DUES Info! - All resorts dues have been released

[davidhr]

The only difference I’ve noticed since becoming a DVC owner and switching from cash room is the reduced housekeeping (which isn’t a big deal for us as we are not messy and prefer housekeeping every 2-3 days). The rest has been pretty much the same for the good and not so good things. Disney has never been the best at this hotel thing. They’re good enough, but not great.

 

[Cyberc1978]

The only difference I’ve noticed since becoming a DVC owner and switching from cash room is the reduced housekeeping (which isn’t a big deal for us as we are not messy and prefer housekeeping every 2-3 days). The rest has been pretty much the same for the good and not so good things. Disney has never been the best at this hotel thing. They’re good enough, but not great.

I might be a minority here, but I rarely stay at hotels except for traveling abroad, and Disney, HGV and Sheraton all provides great services compared to what I'm used to when traveling in Europe. If Disney keeps up the service they are providing now, I'm more than satisfied. To me good or stellar service is not necessarily just providing me with what I ask for. It's just as much the dialogue or how the people working at the front desk present themselves. Also keep in mind that we the owners might demand or require more than the usual guest as we think we are entitled to because of our ownership.

I stayed at BLT in late October and I had a maintenance issue, the fridge stopped working. I tried to fix it myself but I'd couldn't as the outlet stopped working, so I called maintenance. In less than 30 minutes they came and fixed it. They had to go next door to flip the breaker. Its not ideal that the issue happened at all, but it was great that they fixed it as fast as they did.

 

[walt34]

It would not....the dues are for operation of the resort and the housekeeping budget is set to cover the schedule the way it is set up.

As long as the minimum number of nights for stays remains at one night, and the cost of housekeeping is part of the dues, then it has to cover whatever plan is in place.

Right now, we all pay based on the points that we own, so in that sense, we pay a proprotiante share of that budget. I just don't get the notion that because you use your points differently, you should pay less, or that someone else should be charged more?

What would be next? The pool? The community room? How about transportation? Should those that drive cars and never use WDW transportation pay less of that too? Or owners who do, be charged?

You have a point there but housekeeping is about 20% of the dues, so one of the larger positions. And it is quite directly impacted by how DVC points are used. Whether one person uses or doesn't use the monorail or the pool doesn't change anything. But every time you split up your DVC stay between rooms or resorts you quite directly necessitate another full cleaning of the room.

I don't know how much of housekeeping in the dues is spent on cleaning public areas (I assume not very much) but $1.6 housekeeping per point on an average week in a VGF studio is about $230. (2025 numbers). I assume this is about 8-10 hours of work? This seems quite a lot to me and is probably not one room cleaning but rather several per week.

I'm a fan of making costs that are easily directly attributable direct. I understand if you are not.

 

[atthebeachclub]

I've been treated the same whether staying on cash or points. Now I haven't yet stayed owning direct points, maybe they'll somehow upgrade their treatment of me in some way now that I'm a direct owner? I sort of doubt it though. Have always been treated well.

My only real DVC complaints revolve around bad lost and found incidents not "finding" our stuff that was pretty obviously in our room and labelled well. But that's mostly on me for just being forgetful, and I shouldn't have left things accidentally anyway (we had to rush out the door because breakfast took a lot longer than I anticipated).

 

[Sandisw]

My opinion or idea is just that, an opinion.

But I still think that those who demand or require more cleaning than others should pay for it.

Let take it to the extreme, let’s assume that all of my points went to single nights stays. How much does a cleaning of a studio cost $30? An average stay was 18 points then I would have more than 70 stays and a total cost of housekeeping of $2,100

Would it be reasonable or fair that my stays impact the membership with that cost?

Every owner wants lower dues and by charging either separately for housekeeping or only charging for shorter stays would accomplish that.

Since DVC sets the rules I don’t see why they couldn’t charge for shorter stays.

But that is where we differ. I don’t consider someone who is using their points for shorter stays as using more housekeeping.

