Distribution of Points by Use Year by Resort

[wdrl]

Since becoming a DVC Member in 2009, I have been tracking data about sales at the DVC resorts. Initially, I was just interested in finding out what percentage of BLT was sold. Slowly, my interests expanded to include other DVC resorts and other aspects of DVC point sales, such as percent declared and DVD's ROFR activity.

One question that has interested me is whether a resort's points are evenly distributed among the eight Use Year. Some Disboard posters said that points are assigned equally among each UY; other posters said that there are more points in some UYs than in other UYs.

To answer this question, I reviewed the Declarations and deeds filed by Disney Vacation Development with the servicing county offices. It appears that at Old Key West, the first DVC resort, Disney tried to have a fairly even distribution of points among the eight UYs. The difference between the largest UY and smallest UY is only 4.6% at OKW. However, at subsequent DVC resorts, DVD has not tried to have an even distribution of points. For example, at BLT, the February UY accounts for 36.8% of its total points, while the October UY accounts for only 4.7% of BLT's points.

Below is a cumulative chart that shows the distribution of points by Use Year for the seven DVC resorts located at Walt Disney World.

Individual charts for the seven DVC resorts and for Disney's Hilton Head Island can be found at http://dvcnews.com/forum/showthread...of-DVC-points-by-Use-Year&p=103302#post103302. Click on "Read the Full Article" in the first post to view the charts.


Once I account for all the Units at Disney's Vero Beach, I will prepare a chart for it as well. Unfortunately, I doubt I will be able to prepare similar UY charts for Aulani or for the Villas at Grand California. The Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances and the Orange County, CA Clerk-Recorder, where deeds and declarations are recorded for those resorts, do not permit detailed review of records.

 

[RobDoc]

Thanks so much for your efforts compiling this information!

 

[drusba]

wdrl, you have once again topped the chart with useful, detailed data and the amazing thing is that the person you are now outdoing every time is yourself. Thanks again for all your work.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

Ahhhhhhh! A data geek after my own heart.

So, I'm assuming they do this based on demand? If so, that totally makes sense to me. DH is a teacher. If I were picking a UY based on our travel, Feb would be first choice, followed by Dec. Those two UYs make up a third of all UYs sold. I'm sure Disney sells a lot of contracts to young families with school age children. Very interesting...would help with predicting call volumes as well. I'm sure there's a financial reason tied to the decision aside from just sales.

 

[XGrumpy1]

I am sure after OKW, DVC learned what use years sold best and has adjusted the make up of all the resorts since.

I never would have thought to check this, thanks for doing the work.

 

[DVC Dude]

That is an amazing amount of research and work. Thanks for taking the time to compile all that data.

 

[mdsd8700]

Thanks wdrl, your information is always awesome and I learn so much from everything you post. Your hard work is greatly appreciated.

 

[JWG]

BLT really launched the Feb use year on the map. Kind of like BWV did for August. Wouldn't mind having February myself... being able to bank in September would be great.

Does Disney predetermine the use years or do they just allocate the points to whichever use year people want to buy (within the 8 available)?

 

[wdrl]

Does Disney predetermine the use years or do they just allocate the points to whichever use year people want to buy (within the 8 available)?

DVD always seems to have a "default" Use Year that they offer to new buyers. Unless a new buyer really wants a specific UY, then they will get the "default" UY. In the last few months, the "default" UY appears to have shifted from August to September and now to October, based on the new master contracts filed with the Orange County Comptroller.

I doubt whether DVD predetermines the exact UY distribution at a resort. At BLT, February was the "default" UY for at least the first nine months of sales, which was probably by design. But after that, I suspect DVD was opportunistic in its use of UYs to maximize its offer of "bonus" or "double" points to new buyers.

 

[fflmaster]

Did anyone notice that all UY not available have holidays close to the end or beginning of the month.

Jan 1st,
Memorial day,
July 4th,
Thanksgiving on most years

I wonder if Disney doesn't like having people with the ability to use different use years for same vacation. Anyone can do thus, but holidays are the busiest.

 

[wdrl]

Did anyone notice that all UY not available have holidays close to the end or beginning of the month.

I've always wondered about the Use Years in the Disney Vacation Club. Why eight UYs? Why not six or ten UYs? Your guess about January, May, July, and November not being used because they have major U.S. holidays might be true, but then how do you explain December (Christmas/Hanukkah) or September (Labor Day)?

I know very little about the operations of other timeshare systems, but I wonder if the monthly UY system is unique to the DVC. Since most timeshares before the DVC were based on fixed week systems, I doubt they needed a Use Year system like DVC's. The Marriott timeshare system is converting to a points system and I wonder how it distributes its points to their members.

