Questions from a New Member

[aymekae]

Hi there! We became DVC Aulani members last week on our cruise, so excited! Never thought this would happen, it was a surprise from DH.

Anyway, I am already starting to plan for an Aulani trip in Feb 2013. After telling my sister, her husband, and my dad about DVC last night, they got really excited and intimated they would love to join us. I'm glad they do, because I think it would be really fun together! However... that would mean using twice as many points than if we would go alone. If you were in my situation, using 2 yrs of points and paying 2 years of dues so family can tag along, would you "charge" them somehow? I was thinking of having them cover one year of MF, or maybe just paying for our food/activities. Or instead of using 2 yrs of points, can they rent points from someone and have it transferred to me? That route would cost them more, but it would save our points for our next adventure (Alaskan cruise in 2014!) Or would you be magnaninmous and not charge them anything? I don't know the best way to handle this. The only "vacations" we've shared to date is visiting out of state family and camping!

As an aside, I can't seem to figure out what the DVC discount on Disneyland APs are. Maybe it is on the website, but we haven't received an activation code yet to access our account, and we might be renewing our APs in a couple weeks.

Thanks in advance!

 

[maburke]

Welcome Home!!! You will find a lot of different opinions here on your questions, but I'll give you mine.

I don't think it's a bad thing to charge people something to come with you, since your points are not free. But the most important thing is to make sure everybody understands the expectations up front. If they are the kind of people that cancel at the last minute, you might do the point rental thing just so that they understand the restrictions on canceling. You do not want to commit all your points for two years to this just to have them back out!

Having said that, many people (me included) think that cruising is a bad value for your points, so if they will pay you something to use your points, then you'd have the cash to cruise with more flexibility. (There's a whole thread on that.)

As for the DVC discount on DL AP's, I think it's $20, but I don't know the details.

 

[kyle051777]

My advice is to charge them. If you called them and said we are going to Hawaii and said we are staying at this hotel and it is costing us this much, would they expect you to pay? At least for my situation, of course not.
I think you should explain to them the cost involved with owning a disney timeshare and give them options.
1. Have them rent points (about $10 per point)
2. Pay cash (probably going to cost quite a bit more than renting)
3. Have them pay you for using your points.

I recently had a reservation that we were not going to use at GCV. I had a friend who wanted to use it. I charged him $10 per point. He is a firefighter and can get 30-40% discount and even after that I still beat his price by $200. I covered my maintenance fees plus cost of original purchase and put a little extra in my pocket and he got a great deal!! Worked out for everyone.

If you start letting family/friends go for free, all of your family will expect to go for free. So either start charging them now or it will be very difficult to start charging later.

I am sure there are many other opinions on this but this is how I have handled it. I have been a member for only 6 months if that helps. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Kyle

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

If I did the inviting it, unless I was specifying otherwise, I would cover the room with points.

If family members talked about coming along and I had a surplus of points laughing then I still might consider it. Otherwise if it was talk about them joining in when they learned we were going I'd have them booking their own room or doing something else to pay for their part in most situations.

If I had the points available then I'd probably just have them cover MF's+ a little bit more towards the annual depreciation of the points. If I didn't have the points I'd direct them to the Disney website or tell them I'd be happy to look for a transfer of points that they would pay for.

 

[Lynne M]

We hear so many stories here of unpleasant situations that arise out of members inviting family and friends. I think the biggest cause is that so many people don't understand how timeshares work, and how they're different from vacation homes. There seems to be a misconception out there that if someone has a timeshare, they can go anytime they want, bring as many people as they want, and it's 'free'. And that it doesn't cause any harm if their guests agree to go and then cancel.

It almost sounds as if your relatives think that, from the hinting that they'd like to come along. If you were paying cash for a hotel reservation, I doubt very much that they'd be hinting that you should pay for a bigger hotel room so you could take them, too. Which makes me believe that they think it's all 'free'.

I think it would serve you well now, and in the future, to do a little education about how DVC works with your family. If you want them to come along, sit them down, explain how the points work. Tell them that you'd love to have them join you, and you wish you could treat them, but you don't have enough points to do that without paying for their room or cancelling your cruise plans for 2014. It's a non-hurtful way to get the point across that this DVC stuff actually costs you.

Once that's settled, you can go through your list of options: helping them rent a reservation from another member, or having them cover at least some of the cost of transferring another member's points into your account. Or just making an Aulani reservation on their own.

 

[DebbieB]

If they do go, get a separate room. There are so many posts on these boards where someone booked a 2 bedroom or grand villa and then family members backed out.