Maintenance

[NH Disneyfan]

So, the new resorts have the lowest maintenance and that is a big driver of DVC cost and overall value. Did you know that a contract purchase today at BLT is the least expensive average per point of all resorts?!?!

Question - do you think BLT, GC, SSR maintenance fees will ever surpass the older resorts?

 

[disneynutz]

New resorts always start off with low fees. It's a marketing ploy to steer buyers to the resorts currently being pushed by Disney. When the majority of the points are sold, the dues will increase.

 

[bookwormde]

The development company does subsidies new properties but in the case of BLT I believe it is only 3 cents. There are lots of factors that impact maintenance fees, style (condo or hotel), amount of theming and grounds, efficiency of design and so forth. BLT is a compact high-rise design with very limited grounds and rather “simple” theming, so that keeps maintenance costs down. It was also structured with more pints per unit so that spreads the same maintenance costs over more points.

It is very likely that while the maintenance fees will go up (perhaps a little faster at BLT) that they will remain substantially less than the other existing resorts due to its inherent differences.

bookwormde

 

[mj2vacation]

New resorts always start off with low fees. It's a marketing ploy to steer buyers to the resorts currently being pushed by Disney. When the majority of the points are sold, the dues will increase.

Please post evidence of where that has occured. The percentage increases are almost identical accross the onsite properties between current resorts and "sold out"

 

[Cap]

When considering maintenance costs, I think it is a bit of a wrong analysis to just consider the annual costs / point. To get a better comparison, you should consider the number of points you will use for your typical stay each year AND the cost per point to get the total costs.

As an example, if you wanted to stay in a one bedroom unit at your "home" resort for one week each year in late October, the costs in 2010 (but I only had 2009 dues amounts to use in this example) would be as follows:

Bay Lake - Lake View 240 points x $3.67 =$880
Boardwalk - Preferred View 215 points x $5.21 = $1120
Saratoga Springs - all views 192 points x $4.34 = $833
Old Key West - all views 171 points x $4.73 = $808

So, even though Saratoga Springs and Old Key West dues are more per point that Bay Lake Towers, the costs for your one week in a one bedroom unit are lower.

You also need to factor in other items, such as parking convenience, room size and amenities, convenience to the parks you want to visit, etc. Again, as an example, paying an added $240 over 7 days, or $34 / day to be at Boardwalk where I can easily walk to Epcot and MGM (I know - it now has a new name) would probably be worth it versus the extra hour or more our family would spend on the bus each day from one of the other resorts.

 

[mj2vacation]

You should use a standard view at BLT and BWV to get a more realistic view of cost. SSR and OKW don't have view options.