Disney Hotel Booking FEE!!!!!

[Califgirl]

I paid 41 points (1 night smallest room) to splurge for my Mom's 80th b-day + had to pay the new $95 fee--which I was not informed of when I booked.

I'm not sure how this happened? Don't you have to pay the fee at the time of booking? I would think you had to give them a CC right then and there on the phone before they even did the transaction.

Surely they didn't have you pay it when you got to the hotel. That would be especially bad if you booked a Hotel room for friends or family and they ended up with the charge on their end.

So, what is the procedure for doing this? Pay the fee before booking, or when you get to the hotel? In my experience it has always been to pay the fee at the time of booking .. but things can change.

 

[eva]

I'm not sure how this happened? Don't you have to pay the fee at the time of booking? I would think you had to give them a CC right then and there on the phone before they even did the transaction.

Surely they didn't have you pay it when you got to the hotel. That would be especially bad if you booked a Hotel room for friends or family and they ended up with the charge on their end.

So, what is the procedure for doing this? Pay the fee before booking, or when you get to the hotel? In my experience it has always been to pay the fee at the time of booking .. but things can change.

For DCL, ABD, and DL (back when they charged the $75 fee) I have always had to give a card number and have been charged when booking. I've never heard of it happening at check-in.

 

[Tiger926]

Like I said, I have gone through this 3x in the past 9 months - you must pay when you book or the transaction cannot be completed. This is what MS explained to me the very first time we booked our cruise - the charge comes through as 'Timeshare' on our credit card.

Not sure what happened in the above instance? Tiger

 

[Dean]

Ok, I'm always willing to listen to a different opinion, but can you dissect this and help me understand you're points.

How will this lower overall trade rates? What rates are you referring to?

How can administrative cost for this be so high? The same DVC people who book me a DVC room at BWV for example, are the same people who book a room for me at the GF for example. If I have a problem w/ my ressie, I have to talk to DVC. The regular CRO or even hotel can't help me. It all has to go through DVC. I had a problem the Sunday before I was going to down & I had to wait for MS to open & then couldn't get through to them ever before I left b/c their phones were jammed.

Does anyone know how many non-DVC Disney ressie members actually make & how long they normally stay?


Can you explain what you meant when you said: "The balance between trades, renting and DVC owner use has become unsustainable - and will not get better as DVC grows. Its nice to see Disney recognizing this."

I am a teacher & like to understand all sides. Help me to understand your side.

I see this as a loss for Disney, b/c if I can't get a 1-2 nights that I need despite booking many months in advance (usually 5-9 months in advance) I will start staying off property for a few nights & enjoying the Universal parks which we almost never go to. I can't always get the flights that far in advance at a discount. I also sometimes have to wait until we know certain big summer event dates that can't be missed. I'm a teacher & our only long trips are in the summer. It's rare we can go during the school year for more than 3 -4 nights & that's almost not worth it.

I paid 41 points (1 night smallest room) to splurge for my Mom's 80th b-day + had to pay the new $95 fee--which I was not informed of when I booked.

Where do those points go? How Disney make $ from us paying more points for such a room? If we pay so much in our points, don't they make something off of that? Why the fee, when it's the same company? I'm not dealing w/ a different company.

I am a teacher & like to understand all sides. Help me to understand your side.

Thanks for helping me understand all sides!

If less people trade for DC rooms, it means less DVC rooms given up for rental and it's not a one to one relationship. The points ration is about 2.5 to 1 (roughly) so that generally means you'll see a 2 BR given up for a hotel room or possibly 3 studios to get that one room at a DC option. And it will add more admin costs to DVC as they could likely do with one or two less employees if they didn't have this option or it was used much less.

I paid 41 points (1 night smallest room) to splurge for my Mom's 80th b-day + had to pay the new $95 fee--which I was not informed of when I booked.

As noted above, any applicable fee must be paid on reservation. I'm assuming you made a change to the reservation and thus had to pay the fee now like it was a new reservation. If you made another change, you'd have to pay the fee again still.

 

[DVC Mary]

Thanks for the explanations. I didn't understand that renting a room at much higher points meant that DVC had to give up room(s) for cash rental. It will be interesting to see if this really means less DVC rooms will be made available for cash rental.

Do they ever publish the actual stats?

Maybe this will help people like us who often find that we can't get one of two nights that we need. If not, I guess we will either have to rent out points to help pay for the nights when we can't get a DVC room or we'll start spending a those days at the Universal hotels now that our kids are older. We've never been part of the rental crowd. We've only done it at a discount for family or close friends 3 times since buying in 1999.

