Cancellation Policy

[donald#1]

We're planning on renting points for the first time and was wondering how the cancellation policy with DVC differs from that of other Disney resorts. I have read some on the holding account, but would like some more information. The most probable reason for a potential cancellation (or postponment) with my family having young children would be sickness.

 

[tjkraz]

For all intents and purposes, you probably will not be able to cancel inside of 31 days if you rent points. If reservations are cancelled on that short notice, the owner's points go into a holding account and there are some pretty severe restrictions placed on how they can be used to re-book. And, depending upon the exact expiration date of the points, it's entirely possible the owner will be completely unable to re-book using the points.

That said, all rental transactions are unique. The exact terms are entirely between you and the owner of the points. Some owners will have a "sorry, you're out of luck" policy from the time the reservation is made. Others may be willing to try and re-rent the points and (if successful) refund a portion of your money. But I wouldn't expect to find anyone willing to let you cancel inside of 31 days. The restrictions are just too severe.

Renting points can save a lot of money, but these cancellation issues are just one reason why it's not a great solution for everyone.

 

[JimMIA]

ALL details of rental agreements are between the owner and the renter, and they vary all over the ballpark. It's actually almost impossible to answer your question without being the owner you are renting from, because the answer lies in the current status of their individual account.

Holding account is only one of the difficulties possible with a DVC cancellation. Holding account happens when a reservation is cancelled within 31 days of arrival. Points in holding account cannot be banked or transferred, and they can only be used to make ressies 60 days in the future. In a worst case scenario, those limitations could render the points useless to the DVC owner.

However, there are a number of other bad things that can happen. From the time you make your reservation until the time you cancel, the account may have passed banking deadlines -- which would mean the owner would have to use the points or lose them, possibly in a very short time frame. The cancellation could put the owner right up against the end of their Use Year, which could result in all of the points being lost. And there are other possibilities.

The best way for all parties to look at a DVC rental -- IMHO -- is that the transaction is totally non-cancellable and non-refundable. If you take that approach, you can protect yourself the way you would with any other vacation -- trip insurance.

Renting is not for everyone. You can save a considerable amount of money, but you accept certain risks in the process. If you are not comfortable with the risks inherent in renting and trip insurance as your backup, you might be better off doing a cash ressie through Disney CRO instead of renting.

 

[donald#1]

In our particular case, I don't think we would be outright cancelling a trip. However, there is always the possibility of having to postpone a trip due to illness, ie child gets a fever a couple of days before. I would then hope to reschedule for a month or two later. Does this clarification change anything or is any change to a reservation concidered a cancellation.

If I had to postpone within the 31 days, the points go into a holding account, but my hope would be that the member would be able to get me another reservation. Is this unlikely because you only have 60 days and DVC resorts are typically booked well in advance? Can the points be used at other non-DVC resorts?

Sorry for all the questions, but this is an important factor to me in considering a rental agreement.

Thanks for the tip on the trip insurance. We haven't used it in the past. Can you recommend a good trip insurance company?

 

[Chuck S]

Postponing a trip, as you suggest, is considered a cancellation by Member Services, even for DVC members. The points would go into a holding account, and the member would only be able to use them to make ressies 60 days or less prior to arrival. Holding account points can't be banked, so if the member is near the end of their use year, they may lose the points entirely.

While it varies from timeshare to timeshare, virtually all timeshares have some sort of restrictions on booking and cancelling...which is one reason why timeshares aren't for everybody, especially those that have needs to cancel ressies "last minute".

If being able to cancel for a sick child is a real concern for you, I'd suggest not renting points, but paying cash for a regular Disney reservation. The discounted price you pay for renting points comes with restrictions on flexibility.

 

[Plutofan]

The problem is that depending on the time of year it could be very difficult to reschedule. Right now through April there are a lot of weeks where there is limited availability at the DVC resorts. Also points have an expiration date if the DVC member can not bank them so that the points may have limited marketability once a reservation is canceled. If you are concerned then I would buy trip insurance or not rent points.

 

[dianeschlicht]

In our particular case, I don't think we would be outright cancelling a trip. However, there is always the possibility of having to postpone a trip due to illness, ie child gets a fever a couple of days before. I would then hope to reschedule for a month or two later. Does this clarification change anything or is any change to a reservation concidered a cancellation.

If I had to postpone within the 31 days, the points go into a holding account, but my hope would be that the member would be able to get me another reservation. Is this unlikely because you only have 60 days and DVC resorts are typically booked well in advance? Can the points be used at other non-DVC resorts?

Sorry for all the questions, but this is an important factor to me in considering a rental agreement.

Thanks for the tip on the trip insurance. We haven't used it in the past. Can you recommend a good trip insurance company?

Given the information you have told us, I don't think renting would be a good option for you at this time. Cancelling (or postponing, if you want to call it that) a reservation less than 31 days before the reservation starts, puts the owner of the points at risk of losing the points or being unable to re-rent them. Add onto that the fact that more and more, DVC resorts are booked at capacity for most dates fairly far ahead of any date, and it would be a big hassle for both you AND the owner, should you need to cancel. Remember, the owner is NOT a travel agent. All he/she can do is provide accommodations at a DVC resort that might be available for the dates agreed upon. There are no guarantees that there would be anything available on short notice (and highly unlikely that there would be short notice availability).

