Item: Disney Now Selling Saratoga Packages Via Costco

[_auroraborealis_]

Couple things I find interesting about this.

1. They have sufficient inventory to do this.
2. They're doing this instead of trading out to RCI, potentially, which suggests something about the volume of outbound DVC-to-RCI trades.
3. The free 100 OTU points at Saratoga they were promoting with Poly wasn't enough, I guess.

Saratoga's fully sold, so it's not like they should be able to rent gobs of the resort via CRO, let alone via inventory-restricted packages.

 

[wilkeliza]

Saratoga Springs always seems to be available for booking even direct through Disney. That is also where they usually put their social media influences when they do meet ups that aren't park specific. It is interesting to see what is up though.

 

[disneynutz]

Disney will do what ever makes Disney the most money.

Bill

 

[wdrl]

Keep in mind that Saratoga Springs' 14 million DVC points makes it the largest DVC resort in terms of points. DVD must retain a minimum of two percent, which translates into about 280,631 points. It actually has even more points that it has reacquired over the years.

DVD can do whatever it likes with the points that it owns, including using them for cash reservations or as marketing promotions. Just considering the two percent that it must retain, those 280,631 points can be converted into a lot of reservations. If those points were all used for 7-night stays during the Magic Season, DVD could fund

2,647 7-night stays in a Standard Studio or
1,236 7-night stays in a Standard One-Bedroom or
954 7-night stays in a Standard Two-Bedroom.

And that is considering just the two percent the DVD must retain for itself. I don't know how many more SSR points DVD owns, but it would not surprise me if its another two to five percent.

 

[kboo]

I'm curious - what does the price per point work out to for the Costco deal?

Our daughter's school had an auction a few months ago, and one of the items up was a week in a SSR 1-br. It was asking $1500 to start but no one bought it.

 

[BillPA]

List price w/tax for a 1 BR at SSR in the summer is $559 a night, so $3913 for the week. That would be 227 points standard view, $1500 was a good price, about $6.61 a point.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The Costco deals are packages with dining + Park Hoppers, so it takes some work to backtrack on pricing.

 

[chalee94]

Our daughter's school had an auction a few months ago, and one of the items up was a week in a SSR 1-br. It was asking $1500 to start but no one bought it.

Could have been an RCI exchange that someone was trying to rent at that rate.

The Costco situation does make me wonder if SSR foreclosures are up.

 

[CMNJ]

Out of curiosity I looked at Christmas time. There was a 3 bedroom grand villa avail to book via Costco which I found surprising.

 

[CarolMN]

There weren't any studios available for the first week of December, LOL. I checked.

 

[CarolMN]

Couple things I find interesting about this.

1. They have sufficient inventory to do this.
2. They're doing this instead of trading out to RCI, potentially, which suggests something about the volume of outbound DVC-to-RCI trades.
3. The free 100 OTU points at Saratoga they were promoting with Poly wasn't enough, I guess.

Saratoga's fully sold, so it's not like they should be able to rent gobs of the resort via CRO, let alone via inventory-restricted packages.

IMO, most of this inventory is almost certainly the result of member "trade-outs" for cruising or for the options in the Collections (not including World Passport). I have no problem with DVC sending nights to Costco (rather than DRC/CRO) to get cash for member trades, especially if the net gain per night to DVC is more than that received when DRC/CRO is used to book that inventory. (DVC pays DRC/CRO some type of "commission" when they book those nights)

My guess (I have no actual data) is that one of the reasons those non-DVC options cost so many points is that a lot of the nights sent to CRO go unbooked, so DVC has to make up for that by sending more nights to get the cash to pay for member trades. If Costco can sell more of those nights, that's a win for Members.

 

[BillPA]

? Will the units have daily housekeeping, like any CRO reservation? If so, who pays for that?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

? Will the units have daily housekeeping, like any CRO reservation? If so, who pays for that?

Presumably yes, and presumably from the proceeds.