Question about point inflation

[jp02]

Does the amount of the time that you get with a point ever change? I can understand points will get more expensive every year if you are purchasing them. I am curious if I buy point this year will I still be able to stay the same amount of time the same time of year with the points I have as the years go on? Thanks for any insight. We are seriously considering purchasing DVC so I will have a lot of questions in the future. TIA!!

 

[tjkraz]

Yes and no. The total points at a resort can never change. And by total, I mean the number you get if you added up how many points it would cost to book the entire resort (ALL VILLAS) for an entire calendar year.

Disney cannot arbitrarily implement across-the-board increases. They cannot simply decide that one night in a Studio should go up from 20 points to 21 points.

What they can do is "reallocate" the points such that for every increase there is an offsetting decrease. They have done this several times in recent years. Used to be that Friday and Saturday nights cost about 2 - 2.5 times as many points as a weekday night. Problem was that too many people were using points for weekdays, leaving high vacancies on the weekends. DVC responded by decreasing the weekend costs and offsetting this by an increase on most weekday nights.

Other noteworthy tweaks have involved some adjustments for Standard View rooms at Animal Kingdom Villas, Standard View at Bay Lake Tower and the Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs.

But again, for each area in which there was an increase, something decreased. The main question is whether you would personally win or lose in any future reallocations. That's a total unknown.

As I said, four years ago there were a disproportionately high number of people using points for Sunday - Thursday weekday stays. Those people were not pleased when DVC raised the weekday costs and lowered weekends. But the folks who were using points predominately for weekends suddenly found their trips costing less.

If possible, purchase about 10% more points than you would need for your typical vacation, just so you have some buffer in the event of an increase. Or at least be aware of the possibility and be prepared to deal with it should a future reallocation work against you.

 

[DisWitt]

Yes and no. There can't be such thing as "point inflation" at your home resort by the nature of the percentage ownership deeded interest. You will own x% of the total points at your home resort. Now how that works out gets a little complicated the first time you read it... It gets easier once you re-read it a few times:

Let's say ABC resort sells a total of 1,000,000 points. That's all the points that "exist" at that home resort. They can't sell more unless more units are built there. So all the owners for all the units over 365 days = 1,000,000 points. (And if you know how many rooms of each type are at a resort and have the point chart, you can actually figure out how many points exist there.) So, let's say you buy 300 points -- enough for a 1-br at ABC the week between Christmas & New Years... Will that week ALWAYS be 300 points? No. But since the total number of resort points remains constant, if one week "costs" more one year, other dates must be reduced a comparable number of points. Furthermore, there is a limit on the percentage any given night can change from year-to-year to prevent DVC from making rapid, drastic changes.

 

[jp02]

Thanks for those explanations they were helpful! As you can tell I'm very new to this concept. So if I'm understanding correctly each resort as a certain number of points total that can be purchased before it is "sold out" correct? So in theory is there a possibility that at some point one may not be able to purchase points at a certain resort or add on to their contract? Are any resorts near that total?

 

[joeyrose]

one type of point inflation in the system...more points needed to book a night at newer resorts, e.g.,BLT compared to other resorts, particularly OKW (a bargain).

 

[BestDadEver]

Thanks for those explanations they were helpful! As you can tell I'm very new to this concept. So if I'm understanding correctly each resort as a certain number of points total that can be purchased before it is "sold out" correct? So in theory is there a possibility that at some point one may not be able to purchase points at a certain resort or add on to their contract? Are any resorts near that total?

In the case with add ons , even sold out resorts will become avalable when disney buys back contacts from the resale market with the ROFR .

Above explains the inflation good . I am suprised your guide didn't mention it cause it's a big sales pitch . They adjusted the rooms this year at SSR they wanted to raise points for THV , in turn they lowered the studios to do it .

I haven't been around that long , buy my take is that at some point at every resort they have lowered the studios to to raise points in a bigger room . It's just a guess but that is what it seemes to me .

I also see the "inflation proof points" to be the reason the keep adding DVC resorts . It's pretty much the only way they can raise point values, so people need to add points on to stay there .

 

[BestDadEver]

one type of point inflation in the system...more points needed to book a night at newer resorts, e.g.,BLT compared to other resorts, particularly OKW (a bargain).

Yes start from blt then look at aulani . The points are up for each new resort . I am sure VGF are going to be more then aulani .

 

[CarolMN]

....(snip).....So in theory is there a possibility that at some point one may not be able to purchase points at a certain resort or add on to their contract? Are any resorts near that total?

The short answer to your question is that being able to buy at a sold out resort is not something you should worry about.

All of the DVC resorts except BLT, AKV, & Aulani (Hawaii) are technically "sold out". That means Disney is not actively marketing them and may be out of points for a particular use year. However, Disney reacquires points via foreclosure and ROFR (Right Of First Refusal). Disney has the right to buy any contract put up for sale by substituting itself for the buyer (for the exact same terms the buyer agreed to). Those who want to buy a contract from sold out resorts from Disney, may have to wait awhile for points to become available.

The vast majority of people who want to buy a contract at a sold out resort do so via the resale market. It's much less expensive and there seems t be a good supply. Points bought via resale have some restrictions on their use. However, most (including me) think the restrictions are very minor and do not detract from the value of the contract.

 

[crisi]

There is one more type of point inflation not mentioned. Although DVC options are as described, there is no guarantee on trading options. Disney Cruise Line has undergone a LOT of point inflation since I joined, for instance. I think RCI trading options have remained stable (although when I joined it was II as the trading company, so that can change). This is one of the reasons people say "don't buy to stay outside of DVC (however, once you are in, if you have some points and want to occasionally cruise or trade out, it isn't necessarily a bad deal).

