If we cancel, can I bank the points?

[mistysue]

I’ve wondered about this. Do the point owners have little say in Confirmed Reservations through a broker?

Most prices for Confirmed Res are very high, some downright cuckoo. I’ve been checking postings for months around our Sept trip, and the same overpriced ressies have been sitting the whole time.

I get to say my "lowest price" I will take, but they max that out at $16/point. They then list their own price. It's a bit uncomfortable to think how much they are making off of it, but this prevents things getting ugly if they cancel or run out on my end... so either I take a huge risk or I let them charge money to take it for me.

 

[CarolynFH]

Sounds like listing here on the Rent/Trade board at $20 pp would be more reasonable in terms of both renting quickly and revenue to you.

 

[Anthony Vito]

Along the lines of this idea, would you prefer to bank the Oct points or get money for them? You could modify the reservation, cancelling the Oct points so you can bank them. Then try to rent just the Sept night.

I was kind of leaning this way, then found out about the max they pay (as others have commented) after calling and asking about it, so I will just do something along those lines, and keep my October points. I actually don't even need to bank them any time soon, since my UY is Oct.

Just FYI- even though THEY are pricing at $35+, they will still only pay you $16. I've had two stays for the 50th listed with them for nearly 2 weeks now and they are just sitting there. My backup plan, if they don't sell, is to pull them back while I still have time to transfer to RCI. Not worth as much as they are to me at Disney, but we have a lot of work related travel that we have to pay ourselves.

Yeah - I called the other day to ask some questions about renting it, and found that out. That makes it even more crazy. Honestly, I feel like if they're going to do it that way and price them that high on their own, they should just "buy" the reservation - in other words, guarantee the $16/pt - then they take the risk based off of how much they're charging. As I said above, I'm going to drop off the October nights, and just do something with that one night, although I have a cousin who lives in Orlando so I may see if they want to stay a night at Riviera just for the heck of it and give it to them.

Brokers decide the rules and owners decide if they want to try and list via them.
Not sure how at $35/point any trip is less than cash via Disney.

It's really not - I've watched for a while and found that the confirmed reservations are frequently almost as much, or sometimes even more, than a cash stay through Disney - without all of the protections and service that comes with the cash stay (full cancellation 3 days before trip, housekeeping, controlling your own reservation, etc.). I've thought it was nuts for a while. Now that I know that it's just to mark it up for their benefit, I find it even crazier. Plus - there's the risk that it doesn't even get rented at all, which is of NO benefit to the owner. It's also why I've questioned the traditional wisdom on renting DVC points/confirmed reservations for a while - the prices at times have reached a level where there's a legitimate argument that it's not a deal any more (or sometimes outright is not - I was looking back in the spring, and there was a confirmed reservation at Bay Lake that the exact same room category through Disney cash was considerably cheaper - talking $450/night through Disney vs. $700/night for the confirmed DVC rental).

I guess there's an argument that they do it that way so as not to encourage confirmed reservations over just renting the points (and discouraging people from booking reservations at prime times just to rent them out for a premium - which is good for all DVC members), but then I don't think they should be charging more for those reservations.

If I do try to rent that one night, I might call a different broker - I see one that's had a listing for the 50th that they're only charging $18.50/pt, so at least they're not gouging for the sake of it to the member's potential detriment.

 

[Heather07438]

Honestly, I feel like if they're going to do it that way and price them that high on their own, they should just "buy" the reservation - in other words, guarantee the $16/pt - then they take the risk based off of how much they're charging.

I totally agree.

 

[mistysue]

If I do try to rent that one night, I might call a different broker - I see one that's had a listing for the 50th that they're only charging $18.50/pt, so at least they're not gouging for the sake of it to the member's potential detriment.

I will respond with why I have to be ok with them making money off of it - their policy is that even if the customer backs out, I still get paid because I'm screwed with some of those other rental companies. The last thing any owner needs is a message 7 days out that the renter backed out and you get nothing. They are marking it up because if the customer backs out, they work with them to apply their money to another rental. I needed it to be certain, because we are past our banking date. This was definitely a trip we were dreaming about, and just can't justify going during this point of covid due to the kids, but on the last day to bank their site went down earlier than I read it was supposed to.

 

[Anthony Vito]

I will respond with why I have to be ok with them making money off of it - their policy is that even if the customer backs out, I still get paid because I'm screwed with some of those other rental companies. The last thing any owner needs is a message 7 days out that the renter backed out and you get nothing. They are marking it up because if the customer backs out, they work with them to apply their money to another rental. I needed it to be certain, because we are past our banking date. This was definitely a trip we were dreaming about, and just can't justify going during this point of covid due to the kids, but on the last day to bank their site went down earlier than I read it was supposed to.

While I see how that makes sense, and it works well for you if they found someone to rent the reservation, my concern, and part of why I decided not to rent the whole reservation (canceled the nights for 10/1 & 10/2 - it's in my 2021 UY so I'll have the points for all of next year), was the concern that they wouldn't find someone to rent it at that price. If I'm bearing any of the risk of whether something rents and how quickly, I'd want say on the price for which it is being listed. I am not willing to accept such risk while not having access to any portion of the "reward."