 

[JimMIA]

or is any change to a reservation concidered a cancellation.

Yes, as explained above, it's still a cancellation and rebooking.

If I had to postpone within the 31 days, the points go into a holding account, but my hope would be that the member would be able to get me another reservation. Is this unlikely because you only have 60 days and DVC resorts are typically booked well in advance?

That's one reason, but there could be others. For example, the owner's Use Year may have ended and they may have lost the points.

Can the points be used at other non-DVC resorts?

DVC points can be used at non-DVC resorts, but no owner in their right mind is going to rent for that purpose. That brings in another complete set of issues! Plus, it's probably more expensive for you.

Sorry for all the questions, but this is an important factor to me in considering a rental agreement.

Don't be silly. You're asking very sensible questions. I wish more prospective renters did what you're doing.

Thanks for the tip on the trip insurance. We haven't used it in the past. Can you recommend a good trip insurance company?

Yes TravelGuard is a large trip insurance writer. I've used the several times, and they are also the company DVC uses for point insurance for us. There may be other companies, but I know for a fact that TravelGuard insures DVC vacations. Many trip insurance companies will not insure timeshare rentals.

If you are going to use trip insurance, be sure to check with the insurance company PRIOR to making the rental deal, and be sure you are very clear on what they will and will not cover.

Also, most insurance companies require you to purchase the insurance within two weeks of making your first covered reservation, and that is sometimes hard to do if you're doing lodging ressies first and then waiting for good airfare. So get a clear understanding of the trip insurance requirements before you go into actual rentals/purchases. You don't want to go down a path banking on being able to get travel insurance, only to find out later you can't because you delayed past their timelines.

 

[donald#1]

JimMIA - Thanks again for all the information. I will be thinking this through over the holiday weekend. One more question. I'm not sure if I'm saying this right but say there's an unforseen circumstance close to our vacation and we have to cancel, the points go into the holding account. Now is it that the owner has only 60 days from the start of my "cancelled" vacation to rebook and use the points? Or is it that he has a 60 day period anytime within his remaining use year to book and use the points?

 

[tjkraz]

I'm not sure if I'm saying this right but say there's an unforseen circumstance close to our vacation and we have to cancel, the points go into the holding account. Now is it that the owner has only 60 days from the start of my "cancelled" vacation to rebook and use the points? Or is it that he has a 60 day period anytime within his remaining use year to book and use the points?

Points in the holding account:

1. Expire at the end of the Use Year and may not be banked.
2. Can only be used to book a trip less than 60 days from the date of the stay.

In other words, if you want to re-book for 6/15 using points in holding, you cannot even call to reserve the room until 4/15 (or whatever date would be exactly 60 days out.) If the points rented had a June Use Year, the would have actually expired on 5/31 and the 6/15 trip wouldn't even be possible.

If you do move forward with this, make certain you are renting from a DVC member that is willing to accommodate last-minute changes like that. Some members will consider their obligations fulfilled when you have your reservation and they have their $$$, and will not be very helpful in working through cancellations and re-bookings.

 

[Chuck S]

As tjkraz posted, most owners consider their obligation to you finished when you have a confirmed reservation. Many owners wil lnot work with renters to rebook at all, or give any refund. You cancel, you lose everything you paid up to that point.

The savings available through renting comes with severe limitations. And those limitations are entirely determined by any private agreement you reach with the owner before booking. Even if you cancel several months before arrival, and even if here is no penalty for the DVC owner, they may not refund anything to you...it all depends upon the contract/agreement you have prior to booking.

 

[crisi]

One of the other gotchas to rebooking. Lets say you want to travel in May. Its four nights over a weekend in an OKW studio for 68 points. You make your plans, book your vacation, and have to cancel three days before the trip. The owners points don't expire for a bit, and you decide to rebook for June and the owner is willing to work with you. You can't rebook for OKW because its full up, but you can get in the dates you want at SSR. But June and SSR are both more points - you now need 84 points for your vacation. You say "not a big deal, I'll pay the difference."

As an owner, I may not have the "extra" sixteen points for your reservation. I may be planning to use every last one of my own points for my own vacation. Or I may just be out of points. So even if I want to help you out, its difficult for me to do so.

Point management takes a lot of planning - and most of us don't end up with points just sitting around waiting to be used last minute.

 

[JimMIA]

Tim and crisi have given you two more reasons why cancellation can be difficult.

I honestly think that if you are working this hard to be sure you have a cancellation "out," a DVC rental is probably not your best option.

I'd also check the number of points required for your stay and compare that to the cash cost of a CRO ressie. Depending on the structure of your stay, you may not even save money renting. The reason is that DVC points costs are roughly double for Friday and Saturday, but cash prices are the same no matter what day of the week. So if you are doing nine nights, with four of those nights F/S, you might come out cheaper going direct to CRO and paying cash...and you wouldn't have any trust or cancellation issues at all.

 

[Dean]

I would say that most people who rent will not give you a cancellation at all. About the most you'll get is the ability to subrent or change the reservation within the confines of the points use year.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Think of your DVC reservation rental as somewhat similar to a Priceline reservation. Either you use it or you don't and lose your cash.