Points vs Cash Inventory Question

[tx2tn]

I'm curious.

Can someone explain the differences in the inventory that DVC has at it's resorts? I read somewhere that a portion of the rooms at any of the DVC resorts were dedicated to cash reservations while the others were strictly for DVC members and for point stays.

First, is this correct? If so, how is this done? Are there specific rooms that are for cash only or do they just keep a percentage of room available. What if all of the point rooms are rented, will DVC take from the cash inventory for point stays? What about Visa Versa?

 

[DVC Mike]

There are two sets of inventory at each DVC resort – those that can only be booked with points and those that can only be booked with cash.

Declared (or Member) inventory can only be reserved with points. These are vacation homes associated with ownership interests that have been purchased by members and declared into the Condominium Association. Declared inventory is available to members to book using points.

The other inventory is the cash inventory. Anyone can book a cash reservation via Disney CRO, and DVC members can book one via DVC MS at a 25% discount, subject to availability. The following are the sources of inventory for cash reservation:

Exchanges: The number one source of cash rooms is actually from the Member inventory. This occurs when members exchange/trade outside of the DVC resorts. This includes using your points to book the Disney Collection (hotels at the Disney theme parks and the Disney Cruise Line), Concierge Collection, and the Adventurer Collection (but not trading via RCI). When a member trades outside of DVC, the points used to book the outside reservation are assigned to DVD to rent out.

These rooms cannot be booked using points, as they effectively already have been. If I use my points to book a Disney Cruise, DVC has to pay DCL for my trip. They get the money to pay DCL by sending a room to CRO to rent to the general public. If the room was left in DVC inventory for booking by points, where is DVC going to get the money to pay DCL? This room, in a sense, is being used by a member, even though they're not physically there. It's being used to pay for their non-DVC vacation. This is how we're able to get stays at other resorts on our points, so it's a good thing for members. If DVC didn’t do this, we would have to remove the option to use our points at Disney hotels, Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney, etc. Many members appreciate having those options available to them.

Breakage: Another source of cash reservations includes Member inventory that has not been reserved by members using points. Any Member inventory not reserved by members using points is made available to Disney CRO at the 60-day mark for cash reservations by the general public. This is actually beneficial to DVC members, in that the association earns “breakage” income on these rooms rather than letting them sit empty. Otherwise, our dues would go up.

ROFR: Another source of cash reservations is the inventory of declared points owned by DVD. These points are typically acquired by the ROFR process. Since DVD owns the points, they can rent them out, just like we can rent out the points we own.

Undeclared: These are the units that have been built by the developer that has not yet been declared into the condominium association. Since DVD controls these units, they may be rented out for cash reservations.

Unsold: These are the points that have not yet been sold by DVD to members. Since DVD owns the points, they can rent them out, just like we can rent out the points we own.

Again, the vast majority of cash reservations come from members exchanging their DVC points to book outside of DVC.