May 2023 WDW Direct Sales Creep Up

[Sandisw]

https://dvcnews.com/dvc-program-men...rld-dvc-direct-sales-creep-upward-in-may-2023

 

[Sandisw]

VGF outsold RIV again but what I find interesting is that the average for contract size for RIV comes in around 183 vs VGF at 171.

I wonder if that means more people jumped in to buy at VGF now that the minimum is less?

 

[Epcot Forever Forever]

Absolutely wild sales for AKV. 25,000 points! And even with all of that Disney STILL isn’t ROFRing it - in other words, they don’t need more.

I wonder if the success of that program makes them more or less likely to offer a similar offer on SSR or OKW, both of which we know they have a huge stock of points for.

 

[UrsulaWantsYourSoul]

Wow - yay Riviera is over half sold! . Considering the pandemic hiccup and 6+ million points, that's awesome! #homeresortpride

 

[Genie+]

Wow VDH sales!

From the article VGF sold just under 58k points for 3 months in a row. Wonder how June will compare. 80k-100k?

“Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — In May 2023, 57,690 points were sold for the Grand Floridian. This marks the third month in a row that it sold just under 58,000 points (57,570 in April and 57,972 in March).”

 

[KalamityJane]

Absolutely wild sales for AKV. 25,000 points! And even with all of that Disney STILL isn’t ROFRing it - in other words, they don’t need more.

I wonder if the success of that program makes them more or less likely to offer a similar offer on SSR or OKW, both of which we know they have a huge stock of points for.

I wonder if that is using sales from the AKV sale where it was down to 144/pt after MB and those just closed in May or hit the books later for some reason.

 

[Nursemanit]

I wonder if that is using sales from the AKV sale where it was down to 144/pt after MB and those just closed in May or hit the books later for some reason.

This is it - there is about a 2 week delay in filing

 

[Nursemanit]

Data still shows - DVC list price is too high - it is affecting sales. They will need to continue discounting to sell.

I predict VGF will be “ Sold out “ in Feb

 

[Cfabar1]

A couple thoughts:
1. MB didn’t seem to move the needle on selling too much alone. It will be curious to see what happens and how motivating MB + the new incentives were in comparison.
2. i think a lot of people either waited for the next round of incentives or had their contracts redone Within the 10 day window. I wonder how that will be reflected in the june numbers.
3. Riviera continues to sell constantly, yet slowly. I personally believe it has taken longer than DVC would like, however, due to so many MK resort area points coming on line in 2024, they need to focus their energies and discounts on selling through VGF.

 

[RachStu]

Absolutely wild sales for AKV. 25,000 points! And even with all of that Disney STILL isn’t ROFRing it - in other words, they don’t need more.

I wonder if the success of that program makes them more or less likely to offer a similar offer on SSR or OKW, both of which we know they have a huge stock of points for.

Yes, I spoke to them recently to see if there was any scope to sell back my AKV so that I could purchase at RIV but they said they weren’t purchasing AKV points at present.

 

[accm]

I'm curious how accurate these reports are for showing the impact of incentives. When we bought our direct contract, we didn't actually close on it until 4 months later. So if people are buying in May, and spreading their payment out, the sales won't show for a few months still. I guess my question is, how many people pay upfront, how many people finance, and how many people divide their payment over the allowable 90 days.

 

[Nursemanit]

I'm curious how accurate these reports are for showing the impact of incentives. When we bought our direct contract, we didn't actually close on it until 4 months later. So if people are buying in May, and spreading their payment out, the sales won't show for a few months still. I guess my question is, how many people pay upfront, how many people finance, and how many people divide their payment over the allowable 90 days.

You can see some tails from splitting the payments but - if you take Poly for example it went from Nov 2.3 k to Jan 1.7 k to Feb 5k to March 10k to April 3k to May 3k - the 2 week reporting lag and tails show from the Jan 20 incentive that had 10 days hit in Feb and 20 in March numbers but is still up 1k from the 1.5 to 2 k usual sales.

 

[Sandisw]

Data still shows - DVC list price is too high - it is affecting sales. They will need to continue discounting to sell.

I predict VGF will be “ Sold out “ in Feb

Not if they are okay with the rate at which the resorts in total are selling.

While we can speculate they want much better sales, we don’t know for sure the thinking. To me, it seems they have decided to have more choices to boost sales as a product vs an individual resort itself.

Typically, there is one main active selling resort and one on its way to being close to sold out.

