So is DVD doing a good? 3% increase in dues overall

[LIFERBABE]

In the meeting today, DVD emphasized that although 3% increase in dues outstripped the CPI by 2%, the industry avg dues increase is 9% and that DVD has never had a special assessment.

A member asked if they looked at areas to cut and JL told him quite frankly "no". The bulk of the jncreases were attributed to employee wages and healthcare that are not calculated in the CPI.
So do you think DVD is doing a good job at managing our costs?

 

[Garthilk]

Excellent question,

In this economy most companies I know are shedding costs and doing their best to tighten the costs rather than grow them. Here's the difference though, most companies don't have budgets that they can grow whenever they please. If DVC doesn't make a goal, they just increase dues and blame labor costs. Likewise, if they don't use those dues, they're going to lose those dues.

It's like most antiquated way of thinking that if you don't use what you're bugeted you might not get that at all, so in general there's always an incentive to go over budget.

 

[Sammie]

Honestly I don't know because they are so secretive about how they manage the money.

I know I think they did a horrible job at selecting materials for BLT, which obvoiusly have not held up, and a horrible job at designing the studios which are now having to be refitted. I also do not think they spent the money wisely in the OKW rehab. At best it is a bandaid fix.

There are areas where I think they waste money. Way too many things mailed to me I am not interested it. I think they should offer a no mail option.

 

[NewDCLGuy]

If you told me when I bought in that dues would only rise 3% a year, I'd have been very happy. I'm very satisfied.

But I am slightly curious about the no special assessment thing. Wasn't the OKW extention done via special assessment??

 

[chalee94]

But I am slightly curious about the no special assessment thing. Wasn't the OKW extention done via special assessment??

it was called that but normally a special assessment means you get a $1000+ bill on top of your ordinary maintenance fees. that's the kind of SA that owners are worried about.

i don't love the OKW changes i've seen but for the most part, i think dues are managed very well. members don't want cuts in housekeeping since that would push back the 4pm check-in time even further. health care costs continue to go up and that's going to push up dues.

DVC has cut maintenance fees in the past when the situation has warrented it, so i think the argument that DVC is spending the dues budget just to spend it is nonsense.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

DVC has cut maintenance fees in the past when the situation has warrented it, so i think the argument that DVC is spending the dues budget just to spend it is nonsense.

I agree that I think DVC doesn't spend frivously, but they also do not have an incentive to control costs either. If DVC received a performance bonus of some % of decreases in dues, that could provide a incentive, right now, it's the opposite to some degree. They get a management fee as a percentage of the dues, higher the dues, the higher the relevant dollars their fee (percentage doesn't change though).

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I am happy with the numbers. I was glad to hear that foreclosures are not factored into our MF's. MANY other TS DO!

 

[Jason@dvcstore]

If you told me when I bought in that dues would only rise 3% a year, I'd have been very happy. I'm very satisfied.

Agreed.

Jason

 

[chalee94]

I agree that I think DVC doesn't spend frivously, but they also do not have an incentive to control costs either. If DVC received a performance bonus of some % of decreases in dues, that could provide a incentive, right now, it's the opposite to some degree.

it's a fine line but i don't particularly want DVC to have a financial incentive to push dues down - other timeshares have done that and scrimping on maintenance and upkeep will 1) lower the quality of the accommodations that DVC provides and 2) increase the risk that DVC will have to charge a special assessment to make up for the shortcuts taken over the years to keep dues low.

They get a management fee as a percentage of the dues, higher the dues, the higher the relevant dollars their fee (percentage doesn't change though).

true enough - but as stated, where is any evidence at all that DVC is spending dues frivolously in order to pad the dues so that their fee is higher? i don't see it at this point.

it is something to keep in mind but in this economy when a lot of food and materials costs are going up (suggesting that wages need to go up), i'm a little more worried at this point that dues are not going up enough to maintain the DVC standard of quality. if they cut housekeeping and that means more 5 or 6 pm check-in times, that's not worth a small savings in dues...

but for the most part, increases look pretty well managed.

 

[LIFERBABE]

As a member of a club, I expect to share in the costs of taking care of the employees. I think this is 1 area that always gets cut back first.

So if the bulk of the increase is for employee health care and wages, then I am all for it.
We can't keep outsourcing our most valuable perk and those that do a great job on the front lines daily are the people we need to retain.

Housekeeping is getting to be very 1/2 effort. I had a Coke stain in my carpet, shaving cream on the bath wall (the painted area above toilet) and my coffee pot did not work. I called about the stain and the carpet cleaner was very careful to only clean that portion of the spot that was visible. The strip under the bed he completely ignored. He was there all of 5-10 minutes!
I spent enough time dealing with it, so I did not call back.

 

[briangib]

I don't think a 3% increase is unreasonable. My property taxes go up more than that every year.

 

[robertdangelo]

I don't think a 3% increase is unreasonable. My property taxes go up more than that every year.

Same here! Healthcare and pensions have caused property & school taxes to get out of control in NYS.

 

[PoohNFriends]

New to DVC, but when I bought I expected there would be an increase in MF's every year and 3% doesn't seem to be too much; especially if the majority of the increase is going to wages and benefits of CM's and housekeeping.
I'm not happy about all of the stories I hear about the decline in housekeeping, but IMO the blame can't all be put on them since members, their guests, renters, cash paying guests, etc should take more responsibilty in taking care of their own spills, splatters, and food messes or alerting housekeeping & maintenance of bigger issues.
Back on topic, I agree with PP's that it's important the employees are taken care of, areas aren't being neglected because of a zero or too low of an increase, and small but steady increase will hopefully prevent special assessments.

 

[firstcruise]

It's not in DVC's interest to go over budget and continue to increase dues because they have a vested interest in keep them as low as possible. Let's not forget that they too "own" points and if they just kept raising dues their costs go up too.

I'm happy with a 3% increase and if means just one person gets to keep their job in this economy you won't get any complaints from me.

 

[psac]

Not an owner yet, but will be soon if our resale purchase goes through ROFR. From all our cost/benefit calculations, if the increase is only 3% on average, we'll be very happy owners.

 

[scot@dvcstore]

IMO, Disney has done a very good job controlling the annual dues rates.

 

[disneynutz]

I question some of there decisions on improvements and rehabs. Wood floors at OKW, fading exterior paint on the newly painted BWV, and the SSR Paddock pool rebuild has me wondering what they are thinking.

Their policy of 100% occupancy doesn't give Maintenance and Mousekeeping enough time to do their jobs and this results in Guest dissatisfaction and additional costs later.

I wouldn't mind a slight increase in dues if it guaranteed that the units would be clean and ready when we checked in and/or if the units would be ready earlier in the day.

Charging members a administration fee based on percentages doesn't seem fair.

Bill

 

[jolia]

I feel 3% is very reasonable but then I am an health care executive...
Not all the time (because some organizations are not efficient) but often it is a matter of Cost Vs Services.. and in the case of my DVC i dont want the services to be cut (after all my DVC is vacation time)

 

[sean-1966]

I think DVC has done a good job keeping costs down. I also agree with others that I don't want the staff, the resorts or the quality of my stay to suffer to keep costs down. In fact I wish they would go back to having all the staff employed by Disney. Get rid of all the out-sourcing.