Disney holding DVC rooms for cash sale?

[Tigger9]

Just curious about this. I went to disney.com and went to book a resort and found a 2 bedroom at Old Key West available for my particular dates. I didn't book it I just wanted to see if one was available.
I found someone to rent points from and they called and were told nothing was available.

So my question, does Disney take some of the DVC rooms to sell for cash reservations and not allow them to be booked with points? If so why do they do this?

 

[ErinC]

Yes, in a way. DVC retains I think around 4% of the rooms, for maintenence, and cash guests. Also when people trade their points for resorts outside of Disney, those points become cash inventory for DVC, so that DVC recoups money for your trade. I think at the 60 day mark, all inventory that is left can be used for cash or points reservations. I am far from being an expert in this area, but this is just what I've learned from this board. I'm sure others will chime in with other info.

 

[jmminarik]

I've read reports here that Member Services CM's will often put people on hold and call CRO to see if there are rooms available in the CRO system, then work to put them back in the Members pool. I'm guessing there is some threshold where X number of rooms must be in CRO's inventory for cash rental purposes at any given time. It's possible there weren't enough rooms available for cash rental that they could move "extra" back into the members pool OR the CM in MS wasn't as particularly helpful as other CM's have been to other DVC members.

Does that make sense?

-Joe

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by ErinC
Yes, in a way. DVC retains I think around 4% of the rooms, for maintenence, and cash guests. Also when people trade their points for resorts outside of Disney, those points become cash inventory for DVC, so that DVC recoups money for your trade....I am far from being an expert in this area, but this is just what I've learned from this board. I'm sure others will chime in with other info.

That's as good a description as any I've ever read.

As for when/where/how rooms can be pulled back from CRO for point ressies, I'm not entirely sure myself. Don't know if it's just limited to the 60-day mark or not.

About a month ago I wanted to book a studio for one night at BWV or BCV. After booking at BWV, I asked to be placed on the waitlist for BCV. Instead the CM said "let me put you on hold for a moment and see what I can do." About 3 minutes later she came back on and said we were all set for BCV. My assumption was that she was able to pull a room back from CRO, but that's just speculation. It was about 4 months prior to check-in that this occurred.

 

[d-r]

We've noticed before that there was a room type available through expedia or through CRO that wasn't avialable to member services. I think - this is just a guess - that it is more likely to happen in a resort they are selling. I remember when we first bought our beach club points, we wanted to stay at beach club villas and were on a waiting list a long time for it, but there were always rooms available there for cash. I've also noticed this at SSR lately. I think this is because a greater percentage of the inventory is turned over for cash reservations until those points are bought by someone to release them to dvc. But that's just how I've thought of it. But we've also noticed that there are rooms avialable at all the resorts for cash - sometimes even for discounts - when they aren't available for points. I think that at some point (maybe 30 days?) they release them back to member services.

We were just talking about this, and personally, I wish there was a system in place that any time a member requests a room and there is one available for cash, that it be made avialable to them on points. I understand that CRO needs to book rooms for cash in trade for points that we as members use for non-dvc resorts, cruises, etc., but those reservations don't have to be at a set time, and could be made another week. And honestly, I don't think that rooms should ever be offered for cash discounts if there are members on the waiting list for those days. Just mho.

 

[PamOKW]

Originally posted by d-r
this is just a guess - that it is more likely to happen in a resort they are selling. I remember when we first bought our beach club points, we wanted to stay at beach club villas and were on a waiting list a long time for it, but there were always rooms available there for cash. QUOTE]

That's exactly how the system works. Rooms do not become available to DVC members until a DVC member has purchased them -- at that point they are "declared into inventory".

I think MS does play a balancing game of pulling back rooms from the cash inventory for a member who wants to book the room and that they then make up the difference somewhere else by putting a different reservation into the cash system. They can also sometimes pull back "breakage" rooms.

At 60 days, MS makes an educated guess as to how many rooms will not be booked by members and releases them for cash sale. This is the "breakage" income you'll see on your resort budget. This money helps reduce our costs and prevents rooms from staying empty. If a member calls, they sometimes pull these rooms back to reserve for points.

Pulling back rooms that are released because of member trades can be a two-edge sword for us. It's nice to be able to book rooms but it also reduces the amount of $$$ DVC is bringing in to pay for our trades. Less money means they need to ask us to pay more points for things like the cruises and outside resorts.

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

Originally posted by PamOKW
At 60 days, MS makes an educated guess as to how many rooms will not be booked by members and releases them for cash sale. This is the "breakage" income you'll see on your resort budget. This money helps reduce our costs and prevents rooms from staying empty. If a member calls, they sometimes pull these rooms back to reserve for points.

Pulling back rooms that are released because of member trades can be a two-edge sword for us. It's nice to be able to book rooms but it also reduces the amount of $$$ DVC is bringing in to pay for our trades. Less money means they need to ask us to pay more points for things like the cruises and outside resorts.

Pam,

Are you saying that MS waits until 60 days out to send "traded points" to CRO for cash ressies? If that is the case (other than Disney's 4%), CRO cash reservations would almost be impossible to make during times of high point bookings, like F&W, Christmas/NYE, etc. That goes against what is often reported here. Also, cash availabilty would only be able to be booked for "short-notice planners".

While swapping between MS and CRO does happen, don't you think traded points are given to CRO to use as they determine...at all times of the year. Disney would want to maximize the profit made on traded points by renting DVC rooms at high demand times too?

I always thought that breakage and traded points were two different pools of rooms.

 

[OneMoreTry]

Originally posted by ErinC
Also when people trade their points for resorts outside of Disney, those points become cash inventory for DVC, so that DVC recoups money for your trade.

I don't think this is the case if the points are TRADED. That would mean someone is trading IN and would use the points.


Disney retains ownership of some of the units to rent through their CRO. These are NOT owned by DVC. I would assume there is some trading between DVC and Disney when points are forfeited and late cancellations are made. But I think the two are separate and for the most part not interchangeable.

 

[tjkraz]

Originally posted by OneMoreTry
I don't think this is the case if the points are TRADED. That would mean someone is trading IN and would use the points.

I'm assuming Erin was referring to something more like the Disney Collection. When you use points to stay at the Poly or take a cruise, I'm guessing that DVC makes some sort of cash transfer to the Poly or Cruise Line to cover the expense of the room/cabin.

Then, DVC must successfully rent-out a room with the DVC points that you forfeit in exchange for the Poly Room / Cruise. There would be some risk assumed by DVC with regard to the ability to actually take your points and rent a non-DVC member a room at the cash rates.

This actually leads to an interesting line of thinking. If everything I've said above is correct, DVC members renting points could be contributing to the poor trade values we get for points used at Disney Collection locations. More renting of points means fewer non-DVCers paying cash to stay at the DVC properties. Fewer cash customers means more DVC points go unused, thus the trade values of DVC points continue to diminish.

Just thining out loud. Someone punch a hole in this for me.

 

[ErinC]

Originally posted by tjkraz
I'm assuming Erin was referring to something more like the Disney Collection. When you use points to stay at the Poly or take a cruise, I'm guessing that DVC makes some sort of cash transfer to the Poly or Cruise Line to cover the expense of the room/cabin.;

Yes, thank you tjkraz, that is what I was referring to. DVC has to make up for out trades out, in some way. I would think those points are changed to cash reservations as soon as you make the trade out. If DVC waited until 60 days, they take the chance that no one "rents" those points and loses money on our trades out.