Disney to Stop Commercial Bookings?

[Sparrow'sLady]

I tried to find a thread on this and was unable to locate one. I am sure it is there/here somewhere.

I read Disney is going to place a halt on commercial reservations...I read this to mean that they are going to stop those who make a living on their contracts, vs using them for self, friends and family. ??

First, I seriously doubt it. They said the same thing about scalpers/resellers back in 2018-ish and that is going stronger than ever.

I am asking because I am curious if that will put a squash on businesses like David's DVC rental? I used to own DVC, sold it in 2020 when my daughter married as she did not want to use the points and my husband lost his job. I considered another contract via resale (a small one), but my husband does not want to go all the time, so I cannot justify spending that kind of money just on myself.

Thoughts on how that will affect places like David's? Is Disney blowing smoke with no real desire to act? Should I go ahead and consider a small resale contract?

 

[Cfabar1]

Where did you read this?

DVC does make owners certify the units are for "personal use" and not "commercial use". Not aware of any changes beyond that.

 

[Sparrow'sLady]

Where did you read this?

DVC does make owners certify the units are for "personal use" and not "commercial use". Not aware of any changes beyond that.

Well, that does not mean they are telling the truth. Same with AP holders who purchase up all the merch and sell it to make a living. It is prohibited, yet it happens all day, every day.

https://mickeyvisit.com/disney-reduces-dvc-rentals-december-19-2025/

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/crackdown-disney-vacation-club-point-rental-commercial-businesses/

 

[geargrinder]

Well, that does not mean they are telling the truth. Same with AP holders who purchase up all the merch and sell it to make a living. It is prohibited, yet it happens all day, every day.

https://mickeyvisit.com/disney-reduces-dvc-rentals-december-19-2025/

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/crackdown-disney-vacation-club-point-rental-commercial-businesses/

The point was that Disney adding this affirmation has been the only action they have visibly taken to prevent commercial renting.

Nothing else has been done. Nothing else is likely to be done since it Disney has been so elusive in defining "commercial" renting.

I'd think that the normal owner who rents less than their entire yearly points will never be questioned.



.

 

[Sandisw]

The board stated last year that it would be working on monitoring and going after large point owners who were renting in a way that moved them to what DVC sees as commercial in violation of the contract.

They said at the BWV condo meeting it was still being monitored and such.

To date, though, we know that DVC has not updated the commercial use policy and has not yet made any other booking for rule changes.

In personal conversations with them….and I have had a lot…they do monitor and enforce against owners who they feel are in violation. And it is owner based.

The hard part is that DVCs definition of what actions an owners is doing rises to the level that shifts an owner from renting under personal use and right to rent to renting to the degree is now seen as a business, etc. doesn’t always match wat people think it should be.

I don’t think it’s going to impact brokers in anyway because some, and maybe David’s, put in guarantees to renters that if something happens with an owner, they will help make it right.

I know if I was someone renting, I’d want to go with a broker or private just as a safety as private gives you no protections.

If you buy and have to rent your points, you are allowed to do so and that won’t ever change.

I do not and have not seen anything that even suggests DVC isn’t going to apply rules in a common sense way and go after the average owner who may be renting in a way that clearly shows it’s not renting in a way that makes them appear to be a commercial entity

 

[VGCgroupie]

It's always been not allowed, recently they added a checkbox to attest to personal use or they ask to you attest to it when booking by phone, they are allowing owners to decide what they feel constitutes personal use. Davids isn't attesting to anything because they are not the ones making the reservation the owners make the reservation.

In short. Currently things are business as usual.

 

[Sparrow'sLady]

The board stated last year that it would be working on monitoring and going after large point owners who were renting in a way that moved them to what DVC sees as commercial in violation of the contract.

They said at the BWV condo meeting it was still being monitored and such.

To date, though, we know that DVC has not updated the commercial use policy and has not yet made any other booking for rule changes.

In personal conversations with them….and I have had a lot…they do monitor and enforce against owners who they feel are in violation. And it is owner based.

The hard part is that DVCs definition of what actions an owners is doing rises to the level that shifts an owner from renting under personal use and right to rent to renting to the degree is now seen as a business, etc. doesn’t always match wat people think it should be.

I don’t think it’s going to impact brokers in anyway because some, and maybe David’s, put in guarantees to renters that if something happens with an owner, they will help make it right.

I know if I was someone renting, I’d want to go with a broker or private just as a safety as private gives you no protections.

