Lakeshore Lodge (or any other future resort)....a random thought??

[kristenrice]

Please take a brief journey with me into my 3am thoughts...

When DVD builds a new property and establishes a new points chart, they like to make it "point heavy" so they have a lot of shiny new points to sell at $200+ per point (I'm looking at you, Riviera). That chart is then "fixed" and that number of points is finite unless they build more rooms.

Disney overall has made no secret that they are catering to the "deluxe" level crowd and wooing the wealthy. Here's my thought. Club level amenities at Lakeshore Lodge! Can they build an entire floor/wing/"units" that are dedicated club level? They could "inflate" the point chart with those rooms and make them cost 1.5-2 times what a "normal" room costs, and then make the non-club rooms a lower, more reasonable point chart for the peasants. Then, they need to up their game and make the club level amenities legit....robes, slippers, room service, package delivery, etc. That way, even if the rooms (for some reason) don't book up with points, they can sell them for cash.

Seems like a win-win...DVD can sell more points or cash rooms, they can cater to their rich customers and DVC can still have a "moderate" (i.e. AKV, OKW or BWV) point chart for the budget-conscious members.

 

[DVCsloth]

Please take a brief journey with me into my 3am thoughts...

When DVD builds a new property and establishes a new points chart, they like to make it "point heavy" so they have a lot of shiny new points to sell at $200+ per point (I'm looking at you, Riviera). That chart is then "fixed" and that number of points is finite unless they build more rooms.

Disney overall has made no secret that they are catering to the "deluxe" level crowd and wooing the wealthy. Here's my thought. Club level amenities at Lakeshore Lodge! Can they build an entire floor/wing/"units" that are dedicated club level? They could "inflate" the point chart with those rooms and make them cost 1.5-2 times what a "normal" room costs, and then make the non-club rooms a lower, more reasonable point chart for the peasants. Then, they need to up their game and make the club level amenities legit....robes, slippers, room service, package delivery, etc. That way, even if the rooms (for some reason) don't book up with points, they can sell them for cash.

Seems like a win-win...DVD can sell more points or cash rooms, they can cater to their rich customers and DVC can still have a "moderate" (i.e. AKV, OKW or BWV) point chart for the budget-conscious members.

I think Disney is catering to the "Deluxe" resort crowd rather than a 5-star hotel crowd. Riviera did introduce the tower studio to have a lower point option. I would like to see some sort of lazy river/water park built at the LL. Kind of a tribute to the old River Country that was there years ago. Most likely won't see it, but I think it would go over well, and they could include the CFW in the association.

 

[OKW Lover]

Disney overall has made no secret that they are catering to the "deluxe" level crowd and wooing the wealthy.

I don't agree with this statement. I believe that Disney knows it needs to have offerings that the "average" family and that they actively offer those opportunities.

Can they build an entire floor/wing/"units" that are dedicated club level?

Of course they can. A small example is at AKL where a very small number of units are concierge level.

They could "inflate" the point chart with those rooms and make them cost 1.5-2 times what a "normal" room costs, and then make the non-club rooms a lower, more reasonable point chart for the peasants.

Yes, they could do this. It would be necessary to up their game for the high level units. But I don't know that it's real an issue. Why couldn't they appeal to the entire population?

 

[Chili327]

Disney overall has made no secret that they are catering to the "deluxe" level crowd and wooing the wealthy. Here's my thought. Club level amenities at Lakeshore Lodge! Can they build an entire floor/wing/"units" that are dedicated club level? They could "inflate" the p0int chart with those rooms and make them cost 1.5-2 times what a "normal" room costs, and then make the non-club rooms a lower, more reasonable point chart for the peasants.

Yes, I love that idea, and merging it with CFW.

I would like to see some sort of lazy river/water park built at the LL. Kind of a tribute to the old River Country that was there years ago.

Yea, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to build something somewhere in the vicinity and call it something like River Country Water Park, also useable by CFW, maybe even built between the resorts instead of on the shore.

 

[Sandisw]

I think DVC can do CL rooms if they want to do it. But seeing how they having done them at any of the new resorts, I don’t expect it here.

 

[Lorana]

Lakeshore Lodge was intended to have A-Frame Cabins and Treehouses in the original Reflections design, so I suspect if they keep to that, that's where the "point-flation" will come in. I would love them to do a CL level, but I doubt they will do it -- it seems it was an experiment for AKV and they have since never done it at any other DVC resort, maybe because there isn't a hotel side (I suspect it was an experiment to get DVC members to defray the costs of running a concierge lounge).

 

[jolynne28]

I love club level, and have been hoping that they would do it at other DVC resorts besides AKV. But I agree with others, while they could do it, they most likely won't since they've only done it once. To me club level makes sense when you are doing a resort heavy stay, and AKV sort of fits that criteria b/c it is rather isolated. If they are trying to make LL more like a vacation in and of itself, with the lazy river (that hopefully takes longer than 5 minutes to get around) and other amenities, I could see club level possibly being on the table, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

 

[Sandisw]

Lakeshore Lodge was intended to have A-Frame Cabins and Treehouses in the original Reflections design, so I suspect if they keep to that, that's where the "point-flation" will come in. I would love them to do a CL level, but I doubt they will do it -- it seems it was an experiment for AKV and they have since never done it at any other DVC resort, maybe because there isn't a hotel side (I suspect it was an experiment to get DVC members to defray the costs of running a concierge lounge).