Now, we have three..very popular resorts. You take the total sales for those for May, and you are close the the 300K mark. Add in the flash sale for AKV and you are above that. it

The fact that they are still pricing RIV higher than VGF leads me to believe that the goal may be to get VGF to a point they can call it sold out to start the FW cabins and Poly tower sales next year.

Plus, all of BPK is declared..RIV is not and they have great success renting those rooms for cash.

I also think the lowering to 100 points may have helped but keeping incentives -and membership extra at 150 certainly seems to be moving people to direct.

 

[Nursemanit]

Not if they are okay with the rate at which the resorts in total are selling.

While we can speculate they want much better sales, we don’t know for sure the thinking. To me, it seems they have decided to have more choices to boost sales as a product vs an individual resort itself.

Typically, there is one main active selling resort and one on its way to being close to sold out.

Now, we have three..very popular resorts. You take the total sales for those for May, and you are close the the 300K mark. Add in the flash sale for AKV and you are above that. it

The fact that they are still pricing RIV higher than VGF leads me to believe that the goal may be to get VGF to a point they can call it sold out to start the FW cabins and Poly tower sales next year.

Plus, all of BPK is declared..RIV is not and they have great success renting those rooms for cash.

I also think the lowering to 100 points may have helped but keeping incentives -and membership extra at 150 certainly seems to be moving people to direct.

There is a price to sales volume where there is the point of maximum profit.

Since they are doing sequential deals, Poly then AK now OKW - I think they are doing some pricing tests to fine tune the retail price per point for sold out resorts. Or the drunk monkeys were transferred from the ROFR department to finance .. also a possibility.

 

[Nursemanit]

A couple thoughts:

3. Riviera continues to sell constantly, yet slowly. I personally believe it has taken longer than DVC would like, however, due to so many MK resort area points coming on line in 2024, they need to focus their energies and discounts on selling through VGF.

Agree - Riviera being the only offering in Epcot area for the near future means they can be content with sales as is - but they are still offering a smaller but significant discount so that leads me to believe the pricing for RR may be a bit high.

 

[Cfabar1]

how many people divide their payment over the allowable 90 days.

I doubt that many. I got the sense during my recent purchase that the 90 days is quite discouraged. I had to be rather firm (polite, but firm) as several times throughout the call to purchase I was asked if I would prefer 30 days or 60 days. After the purchase was complete my guide told me spreading out the purchase over 90 days was a great idea and that it was very smart to do so. I almost got the sense he had to be able to say to his bosses that spreading it over 90 days was the only way he could make the sale. I imagine a lot of people by the fifth time they were asked might have backed down to a shorter window. I just see no point to part with that money any sooner than I have to when it can be earning 4 percent or more in an FDIC insured savings account.

 

[Roughians_satchel]

I predict VGF will be “ Sold out “ in Feb

I think this is the key for them to start selling Poly tower (not so much FW Cabins since it's a completely different and most likely restricted product.)

 

[Nursemanit]

I think this is the key for them to start selling Poly tower (not so much FW Cabins since it's a completely different and most likely restricted product.)

Agree - I would go further to say they want it sold out a few months before Poly starts to build up demand

 

[DonMacGregor]

I doubt that many. I got the sense during my recent purchase that the 90 days is quite discouraged. I had to be rather firm (polite, but firm) as several times throughout the call to purchase I was asked if I would prefer 30 days or 60 days. After the purchase was complete my guide told me spreading out the purchase over 90 days was a great idea and that it was very smart to do so. I almost got the sense he had to be able to say to his bosses that spreading it over 90 days was the only way he could make the sale. I imagine a lot of people by the fifth time they were asked might have backed down to a shorter window. I just see no point to part with that money any sooner than I have to when it can be earning 4 percent or more in an FDIC insured savings account.

I spoke to my guide a week or so ago about VDH (I'm local, so didn't buy, but was curious about some things). From what I understand talking to other guides (they see who your guide is when you give them your phone # prior to getting some SWAG or a tour), my guy is one of the more senior dudes and has one of the largest books of business (you won't catch him pulling shifts doing VGF2 room tours).

According to him, he'd swing 90 day terms, but it would have to be on something in the 250-300 point range depending on resort, just to get the conversation rolling. And that's with a current member he has had an established relationship with. Obviously, YMMV.

 

[DonMacGregor]

I'm still wrapping my head around 36,000 points sold at sold-out resorts in just one month, even in the absence of ROFR. Sure, there might be a few clawed back through foreclosure, but that's still a ton of points. Looking back at the April report, they sold about 20,500 points at sold-out resorts, down from 23,100 in March.

ETA: Corrected typo.