If you buy and have to rent your points, you are allowed to do so and that won’t ever change.

I do not and have not seen anything that even suggests DVC isn’t going to apply rules in a common sense way and go after the average owner who may be renting in a way that clearly shows it’s not renting in a way that makes them appear to be a commercial entity

Very helpful.

Thank you!

 

[GoingSince1990]

I have not seen a single post either here or anywhere else on the internet along the lines of "I rented my points to someone and DVC accused me of being a commercial renter and canceled the reservation!" If anyone is aware of such a post, anywhere, please share it!

 

[okw2012]

What about someone (like me) who has been renting most of its points and exhanging them for cruises? Although I am not making any money from these rentals, from Disney's perspective I have been renting almost all of my points in the last few years in 2025. Should I be worried my rentals will be canceled? I own only 250 points in total but could be renting about 500 points this year through the magic of banking and borrowing.

 

[VGCgroupie]

What about someone (like me) who has been renting most of its points and exhanging them for cruises? Although I am not making any money from these rentals, from Disney's perspective I have been renting almost all of my points in the last few years in 2025. Should I be worried my rentals will be canceled? I own only 250 points in total but could be renting about 500 points this year through the magic of banking and borrowing.

Nobody knows for sure. DVC has not said what they specially consider commercial. I can say that using points to rent to book cruises isnt going to fly as an excuse if for some reason DVC did approach you. They have cruise exchanges for people that want to use points to cruise. (yes its a bad value and renting and swapping into a cruise makes more financial sense, I have done it but I have not done it with multiple years of ALL my points)

 

[cruisehopeful]

What about someone (like me) who has been renting most of its points and exhanging them for cruises? Although I am not making any money from these rentals, from Disney's perspective I have been renting almost all of my points in the last few years in 2025. Should I be worried my rentals will be canceled? I own only 250 points in total but could be renting about 500 points this year through the magic of banking and borrowing.

They can see that you're going on the cruise, assuming you are going on DCL, no matter how you booked it. While this is 100% speculation on my part, I'd think that they would delighted to see you booking a Disney cruise. You also don't have that many points. I don't see how it would be an issue. There are people with thousands of points that rent them every year. Disney hasn't done anything to them.

I'm guessing that Disney is more interested in the people booking high demand resorts during high demand seasons and then renting out those reservations.

 

[okw2012]

Indeed they will know that I booked a Disney cruise. And no I have not been approached in any way by DVC.

I've rented multiple times in the past and also I have been going to the parks pretty much on a yearly basis until this year.

For reasons that I won't discuss in this thread or board, I don't plan to visit USA parks until 2029. If renting all my points until then is going to be a problem, I will simply sell my contracts and vacation elsewhere.

Went to Disneyland Paris in december. Had a blast.

 

[reddog21]

defining "commercial" renting.

This is the answer: until they clearly define "commercial" renting, good luck enforcing anything.

 

[Sandisw]

This is the answer: until they clearly define "commercial" renting, good luck enforcing anything.

As an owner, they have to explain to you what you did that they felt crossed the line so in that sense they would.

But, it’s still always going to be owner specific and case by case and it’s why IMO, they didn’t bother updating their policy because they don’t need to.

It gives them the ability they need to review accounts, talk to owners and make assessments from there.

 

[Sandisw]

Message from the mods…posted in another thread already but a reminder.

Any posts that appear to accuse another poster of violating the policy or being a commercial renter will have their posts deleted and warnings/infracitons given.

Only DVC decides that…

 

[Sandisw]

What about someone (like me) who has been renting most of its points and exhanging them for cruises? Although I am not making any money from these rentals, from Disney's perspective I have been renting almost all of my points in the last few years in 2025. Should I be worried my rentals will be canceled? I own only 250 points in total but could be renting about 500 points this year through the magic of banking and borrowing.

The offical policy for commercial use is that having more than 20 reservations in a 12 month period will trigger a review.

If that happens, you should be given the opportunity to discuss what and why you rented and whether or not it is high enough volume to shift you from renting within the rules to not.

What we know is it is not cut and dry and I can say that in my conversations with DVC they understand that people have life situations that may temporarily change their use of DVC.

 

[reddog21]

As an owner, they have to explain to you what you did that they felt crossed the line so in that sense they would.

But, it’s still always going to be owner specific and case by case and it’s why IMO, they didn’t bother updating their policy because they don’t need to.

It gives them the ability they need to review accounts, talk to owners and make assessments from there.

