points vs. $$$

[beequeen]

My brother has decided to join us for a trip in Nov. When I booked our 1BR at BWV (at 11 mo.) I was told I got one of the last ones and all studios and 2BR were all gone. I started to look for somewhere in WDW for my brother to stay and was suprised to find BWV listed as available on the Disney web page. My question is this - how many units are for DVC members and how many units do they rent for $$? It seems that if all the units available to DVC'ers were rented at the 11 mo. window, they should allocate more to DVC and less to non-DVC.

 

[tjkraz]

DVC keeps a share of the points at each resort (I've heard 5%). They also acquire points via things like the exchange programs, ROFR and Magical Beginnings.

DVC would never agree to a system you describe. They would have no rooms to rent for cash during high occupancy periods. Like it or not, DVC's ownership stake is as meaningful as yours or mine.

 

[Dean]

There are different pots of points. These include the following:

• points used for member to reserve DVC
• Points owned by DVD and used to rent out through CRO.
• Points given up by members for DCL, CC, DC, etc and then converted to reservations and rented through CRO. This cash goes back to DVC to pay for the exchange options.
• Points used to seccure units for a week that are given to II.
• Units not reserved at 60 days out which are turned over to CRO to rent to make sure they don't go empty, this is called Breakage Inventory.

Those are all I can think of. There is one more possible option that DVD or DVC does not do at present. That is take unsold units and sell them through II.

 

[CarolMN]

I believe that the largest share of rooms rented for cash come from members who use their points to take advantage of the non-DVC options in the "Collections" (including DCL).

I do wonder how DVC decides which dates, which resort and which room type to rent to recover the cash needed to pay for the non-DVC options. No one here seems to know and I doubt DVC would tell us if we asked.

I kind of agree with you, though - seems like DVC should not "take" rooms and dates popular with members before the 7 month window opens. But maybe DVC doesn't - there's no way for us to know for sure. Those rooms you saw on the website may be part of the 4% ownership retained by DVC and there may only be 1 or 2 available.

Best wishes -

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by CarolMN
I do wonder how DVC decides which dates, which resort and which room type to rent to recover the cash needed to pay for the non-DVC options. No one here seems to know and I doubt DVC would tell us if we asked.

I asked this question of Matt Gibbs when he was a VP there. His answer was that they try to avoid the highest demand times and spread them out over the year. This could have changed but I doubt it. I did not ask if they only use home resorts of a mixture of resorts but since they use mosly (but not exclusively) home resort points on the II exchanges, I think it's fair to assume that as well.

This would be more availability for members to a cerain extent but higher points costs for exchange options due to lower cash returns. As would weekend cash rentals over weekdays. All in all, there's always going to be a give and take in this area as long as Disney is renting rooms and there are cash type exchange options.

 

[Doug Wolfe]

People cancel all the time and I am sure rooms come open from time to time.

 

[UConnJack]

Originally posted by beequeen
My brother has decided to join us for a trip in Nov. When I booked our 1BR at BWV (at 11 mo.) I was told I got one of the last ones and all studios and 2BR were all gone.

What I would like to know is how they were already booked up at 11 months? Theoretically, member inventory couldn't have been tapped until the 11-month window, so why were there no units left? Did you call right at 11 months, or was it somewhere between 11 and 7 months (where many ressies could have already been made?)

 

[jaysue]

Originally posted by beequeen
My brother has decided to join us for a trip in Nov. When I booked our 1BR at BWV (at 11 mo.) I was told I got one of the last ones and all studios and 2BR were all gone. I started to look for somewhere in WDW for my brother to stay and was suprised to find BWV listed as available on the Disney web page. My question is this - how many units are for DVC members and how many units do they rent for $$? It seems that if all the units available to DVC'ers were rented at the 11 mo. window, they should allocate more to DVC and less to non-DVC.

Did you book day by day or the first day your whole trip was eligible for booking at 11 months

Let me give an extreme example - let us say you wanted to go for 15 nights and you did not book day by day - that is you waited until 16 days into the 11 month window of your first night to book all 15 nights. It is possible in theory that all of the DVC member inventory would have been booked up.

I believe Disney retains at least 4% for it's own inventory

thanks
jaysue

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by UConnJack
What I would like to know is how they were already booked up at 11 months? Theoretically, member inventory couldn't have been tapped until the 11-month window, so why were there no units left? Did you call right at 11 months, or was it somewhere between 11 and 7 months (where many ressies could have already been made?)

Some times and units book very quickly, like within minutes of MS opening. So you do have to call at exactly 11 months when DVC opens for some options.

 

[OneMoreTry]

So many things change over 11 months that lots of people cancel and I would bet most wait lists from 7 months are fulfilled. Mine was.

I would imagine that as the date approaches, rooms are reallocated from $$ to points based on projected demand and availability. I don't know if that would be weeks out or days.

 

[jaysue]

Originally posted by OneMoreTry
So many things change over 11 months that lots of people cancel and I would bet most wait lists from 7 months are fulfilled. Mine was.

I would imagine that as the date approaches, rooms are reallocated from $$ to points based on projected demand and availability. I don't know if that would be weeks out or days.

I believe that at 60 days out, unused DVC member inventory is opened up to CRO/WTDC et al

thanks
jaysue