Successful Renting Out Your Points?

[bwbuddy5]

I would love to own DVC again, but know for a fact that there will be some years I would not be able to use the points (even with banking, etc).

How successful have you owners been in renting out your points? Do you go through David's?

 

[DougEMG]

I've always been able to rent out any points that I wanted and have used a broker such as David and Paul and have done it privately. You can see lots of people doing it on the Rent/Trade board here.

 

[McCrae]

I rented BLT points in under an hour through David's.

 

[bwbuddy5]

So, I'm a bit of a risk taker, if I buy a resale for more points than I may be able to use, what should my confidence level be for renting the excess -- 80%?

 

[CarolMN]

So, I'm a bit of a risk taker, if I buy a resale for more points than I can really use, what should my confidence level be for renting the excess -- 80%?

IMO, if you are willing to do the work (and price your points with or slightly under the market), you will virtually always be able to rent your points. That's especially true if you can offer points more than 7 months in advance for one of the smaller, near-park resorts during the home resort booking priority period. (Those resorts would include BCV, BWV, BLT, VGF, VGC, Poly & VWL after the construction is complete).

Keep in mind that you will be competing with the brokers (who offer escrow service) as well as many owners with established renting track records and repeat customers.

Some things to think about:

You will be responsible for any bills / damage your guests may leave behind. Disney is not great about trying to resolve those issues - it's easier to just freeze your account. To be fair, this is very rare - we've only read about 1 or 2 such incidents here on the DIS.

Most of the brokers have point minimums for owners who want to use them to offer their points.

You are allowed one transfer (of points to or from another member) per use year per membership. That's one into your account or one out of it, but not both in the same use year. There is no limit to reservations that you make for others. However, it is believed that making more than 20 reservations for others will trigger an audit to see if you are in violation of the "commercial" renting provision. Commercial renting is not permitted.

You may encounter some "high maintenance" customers (be prepared to do some hand-holding and perform TA functions). You will also encounter some who are just looking for rock bottom prices and may cancel out on you if they find a better deal. You can include deposits and non-refundable provisions in your contract to minimize that. However, owners do compete on terms, so you need to balance those things with the difficulty of finding customers.

You will need to develop a written contract and policies and figure out how you will accept payment. Payments present their own set of risks.

You will need to figure out how to get customers. If you plan to use the DIS R/T Board, you will need to pay a fee or meet the posting requirements. There is a Sticky Thread at the top of the R/T Board that explains in detail. Beyond that, you'll need to establish some some of reputation/ references so that potential customers will feel good about renting from you. Posting here is a good way to start doing that. Trust is a large component of DVC rentals.

My BEST advice is to not to buy more points than you can comfortably handle on your own (financially) should renting prove unsuccessful in any given year.

Good luck!

 

[robinb]

I have rented out my points myself many times. I only had one tiny bump in the road when one of my renters needed to change her dates. I was flexible enough to work with her (as per my contract, BTW) and I was able to find new dates that worked with her schedule. It was really not a big deal and the renter was very thankful.

DVC has a new Resort Availability Tool right on the DVC website so you can check availability for your renter very easily and even make a reservation right away. Back in the day I had to call and talk to someone!

 

[pangyal]

Another vote for David's. My points have always been rented within a day when I list with them. Personally, it's worth the commission to me to have them handle everything and assume the (very nominal) risk involved. I've rented myself and done transfers on my own as well, but I am happy to let someone else do the legwork!

 

[DVC Mike]

I'd suggest you also read this post.

• Guide for members to rent out their points

 

[mrsmith9]

I have rented a few times. I found it harder to find resort availability then it was to find renters. So it can be difficult to rent out your points if you can't find a room to put your renters in. This has only become an issue in the past year.