Saratoga Springs per point cost

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

I thought the unit was as indicated on the deed. But that's not based on anything but my understanding. I'll defer to others with more specific info. I never did the math to see if the changes to between weekday/weekend that recently happened balanced by room.

 

[DebbieB]

I thought the unit was as indicated on the deed. But that's not based on anything but my understanding. I'll defer to others with more specific info. I never did the math to see if the changes to between weekday/weekend that recently happened balanced by room.

I always thought that too, that the shift had to be within the room category. But the 2009 (2010?) reallocations proved that not to be true. It was balanced based on the entire resort.

To be honest, I've never stayed at SSR and don't really desire to. I cringe everytime I drive past it and see those rooms that face the road and the fire house. My luck I would end up there.

 

[Dean]

Does anyone know why Saratoga Springs per point cost is so reasonable? Aside from Vero Beach or Hilton Head, it's probably one of the most desirable DVC properties. Is it just not a great place to stay, location, etc.?

Any opinions would be welcomed.

Thanks,
Brett

Overall it's actually likely the second least in demand DVC resort. HH is the lowest overall (averaged) due to it's seasonality. VB used to be but has seemingly passed OKW and SSR it would seem. OKW is above mostly due to the lower points. The low price is a combination of factors of which the main one is what I referenced above, that it is lower demand. The large size certainly has some, but lessor, effect. The other factor is that you had quite a number of people who bought simply to get points (or additional points) including a fair chunk that bought simply to get the bonus points and then planned to flip and get their money back as the pp cost went up. Evidence of that was that you saw a LOT of points for sale within a few months of initial offering for the retail sales price or slightly higher with all points in place. You also had a large group of people that bought to get in the system or didn't know there were other options and later figured out they had better options including resale, newer resorts or even older resorts retail.

People are able to buy on the cheap b/c of DVD's own doing. They stripped the (perceived) perks from the resales. They stopped with ROFR. If they really cared, they'd have kept them all the same and ROFR'd contracts across the board to make the price difference nominal, and the benefits of buying direct sellable. If they kept SSR at $100 direct but maintained an $85 floor resale via ROFR, but waived closing costs for direct purchases, threw in a $500 Visa giftcard and allowed for a 20 minute close instead of 2 months, they'd have most people buying direct.

They did all they could to make resales cheap, it's not like the could possibly be surprised that this is the end result.

Also, the 7 month booking window is the only reason to buy at BLT, or anywhere for that matter. You want to stay at BLT? Guarantee it by buying there; otherwise you might miss out at 7 months. They want people switching over. They want to tell the new buyer that BLT is filling up at 7 months. This helps them sell.

I think a more realistic view is that the true value of resale, at least in this economy, is coming through now as ROFR has all but disappeared.

As for as changing points, there are some technical variances, ? inaccuracies or at least different emphasis, in all posts above as I understand it. A "unit" is a villa or combo of villas. Most are not a single villa and the only ones I know of that are, are 3 BR units. The rules say that the total points cannot change. I think the most strict interpretation would say that each and every unit must stay the same and technically that's the way I've read the POS in the past. However, DVC has clearly taken the approach of looking at the entire resort for the whole year rather than each unit and I think one can make that argument as well and one I doubt could be legally challenged. The other factor is that the POS does not address how components of lockoff's are to be handled and DVC has clearly taken the stance that components of lockoff's are not protected other than by the 20% per year change rule and I think that too is the appropriate approach. The other issue is that there were some being passive aggressive in the previous reallocation discussions taking the stance that the points had to be exactly equal to the point for any year they chose to look at and that is clearly not the case. First, there must be a certain amount of latitude just based on yearly variability and second, only the BASE year is really a governing factor in the points reallocation.

I thought the unit was as indicated on the deed. But that's not based on anything but my understanding. I'll defer to others with more specific info. I never did the math to see if the changes to between weekday/weekend that recently happened balanced by room.

I did the numbers for several options on one of the long reallocation thread's. I don't have the numbers in front of me but I recall it was well under 1/2 of 1% variation (looked at for the entire resort for a whole year) for all but components of lockoff's (I'm thinking it was actually less than 0.02%, some (only a few) of which were more in the 5-7% range.

 

[tjkraz]

Our contracts specifically state that we only have rights at our home resorts. Why would Disney add that to the contract if they didn't think that they might enforce it someday?

Just like dozens of other clauses in the POS, it's simply a CYA move to allow Disney unlimited flexibility for years to come.

The structure of Disney Vacation Club allows them to market 11 resorts to the public rather than just one. They aren't just selling the ability to reserve Saratoga or Aulani or Bay Lake Tower...they are selling the Beach Club, BoardWalk, Hilton Head and more.

The odds of Disney removing the ability to book non-Home resorts is infinitely small, IMO. Doing so would hurt DVCs sales efforts more than it would help.

As for Saratoga, it's really just a case of the supply side being out of whack. SSR has twice as many rooms as Old Key West, 2.5x as many as BoardWalk, 4.5x as many as Beach Club.

The resale market isn't an effective means of weighing popularity. There could well be more fans of SSR than there are of OKW, AKV and others. The only thing we really can tell from resale prices is that there are more points available than are necessary to meet demand...at least in comparison to many other locations.

To the buyer who is indifferent or favors SSR, it's a situation worth taking advantage of.

 

[tjkraz]

They cannot, therefore, shift points from one room type to another as you describe. They also could not create booking categories where one section (Carousel, for example) was always cheaper than others.

Yes, they can.

I thought the unit was as indicated on the deed. But that's not based on anything but my understanding. I'll defer to others with more specific info. I never did the math to see if the changes to between weekday/weekend that recently happened balanced by room.

The unit is listed on the deed but the legal declarations do not make any distinction between different views or categories.

In other words, a unit containing "Savanna View" villas at AKV is legally declared as representing the same number of points as a "Standard View" villa. IIRC the declarations are based largely on square footage rather than having any relation to the number of points required to book the particular villa.

 

[Doug7856]

Does anyone know why Saratoga Springs per point cost is so reasonable? Aside from Vero Beach or Hilton Head, it's probably one of the most desirable DVC properties. Is it just not a great place to stay, location, etc.?

Any opinions would be welcomed.

Thanks,
Brett

We own at Saratoga Springs Resort and probably half of our stays are at SSR. We love the resort but appreciate the ability to enjoy other DVC resorts. Everyone has their favorites and reasons for or against a resort. I recommend exploring the resorts and buy at a resort that you enjoy.

We have not had any problems booking other resorts. We have stayed at BWV, AKV and OKW in addition to SSR. Generally we book SSR at the 11 month mark and change at the 7 month mark. Once we did a waitlist for BWV and it came through within a week of our waitlist. We probably book AKV most outside of SSR because we love the resort and it has great low point options.

For our December visits, we've always stayed at SSR -- this year we're doing the THV for our second stay there. It seems to be easy to book beyond SSR for summer visits as most DVC members seem to prefer to avoid summers.

We bought direct from Disney, but I'm looking for an add on, probably SSR, and will strongly consider resale.

Have fun evaluating your options!