In regards to when you pay for this fee. We were caught off guard by this b/c we weren't informed of it when we booked our recent Feb trip, despite having made the ressie in January, after the fee apparently had been announced. They must have forgot to tell us & we missed it in the member newsletter. (We normally only go in the summer.)

IMHO I'm just still really sad to that this perk has been made too cost prohibitive. They really can't advertise it as a perk anymore. It's not the same as exchanging your 150 points + $95 for a week somewhere. It costs much much more.

Thank you for the explanations. I shall respect your desire to keep everyone's dues down & less DVC rooms used for cash rentals. Please respect my right to still be disappointed and sad about this change.

We'll all have to wait & see what the future holds.

 

[Dean]

Thanks for the explanations. I didn't understand that renting a room at much higher points meant that DVC had to give up room(s) for cash rental. It will be interesting to see if this really means less DVC rooms will be made available for cash rental.

Do they ever publish the actual stats?

Maybe this will help people like us who often find that we can't get one of two nights that we need. If not, I guess we will either have to rent out points to help pay for the nights when we can't get a DVC room or we'll start spending a those days at the Universal hotels now that our kids are older. We've never been part of the rental crowd. We've only done it at a discount for family or close friends 3 times since buying in 1999.

In regards to when you pay for this fee. We were caught off guard by this b/c we weren't informed of it when we booked our recent Feb trip, despite having made the ressie in January, after the fee apparently had been announced. They must have forgot to tell us & we missed it in the member newsletter. (We normally only go in the summer.)

IMHO I'm just still really sad to that this perk has been made too cost prohibitive. They really can't advertise it as a perk anymore. It's not the same as exchanging your 150 points + $95 for a week somewhere. It costs much much more.

Thank you for the explanations. I shall respect your desire to keep everyone's dues down & less DVC rooms used for cash rentals. Please respect my right to still be disappointed and sad about this change.

We'll all have to wait & see what the future holds.

No, they don't publish the stats. IMO, the perk was far too expensive from day one but each member must decide where the draw the line. It's not the dues that are affected but the trade costs. If there are less trades that need cash, it will be easier to raise the cash and thus those trade options should be less points and thus a better value.

 

[DoOverDreams]

Please don't flame me for this, but I wanted to bring something up. If I call at 7 months to reserve a DVC room that is not at my home resort and can't get it (which seems to be the case quite frequently) I have 3 options, use a whole lot of points plus the $95 fee to stay at a non-DVC Disney hotel (if they have availability), pay cash at a DVC or non-DVC Disney hotel (which costs a heck of a lot of money), or stay offsite and pay a whole lot less money.

If the reason they are charging lots of points and a $95 penalty is to keep us at DVC hotels, then they need to make sure there are rooms available for us! I know there's another string out there asking why DVC rooms aren't available for DVC members but you can go to the Disney travel site and buy rooms easily.

My 2 cents.

Have a magical day!

 

[Chuck S]

Please don't flame me for this, but I wanted to bring something up. If I call at 7 months to reserve a DVC room that is not at my home resort and can't get it (which seems to be the case quite frequently) I have 3 options, use a whole lot of points plus the $95 fee to stay at a non-DVC Disney hotel (if they have availability), pay cash at a DVC or non-DVC Disney hotel (which costs a heck of a lot of money), or stay offsite and pay a whole lot less money.

If the reason they are charging lots of points and a $95 penalty is to keep us at DVC hotels, then they need to make sure there are rooms available for us! I know there's another string out there asking why DVC rooms aren't available for DVC members but you can go to the Disney travel site and buy rooms easily.

My 2 cents.

Have a magical day!

Remember that there is no guarantee of a room being available, even during your 11 month window. If there are 500 rooms, and 600 people call for those dates at 11 months, there will still be 100 disappointed members. Point based timeshares are designed for near 100% occupancy year round. If everyone wants to travel at the same time, there won't be availability. We see this a lot during December and January when folks are calling daily for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.

And in fact, we are only actually guaranteed the ability, based upon availability, to use our points at our home resort, non-home resorts could though extremely unlikely, be withdrawn from our options, or withdraw from DVC.

 

[crisi]

Please don't flame me for this, but I wanted to bring something up. If I call at 7 months to reserve a DVC room that is not at my home resort and can't get it (which seems to be the case quite frequently) I have 3 options, use a whole lot of points plus the $95 fee to stay at a non-DVC Disney hotel (if they have availability), pay cash at a DVC or non-DVC Disney hotel (which costs a heck of a lot of money), or stay offsite and pay a whole lot less money.