We are getting the same as everyone else. We get a clean room when we check in…which is exactly what those who stay longer get.

Let’s take the person who stays a week…why should someone else who doesn’t stay that long have to pay for them to get a clean room mid trip? But we do..

What about towels? If someone stays with 4 guests and I only stay with 2, am I not paying more for the cost to clean towels when my travel party doesn’t use as much?

That’s why I said,.,I don’t get the notion that owners who use their membership more often should be charged extra for using it.

 

[Sandisw]

You have a point there but housekeeping is about 20% of the dues, so one of the larger positions. And it is quite directly impacted by how DVC points are used. Whether one person uses or doesn't use the monorail or the pool doesn't change anything. But every time you split up your DVC stay between rooms or resorts you quite directly necessitate another full cleaning of the room.

I don't know how much of housekeeping in the dues is spent on cleaning public areas (I assume not very much) but $1.6 housekeeping per point on an average week in a VGF studio is about $230. (2025 numbers). I assume this is about 8-10 hours of work? This seems quite a lot to me and is probably not one room cleaning but rather several per week.

I'm a fan of making costs that are easily directly attributable direct. I understand if you are not.

Well, the the maintenance of the pool and pool towels are paid by dues, aren’t they?

The upkeep of the parking lot is too..as I just posted, what about the group that travels with 2 in a studio vs 4. Isn’t that larger group using more towels during their stay? Doesn’t that add to the housekeeping budget?

That certainly can be directly related to use.

My point is that everything is not going to be exact. The easiest way to handle this is to simply pay for cleaning daily and up the cost of dues.

Or, if legally allowed…take cleaning out of dues and charge a resort fee to cover it for everyone..

And it’s not that I am not for costs that are direct…but I am not for saying that an owner who uses their membership for shorter stays, should have to pay extra for cleaning outside of what they are already paying for in dues when those who stay longer do not, when the minimum stay allowed is one night.

What I don’t agree with is that dues cover housekeepkng for only owners who stay at least X days. And, I don’t believe DVC can do that legally.

It’s why they stopped charging for extra towels…people were taking them from carts, from the pool, etc to avoid it.

Now, it’s built in and we can get them as much as we want when we stay.

ETA: Which, I am sure, that change has played a role in some way in the budget.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Okay so I didnt mean for my comment to derail the discussion pertaining to dues. Everyone has their feelings and experiences in their DVC journey. Let's just keep it about dues.

 

[Sandisw]

Okay so I didnt mean for my comment to derail the discussion pertaining to dues. Everyone has their feelings and experiences in their DVC journey. Let's just keep it about dues.

It was tangent but you yes, people should ask DVC if they are concerned or even just curious about it!

 

[BeachClub2014]

It would be interesting to see data on the average length of stay over the history of DVC. I'd be willing to bet a Mickey Premium Bar that the average length of stay has gone down over the years, and the frequency of room turns has gone up, which contributes to higher housekeeping costs.

I would imagine that the daily "security checks" have also increased housekeeping costs as it requires a housekeeper to "touch" every room each day. Back in the old days, that didn't happen. They only showed up at the door on a trash and towel day or the full cleaning day.

Bring on the 3-night minimum stays.

 

[walt34]

Well, the the maintenance of the pool and pool towels are paid by dues, aren’t they?

The upkeep of the parking lot is too..as I just posted, what about the group that travels with 2 in a studio vs 4. Isn’t that larger group using more towels during their stay? Doesn’t that add to the housekeeping budget?

Towels are a good example of what I'm not talking about. It probably costs only cents to wash and transport one additional towel. Counting and billing these at cost would not be worth the effort.

That certainly ca be directly related to use.

My point is that everything is not going to be exact. The easiest way to handle this is to simply pay for cleaning daily and up the cost of dues.

I don't think many here (any?) asked for daily cleaning. I certainly don't. Cleaning only once per week (if possible) keeps the costs down.

