DVC rental help, please!

[jen3b]

Hi everyone! We are a family of five - myself, my husband, and our three sons ages 18, 16, and 14. Looking to stay in June after our oldest graduates from high school and considering renting DVC - our boys are "big" so a larger room size and balcony is appealing. Thinking OKW may be a good option? We may be joined by grandparents... trying to think of best way to accommodate everyone in a comfortable yet cost effective manner. Not sure if OKW have "smaller" units to house the grandparents close to us? Or perhaps another property would be better for us???

Any tips / advice is greatly appreciated. Renting DVC is all new to us; I am at the onset of researching the properties and amenities each has to offer. As far as the rental process it seems going through an agency may be better to prevent being taken advantage of (I'm sure there are many owners who are honest and trustworthy that would be a huge help, but unfortunately you never really know who you are dealing with online; I've read some real horror stories!). TiA!

 

[disneynutz]

Doesn't matter how you rent a reservation, you need to do your due diligence and check out the person/company and their policies. You will be spending big bucks for your vacation, is it worth spending a little more to get that "special" resort? While OKW has larger rooms, the resort is the oldest in the system and doesn't have direct access to anything. Step one is decide on the resort, step two is decide who you will rent from and do so 11 plus months prior to your desired check in date.

Bill

 

[momto3pirates]

If you are talking about next June, 2018, you are already inside of the 11 months. I don't want you to rush, but if you wait much longer you may not have any availability. Renting points is much different than a regular cash reservation.

 

[Marionnette]

Hi everyone! We are a family of five - myself, my husband, and our three sons ages 18, 16, and 14. Looking to stay in June after our oldest graduates from high school and considering renting DVC - our boys are "big" so a larger room size and balcony is appealing. Thinking OKW may be a good option? We may be joined by grandparents... trying to think of best way to accommodate everyone in a comfortable yet cost effective manner. Not sure if OKW have "smaller" units to house the grandparents close to us? Or perhaps another property would be better for us???

Any tips / advice is greatly appreciated. Renting DVC is all new to us; I am at the onset of researching the properties and amenities each has to offer. As far as the rental process it seems going through an agency may be better to prevent being taken advantage of (I'm sure there are many owners who are honest and trustworthy that would be a huge help, but unfortunately you never really know who you are dealing with online; I've read some real horror stories!). TiA!

Hmmm...in all of my years on Disney message boards, I have read a total of 5 incidents where a DVC rental went bad - and two of them were done thru one of the agencies! If an owner is going to flake out on you, it won't matter that they rented to you directly or thru one of the brokers. The advantage of booking thru a broker is that you will get a refund from the broker if it happens. If you rented directly from a scam artist, your money is gone.

 

[Mickey4me!]

Can't help with the point rental part but as to the first part - I would definitely recommend OKW. We love that resort partially due to the size and layout of the villas. Larger living area and the whole resort has a laid back, relaxed atmosphere. While the parks are accessible via bus, you can take a boat to Disney Springs which teens should love. Water parks are close by as well. There are several pools and places to grab a snack located throughout the property as well as a larger pool and full service restaurant at the hospitality house. Maybe a two bedroom for your family and a studio for the grandparents? I think you'll be happy with your choice - whatever you decide!

 

[charminnie]

Renting through DVC is a great way to get a more comfortable and spacious room at a cheaper cost, but in no way cheap! I think a two bedroom along with a studio would be good or some properties also have 3 bedroom grand villas. Don't mean to rush you but if you want to rent DVC, its time to book now.

 

[littlestar]

An OKW 2 bedroom would have a king bed, two queens in the second bedroom, queen sleeper sofa and a single sleeper chair in the living room with 2 bathrooms. I would also consider an AKV 2 bedroom that sleeps nine with three full bathrooms. Any of these would accommodate your family and the grandparents.

 

[SL6827]

Renting through DVC is a great way to get a more comfortable and spacious room at a cheaper cost, but in no way cheap! I think a two bedroom along with a studio would be good or some properties also have 3 bedroom grand villas. Don't mean to rush you but if you want to rent DVC, its time to book now.

Good point. You can get the unit at a cheaper cost, but it is still a nice size investment.

 

[Deb & Bill]

One thing about OKW, only three buildings have elevators (they were built when they tore down the sales building after OKW sold out around 1999). Plan on taking the stairs up to second and third floor units. Studios (if you choose to book that for the grandparents) are usually found at the ends of the buildings.

 

[Main Street Matilda]

I also have three kids in about the same age range and we often take my parents with us, making us a party of 7. We usually get a 2-bedroom unit and that may be sufficient for your purposes (and less expensive than getting two separate rooms). You can even get what is known as a lock-off which is a 1-bedroom and studio combined to form the 2-bedroom villa which gives you a little more separation, if that's what you'd like. One thing to note here, though. If you do a 2-bedroom villa, someone is going to be sleeping on the pull out sofa. My kids don't mind that but some do.

As far as space goes, OKW definitely has the advantage there over other DVC properties. We were surprised at how much we loved OKW when we were there, especially since we'd already experienced other DVC properties and didn't really expect much since it was an older property. The personality of OKW really charmed us and we enjoyed Olivia's. With that being said, if other property options are open to you, consider whether or not you'd prefer a monorail resort like BLT or perhaps something closer to Epcot like BWV or BCV. In other words, I wouldn't limit my search based on unit size alone. Although we always spend more time in the villa than we think, we've never felt cramped in the other villas - even with a party of 7.