Renting risks?

[5forDiz]

had you read the links, you would have discovered that MS will no longer speak to non-owners to confirm their reservations. even if you got the owner to do a 3-way call to confirm the reservation while you were on the line with MS with them, they could call back 5 minutes later and cancel it...a confirmation letter does not mean that you "own" the reservation.

there's no easy fix...

if you are really concerned about scams, jimMIA's idea is a great one. make the reservation through CRO and get a great deal (7 for the price of 4) with a much better cancellation policy, as well as the peace of mind of dealing with disney directly.

Excellent point made here by chalee and just to expand a bit more on what his post said - you also can't put your trust in a 3-way call because someone who wants to rip you off can set that call up with another party pretending to be MS......it's not that I want to imply that there are unscrupulous owners aplenty out there but unfortunately just like in any kind of transaction that involves $ there can be.

We've never rented out our points but if we ever did we'd never ever scam the renter and majority of DVC owners would never do that to you but as well stated here by pp and JimMIA and others on this thread; things can & do go wrong and you'll have no recourse with Disney in a private transaction like this.

 

[mikesmom]

Another 2 cents...

It's pretty unlikely (in my opinion) that you would find someone to take the deal at 10 or 20% deposit up front. Cancellation and banking windows aside, once they are committed, you are tying up their points, and if someone needs to rent for whatever reason, it's just not worth it for 10%. Trying to re-rent is a hassle, the time window is narrower, there are less rooms available, etc. Plus, if I were renting, I would probably make an assumption that someone who wanted to put down only 10% was likely to cancel or (very likely) start shopping other owners to find a better deal and bargain down the price. Or you could take the other rental and blow off the deposit. As you said, you would only have $55-$130 in the deal.

I appreciate your caution, believe me. I would go with a CRO reservation that you could easily cancel if your new purchase doesn't go through in time.

 

[permavac]

I have rented points twice, with the 2nd visit coming up in the beginning of February. It's true - renting is not for everyone because while you can get a great deal via renting, as the renter you do sort of take all the risk upon yourself once the reservation is paid for. I was a nervous wreck up until we checked in the first time (worked out just fine by-the-way) and I'm a nervous wreck about the upcoming February trip as well. That's why my DH and I decided to buy - we have a small contract that we'll be adding onto over the years and for now will get a few small transfers to tide us over. Anyway, FWIW, both of the owners I dealt with required FULL payment right away - after they indicated to me via e-mail that the reservation was made. In both cases, I did receive the confirmation in the mail after they received it and forwarded it to me but as others have stated this is not necessarily a guarantee that you haven't been scammed. I decided that I just don't have the stomach for renting really That said, I would have felt much more comfortable renting from an established DISer or even renting again from the person I rented from already. As it turned out, I rented from fairly new members and I guess that's the reason for my discomfort.

 

[Melani]

No, renting doesn't sound like it's for me.

I just put another offer in, w/TTS this time, maybe it will go through and I can make my own reservation for Memorial Day week. I already promised the kids we'd go back for Christmas next year, I hope we close in time to make the 11 month window!

 

[Dean]

No, renting doesn't sound like it's for me.

I just put another offer in, w/TTS this time, maybe it will go through and I can make my own reservation for Memorial Day week. I already promised the kids we'd go back for Christmas next year, I hope we close in time to make the 11 month window!

In case others with a similar thought are renting, let me add a little. One should NEVER rent unless you are committed to completing the reservation. The ONLY way that it would be reasonable to do so would be with the full disclosure up front and agreement of the DVC member renting to you. My usual terms are 25% up front and the remainder at 120 days out all nonrefundable but if I were renting to someone who told me up front they may have to cancel, I'd want at least 50% down nonrefundable. It would be a poor choice to rent from a member knowing you might need to cancel later.

As to risks, there are more than has been listed here. There are costs to renting including advertising for many situations, more costs to try to rerent, phone calls, the time and aggravation involved, lost ability to rent to another person who would not cancel, chance of losing the points or of having points in holding accounts. In addition there are risks that cont with a successful renter as the member has some responsibility for their guests. May is not likely to be an issue if you'll be flexible on resort.