Or, if legally allowed…take cleanong out of dues and charge a resort fee to cover it for everyone..

Reducing the dues and billing cleaning per stay would be better, I believe. I really don't like the term resort fee as it frequently contains services that are the exact opposite: services that can't be counted (and are often not needed or wanted).

And it’s not that I am not for costs that are direct…but I am not for saying that an owner who uses their membership for shorter stays, should have to pay extra for cleaning outside of what they are already paying for in dues when those who stay longer do not, when the minimum stay allowed is one night.

I think there would be ways to have one cleaning per week's worth of points included per year and you'd only be charged if you required more as most uses (directly or indirectly) require at least one cleaning (even if you rent them out or give them to Disney in exchange for something else). But again reducing the dues by let's say 15% and charge cleaning directly per stay instead might be easiest.

BTW, we do split stays occasionally. But I'm always aware of the extra workload this puts on mousekeeping.

 

[VGCgroupie]

It would be interesting to see data on the average length of stay over the history of DVC. I'd be willing to bet a Mickey Premium Bar that the average length of stay has gone down over the years, and the frequency of room turns has gone up, which contributes to higher housekeeping costs.

I would imagine that the daily "security checks" have also increased housekeeping costs as it requires a housekeeper to "touch" every room each day. Back in the old days, that didn't happen. They only showed up at the door on a trash and towel day or the full cleaning day.

Bring on the 3-night minimum stays.

Travel patterns should also be changing in cash bookings also. If cash costs don’t increase by the same margin as dues are increasing, that is when we have a problem.

 

[muppets3d]

It's important to recognize that a bigger room equals more linens, more towels, more dishes, etc. and also more points. So those additional costs are being covered because the member is paying dues on more points for that stay.

 

[Sandisw]

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Towels are a good example of what I'm not talking about. It probably costs only cents to wash and transport one additional towel. Counting and billing these at cost would not be worth the effort.


I don't think many here (any?) asked for daily cleaning. I certainly don't. Cleaning only once per week (if possible) keeps the costs down.

Reducing the dues and billing cleaning per stay would be better, I believe. I really don't like the term resort fee as it frequently contains services that are the exact opposite: services that can't be counted (and are often not needed or wanted).

I think there would be ways to have one cleaning per week's worth of points included per year and you'd only be charged if you required more as most uses (directly or indirectly) require at least one cleaning (even if you rent them out or give them to Disney in exchange for something else). But again reducing the dues by let's say 15% and charge cleaning directly per stay instead might be easiest.

BTW, we do split stays occasionally. But I'm always aware of the extra workload this puts on mousekeeping.

My only point about the towels and number of guests is that where do you draw the line with who uses what....saying that the extra towels that a larger group uses compared to the smaller group is just pennies so let's not worry vs. the cost of cleaning is more so we should is what doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I know no one, including you, asked for daily cleaning, but what some have suggested is that an owner who goes on longer trips will get all of their cleanings covered via their dues payment, but owners who chose their points for shorter but more frequent stays have to pay extra, even though they are paying the same extra dollar amount in their dues.

Personally, I look at the cost of cleaning the rooms as part of it all and as long as the system allows owners to book reservations of only one night, then the cost to clean the rooms needs to cover that....and yes, that may mean that when owners use their memberships for shorter stays, or split stays, it increases the cost to clean.

Again, for me, the cost to clean the rooms based on owner's usage is either part of the dues or it is not...if it is part of the dues, then owners should not be charged extra, since they are required to clean between guests, and it shouldn't matter who that guest is...

ETA: When they changed the dishwear and mugs in the studios from real to paper, it upset a lot of people. The main reason was that the cost and inconvenience to wash those elsewhere (since there is no dishwasher except in the new PVB tower studio) was an issue.

But, owners were not happy, and they have since reverted to real mugs in many of the rooms and if you don't have them, you can request them.....so cost savings is not always the first priority of owners....