If the reason they are charging lots of points and a $95 penalty is to keep us at DVC hotels, then they need to make sure there are rooms available for us! I know there's another string out there asking why DVC rooms aren't available for DVC members but you can go to the Disney travel site and buy rooms easily.

My 2 cents.

Have a magical day!

This is why so many people make reservations for their home resort as soon as they know they are going to travel, and then switch if there is availability. Its also the reason that people on this board don't recommend DVC if you can't plan your trips months in advance. DVC does not guarantee a room will be available when you want it - and is designed to run fairly full - so at some point even late January becomes booked.

 

[DoOverDreams]

I know, I know. No guarantee. Still, I am spoiled! I want the rooms I want when I want them!

Seriously, DVC has been the best investment we could ever have made. We're one of the new owners who have already added a couple of hundred points cause we are loving it so much! We're doing what most people would say is the wrong way of doing things. It's just DH and myself and we love just going down for a long weekend and staying in 1 bedrooms. We're using a lot of points that way, I know, but we are having so much fun!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Please don't flame me for this, but I wanted to bring something up. If I call at 7 months to reserve a DVC room that is not at my home resort and can't get it (which seems to be the case quite frequently) I have 3 options, use a whole lot of points plus the $95 fee to stay at a non-DVC Disney hotel (if they have availability), pay cash at a DVC or non-DVC Disney hotel (which costs a heck of a lot of money), or stay offsite and pay a whole lot less money.

If the reason they are charging lots of points and a $95 penalty is to keep us at DVC hotels, then they need to make sure there are rooms available for us! I know there's another string out there asking why DVC rooms aren't available for DVC members but you can go to the Disney travel site and buy rooms easily.

My 2 cents.

Have a magical day!

And the fact is, if you aren't able to call early enough to get your desired ressie perhaps you own at the wrong resort or too small a resort for your booking habits. I have NEVER had the experience of not getting what I wanted when I calleld, but then I usually call at the 11 month booking window, or for sure before the 7 month window opens, and we don't often book difficult go book times or units with the exception of early Dec.

 

[DoOverDreams]

Oh, we love our home resort, but wanted to try the different ones out too, just to see what they are like.

I think we're going to have to do another add-on in the very near future at BWV! I've got our wonderful guide Cathy, checking into to it now....

Yep, we're hooked.

 

[DVC Mary]

And the fact is, if you aren't able to call early enough to get your desired ressie perhaps you own at the wrong resort or too small a resort for your booking habits. I have NEVER had the experience of not getting what I wanted when I calleld, but then I usually call at the 11 month booking window, or for sure before the 7 month window opens, and we don't often book difficult go book times or units with the exception of early Dec.

Unfortunately as a teacher summer is the only time for a more than 3-4 nights. Until this past year, we've usually only gone once a year--SUMMER. We told our guide this when we bought in. It used to be I could book at BWV at the 11 month window for a studio w/o a problem & possibly switch out to a different resort. It's become almost impossible for us to ever get a full week anywhere other than our home resort or SSR (which we don't like) & even that can be difficult at times. Sometimes I even have to even switch rooms w/in my home resort ex) studio to a 1 bedroom, but if I call CRO they have plenty of rooms to rent. The waiting lists don't come through like they used to in the past even booking 11 months our & trying to switch at 7 months.

We bought into DVC to enjoy the various resorts--not just our home resort. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to enjoy the other resorts we like--BCV for example we only made it in there once.

That's why we were starting to become interested in staying at GF or Poly for a night or two if we did have to switch.

Sorry if Doover Dreams & I are starting to veer off topic, but I think these issues are related. We understand rooms aren't guaranteed, but they seem to be getting harder to find.

I'm sorry if I seem dense but I'm still trying to understand this.

Dean: can you explain what you meant when you said "If there are less trades that need cash, it will be easier to raise the cash and thus those trade options should be less points and thus a better value."

Thanks for the great discussions everyone!

 

[RobDoc]

... We understand rooms aren't guaranteed, but they seem to be getting harder to find.

I'm sorry if I seem dense but I'm still trying to understand this.

Dean: can you explain what you meant when you said "If there are less trades that need cash, it will be easier to raise the cash and thus those trade options should be less points and thus a better value."

Thanks for the great discussions everyone!

That is a likely goal of the $95 fee - to decrease the number of points acquired by CRO for cash reservations and possibly to even offset some of the money needed to pay for these stays. By reducing the number of points available to CRO, the net result is more member availability.