 

[jp02]

Can someone explain the ROFR to me? I've seen it used a lot, but don't know what people are referring to. Also, how does having no points for a particular use year differ from not having any points available at all? Sorry for the stupid questions, but thanks so much for being so helpful

 

[ELMC]

Can someone explain the ROFR to me? I've seen it used a lot, but don't know what people are referring to. Also, how does having no points for a particular use year differ from not having any points available at all? Sorry for the stupid questions, but thanks so much for being so helpful

Not a problem. This board exists for people to come and ask questions and learn more about DVC.

ROFR stands for Right of First Refusal. Contractually, any time a contract changes hands, Disney has the the right to step in and buy the contract for the agreed upon price. If they do, you have been ROFR'd. If they don't, they have waived their ROFR. Although we don't know for sure why Disney chooses to ROFR a particular contract, intelligent guesses point to the fact that it has to do with buying contracts if they have someone waiting for that UY or if the price is too low.

For your second question, before going to sale Disney Vacation Development assigns points that are to be sold to a specific use year that controls when points become available to use. These are set in stone. So it is very possible for DVD to be sold out of JUN UY for a particular resort but still have DEC available. There are a lot of threads on here that do a very good job explaining use year; you can find them using the search feature from the drop down menus.

Hope this helps!

 

[disneynutz]

In the case with add ons , even sold out resorts will become avalable when disney buys back contacts from the resale market with the ROFR .

Above explains the inflation good . I am suprised your guide didn't mention it cause it's a big sales pitch . They adjusted the rooms this year at SSR they wanted to raise points for THV , in turn they lowered the studios to do it .

Disney also gets back contracts when they foreclose on an account for not paying their loan or if they don't pay their dues.

The reason that the Guide didn't mention the SSR point change is because if you bought SSR to stay at THV, you got screwed, even though the Guides at the time used the "points the same as a two bedroom" sales pitch as a reason to buy SSR.

Bill

 

[tjkraz]

The reason that the Guide didn't mention the SSR point change is because if you bought SSR to stay at THV, you got screwed, even though the Guides at the time used the "points the same as a two bedroom" sales pitch as a reason to buy SSR.

Bill

Curse you, Guides, for not having the foresight to predict that would happen!!!

 

[disneynutz]

Curse you, Guides, for not having the foresight to predict that would happen!!!

My guess is that someone at DVD knew what was going to happen, just like they know what will happen to TOWL.

Bill

 

[BestDadEver]

Disney also gets back contracts when they foreclose on an account for not paying their loan or if they don't pay their dues.

The reason that the Guide didn't mention the SSR point change is because if you bought SSR to stay at THV, you got screwed, even though the Guides at the time used the "points the same as a two bedroom" sales pitch as a reason to buy SSR.

Bill

My guide mentioned it , not specificaly about THV, but the fact that they can't just incress the points .

I can understand them raising points for high demand places, it doesen't bother me cause it went down somewhere else .

I only just joined haven't used one point yet and I realize that this kind of point realocation has happened at almost all the resorts just by looking at point charts

 

[RobDoc]

My guess is that someone at DVD knew what was going to happen, just like they know what will happen to TOWL.

Bill

DVD is a large organization. Certainly most decisions are made far above the guides, kiosk reps and even the bus drivers.

Suggesting that the guides know future plans for DVD/DVC is a bit of a stretch - and even if they did, they are regulated by FL timeshare laws. It's a lot simpler if the guides don't really have any official future information until they actually need to know.

 

[Kidanifan08]

As others have indicated, "point inflation" is not so much a resort specific thing as it is a new resort thing. When we bought, we made the rookie mistake of buying just enough points for 7 nights in a 1BR for Magic Season. Two year later, we were suddenly 5 points short, due to a point re-allocation. We have since done a few small add-on's since 1) we needed the additional points, 2) we realized that 7 nights was not enough, and 3) we found that we like to bring family and friends.

What appears to be the case is that every new DVC resort is going to have a larger point requirement for the same amount of time use at the older resorts. For those of us who bought in years past, the ability to stay at the new resorts will be there, but our "buying power" is much reduced. For my family, we would prefer to maximize the value of our points, so staying at the newer resorts may become less of a priority. As an AKV owner, if I ever want to stay at VGF, I will probably need to couple it with a stay at OKW (lowest point cost of all the DVC resorts) to maximize my point use. Or I could stay in an AKV value room for most of the week and tack on some time at VGF.

I agree with Tim's recommendation of buying a few more points than needed, although you may be able to get away with even 5% more. Of course, with my potentially incurable case of addonitis, I now have almost 80% more points than my initial purchase. That should take care of any future point re-allocations!

 

[Dean]

DVC has never used points creep as a way to also increase costs from my POV. Other than OKW, when they clearly misjudged the points, they have not increased points based on a new resort per se. What they have done is charge more for better, more valuable options like BLT. OTOH, some might argue that VWL and BCV not having a standard view category was indeed an increase.

 

[jp02]

My boyfriend's biggest issue is he wants to make sure that what x number of points we buy this year that in 5 or 10 years that same number of points will get us the same thing. He is worried that if we buy enough points to say cover 7 nights during value season that in several years we will no longer get 7 nights out of it even if we are still visiting during value times. This would pertain to staying at our home resort. He understands that different resorts require a different amount of points.

 

[BestDadEver]

DVC has never used points creep as a way to also increase costs from my POV. Other than OKW, when they clearly misjudged the points, they have not increased points based on a new resort per se. What they have done is charge more for better, more valuable options like BLT. OTOH, some might argue that VWL and BCV not having a standard view category was indeed an increase.

You dont notice that the points for x room at blt is 5-10 more then akv and aulani is more then blt