Regular Resort versus DVC Resort

[Tink03477]

I have a question that I haven't found the answer to yet on the boards so I'm hoping one of you DVC experts can help me out. Why would it cost more points to stay in a regular room at AKL (198 pts), POR (129) for the same exact days at BCV that has cooking facilities (85)?? Shouldn't it be LESS points to stay at a standard room. I realize that AKL is Deluxe and POR is a mod, but none of these are on a monorail, the AKL & POR don't offer the same ammenities as BCV. I just don't get it I guess. I figured that POR would be way less than BCV for the same timeframe. It's not even a DVC Resort. Nobody would waste the points on staying there. I can stay there for $74/night with my AP rate. (which I just did). I was just hoping that a mod would offer lower points just in case I had a few left over after staying at SSR/BCV for a week and use the ones left over. But, it seems that would cost me more points, not less.
Can anyone explain the reasoning behind this?
Thank you!!!!

 

[RoyalCanadian]

I'm quite positive that someone else out there will be far more adept at explaining this one. I've never done such a trade (we're just going home for the 1st time in January '05), however my understanding has always that the WDW Resorts are a separate financial entity from the DVC properties and so it's an "outside" trade.
Perhaps a shorter stay at a DVC resort would help to clear up those points, or even rent to someone through the Rent/Trade board. I've seen people looking for incredibly small numbers of points there on occasion. (I recall one poster desperately searching for 1 point.)

 

[Tink03477]

I wasn't sure since these resorts are listed on the DVC Point Calculator as well as the DVC Resorts.
Thanks for your help!!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Originally posted by RoyalCanadian
I'm quite positive that someone else out there will be far more adept at explaining this one. I've never done such a trade (we're just going home for the 1st time in January '05), however my understanding has always that the WDW Resorts are a separate financial entity from the DVC properties and so it's an "outside" trade.
Perhaps a shorter stay at a DVC resort would help to clear up those points, or even rent to someone through the Rent/Trade board. I've seen people looking for incredibly small numbers of points there on occasion. (I recall one poster desperately searching for 1 point.)

You actually did a pretty good job of explaining that. DVC is seperate from the other WDW resorts, in that they are timeshare owned. Because the other resorts are considered an "exchange", each resort negotiates independantly with DVC to degermin exchanges. I believe the WDW resorts are negotiated all together, but they still are an outside exchange from DVC. That means it is by far more advantageous for DVC points to be used at DVC resorts.

 

[CarolMN]

The simple reason is "inflation".

DVC point cost rates for DVC resorts are locked in for the life of the contract - DVC can't increase the total number of points required to reserve the resort for a year. If something increases, then something else must decrease. This is the advantage of DVC over paying cash for each stay.

DVC pays a negotiated cashrate to WDW resorts when a DVC member opts to stay at one of the non-DVC options on points. (They get the money by renting out the equivalent numbr of nights in a DVC resort for cash). WDW hotel rates have been going up. They are not locked in and there is no guarantee in the DVC contracts that we will even always be able to use points for a non DVC option.

There's more to the explanation, but the main reason is that rates for the non-DVC choices can and do go up.

That's why the best value for DVC points is using them to stay at a DVC resort.

Best wishes -

 

[jmminarik]

It's not as simple as this, but the gist is:

DVC pays AKL for your room in "cash", then turns around and uses your points to reserve a DVC room that it then turns around and rents for real cash or maybe to block off a room for renovations, and so on. While the "cash" DVC pays is really paper shuffling between disney divisions, they still need to replace the "cost" of your AKL room with real money.

Hope this helps,
Joe

 

[crisi]

And they incur some risk in doing so. If the room doesn't get booked, they haven't gotten any return on your points. So even though the cash rental of a DVC room will be more than a moderate, the moderate will cost more points to cover the risk, plus the bookkeeping.

 

[Tink03477]

Wow! Complicated, but I get it now!
Thanks guys, I knew someone(s) would know.