The real problem though is that members themselves are still making reservations prior to 7 months at their Home Resort. I still have found that the waitlist does work - especially if members can be flexible with their dates, resort and villa type - but patience is required at this point and some may still not get their specific request.

If the number of non-DVC options are reduced by this and other policies, there will be less need for CRO to rent as many DVC rooms for cash. There is a certain amount of interest for these rooms and that number isn't likely to change much. With fewer villas needing to be rented by CRO and a relatively stable number of reservations needed the result will be an easier opportunity to recoup the money required for members using the non-DVC options.

 

[Dean]

Please don't flame me for this, but I wanted to bring something up. If I call at 7 months to reserve a DVC room that is not at my home resort and can't get it (which seems to be the case quite frequently) I have 3 options, use a whole lot of points plus the $95 fee to stay at a non-DVC Disney hotel (if they have availability), pay cash at a DVC or non-DVC Disney hotel (which costs a heck of a lot of money), or stay offsite and pay a whole lot less money.

If the reason they are charging lots of points and a $95 penalty is to keep us at DVC hotels, then they need to make sure there are rooms available for us! I know there's another string out there asking why DVC rooms aren't available for DVC members but you can go to the Disney travel site and buy rooms easily.

My 2 cents.

Have a magical day!

Actually the first and best options is simply to reserve at 11 months out at your home resort, everything else after that is secondary and risky to degree. There are enough rooms already for the entire year for all members but the nature of any points system is that demand is not equal throughout the year. The ONLY reason they're charging the fee and a lot of points is because that's what's needed to fund the program and pay for the exchange options, mostly because they only rent out about 75% of the room that are slated for this purpose and CRO takes a 50% cut of each rental. Within the other options you mentioned, you could go at a different time, you could rent out your points, you could even sell them if you weren't happy with the options.

Sorry if Doover Dreams & I are starting to veer off topic, but I think these issues are related. We understand rooms aren't guaranteed, but they seem to be getting harder to find.

I'm sorry if I seem dense but I'm still trying to understand this.

Dean: can you explain what you meant when you said "If there are less trades that need cash, it will be easier to raise the cash and thus those trade options should be less points and thus a better value."

Many of us have predicted that many options would be increasingly difficult at 7 months but many others kept telling us we were wrong. I think it will get more difficult still with a peak somewhere around 3 years from now. The simple reason is the extra points that SSR has brought into the system at a resort with less demand comparatively that some others and thus a lot of points competing at the 7 month window. As a result many that waited to reserve even at their home resort until the 7 months window or after, have now moved inside the 7 month window causing a cascade that's move certain groups back to the 11 month window.

As for the cash type exchanges, I'll try again. For sake of discussion compare 100 DVC rooms up for rental to 200 during the same period. Further assume that DVC would rent 100% of 100 units compared to 75% of 200 units and that 50% of the 100 would be to members compared to 25% of the 200 group. Simple math will tell you that your losing money on the second portion of the 200 and thus you have less efficiency. If you simply assume a constant rental rate (for simplicity) of $1000 per unit, you end up with somewhere around $62500 for the first 100 but only an additional $25000 for the second 100 portion of the 200. Further assumptions that all member rentals were for 25% member discount. The system is more efficient with less rooms to rent out and thus the number of rentals compared to the number of cash equivalent exchanges is less.

 

[ZekeKelso]

For sake of discussion compare 100 DVC rooms up for rental to 200 during the same period. Further assume that DVC would rent 100% of 100 units compared to 75% of 200 units

This is just total speculation on my part, but it could go the other way. Considering that DVC members book much earlier than CRO guests, they tend to grab the most desirable room and dates, with CRO taking the leftovers.

It's possible that CRO would be able to rent out a higher proportion if they had the 200 least desirable room/dates than if they only had 100.

 

[Dean]

This is just total speculation on my part, but it could go the other way. Considering that DVC members book much earlier than CRO guests, they tend to grab the most desirable room and dates, with CRO taking the leftovers.

It's possible that CRO would be able to rent out a higher proportion if they had the 200 least desirable room/dates than if they only had 100.

DVD often doesn't wait until things have been picked over to select rooms to rent out though they try to spread them around and not take the highest demand times. Certainly the demand of the week in question plays an important roll and that's a different and major aspect. DVC could pick higher demand weeks and compete more head to head with owners reserving to use and thus get more money and make exchanges less points. There's no argument that I would think of that could successfully represent it'd be easier to rent out more low demand units compare to less units, more high demand units, that's another matter and I'd agree with you.