If DVC says “commercial renting is prohibited” but never defines what “commercial” means, that creates contractual ambiguity. Contractual ambiguity itself is not illegal however legal problems exists when:
Enforces it selectively or inconsistently
Uses it to justify punitive penalties or forfeiture
Refuses to define the term while still punishing conduct

If contract law rules don’t apply, contracts are still protected by the FTC and state attorneys general. What is the basis for why companies get their hands slapped the most by either of those entities?
Vague terms causing consumer harm

They didn’t update their policy because, at this point, it’s just a scare tactic and it doesn't matter. Disney’s not stupid—they know they can say whatever they want, but actually enforcing it is another story. I’m no contract expert, but most contract disputes are forced through arbitration, so you’d never hear about it unless it turned into a class action lawsuit.

With that being said, if you’re renting thousands of points or renting as an LLC, it would be hard to argue that you’re not renting commercially. IMO these are the things that Disney is looking for.

My curiosity leans more toward places like David’s or the DVC rental store. They’re clearly commercial companies, but they act as rental agents and don’t own any points, so when, if ever, are they held accountable? My guess is that since they’re all still playing the game, they don’t believe they’re accountable.

 

[Cyberc1978]

Where did you read this?

DVC does make owners certify the units are for "personal use" and not "commercial use". Not aware of any changes beyond that.

As Ive mentioned in another thread, DVC reverted the pdf file related to the checkbox. However the text next to the checkbox still says you attest to personal use. But all of the text which were included in the pdf by June 1st is gone and replaced with the 2023 pdf file.

It’s been like that for a maybe a few months - I don’t recall when they reverted.

As I mentioned in another post it might been a mistake as the pdf text is only reverted for new reservations, for modifications it’s still there the June 1st pdf text.

 

[Cyberc1978]

If DVC says “commercial renting is prohibited” but never defines what “commercial” means, that creates contractual ambiguity. Contractual ambiguity itself is not illegal however legal problems exists when:
Enforces it selectively or inconsistently
Uses it to justify punitive penalties or forfeiture
Refuses to define the term while still punishing conduct

If contract law rules don’t apply, contracts are still protected by the FTC and state attorneys general. What is the basis for why companies get their hands slapped the most by either of those entities?
Vague terms causing consumer harm

They didn’t update their policy because, at this point, it’s just a scare tactic and it doesn't matter. Disney’s not stupid—they know they can say whatever they want, but actually enforcing it is another story. I’m no contract expert, but most contract disputes are forced through arbitration, so you’d never hear about it unless it turned into a class action lawsuit.

With that being said, if you’re renting thousands of points or renting as an LLC, it would be hard to argue that you’re not renting commercially. IMO these are the things that Disney is looking for.

My curiosity leans more toward places like David’s or the DVC rental store. They’re clearly commercial companies, but they act as rental agents and don’t own any points, so when, if ever, are they held accountable? My guess is that since they’re all still playing the game, they don’t believe they’re accountable.

As long as they only act as point brokers(middlemen) the beef (if any) DVC will have is with the owner using David’s to rent their points.

Also FL statutes says that HOA/COA after July 2021(I think it was) can’t restrict owners right to rent their ownership. I believe that’s the real reason why DVC is not doing more - they simply can’t.

If DVC enforces they are bound by the FL stat and if asked they need to explain that the rules they are enforcing is pre 2021 and it was never allowed. If it was never allowed, why was enforcement not done previously? What has changed? Etc. I know that DVC in their sole discretion can determine what’s constitutes commercial renting. However if DVC perception of what constitutes commercial renting changed from before 2021 then they could be restricting owners right to rent their ownership.

IMO even with DVC sole discretion to determine, that does not mean they can change their minds to something more restrictive than before.

Let’s assume I rented 100 reservations per year and have done so for the last 10 years. IMO that could be seen as commercial renting. But if DVC didn’t say or do anything about in the past 10 years then they clearly felt that I wasn’t in breach. Come now and if they say you are in breach. I would ask, what I have done differently this year vs other years which I clearly wasn’t in breach?

IMO there must be something that I did differently this year vs other years. It can’t be just by renting 100 reservations. Did I spec rent? If so show me in the rules that I can’t?

 

[muppets3d]

So far there haven't been any reports of any widespread action being taken. It's possible they've cancelled some reservations, tapped on some member's shoulders, etc., but those affected haven't spoken out about it. Until DVC starts taking action there isn't really any use in altering your behavior because we have no idea what behavior DVC finds objectionable.