Does DVC reserve the right to allow booking only at home resorts?

[Dean]

Reading through this whole thread has been interesting. Something occurred to me that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet:

Right now, all points are equal at the seven-month mark. However, if getting into another resort at the seven-month mark becomes too difficult because of the quantity of people who are looking to switch, I think it's still possible for the owners at the smaller resorts to leverage their ownership at the smaller resort to give them an edge at booking another resort. I'll explain what I mean.

I own at VWL. Let's say I would like to stay at BCV during F&W. The most straighforward way of me doing that is to try to book at BCV once the seven-month window opens. (If I was smart, I'd have already booked at VWL for this time just in case I wasn't able to get anything at BCV at seven months out.) Unfortunately, once the seven-month window opens, I'd be competing with all other DVC owners.

There's another way I might try to get my BCV F&W reservation, though. VWL, where I own, seems to be a popular resort around the holidays. There might be a BCV owner who wants to stay at VWL during this time but would have difficulty doing so because of the competition at the seven-month mark from all the other DVC owners. What if, using my 11-month advantage, I book VWL for the holidays and trade that reservation for a comparable reservation at BCV during F&W, which the BCV owner got with his or her 11-month advantage? Of course, if I wanted to do this, I'd have no guarantee of being able to find someone who would be willing to make such a trade. Also, even if I did find someone, we'd have to work out a way of dealing with the disparity because it's unlikely that the two reservations would be for the exact same number of points. (We could probably get close, though.) In addition, such an arrangement would involve an element of trust between the two parties, but the risk is no greater than it would be for renting points, and members successfully rent points all the time.

I just mention this to illustrate that it's possible for people who own points at the more in-demand resorts to use their points to gain an edge at getting reservations at the other DVC resorts. I don't know that anyone currently does this, but so far, there probably hasn't been much need to do this. However, if the number of people clamoring for reservations at resorts other than their home resort continues to increase, such arrangements might start to become more common. And obviously, if people start doing this, it would become even more difficult for the people at the less-in-demand resorts to get a booking at the more-in-demand resorts.

To a degree, many of us already do these things and more. If you have enough points to work two reservations at the same time you can do wonders in getting what you want. In it's extreme it works like this. At the 11 mo mark I call day by day and book at my home resort. Then at 7 months out I call day by day and book the prefered resort, keeping the 11 month reservation at least until I'm all set with the prefered destination. Then I can do anything I want with the old reservaiton. I can cancel and use later, possibly bank or even rent the points. I could even go back and sub any distressed points in the new reservation if I need to, within the rules of course. There are MANY variations on this theme. And having more than one use year actually enhances this situation. The other option you mentioned has been explored by some but it comes down to the same trust inherent to a rental, especially if the weeks are not exactly coinciding.

And there are many other issues such as taking advantage of the current limitations on tracking transferred points, transferring in holding account points, etc. However, many of these issues are outside the rules. I don't mean the member would be in violation, just that the rules are either not enforced (at least consistently) or the rules don't address the issue at all. It is my hope that DVC, and Disney in general, will become more consistent in following all rules and go to the steps necessary to change the "bad" rules.