Staying in villas if not a DVC member?

[bananiem]

I've heard that if DVC rooms are available then "regular" people can use them. Has anyone done this? How do you do it? Do you tell them you would like to stay in a villa when you call for reservations? Any info will be helpful!
Thanks!

 

[Dodie]

You'll want to visit the DVC Rent/Trade Board right here on the DIS. We rented points this way for a wonderful stay at the VWL last year.

(You'll most likely get a much better price by renting points from a DISer than you would if you contacted Disney directly.)

 

[colleen costello]

I am a member, but I know from the DVC Boards that folks do this all the time. The Villas are all lovely, and prices range depending on where you would like to stay. There is no "sales pitch" at these properties and no one there knows who is a member and who is not. People on the Boards do warn you, however, that you may love the Villas so much that you'll be tempted to buy DVC!

Another way to get a great deal on Villa rooms is to "rent" from a member. I did this recently. My family wanted to go to WDW at Thanksgiving and we were almost out of points. The nightly cost for a studio room at Old Key West was over $250, and $191 with a discount they offer to members paying cash. The total point value for the room for 6 nights was 73, and so I rented 75 points for $750. That put the nightly cost of the room at around $125. There is a rent/trade board here at DIS if you are interested in this option. Members often rent out points they can't use or seek to earn cash to put towards non-DVC resorts.

Hope this helps.

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

If you don't want to rent points, you just tell CRO when you call that you want to stay in a 1 bdrm at the BCV (or whatever). They will give you a price and check availibilty just like any other room.

They hold a certain amount of the villas for the DVC members until 2 mo out. (I think this is correct.) So, sometimes availibility is hard to get. Also, code rates may be hard to get.

We stayed at the BWV twice before we became members. It was wonderful!

 

[BarbaraMB]

We are staying at a 2 bedroom villa at the BCVs. With a family of six it was either 2 rooms or the 2 bedroom villa. We aren't renting points. We probably could have saved a bundle doing so but for a variety of reasons we are going to pay the rate. I think that renting points has some risks to both parties. My FIL's health is somewhat iffy so I like the idea of the 5 day cancellation and getting my money back. I would NOT want to do that to someone I was renting points from. I like the idea of getting mousekeeping everyday. It has been suggested that when making your reservations to go for what you can afford and if codes come out great, but to go with what you want and what you can afford. I wanted two rooms at the Beach Club and for around the same amount of money I get a bigger room with more features, including a WASHER and DRYER !!!

I just called the reservation number that everyone else uses. They will let you know if there is anything available for the dates that you want. Call ASAP because I know they go fast.

 

[peachgirl]

If you didn't read these boards or do much research, you'd never know that a DVC property isn't exactly the same thing as any other WDW resort!

If you book through CRO, you handle it just as you would any other resort stay. There are currently AP rates available, but I don't know how common that is. When I checked AP rates for our upcoming trip, there were AP rates available at all the DVC properties. The discount for OKW was only about 20%, so they're not as good as some other resorts.

I've been told that they hold out the DVC rooms for 2 months also. However, we booked our room in January for a June trip, so I'm not sure I understand how they do it at all! I've also been told they actually don't sell out the entire property to DVC, but reserve 10% for general reservations. I don't know how they do it, but we reserved our room much earlier than 2 months out.

We also felt much more comfortable reserving through CRO. We are actually paying a little less than it would have cost to rent due to having a comeback rate, but we didn't have that discount when we made the reservations. We would have rented through CRO with or without the discount.

We wanted the more liberal cancellation/changes policy along with not having to pay in full so far in advance. We also wanted daily housekeeping and I believe that's an extra $25 a day when you rent.

 

[ZerasPride]

My family's first stay in a DVC villa was through CRO at the Hilton Head Island resort where we paid cash. I did have a Disney Club discount and we went off season so we stayed in a two bedroom villa for around $150 per night. I wanted to convince my hubby to join and that stay did it so be forewarned if you stay in a villa you may never go back to a regular hotel room again!