Renting Question

[Sammie]

I am not trying to start a heated debate on whether this is right or wrong, or whether it is causing bookings to be harder to get at 7 months, but since I don't rent, or at least not yet, I am curious about something.

I don't even normally check the Rent/Trade board but I do skim the main forum page and I keep noticing listings for Reservations for Rent vs. Points to Rent or Transfer.

Most seem to be during the Food and Wine festival. So did members book this intentionally to rent, or did something happen that they are not able to go and don't wish to cancel so they are renting.

I can see if you book a trip and can't go and are going to lose points. At what point does this type of action become commercial use of the membership.

 

[Deb & Bill]

From what I see, it appears that most of them are cancellations and they maybe won't be able to use the points and they may be past the banking deadline. Not sure though.

A few did seem to have multiples, though. I wondered about those myself.

 

[Sammie]

I can appreciate the need to rent a reservation that one could not cancel without losing points, I might have to do that myself at some point.

Maybe it is just coincidence the reservations are during times when booking at 7 months is getting harder to get at the Epcot resorts.

 

[Tinky]

I can only speak for myself as someone who had a reservation for F&W and then had to cancel. DH is going to be returning from Iraq Oct 1st and he surprised me with a honeymoon cruise (10 years and 3 kids later , we've been busy, no time before to take one) so I had to cancel.

I rented and transfered points but I hated to do it. I'll kind of miss DW during this time but to get DH all to myself for a week... easy decision.

 

[RobDoc]

Both situations do exist.

The true intent for the Rent/Trade Board was (and is) to allow a medium for members to rent excess points and existing reservations they will be unable to use. There is certainly a majority who use the board exactly as it was intended.

There are some who have reserved accommodations for popular times with the sole intent of renting the reservation. In the past we'd see reservations for early December offered in mid-January and reservations for late October offered in late November. Since those practices were actually contrary to the purpose of the board, the current policies were instituted where existing reservations may not be offered until 6 months ( members still have the ability to cancel and have the ability to bank any current points used) and a limit of two per year was also instituted (few members find the need to have to cancel more than 2 existing reservations during the course of a year).

There is also a small group who constantly request point transfers, reply to most every offer to transfer points - and then offer to make reservations for others and offer existing reservations.

The Rent/Trade Board has definitely evolved over the past 8 years and the number of requests and offers has greatly grown - both in the number of members offering to make reservations for others and in the number of requests for those reservations. We have experienced an incredibly small number of problems from those using the board to make and rent DVC reservations and IMO that is a testament to the quality of the DVC membership as a whole.

 

[mikesmom]

I suspect it could be both.

Two years ago my DH had surgery and was not sufficiently recovered in time to go on our planned trip to the Food & Wine Fest. We had a 2 bedroom ressie for ourselves and our friends and had rented a 1 bedroom for another couple. We were planning to all travel together. Well the surgery happened, we were inside 30 days, and not only could we not go, BOTH sets of friends decided they didn't want to go without us. Now I'm sure it was in sympathy and they didn't want to have a good time if we couldn't but it sure made a mess with our DVC points!! So, 2 years ago, I was the one with multiple for rents and replying to requests for reservations.

So, it could be possible. BTW, we are looking forward to our trip this October with all our friends!