Point Reallocation

[nfouey]

can someone kindly explain what point reallocation is? I have heard this term thrown around and am confused.

Does it mean they can shift the points per night for a room based on a new view category or something like that?

Is there a scenario where they can raise points per night for a room say over the next 5 years?

In other words if a Poly studio is typically 32 points mid week in April does it always stay 32 points?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

There is a set number of points at every resort. However, they can be allocated any way that allows all units to be booked 365 days on that number.

This can mean changing points by season, or creating new categories. The most recent was creating Preferred at SSR. To maintain point requirements, Standard villas dropped a few points.

In general, it is unlikely points per night will move a lot in a reallocation. But it can move. I have $ on an eventual reallocation at Poly for Standard, Preferred and Lake, with points for Preferred coming from bungalows.

 

[nfouey]

There is a set number of points at every resort. However, they can be allocated any way that allows all units to be booked 365 days on that number.

This can mean changing points by season, or creating new categories. The most recent was creating Preferred at SSR. To maintain point requirements, Standard villas dropped a few points.

In general, it is unlikely points per night will move a lot in a reallocation. But it can move. I have $ on an eventual reallocation at Poly for Standard, Preferred and Lake, with points for Preferred coming from bungalows.

So in your thought above at Poly, do you think that would be an increase in what they charge per night? Because there is a lot of bungalow inventory sitting empty?

Also what do you think a preferred room would be? Just a closer non lake view room?

We are Poly owners as you might be able to tell! And book lake view. We are looking to add a few more points. But don't want to undershoot it if the "prices" for a night could go up.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

So in your thought above at Poly, do you think that would be an increase in what they charge per night? Because there is a lot of bungalow inventory sitting empty?

Bungalow cost comes down. LV and Preferred go up compared to SV Studios. Tokelau becomes Preferred because it's asked for so much, especially the 6 rooms with side-on castle views that were considered Lagoon View while still resort rooms.

A rebalance of the Poly points could happen, and the bungalows provide a LOT of points to wiggle with.

 

[nfouey]

Ok makes sense. Thanks for helping!

Of course with the predictions I'm sure the bungalows still don't go low enough for most folks!

 

[supersnoop]

The studios actually provide most of the points. Adding one point to a studio night would reduce the bungalow by about 15 points per night. We'll see how the bungalows book after everything is sold, but a reallocation like that could happen.

 

[Sandisw]

The goal is to have everything balanced at a resort so that it is as close to 100% occupancy at all times. To do this, with points based programs, they have to monitor what is happening and can adjust point values across rooms and seasons in order to keep the balance. When I first joined in 2009, they readjusted weekdays and weekends within a few years of becoming a member because they were finding that too many people were not booking the weekends. For those of us you traveled over weekends, we saw our points stretch farther. Those that had done primarily Sunday to Friday stays, saw in increase in the number of points needed for the same stays.

They have not down too many through the life of DVC...IIRC, it has happened 3 or 4 times since 1992. But, as already mentioned, the resort in total has a fixed number of points that are declared when the resort is built and that number can not change. It can only be rearranged. When one buys, it is a good idea to have a few extra points (think 5 to 10%) more than what one needs just in case!

 

[CvilleDiane]

Bungalow cost comes down. LV and Preferred go up compared to SV Studios. Tokelau becomes Preferred because it's asked for so much, especially the 6 rooms with side-on castle views that were considered Lagoon View while still resort rooms.

A rebalance of the Poly points could happen, and the bungalows provide a LOT of points to wiggle with.

This is exactly what I was thinking would happen! It wouldn't take many additional points to be preferred and help the bungalow cost. I think I'd pay the points for it too -- I love Tokelau. I've been wondering if they're going to rebalance seasons in 2019 or 2020. Since we bought 8 years ago (I wasn't following along before then), October-December has seemed busier every year and summer seems less crowded.

 

[MrInfinity]

You would think they would rebalance the seasons like that to make everything more equitable... Like make fall more expensive and winter cheaper. But they don't. I believe this is deliberate, and it's not a goal to balance the seasons. Balanced bookings would benefit the consumer... but unbalanced bookings increase competition. Having pockets of unusually cheap times means people will compete for those times. Like Epcot in the fall, or Poly studios ever. It creates the effect of higher demand. It also makes sense to have other rooms be expensive, like the Jan-Mar. These are snatched up by owners from other resorts at 7 mo and creates a 2nd wave of urgency.

A rebalancing to add a preferred category seems more likely. Any time you add a category or division that will cause people to compete for a smaller subset of rooms, that is a division Disney might make. So if Tokelau is hotly requested, then look for Disney to convert this to a preferred category so as to make it something people compete for and not just request.