 

[JWG]

Other than distribution of workload, averaged time spent helping members bank and borrow points, what is the advantage to Disney in having use years? Technically, we all could be a January use year with an August banking deadline.

I get the advantage to a member, the ability to purchase a use year that allows banking AFTER your most frequented travel period in case of cancelation.

But, outside of not creating a severe spike in workload in August for all members wanting to bank - I don't see the significant value for Disney. Other than selling the variety of use years to pick from and the opportunity to sell points that are essentially usable for a year from the point of purchase (for use year 1 of ownership).

 

[Gelfling_Jen]

Does the number of points in a use year at a particular resort have an effect on availability? for example is it more difficult to find availability in October at BLT because there are less points allocated to that use year or is it actually easier to find availability in October because not as many BLT owners have an October use year and therefore are most likely to book at other times of the year?

 

[Sandisw]

Does the number of points in a use year at a particular resort have an effect on availability? for example is it more difficult to find availability in October at BLT because there are less points allocated to that use year or is it actually easier to find availability in October because not as many BLT owners have an October use year and therefore are most likely to book at other times of the year?

The UY of the points is in no way tied to availability. Points can be used to book any day 11 months in advance of a stay at their home resort and 7 months at all the others.

The fact that I own a June UY plays no role in what month I can use my points.

 

[DenLo]

Other than distribution of workload, averaged time spent helping members bank and borrow points, what is the advantage to Disney in having use years? Technically, we all could be a January use year with an August banking deadline.

I get the advantage to a member, the ability to purchase a use year that allows banking AFTER your most frequented travel period in case of cancelation.

But, outside of not creating a severe spike in workload in August for all members wanting to bank - I don't see the significant value for Disney. Other than selling the variety of use years to pick from and the opportunity to sell points that are essentially usable for a year from the point of purchase (for use year 1 of ownership).

I think one purpose of different UY's is preparation in case a rare situation where there are more points that need to be used and not enough villas to use them up. It could be as simple that if every member had the same UY and we all bank our points and try to use those points in the same short period of time before they expired. The only time I could see this really happening is when the length of a DVC contract for a resort was expiring. The DVC couldn't extend the points into a future year because there isn't a DVC resort after the contract expires.

More likely I would think it was just a way of allocating points from a fixed week method to a point method.

 

[mac_tlc]

wrdl -- as others have said -- thanks for puliing this together. It actually explains why I have had a tough time finding an AKV April Use Year re-sale. There are some, but it seemd to be the least active -- now I can tell why -- only 3.8% of AKV is April. Maybe when they finally declare the remaining 33% it will balance out a little more.
I know I don't need the same UY, but if we bought at AKV it would be our 3rd home resort -- that's enough for me to keep track of at this point -- don't need 2 UY's too!

mac_tlc

 

[SabresFan]

Did anyone notice that all UY not available have holidays close to the end or beginning of the month.

Jan 1st,
Memorial day,
July 4th,
Thanksgiving on most years

I wonder if Disney doesn't like having people with the ability to use different use years for same vacation. Anyone can do thus, but holidays are the busiest.

There is some method to it. Each three month quarter has 2 months with a UY and one not.

1st Quarter - Januray no, February and March yes
2nd Quarter - May no, April and June yes
3rd Quarter - July no, August and September yes
4th Quarter - November no, October and December yes

It might also be some quirk that went back to when OKW first opened up, and they just decided to continue that pattern with all future DVC resorts rather than make it really complicated.

But I'm sure holiday scheduling also played a part in their thinking. Especially since one of the benefits to the Disney corporation of DVC is helping to stock the parks with visitors during non-peak periods.

 

[TisBit]

I think one purpose of different UY's is preparation in case a rare situation where there are more points that need to be used and not enough villas to use them up. It could be as simple that if every member had the same UY and we all bank our points and try to use those points in the same short period of time before they expired. The only time I could see this really happening is when the length of a DVC contract for a resort was expiring. The DVC couldn't extend the points into a future year because there isn't a DVC resort after the contract expires.

More likely I would think it was just a way of allocating points from a fixed week method to a point method.

Actually, you have a very valid point regardless of when the resorts contract expire. Lets use some hypothetical numbers...say 50% of members usually wait until the last month to bank their points. This would create a crush on MS....we will say about 30% of members bank earlier, but it would still most likely be only a month or two earlier than the deadline. The remaining 20% miss their banking deadline...of this number we know some will just have points expiring for whatever reason, but say 15% of all members are trying to book in the last four months in order to not lose their points. The resorts just couldn't handle this crush of reservations of people that forgot to bank and need to use their points.

With the current system, these distressed points (must be used points because of canceled reservations, missed banking deadlines, etc) are more evenly spread through the entire year.