Originally posted by bjakmom
I'm hoping to get this straight in my head before I decide to rent pts for next Jan. - my understanding is that the 'use year' affects my reservation if, for some unforseen reason, I should have to cancel. If I cancel before 31 days out, I could reschedule and still use the points within the use year, right? So, if I needed to have the option of the entire summer to rebook my trip, I would need to find someone whose use year was at least Sept? Would a DVC member with a Sept use year be able to make reservations at their home resort for Jan '04 now, or not until Sept? I'm also pretty sure that if I had to cancel within 31 days I would have only 60 days to use the points (?).
Thanks for any help! - we rented points last year and loved BWV, but we booked just a few months out and I didn't have to consider all these questions - next year I'm hoping to get all my kids together for my big 5-0.
Keep in mind that the terms of the rental (including cancellation and rescheduling opportunites) are negotiable. Those terms can and do vary between members, regardless of the member's use year. Be sure that you talk about it before agreeing to rent. I'd suggest you get something that explains your options in writing.
A member can always make reservations at his/her home resort 11 months in advance of the check out date. Doesn't matter what his/her use year may be. Members can make reservations at non-home DVC resorts 7 months in advance of the check out date. Again, use year doesn't matter.
As you say, if a reservation is cancelled 31 or more days prior to arrival, the points may be used for another reservation as long as the stay/reservation is completed prior to the start of the next use year.
If you cancel a reservation 30 days or less prior to arrival, the points go into a special "holding" account. Those points cannot be banked, and expire at the end of the use year. You can only use them to make a reservation 60 days or less prior to arrival.
Use year determines the banking deadlines. Members may "bank" unused points into the following use year if they do it by the deadlines. That means the points do not expire until the end of the following use year. Points may only be banked once. For example, If you have a September use year, you can bank up to 100% of your 2003 use year points into the 2004 use year if you do it on or before the end of February, 2004. That means those 2003 points can now be used for stays between 9/1/2004 and 8/31/2005. If they are not used before 9/1/2005, they are lost. They cannot be banked again. There are also provisions that allow you to bank up to 50% and up to 25% of your total year's allotment. Deadlines for those are later in the year - end of the 9th month and end of the 10th month. In the September example, that would be the end of May and the end of June. You cannot bank any points in the last two months of your use year.
As you can see, trying to fit everything into a rental agreement could get very complicated. If you are looking for the most flexibility for your summer rental, I'd suggest you look for a member with a March, April or June use year. If you have to cancel and the member uses current use year points for the reservation, you could ask the member to bank the points if you could not reschedule for a time prior to the end of the 2003 use year. Then you would have an opportunity to reschedule the trip in the 2004 use year.
I'm not sure if anyone will be willing to rent with all those terms or not. Some members do rent with the idea that once the rental fee is paid, the points "belong" to the renter. The renter has whatever flexibility the owner would have with the points. Of course, only the member can contact MS and make reservations.
Hope all this info doesn't confuse you more. Personally, I think it is a lot for a non-member to absorb. If you are really worried about having to cancel a
DVC rental, you are probably much better off renting directly from Disney. JMHO.
Best wishes - Carol
