First time renting out my points

[DVCSunDevil]

I always say that the rental is nonrefundable except in the case of resort closure (and I take 100% payment from the renter once the reservation is made and linked in their MDE account). Having said that, if the renter has a medical emergency or some other reason that they cannot go as scheduled, I am not going to say "Mwahahaha! I did say it was nonrefundable!", cancel the reservation, keep the money and re-rent the points to someone else so that I can profit from someone else's misfortune. Instead, I would be happy to rebook the renter during the lifetime of the refunded points. If this was not possible for the renter I would re-rent the points for whatever price I could obtain and give the money to the original renter so they would get at least a partial refund.

Well, I would hope you would work with the renter if something like a medical emergency came up. I was more interested in if the points had to be banked to the following year. Are most owners willing to bank those points for the renter and make another reservation for them in the following use year? I probably wouldn’t have a problem with doing that, personally. Just curious how others are doing it.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Everything is really up to you as an owner and what and how you do it. You are renting a reservation to them. But, you can also allow changes to it if comfortable.

When I rent..and if I did again..I do not allow reschedules or changes and no refunds. But, I’d be renting below market value so the renter would have to decide if my price and restrictions was worth it.

Some owners are flexible and others are not. Since I don’t plan to do often..I prefer the transfer to another owner, I want to be one and done.

Obviously my terms won’t work for all renters and I am fine with that!

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, if I ever need to rent my points I agree that transferring them to another DVC owner is the best route. Very quick and easy. And I can see the benefit of why you want to be “one and done” The last thing I think anyone wants is a lot of hassle.

Personally, I would be OK with accepting a cancellation and rebooking it for the renters. I would even be OK banking those points for them into the following UY if need be. I guess my outlook would be that, since there are no refunds, the renter would “own” those points until the points expire. However, since they don’t have access to the DVC system and cannot bank them I would be OK doing that for them if they needed that done. I also would be renting at market value if the points aren’t “distressed”, so I would feel somewhat obligated to do that for the renter.

All that being said, I don’t foresee that we will need to rent point anytime soon. We actually have our points mapped out for like the next five years, LOL!

 

[GoingSince1990]

Well, I would hope you would work with the renter if something like a medical emergency came up. I was more interested in if the points had to be banked to the following year. Are most owners willing to bank those points for the renter and make another reservation for them in the following use year? I probably wouldn’t have a problem with doing that, personally. Just curious how others are doing it.

Yes, when I say "during the lifetime of the refunded points", that would include me banking them if the points were bankable. Having said that, it has been very rare for me to rent out bankable points, as usually the reason I am renting them is because I want to make sure to get value from them before they expire, and if they are bankable they will not expire anytime soon.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Yes, when I say "during the lifetime of the refunded points", that would include me banking them if the points were bankable. Having said that, it has been very rare for me to rent out bankable points, as usually the reason I am renting them is because I want to make sure to get value from them before they expire, and if they are bankable they will not expire anytime soon.

Good point. I can see that being a big reason why to rent them. That makes a lot of sense. Being relatively new to DVC, I haven't experienced all these situations yet. I actually don't plan on renting, but you never know. We bought DVC to enjoy it, so our plan is to bank points if we can't go one year and then upgrade to 2BR the following year. But I am also realistic and know that our daughters will be out of the house soon and my wife and I won't have a need to stay in a 2BR if we are in WDW by ourselves. Ten years down the road is when I could see us starting to renting points.

 

[Matty B13]

One more question. What if someone buys the points from you and you make the reservation for them and then they have to cancel and bank those points into the following UY? Do you just go ahead and do that for them and then just keep managing those points for them as needed?

Usually by the time of the reservation, it is well past the banking deadline for most of my contracts, so I haven't had this problem yet, but I have had to reschedule a few times for people who had something come up and couldn't make their first reservation. But I don't rent a lot of points out, just my extra ones, which leads to a lot of studio weekend reservations.

Overall, renting isn't to bad an experience as an owner, but it takes a lot of patience because most people who inquire on the "Rental Board" don't know how DVC really works. So you spend a lot of time explaining how the points work and their limitations. It will usually take 10 to 20 inquiries before I actually get someone to commit to a reservation, so you spend a lot of time checking availability on the RAT before you lock someone down.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

Usually by the time of the reservation, it is well past the banking deadline for most of my contracts, so I haven't had this problem yet, but I have had to reschedule a few times for people who had something come up and couldn't make their first reservation. But I don't rent a lot of points out, just my extra ones, which leads to a lot of studio weekend reservations.

Overall, renting isn't to bad an experience as an owner, but it takes a lot of patience because most people who inquire on the "Rental Board" don't know how DVC really works. So you spend a lot of time explaining how the points work and their limitations. It will usually take 10 to 20 inquiries before I actually get someone to commit to a reservation, so you spend a lot of time checking availability on the RAT before you lock someone down.

Thanks for sharing, good to know! Patience is a virtue, right? Lol. I can see having to explain the point system to people who don’t know about it. It is shocking at first. I imagine it may even scare some people away from renting points. That’s all right though. Eventually someone will come along who wants to save money on a reservation.