At the same time, my situation is not yours, and I can see how there other policies make the most sense for you and the requisite risk you have. While it stinks, fortunately I'm only losing 16 points. I too was looking forward to this trip - we've never done anything notable like this, and we thought it was going to be really cool to say we were there for the 50th (although I guess it saves us money since we probably would have gone crazy on the merch). Our kids weren't even coming on this trip, but we still didn't want to risk bringing it back to them, and avoiding crowds that weekend would be practically impossible and defeat the purpose of even going. Now here's to hoping our kids can be fully vaccinated by the end of November so we don't have to cancel the Christmas season trip to Wilderness Lodge we've been trying to do for a while.

 

[Sandisw]

I will respond with why I have to be ok with them making money off of it - their policy is that even if the customer backs out, I still get paid because I'm screwed with some of those other rental companies. The last thing any owner needs is a message 7 days out that the renter backed out and you get nothing. They are marking it up because if the customer backs out, they work with them to apply their money to another rental. I needed it to be certain, because we are past our banking date. This was definitely a trip we were dreaming about, and just can't justify going during this point of covid due to the kids, but on the last day to bank their site went down earlier than I read it was supposed to.

Why would you get nothing if a renter backs out? I’m confused on that.

 

[mistysue]

Why would you get nothing if a renter backs out? I’m confused on that.

Ok, some smaller amount that makes it not worth it for me to have listed the points in the first place. I don't even know how many places there are that will list points for you but everyone seems to have different long contracts to read. As it is now, I am allowed to come back later and say "if they don't rent by x date, nevermind"

I have no personal bandwidth to try and deal with legal issues or chasing people for money or anything else. It's a situation when it's already stressful and upsetting to us that we're not going; I need it to just go away.

 

[Sandisw]

Ok, some smaller amount that makes it not worth it for me to have listed the points in the first place. I don't even know how many places there are that will list points for you but everyone seems to have different long contracts to read. As it is now, I am allowed to come back later and say "if they don't rent by x date, nevermind"

I have no personal bandwidth to try and deal with legal issues or chasing people for money or anything else. It's a situation when it's already stressful and upsetting to us that we're not going; I need it to just go away.

Okay. Typically, when a broker rents something, owners gets paid regardless of whether a renter cancels so I didn’t know if it was different with these confirmed reservations that they are charging a lot of money for.

 

[mistysue]

Okay. Typically, when a broker rents something, owners gets paid regardless of whether a renter cancels so I didn’t know if it was different with these confirmed reservations that they are charging a lot of money for.

I will openly admit that I did not have time to do much research on this one- I had time to do just enough rooting around to figure out that people were complaining other companies were giving them a rough time last year and saying that this one did not.

During this conversation today one of my reservations did sell, and I'm honestly really happy with the choice to do this in a way that I know is secure and I'm not having to deal with crazy renters who will try to do chargebacks or anything else on me. I'm related to one of those people who does chargebacks every time she's unhappy and somehow manages to get away with it constantly, It is all I can think of when I think of one-on-one business transactions with a random people on the internet.

 

[Anthony Vito]

I will openly admit that I did not have time to do much research on this one- I had time to do just enough rooting around to figure out that people were complaining other companies were giving them a rough time last year and saying that this one did not.

During this conversation today one of my reservations did sell, and I'm honestly really happy with the choice to do this in a way that I know is secure and I'm not having to deal with crazy renters who will try to do chargebacks or anything else on me. I'm related to one of those people who does chargebacks every time she's unhappy and somehow manages to get away with it constantly, It is all I can think of when I think of one-on-one business transactions with a random people on the internet.

I agree that dealing with it one-on-one isn't worth the stress for some (me included). I was talking about actual dvc rental brokers - honestly, I think there are two big ones, then I know The Timeshare Store (DVC Store) that used to be a site sponsor and sponsor of the DVC Show podcast also does rental brokerage, I just don't think at the scale of the other two (obviously one is DVC Rental Store). The only time I rented points was actually through DVC Store because they had discounted points available (this was about 2 years ago - but 10/pt) and I was adding on a night at the beginning of our trip, but they were easy to deal with. I've looked at discounted points on DVC Rental Store (actually tried to get some for that same night referenced above) and frequently browse their confirmed reservations. The person I talked with this week with DVC Rental Store was very friendly and helpful, so I'm not trying to attack them or anything.

I was just talking about the specific price paid to member vs. price charged and my issues with that. I was certainly not comparing it do trying to do it on your own - I agree that headache is not worth it. (I'm a lawyer and, unfortunately, am primarily in litigation and similar dealings, but I HATE having to fight for something for myself.)

 

[mistysue]

.

I was just talking about the specific price paid to member vs. price charged and my issues with that. I was certainly not comparing it do trying to do it on your own - I agree that headache is not worth it. (I'm a lawyer and, unfortunately, am primarily in litigation and similar dealings, but I HATE having to fight for something for myself.)

It rubs me wrong too, basically using them out of despiration. They are extremely friendly and easy to work with, for whatever that's worth.