Guests staying with us??

[crazy4claspooh]

Ok I am new to DVC our first trip dvc trip is in May. The questions I have is we have 2 people coming with us. The one person will only be there 4 days of the trip. Does she have to pay for the length of stay pass for the full length of our trip 9days/ 8 nights? Can we get the length of stay passes and she gets the park hopper? Also the two guests want to give us money for staying with us. How much should we say is fair? We are staying in a 2 bdr @ WL? I tried to come up with a $/night amount rate divided by the # of people staying there and then by the number of nights they were staying. Is this fair??? As I said we are new to this. Any help thanks!!
PS I love the dis boards you guys have helped me out so much already. Thanks again.

 

[llp479]

You can purchase any type of ticket you wish. However, you only get the DVC discount on the "unlimited magic" (length of stay) passes. If you have the Disney Club card you can get the discount on the park hopper tickets with that. This is what my SIL & BIL do when they come with us.

As for what to accept as payment, that's entirely up to you. Typically, our guests have bought a couple of dinners at some of the nicer restaurants for us.

Have a great trip!

 

[kda]

Your guest can buy a parkhopper, and this might be the best buy, if she doesn't intend to do DD or any of the water parks. I'm just not sure about the LOS pass question, so won't say what I think the answer is (but I think it's possible).

As for the $$$ question --- I'd be prepared for a wide range of responses, and this is just my way of dealing with this. If I intended to invite people as guests, they would be guests, period. It would be wonderful if they took us out to dinner once or twice, and I might offer that as a suggestion to them if they persisted. Then they can decide how much they want to spend.

If the original discussion was to include them in the reservation and they would pay, it's a good idea to iron out all those details BEFORE the reservation is booked, so they know if the price is OK with them. Then you might take the total # of points X the general value of $10 per point and split that 4 ways. Not quite sure what you'd do when 1 person is only there 4 nights and the other is there the entire trip, however.

Unfortunately, $$$$ matters have a nasty way of leading to bad feelings when involving friends and family. When someone says they want to pay, but has absolutely no idea what the cost of the room might be, they could be in for a really rude awakening. It's difficult for some people to imagine the cost of the Disney rooms and they would never spend that much $$$ for a place to sleep. In any case, I'd never, ever try to go by the 'rack rate' that these rooms go for. That's not what we're paying as DVC members.

Were you planning to get a 1 BR if you'd gone yourselves and are just getting a 2 BR because you have guests? Then you might consider the difference between the 2 BR points and the 1 BR points (ie, 34 vs. 28 points = 6 points for a week night) and multiply that times the general value of $10/point. Booking the extra BR might be worth 6 X $10 = $60 / night or $30 per person per weeknight. By having guests, I'd figure that I was spending 6 more points per week night than I would have planned to spend for just my family. (Still don't know what to do about the person who's staying the entire trip.)

I'm sure there's many ways to look at this situation, and you're the only one that knows what these guests mean to you and what their financial situation is. I'd probably play around with some of the math, and if the total just didn't 'feel' right, I'd probably lower it. If my guests thought it was too low, they could always give me more or treat me to a dinner. I'd probably try to keep it simple and not complicate this, in hopes that there's no misunderstandings about $$$. Good luck and hope you have a great trip home! We'll be there ourselves in May.

 

[mooses41]

Just remember if you do charge them that when you divide it should be exact, you should charge them a little less, as I'm assuming you'll be getting the master br. good luck

 

[Chuck S]

Rather than set a monetary value on your guest's stay we've found it easier to have our guests treat us to something, like a nice dinner at Jiko, or Cirque or the luau. The person staying longer could treat you twice.

 

[Caskbill]

Are your guests staying in the 2nd B/R by themselves? If so, and you want to charge them, one way as already mentioned is to figure out how many extra points it cost you for the 2-B/R instead of the 1-B/R , value them at $10/point which is what they would generally go for on the rent/trade board. And then divide that amount by the number of person-days there are, and then charge each accordingly.

If you are getting the 2-B/R for your family anyway, and your guests are staying in the L/R fold out sofa, then you might again just take total points used valued at $10/point, and divide them amongst your family and your guests. As also mentioned above, since you are getting the master bedroom you might consider that in your valuation.

If you're not using extra points for your guests, then you might just ask them to pay the maintenance fees instead of $10/point. You might ask for this strictly on the points split figured above, or you might ask them to pay all the maintenance fees since you are the one who paid for the initial investment.

There's lots of ways you could do it.

I agree with kda, figure it several ways, then pick one that feels right. If your guests want to know how you arrived at that value, you can tell them. All of the above would probably be fair ways to do it.

We often spend a week with my brother at his condo on Sanibel Island (off of Fort Myers, FL). He never asks for any money. We try to buy all the groceries, pick up a meal or two for him at one of the restaurants, and since we drive down and he flies, we pick him up at the airport, and let him use our car during the week if he needs to. That's worked well for us. It just goes to show there are also lots of ways a guest can pay without actually paying cash.

 

[crazy4claspooh]

Thanks for all the help. They will be getting the extra bedroom to themselves and my kids will be using the fold out. The ticket information was especially helpful. Made our decision the one insist on paying and the other is going to do the dinner idea. We just got our airline tickets and counting down. Can't wait to get there!!!!