IIRC, the reason the DVC at Jambo has the CL is because they wanted to do both 5th and 6th floor rooms and with that being the floor with CL, it had to be included as part of the take over

There would have been no way to keep DVC guest on 6th floor from accessing it.

My guess would be that is why we haven’t seen it elsewhere.

 

[Cfabar1]

I think everything is on the table as DVC continues to grow and expand. I guess Disney must feel that CL is worth differentiating from DVC and I would imagine they have market research or demographic statistics that tell them doing so is not a good idea. Clearly they have no problem increasing concierge availability on DCL, but for whatever reason don't feel this is a compelling product to offer with DVC (even though the CL rooms at AKV are some of the hardest to book in the entire DVC system.)

 

[zavandor]

For some reason DVC doesn't like to have concierge rooms, which is quite odd since the extra expenses are paid by members, so why not? Probably because they want members out eating at table service restaurants?

 

[Brian Noble]

I don't think it is that direct. DVC is treated as its own P/L center, and does not get bonus points (or, for that matter, bonus dollars) for Food & Beverage receipts going up.

 

[OKW Lover]

Probably because they want members out eating at table service restaurants?

I don't think that flies. If that were really the case they wouldn't have full kitchens in the villas

 

[Chili327]

I don't think that flies. If that were really the case they wouldn't have full kitchens in the villas

But I bet you a lot of people are intrigued by a kitchen, but don't use it hardly at all, so they get to entice you with the kitchen knowing most wont use it, so they get you coming and going, best of both worlds.

 

[RichVIII]

The dues cover the staffing but do dues cover the food costs of CL? It doesn’t seem like it could (but I could be very wrong). It’s not like the points offset that cost. And to me, at least one of those lounges at PIT could have been a killer CL opportunity and they didn’t take it.

 

[OKW Lover]

The dues cover the staffing but do dues cover the food costs of CL? It doesn’t seem like it could

Why couldn't it? It seems to me that the dues would cover all the costs of a CL.

 

[Sandisw]

The dues cover the staffing but do dues cover the food costs of CL? It doesn’t seem like it could (but I could be very wrong). It’s not like the points offset that cost. And to me, at least one of those lounges at PIT could have been a killer CL opportunity and they didn’t take it.

It explains it in detail how the CL works at AKV and the responsibility of hotel side to help pay their share of the costs.

IIRC, if DVC decides to eliminate the lounge, which means it would not exist for cash either, the points for the rooms would be redistributed back to other rooms.

As I mentioned above, it was a unique situation as to why they had to take the lounge because those 6th rooms had access

What we don’t know is how the guarantee that DVD gives owners to cover shortfalls pays a role as it’s very possible the cost for CL amenities …is built into that…or possibly the fees paid by the hotel side to acccess it cover 100% of it operation.

It’s why IMO they haven’t added it to any of the resorts that came after it.

ETA: The budget for AKV might give insight.

 

[Patmcpsu]

Does anyone know how accounting for the concierge lounge at AKL is handled? If it's paid via maintenance fees, that helps explain why AKL's fees are higher-than-average. I imagine it would be included as a line item on AKL owner's bill for maintenance fees.

Those costs would make concierge rooms a liability for owners. Especially when you consider that:

1. If the lounge is small and CL rooms are hard to get, all the owners are subsidizing the lucky few who were able to book it.
2. If the lounge is large and CL rooms are easy to get, the maintenance fees will be that much more expensive. To add insult to injury, owners at other resorts could potentially book CL rooms at 7 months and eat at the home owner's expense. BUT with resale restrictions in place, this freeloading would be limited to people staying on direct DVC points (creating a hidden incentive for buying DVC direct).

If you can't tell from my line of questioning, I'm opposed to the idea.

 

[Sandisw]

Does anyone know how accounting for the concierge lounge at AKL is handled? If it's paid via maintenance fees, that helps explain why AKL's fees are higher-than-average. I imagine it would be included as a line item on AKL owner's bill for maintenance fees.

Those costs would make concierge rooms a liability for owners. Especially when you consider that:

1. If the lounge is small and CL rooms are hard to get, all the owners are subsidizing the lucky few who were able to book it.
2. If the lounge is large and CL rooms are easy to get, the maintenance fees will be that much more expensive. To add insult to injury, owners at other resorts could potentially book CL rooms at 7 months and eat at the home owner's expense. BUT with resale restrictions in place, this freeloading would be limited to people staying on direct DVC points (creating a hidden incentive for buying DVC direct).

If you can't tell from my line of questioning, I'm opposed to the idea.

As I mentioned above, the POS details how it was declared and how it’s run in conjunction with Disney hotel side of things

It doesn’t appear a line item on the budget so the food and beverage is either covered via DVDs guarantee or on the hotel side of things under food and beverage, similar to a restaurant, or potentially part of shared expenses

So, start there. Www.dvcfieldguide..com has all POS documents.

 

[Sandisw]

Here is the answer. It is paid for as part of the association dues.

 

[Patmcpsu]

As I mentioned above, the POS details how it was declared and how it’s run in conjunction with Disney hotel side of things

It doesn’t appear a line item on the budget so the food and beverage is either covered via DVDs guarantee or on the hotel side of things under food and beverage, similar to a restaurant, or potentially part of shared expenses

So, start there. Www.dvcfieldguide..com has all POS documents.

Based on everything I’m seeing, the association is responsible for their portion of a hypothetical lounge. The money would have to come from somewhere and it’s ultimately the maintenance fees, and the points in my previous post would still be applicable.