Risks of renting out points

[Aulani808]

I understand that there's a ton of risk when buying points on websites like this one or Facebook, but is there any risk to the person renting out the points?

 

[muppets3d]

discussed here a few weeks ago. https://www.disboards.com/threads/questions-about-renting-out-your-points.3959123/

 

[Sandisw]

As an owner, you are responsible for the actions of your guests.

So, theoretically, if they do damage, your account could be frozen until you get the guest to settle the situation.

Depending how you write the contract, and set up payment, you may not get it all…

 

[robinb]

I understand that there's a ton of risk when buying points on websites like this one or Facebook, but is there any risk to the person renting out the points?

I would say that there is some risk, but not a "ton of risk" in either renting out your points of renting points from other people.

The DVC member is in complete control of the reservation. If the buyer does not pay you, you can cancel the reservation and be done with them. When I accepted partial payments, I always made sure to make my final deadline to be 45-60 days ahead of the reservation so I would have enough wiggle room to cancel if I didn't get full payment. And yes, I had to "remind" more than one renter that they were late *sigh*. As @Sandisw mentioned, you are also responsible if a renter trashes the place. Some people have said that you may also be responsible for and unpaid bills but I have never heard of that actually happening to anyone. In any case, the risk of anything going wrong is really quite small IMO.

As for renting points from another DISer, the risk is higher but there are things that you can do to protect you from scammers.

1. A contract, while not necessarily enforceable, at least spells out what is expected from both parties.
2. Do not send money for a reservation until it is in your name and available in your MDE. There are two caveats to this rule:
   1. Some DVC members will ask for a small token of earnest money and that's OK.
   2. I think it's also OK to pay at least partially when someone is making a reservation that is within the final 31 day window. It's to protect the DVC member from "looky-loos" who change their mind and then they are stuck with a reservation with points that will go into holding. However, if it's an existing reservation they have already made the choice to keep it past the cancellation date and no partial payment should be made.
3. Ask which resort the points are from and if they are from one of the Orlando resorts, check out the owner's name in the Orange County's Assessor's Office.
4. Do not rent points from a "friend" or "relative" of the owner.

There are more scammers that pretend to rent out points but it does not happen very often. I can remember only a handful of stories here on the DIS and only a few stories on the FB rental groups I belong to. I would say that the vast majority of stories about about people being scammed is that the renter sent money before seeing their reservation in MDE. Still, the risk of being scammed by renting is fairly low as long as you take certain precautions.

 

[Aulani808]

Thank you, all. Its concerning that the renter will be responsible for damages and unpaid bills. Anyone know if you go through a major brokers, if they will protect you in those cases?

 

[CarolynFH]

Thank you, all. Its concerning that the renter will be responsible for damages and unpaid bills. Anyone know if you go through a major brokers, if they will protect you in those cases?

I don't know about damages or whether brokers will help or not. I do know that since Disney began placing holds on guests' credit cards for the amount charged to their resort account plus $100, the chance of the guest leaving an unpaid bill has diminished quite a lot, if not gone completely.

 

[GoingSince1990]

I've literally never seen on DIS or anywhere else anyone saying "I rented out my points, the renter trashed the room and now I have to pay for the damage". And I doubt that has ever happened as the type of people who want to stay at a DVC resort tend to be the opposite of the type of people who are likely to trash hotel rooms. But feel free to prove me wrong, if anyone has ever seen anyone post to that effect in the entire history of DVC.

 

[CarolynFH]

I've literally never seen on DIS or anywhere else anyone saying "I rented out my points, the renter trashed the room and now I have to pay for the damage". And I doubt that has ever happened as the type of people who want to stay at a DVC resort tend to be the opposite of the type of people who are likely to trash hotel rooms. But feel free to prove me wrong, if anyone has ever seen anyone post to that effect in the entire history of DVC.

I don't remember seeing reports of owners having to pay for damages caused by renters.

 

[Brian Noble]

Its concerning that the renter will be responsible for damages and unpaid bills.

I can't remember the last time we heard of someone skipping on a bill--and as @CarolynFH points out, it's been years since we've seen even one. I don't think I've ever seen a report of an owner being found responsible for damage.

If you want absolute guarantees, you're probably not going to get them, but the odds seem pretty good to me.

 

[Sandisw]

I've literally never seen on DIS or anywhere else anyone saying "I rented out my points, the renter trashed the room and now I have to pay for the damage". And I doubt that has ever happened as the type of people who want to stay at a DVC resort tend to be the opposite of the type of people who are likely to trash hotel rooms. But feel free to prove me wrong, if anyone has ever seen anyone post to that effect in the entire history of DVC.

I have never seen the trashed room report but the unpaid bills prior to the policy change of the hold to CC

Even then, DVC did not bill the owner…they simply froze the DVC account until the owner got the renter to settle…in a few cases where it happened, there was no malicious intent by the renter…just an issue with their card and once they knew, they did settle it quickly so the owners account was no longer impacted.

In a few reports, the owners did end up just settling because it was easier than trying to track down the renter.

Even so, I agree with you that the risk of this is extremely low.

 

[Anthony1971]

I've literally never seen on DIS or anywhere else anyone saying "I rented out my points, the renter trashed the room and now I have to pay for the damage". And I doubt that has ever happened as the type of people who want to stay at a DVC resort tend to be the opposite of the type of people who are likely to trash hotel rooms. But feel free to prove me wrong, if anyone has ever seen anyone post to that effect in the entire history of DVC.

I have seen reports of unpaid bills and the owner had to cover them. It has been a long time since I have seen one but I also do not follow these boards that much anymore. But as others have stayed the risk is very low.
I personally have seen missing light bulbs when CFLs where expensive and Disney switched to missing utensils. Can not say the Utensils where ever there but the light bulbs had to be and it was not one bulb... The Master bedroom was rather dark that night but we were a lot younger so it was fine. Called and they replaced no blame on anyone but people owners or not take things.

 

[Genie+]

WDW does room security checks now too. Between that and housekeeping most rooms have someone popping in daily. Probably helps limit some types of damage, like smoking or people leaving gross things to fester.