Polynesian Question

[wdrl]

Certain years, you can rent out your AKV points, and rent Poly points. Since most rental sites do not consider AKV premium points, you will probably net in the area of 5$ per point less than you are going to pay for Poly points. However, with an 85$ per point difference, you can do this 16 times! And that does not include any ROI on the money saved up front. Just another way to look at it.

Keep in mind that renting points opens up another set of issues that have some up sides and a few down sides.

When you rent points from someone else, you won't have control of the reservation. Member Services will only talk to the owner of the points, so you'll need to have an owner that is willing to make the necessary calls for you if you want to make a room request, add a dining plan, link two reservations, etc.

Many renters don't offer cancellation or change privileges. If you need to tweak your dates or completely cancel the reservation, you might find that you can't.

There is no guarantee that you'll be able to find a person willing to rent the number of points for the dates that you want. Sure, there will always be someone renting points. But if you want certain resorts and accommodation types at certain times of the year, you will need to find someone very early in the process, which means you'll need to find someone who can book a reservation before the 7-month window opens.

If you rent out your points, keep in mind that you will be competing with everyone else who is renting out their points. Before the 7-month window opens, the only takers you'll get are those who want to stay at AKV, which is a small subset of the total renter population. Once the 7-month window opens, two things will be working against you: First, you'll be competing with every other DVC member who is renting out their points; and two (and this is more important), you may not be able to book the resort that your renter wants because the dates are not available. Today, you could 20 people wanting to rent your points, but if they want to book PVB, BLT, VGF, BCV, or BWV beginning October 27, there is no availability and you won't be able to rent them your points.

Many people rent out their points. However, its not a slam-dunk that you can easily rent out your own points, or easily find another member who will rent points to you. As with many things about the DVC, you need to do some research to really understand how everything works.

 

[Snookies]

I feel potential members need to spend enough time getting educated on the system and resorts to make an educated decision plus they need a certain amount of on property and timeshare experience to make buying anything a reasonable choice. Generally that takes several on property trips over a couple of years minimum and about 6 months of active investigation. Resale is always preferred because it tends to be much cheaper and you lose NOTHING of value with the restrictions on resale. One should only buy Poly if they are experienced enough to say it's truly worth it to them to spend double (literally) to own there and want to stay there almost every single trip forever with the points that are based there. It's actually more than double because you'll also need more points so it's closer to triple the buy in.

$$ wise SSR is the best value and it should get you into AKV most of the time and likely Poly as well. IMO for WDW the order from a $$ value standpoint is SSR best, BLT second and AKV third. For those wanting try different resorts over time, all of these should work relatively equally though you will have the nuances of that home resort. No one new to DVC is going to have enough info to truly know their preferred resort long term. My opinion is it's best to buy low and try the system then either add on or sell and re-buy if it doesn't work. Buy low means looking at the resorts I mentioned and potentially buying less points than you think you need though I also feel one should look at 150 or so minimum in most cases.

To get the on property and DVC experience, renting DVC at least a couple of times at different resorts is one of the best ways to get knowledge more quickly. Even those who have been going to Disney multiple times a year and staying on property but not DVC resorts are behind in timeshare education but that type of experience is helpful.

IMO the order of questions one should ask themselves are:

1. Can I afford DVC. To me that's pay cash, no consumer debt and otherwise be stable financial.
2. Have I proven that staying on property is worth paying significantly more for, off property is much cheaper and may be better in many ways.
3. Am I comfortable with the limitations and risks of a timeshare in general and DVC specifically.
4. Can I plan and reserve at least 7 months in advance.
5. Only then do you reasonably get to home resort(s), # of points, UY, etc.

I've been reading the disboards for many years and think this post by Dean belongs in the "DVC Information Center" because of its accuracy. This describes why and how we personally bought DVC and why and how we eventually added on via resale. I agree that I think SSR resale is the best dollar value in the system, followed by BLT. I'll also confirm via personal experience that someone can book almost anything wanted during the first 9 months of a calendar year with a few well known exceptions. From my perspective, buy where you want to stay is best for those who plan on consistently booking during the last 3 calendar months, plan on consistently booking the well known exceptions or both. Otherwise, if you understand the product, the booking process, and the potential roadblocks, you can efficiently book what you want most of the time. I use "efficiently" because in reading some of the discussions about walking, I get the sense that some are creating work for themselves (and member services) by doing things like walking reservations when those things are often unnecessary. Regardless, when evaluating a DVC purchase decision, something Dean posted some time ago comes to mind, DVC is regarded as a specialty, niche product in the timeshare universe that is of most value to those who perceive value from staying on site at WDW. Potential buyers should have enough experience to perceive that value before doing the rest of their analysis.