Renting DVC

[Barbruka]

Can you still do this and where do you find them? Rented about 7 years ago and loved it. Can't find any info.

 

[Meandnevaeh]

Can you still do this and where do you find them? Rented about 7 years ago and loved it. Can't find any info.

Yes you can still do this, there are two main point rental brokers google them. Then there is the rent/trade board here under the DVC main board

 

[Deb & Bill]

Just plan on giving yourself enough time to book. At a minimum seven months out, but closer to eleven months out is better.

 

[PrincessNelly]

The DVCRental store and David's are good if you dont find someone on the rent/trade board.

 

[PopSugar]

Just plan on giving yourself enough time to book. At a minimum seven months out, but closer to eleven months out is better.

wow-that is FAR out!

 

[_auroraborealis_]

wow-that is FAR out!

No, it's not. DVC is a timeshare. Most timeshares assume a commitment to annual travel that allows for such planning.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

DVC members can book their home resort 11 months out and non-home resorts at 7 months. So if you are looking to book an Epcot area resort for food & wine festival (for example), you need to be ready to book between 11 months and 7 months...pickings will be very slim after 7 months.

 

[HatboxHaint]

wow-that is FAR out!

It requires a shift in vacation planning. But the leap seems worth it if you would like to experience deluxe level resorts at a near moderate resort level price.

 

[Hopefully]

wow-that is FAR out!

No its not. We own at Beach Club Villas and we book our Food & Wine Villa exactly 11 months to the day.
BCV runs at about 98% capacity and if we don't do that for F & W we may well be out of luck.

 

[PopSugar]

Interesting-I am more of a 4 month out planner
But we lucked out 2 years ago and got Yacht club for cheaper that the Swan for Food and Wine

 

[PrincessNelly]

Interesting-I am more of a 4 month out planner
But we lucked out 2 years ago and got Yacht club for cheaper that the Swan for Food and Wine

Regular resorts are different than DVC. Room availability for DVC resorts goes fast, especially in the busy seasons.

 

[Leelo]

I just used DVC rental store recently and was able to book for the Poly lake view at 8 months out during "regular season". I thought this might be too late but luckily it only took about 10 days to receive confirmation. I'm sure it varies. I have heard good things about David's as well. I chose rental store bc they don't require full payment upon booking. It is a bit more to book through a service instead of direct to an owner but my money is guaranteed and that is worth the extra few dollars per point to me.

 

[HatboxHaint]

Too bad we don't have a roll call thread where people can list
who they booked with
what they booked
How far out they booked

Then we could see trends...

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The DVCers can tell you all about availability.

Basically, if you want near-park between mid-September and marathon, be booking in the 11-7 month window.

The Poly has more units declared than points sold as yet, so it can often be booked at 7 months, but during DVC high season (September-marathon) the owner had best be online at 8AM proper to do it.

From after-marathon through Labor Day is DVC low season. Many units can be booked inside of 7 months, especially at Old Key West, AKV and Saratoga. 7 month booking for a lot of units is not uncommon during this range, with the exceptions of certain low cost rooms (AKV Value, BWV Standard, BLT Standard), and the monorail resorts/Epcot resorts over July 4.

DVC owners all know, at this point: Thou shalt not dilly-dally for a fall reservation. You snooze you will lose, and be waitlisting to fill in holes even at large resorts like Saratoga.

When you book via a broker, their actual room availability is exactly what a member's availability is, because all the broker is doing is making a love connection between owner and renter. Where the variable comes in with a broker is which owners are working with which brokers. Thus, one might have more BLT owners with a desirable Use Year at one time, and another may have more BWV owners with a desirable UY at another point in the year. Because home resort and Use Year matter a lot when booking, this creates a lot of the variance between success rates of different brokers at 11 months, and it's not externally predictable which one will be able to deliver because often they don't even know two weeks out what point inventory/owner inventory they'll have in 14 days!

 

[Marionnette]

Too bad we don't have a roll call thread where people can list
who they booked with
what they booked
How far out they booked

Then we could see trends...

I agree with @_auroraborealis_ . Any kind of roll call thread is not going to yield useful information. The chances of success are dependent on the availability of owners willing to "rent their points" for a reservation, whether they own at the resort that you want (if inquiring between 11 -7 months prior to arrival), whether there are available units for the dates that you want and whether any of the rental company's owners on file have a sufficient number of points to secure that reservation for you.

The PP who snagged a Poly studio at 8 months did so because the rental company they went with happened to have a Poly owner who could book the reservation. A BWV or SSR owner would not have been able to book it. The PP also booked during "regular" season, which is not a DVC booking season. However, Disney's "regular seasons' are not typically periods of high DVC demand. Others have already noted that the period of peak DVC demand is Sept. thru Marathon weekend in Jan.

 

[Lynne M]

Too bad we don't have a roll call thread where people can list
who they booked with
what they booked
How far out they booked

Then we could see trends...

If you're a regular reader of the DVC boards here, you'll get more trend information than you ever wanted.

The one big thing for renters to know is that timeshare owners tend to book much farther in advance than hotel guests do, and the DVC system is designed to keep the resorts as close to 100% occupancy at all times. What that means in practice is that all owners of a certain DVC resort can book at that resort at 11 months out from their trip dates. At 7 months out, DVC owners can book any DVC resort, so at that point you're competing with all DVC owners. So, for the best availability, you want to book as close to that 11 month date as possible. As you move forward from that date, availability decreases.

Here are some more things to take into consideration:

The busiest time of year for DVC bookings is from the beginning of the Food and Wine Festival (late Sept) through the end of the year, with the Epcot resorts being especially tough to get during F&W. There's another bump during the spring break months. The rest of spring and summer isn't too bad.

Smaller DVC resorts book up faster than big ones. In other words, you'll have a harder time finding an available room at BCV than you will at SSR.

Certain room types only exist in very small numbers, so are difficult to get and must be booked as early as possible on the day the 11 month window opens. These include standard view villas at BWV, grand villas at BWV, club level villas at AKV, and value villas at AKV.

 

[Hopefully]

Interesting-I am more of a 4 month out planner
But we lucked out 2 years ago and got Yacht club for cheaper that the Swan for Food and Wine

As a 4 month out planner DVC ownership is NOT for you.
PP have done a great job outlining the issues.
Yacht Club is not a DVC resort and this discussion does not apply to rooms there

You need to do a search or Google " DVCresorts" so you understand the discussion.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Oh, and never plan on getting GFVillas by renting. If you do, you need to buy those lottery tickets because you have something going for you. That one is a really small DVC and the owners there book exactly at 11 months out to get what they need. And that pretty much books up the resort. A lot of the owners at GFV bought to book a studio because the one bedroom and larger require a lot more points. It's not unusual for there to be no studios at ten months out. Except for a day here and there.

For example. right now for 60 days out, you can get a GV at Aulani. And that is about it. Maybe a night or two here or there for other resorts.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I book everything I need between September and mid-January at 11 months and worry about the rest of it later. That generally means my early December weekend that I do every year is going to be at SSR because it's one of my home resorts. Many years ago I used to be able to move to another resort at 7 months...that doesn't happen now.