yes, but it might give those who own at very popular resorts just a bit more breathing room when trying to secure 'their home' at the 11 month window. It is not uncommon at all to be shut out especially for the less expensive rooms.
situation is not quite as bad compared to increasing reports of ticket brokers sucking up tickets to popular events, but in the same ballpark imo.
then, there's the issue of revenue paid to the broker for their services, which seems contradictory to the no profit thing as to selling points expressed by DVC.
Not having a law degree, could be wrong on this count. Realize many love these services, both members and renters...me, no so much.
I've seen the argument expressed that a member is ultimately entitled to use their points as they see fit. True, but only if they adhere to whatever rules, enforced or otherwise stated. My thoughts are that a combo of two factors is in play: speculative bookings (that may be released relatively last minute) or a member booking directly (upon direction of a broker's client) . Regardless, both effectively decrease the pool of rooms/chance a member has to be enjoying their home resort.
Note that the above is JMHO but coming from a BWV member who is unable to walk her early October reservation she needs due to use year restrictions. I didn't run into issue booking that same week every year at the 11 month window until the professional brokers started to become more common and SSR was built. Other than people becoming more savvy as to booking, I can think of no other factors in play but it's frustrating, no matter the cause.
The modern problem of having trouble getting a reservation at 11 months out for Boardwalk standard or boardwalk view during F&W has little to nothing to do with brokers, violation of any rule against profiting from renting points,or SSR having been built:
1. Brokers today typically operate via putting together an owner with renter with the owner actually making the reservation. Broker's are not known to get those reservations that are extemely difficult for even owners to get at 11 months out; the reason: they don't get owners who want to rent and also are willing to walk a reservation or go online exactly at 8 a.m. at 11 months out to make a reservation and then not have a rental if they cannot accomplsh it, i.e., owners do not want to put up with that hassle just to rent.
2. No one from SSR can make a reservation at Boardwalk until 7 months out. The only impact SSR has on that is that Boardwalk owners now know it is difficult to get other near park resorts during F&W at 7 months out and thus lean more towards reserving 11 months out at BWV.
3. An owner can rent a reservation by setting up the reservation using his own points in the name of the renter. That is usually what brokers arrange. There is no rule prohibiting owners from doing that and doing it for a profit. If Disney were to adopt one, it would be acting illegally, not the owners. The only rule is that members cannot transfer points to another owner for monetary value. The reason for the rule is so that Disney will not get caught in the middle of transfer transactions with someone complaining about Disney as the middle man if the transaction goes wrong and money is involved. But the rule is irrelevant to brokers who do rentals as described above which do not inviolve the act of transferring points.
4. The actual reasons why BWV standard and boardwalk view studios are now difficult to get even at 11 months out during Food & Wine are the following:
(a) Disney set up the resort to have only 15% boardwalk and 18% standard view, meaning the rooms most desired are low in number. Thus on that issue, Disney is at fault in choosing to make the most desired rooms low in number.
(b) F&W and Halloween Parties have become more and more popular as years progressed. It is Disney who created those, not brokers.
(c) The DVC population has now aged to the point that large numbers of owners, particularly at BWV, no longer have to travel based on the school schedules of their children and there has been a massive shift toward those owners reserving in the Fall when points are low (it is Disney who created the point requirements), weather is perfect, and they can get the fall events.
(d) From the beginning Disney has sold low number, 25 or more, point add-ons to owners. Although Disney kept minimums for new purchasers higher for a while, such as at 160 points, that essentially died with the Great Recession when Disney started lowering points needed by new purchasers to at times as low as 50 and for some time now 100. The Great Recession also led to a huge number of defaults that allowed Disney to foreclose and then resell the previosuly larger ownerships at clips of 50 or 100 points to new purchasers, including at Boardwalk. Meanwhile existing owners, including many who found they needed to downsize their ownerships, also sold more and more points as a result of the Great Recession in the resale market, very often selling those 25 to 75 point add-ons to new purchasers for a little more per point than larger contracts. The effect is that there is now a much larger percentage of owners at BWV than pre-Great Recession who have only enough BWV points to afford studios. (Disney is once again signficantly the cause for lowering its mimimum point requirements to new purchasers.)
(e) The modern problem relating to getting BWV standard and boardwalk view at 11 months out during F&W is a studio problem -- 2BRs are effected but that is only because most everyone is trying to reserve studios -- and that problem is the direct result of factors (a) through (d) above, with Disney and not any brokers being one of the main causes of the problem. Thus, if one wants to aim complaints about the 11 month reservation issue that exists today at BWV for F&W, the complaints should be aimed at Disney rather than brokers.
Bill
