doesn't cost them anything. When booking had to be done by calling, the increased volumes threatened to cost them a significant & growing amount (due to the need to hire additional MS reps to handle the calls).

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I would imagine that "up to" 7 nights is in fact the vast majority of stays -- but that, by definition, includes any stays less than 7 days...so that doesn't mean that 7 days is the most common.

They had to allow "up to 7 nights" because it would have been silly in a point system to have it be only the most popular length of stay which they stated was 7 nights but to restrict those who wanted to book less to waiting.

Again - DVC stated the most common length of stay was 7 nights when they explained why they chose 7 instead of 5 or 12 or 20 for booking.

 

[Deb & Bill]

AKV, BLT and CCV only allow four in a room, and they sold out pretty quickly. In fact the last of that group did so at a record clip.

Up until about 2013/2014 no studio allowed five occupants unless the fifth was under the age of three. BRV, BCV and BWV, when refurbed finally got a fifth sleeping surface. Before that, you were on your own for bed, bedding, towels, etc. Those resorts sold just fine as well, prior to the refurb.

Five in a studio is a relatively new trend and certainly stresses the studio availability. But as you pointed out, it probably does help sell contracts.

The fifth person/bring your own bedding was not for studios, but for the one bedrooms that did not have the sleeper chair and only had one king bed and one queen sleeper sofa. If the studio only had beds for four, you could have four plus one under the age of three in the pack and play. Not a person over the age of three.

As for week vacations, many people take a week of vacation when they get their vacation at work. It's easy to put stuff in the terms of weeks. When we lived 14 hours from WDW, we always took 7-10 night stays (as Federal employees we had lots of days of leave; now we are retired so we can go anytime). Now we are three hours away, so we do three nights, two nights, four nights, whatever we have points for. The only studio we will stay in is OKW since we each get a queen bed. Otherwise, we're in one bedroom villas. We are not going to book a two bedroom villa because the points are only a few more. We don't need that much room for the two of us.

As for increasing the number of occupants in a villa, I think studios should be three, one bedrooms four, two bedrooms six, three bedrooms eight. The original studios were not built for five, only four, and putting in the murphy bed just makes it more crowded. We enjoy our villa, we might only spend a few hours in a park each day. That gives us the time to enjoy our villa and the resort where we are staying.

In the member meeting on Thursday, they said that Transportation costs were a big part of the increase of member fees. When you increase the number of people staying in a resort, you tend to require more transportation to get everyone where they want to go.

 

[mustinjourney]

I just checked BCV for October next year (our next visit) and it seems there are only two nights that studios are sold out. There is still one bedroom availability for the whole month. We’re well past 11 months so it seems we’re definitely not at the walking stage yet. Phew.

The need for walking is pretty overrated. The only rooms that really have to be walked are the value AKV rooms, the concierge AKV rooms, the BWV standard rooms (for fall, early Jan, and race weekends), and possibly CCV studios (not sure about these as I have never paid attention).

RIV tower studios will also eventually get to this status I'm sure.

I've never had to walk for VGF studios -- even first week of december. With that said -- you better be on 8 am or you will have to piece that trip together.