point renting question

[Ruth B]

Hello All,
i am hoping to rent points for next summer. I undersatnd that this requires trust on both side and i do genuinley believe that most people are honest.

I have suggested paying one night reservation(to secure the booking) and then the full payment after conformation is recived( i will ring to check, as suggested)After this could the member cancel the booking without my knowledge? my worst fear is turing up and having no where to stay?

any advice would be great- its prob first time nerves!
best wishes
Ruth

 

[cyiland]

Ruth -

Your concern is reasonable, and well-founded. In reality, at the very last minute, the DVC owner that you are renting from COULD change the reservation on you and you'd show up to find that you weren't expected.

I've recently rented points for the first time, and we did it in a way that everyone was comfortable, I think. I did draw up a straightforward contract (patterned after others I found linked from this site, as I remember), so at least you have a binding agreement with terms laid out.

So I'd say, do everything you possibly can to "verify", and then (and only then) rely on the "trust" factor.

We also looked into an escrow option (where the renter would pay the escrow company, who would hold the money until the renter then said, "yes, we were able to use our reservation as planned"), but the cost of that seemed prohibitive.

 

[Y-ASK]

Your concern is reasonable, and well-founded.

Not to be too arguementive but, while Ruth's concern is reasonable, it is NOT well-founded. I have never seen a thread about a renter getting ripped off by a DVC owner or an intruding scam artist. Have you? A simple search of this forum will allow you to discover if there is a problem or not. There are rental transactions taking place every day in the rent/trade forum and there have been no reports of any problems. If someone were to complain about getting ripped off it would be headlines indeed. And those simple contracts might afford some comfort but when it comes right down to it they would never stand up in a court of law. You would have to get two lawyers involved (probably from different states) and acceptable changes would have to be made on both side and maybe after $100's of dollars it might have a chance in court. The bottom line is that you must go with the track record of the person you are renting from. If they have a reasonable post count, have been around the forum for a while, and contribute to DIS community chances are they are trustworthy.

Ruth- As I said there are rental transactions taking place every day. Find someone that has been around for a while and then make sure they explain every detail of the DVC reservation process. If they are not forth coming then move on until you find someone you are comfortable with. You can click on the Forum member's user name and a menu window will pop up. You can send them a PM (Private Message) or do a "Find" on all the Post they have made. The search function is your friend. Feel free to ask any question you would like and once you understand how the process works you'll know if someone if feeding you a line of bull....

Y-ASK

 

[Ruth B]

Thanks for the information. i think my concern is mainly about renting from someone without a track record. The person i was considering renting from only has 6 post on the borad- all about the current points.
i have been offered points from another DVC member who has 100's of post and messages about renting as well as lots of other thing. My gut feeling is telling me to rent from her. Thanks for helping me to clarify this!
i am a nervous first time renter( only 2nd time to disneyworld, bothtime with my son) and this board really helps with information, advice and anxieties!? Best wishes, Ruth

 

[Cruelladeville]

Y-ASK,
Well said!

 

[Wendy1953]

I hope your vacation (holiday) goes well! Keep the faith that most people are indeed good and trustworthy....maybe that's what we need to turn this world into the great place it used to be!

 

[cyiland]

Not to be too arguementive but, while Ruth's concern is reasonable, it is NOT well-founded. I have never seen a thread about a renter getting ripped off by a DVC owner or an intruding scam artist. Have you?

I think we're both on the same side of this.

Your issue was with my use of "well-founded", and looking back, I can understand. It can mean based on sound judgement, reasoning, or evidence. I think you were focusing on the "evidence" aspect, where I was focusing on the "sound judgement" aspect. As a result, my use of the word was probably redundant (and "unnecessary", too! ). I agree that the DISboards are a quite safe spot. But I still think being cautious about handing over a chunk of money to someone on the Internet is using "sound judgement".

My analogy: there have been no breakins or robberies in my area since we built our home, but I still think the concept that I lock my doors at night is "well-founded".

Thanks for helping to make it clear that this is, however, a very safe place in general!

 

[Gail & Joe]

I have never rented points, but I just had some points transferred into our account recently. Everything went quite smoothly. I paid half of the total cost before the transfer (with paypal) and after the points were in our account I paid the rest.

 

[Ruth B]

Thanks for all your help on this. I have now rented from memebr who has 100's of post and a history of renting. I feel much more relaxed about it. Best wishes Ruth