Lowering the Bungalows is not likely. This is the primo property in all DVC. It sets the price ceiling, so lowering these would lower the ceiling and that's not a strategy that anyone in marketing will get an award for suggesting. It's good to have something at all price points, even the really high. To rebalance, they would have to be going unbooked -- and they're not. Right now they are selling out, albeit 1-2 weeks out... But then Oct-Dec they are already booked up most weeks. Since these 20 rooms have the best views at the best resort in all Disney, I don't see them lowering the points here significantly. Certainly not 15 points -- that would put them close to a Cabin in cost, and while they are a similar build to the Cabins, they are not a similar location. MK views, Monorail, Poly features and proximity to the TTC set these apart as commanding a much higher price per night than the Cabins.

 

[CvilleDiane]

You would think they would rebalance the seasons like that to make everything more equitable... Like make fall more expensive and winter cheaper. But they don't. I believe this is deliberate, and it's not a goal to balance the seasons. Balanced bookings would benefit the consumer... but unbalanced bookings increase competition. Having pockets of unusually cheap times means people will compete for those times. Like Epcot in the fall, or Poly studios ever. It creates the effect of higher demand. It also makes sense to have other rooms be expensive, like the Jan-Mar. These are snatched up by owners from other resorts at 7 mo and creates a 2nd wave of urgency.

A rebalancing to add a preferred category seems more likely. Any time you add a category or division that will cause people to compete for a smaller subset of rooms, that is a division Disney might make. So if Tokelau is hotly requested, then look for Disney to convert this to a preferred category so as to make it something people compete for and not just request.

Lowering the Bungalows is not likely. This is the primo property in all DVC. It sets the price ceiling, so lowering these would lower the ceiling and that's not a strategy that anyone in marketing will get an award for suggesting. It's good to have something at all price points, even the really high. To rebalance, they would have to be going unbooked -- and they're not. Right now they are selling out, albeit 1-2 weeks out... But then Oct-Dec they are already booked up most weeks. Since these 20 rooms have the best views at the best resort in all Disney, I don't see them lowering the points here significantly. Certainly not 15 points -- that would put them close to a Cabin in cost, and while they are a similar build to the Cabins, they are not a similar location. MK views, Monorail, Poly features and proximity to the TTC set these apart as commanding a much higher price per night than the Cabins.

I'd think they'd want to be careful with rebalancing too. You could easily have dissatisfied owners who felt they bought too many points for their week in the summer and others who now have purchased too few for the annual first week of December trip. That said, summer deals are seeming so crazy great at the moment that I've still wondered. In the meantime, I'll hope for Tokelau preferred view to become a thing!

 

[Dean]

I'd think they'd want to be careful with rebalancing too. You could easily have dissatisfied owners who felt they bought too many points for their week in the summer and others who now have purchased too few for the annual first week of December trip. That said, summer deals are seeming so crazy great at the moment that I've still wondered. In the meantime, I'll hope for Tokelau preferred view to become a thing!

They do want to be careful but not really for member satisfaction per se. They want to do it right which requires situations that are broad spread across the applicable resorts, a significant and obvious discrepancy in demand and over several years. There's significant work and some costs to doing this. But the fact people might complain or be upset shouldn't enter into the equation for most situations, the BLT reallocation an outlying exception and they handled that reasonably.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

Does anyone have any data points on how successful DVC/Disney has been in selling the unbooked Bungalows via CRO? I agree that a point or two increase to studios would lead to a decent drop in points for bungalows, which would lead to more people booking using points. But if these excess, unbooked bungalows are getting moved to CRO and then subsequently being rented at the astronomical price they command....I could see DVC keeping the points per night as high as they are.

The bungalows are pretty high on my bucket list but just require so many points I just can't justify it.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I don't know that anyone has data, as it is not public. But nearly everyone says they walk by and they seem deserted 80% of the time.

 

[Spork24]

They do want to be careful but not really for member satisfaction per se. They want to do it right which requires situations that are broad spread across the applicable resorts, a significant and obvious discrepancy in demand and over several years. There's significant work and some costs to doing this. But the fact people might complain or be upset shouldn't enter into the equation for most situations, the BLT reallocation an outlying exception and they handled that reasonably.

When was the BLT reallocation? And what did they do exactly? Just curious, we bought resale there and love it, in the process of buying more now.

 

[Dean]

When was the BLT reallocation? And what did they do exactly? Just curious, we bought resale there and love it, in the process of buying more now.

After sales began but before it opened IIRC. Others likely know the specifics more than I but I believe they did give those affected the option of adding on so as not to have less than they'd need for their plans or backing out. That including waiving the 25 pt minimum I believe.

 

[chalee94]

can someone kindly explain what point reallocation is? I have heard this term thrown around and am confused.

Does it mean they can shift the points per night for a room based on a new view category or something like that?

For a practical example, compare a current OKW point chart with these original OKW point charts from 1994-1995 in post two of this "remember when" thread:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/remember-when.3268662/