Those who bring friends.

[Maddysdaddy]

I think this is the best way to put it yet except I would even use my own home as an example. If I had a spare room and if I invited a friend or family member to stay with me for that week, I wouldn't expect payment. Yes, I still pay rent and utilities, etc but I wouldn't expect a friend or family to pay me to stay in our spare room for a week.

However I would expect them to help around the house and maybe do the dishes and cook a meal or two. But that's just the way I was raised.

Think I have to disagree with both of the above analogies...

If you have a spare bedroom in your home/vacation home, then there is no significant "cost" to you to have someone staying in it.

DVC is different, as your points equal a finite number of nights that you can be on vacation. If inviting others necessitates having to book a larger room than what you would have booked if it was just your immediate family, then there is a significant cost in the trade-off between room size and total nights.

In our case, by inviting friends to stay with us for five nights at VGC (rather than their original plan of staying at the DLH), my family has essentially forfeited five additional nights that we could have stayed at VGC, due to our upgrade from a 1br to a 2br in order to accommodate everyone.

Don't get me wrong - I love our friends and am thrilled that they are joining us, but doing so necessitates a huge sacrifice on our part, since this is our once a year family vacation.

I still stand by my position that charging them $10/pt x 85pts (which is what 5 nights in a VGC studio would be at that time) is a win/win, since they get to stay at VGC for $170/nt, and we (almost) cover our DVC dues for the year.

 

[ONealFamily]

Think I have to disagree with both of the above analogies...

If you have a spare bedroom in your home/vacation home, then there is no significant "cost" to you to have someone staying in it.

DVC is different, as your points equal a finite number of nights that you can be on vacation. If inviting others necessitates having to book a larger room than what you would have booked if it was just your immediate family, then there is a significant cost in the trade-off between room size and total nights.

In our case, by inviting friends to stay with us for five nights at VGC (rather than their original plan of staying at the DLH), my family has essentially forfeited five additional nights that we could have stayed at VGC, due to our upgrade from a 1br to a 2br in order to accommodate everyone.

Don't get me wrong - I love our friends and am thrilled that they are joining us, but doing so necessitates a huge sacrifice on our part, since this is our once a year family vacation.

I still stand by my position that charging them $10/pt x 85pts (which is what 5 nights in a VGC studio would be at that time) is a win/win, since they get to stay at VGC for $170/nt, and we (almost) cover our DVC dues for the year.

I think that your rebuttal assumes that I wouldn't have any plans for the spare room? In our house we have two kids. Both me and my wife work from home. My wife is a homeschool teacher for my daughter so all the space we have available is at a premium. In the end, it all comes down to what each of us value and our personal preferences.

The point is, each year, we plan on paying for our home and our vacation home. We never assume anyone will be paying anything to cover any of our MF or anything. So personally, I guess I don't put a value on the money I was planning on spending already.

I think that you are right that the sacrifice is in the time we as a family get to go on vacation and as a family we would make that decision that we would rather bless another family than take an extra vacation each year for ourselves.

In the end, we have around 50 years of vacations ahead of us. I know in my 30+ years I have missed a few years of BIG vacations and it was okay. If in the future, I miss a few years of BIG vacations because my family and I decided to give to someone else, I don't think we will regret it or miss out on anything.

 

[wendyt_ca]

I don't think a timeshare can be compared to allowing someone to stay in a room in someone's house. I do think it is completely fair to charge someone if they are coming and staying in your dvc because you basically are prebuying all your resort stays at Disney. It would be the same as not owning a DVC and booking a reservation at a Disney resort and paying for it....most people split the cost of the room and this is the same. In my opinion we worked hard to get the DVC and it's a huge investment that we are paying for so in my opinion it is completely fair to have someone split the costs (which is still a huge savings for them in comparison to if they were to book a room on their own). Currently we do charge friends something, eventually we probably won't but for the time being we do if someone comes along. The way we see it is by allowing them to come at such a low cost is already doing them a huge favor. My friend going with me in April is ecstatic to only be paying $600 to be staying for 8 nights at AKL with a savannah view and even told me she wouldn't even be going to Disney at all if it wasn't for me and how grateful she is. So no one should ever be offended by it. It's really a personal preference and there is nothing wrong with splitting costs or allowing someone to stay for free really.

 

[DeeCee735]

IOHO we just wouldn't ever think to ask someone to pay for an invitation. It's our choice to share our place with friends. To us, it's about the company, not about doing anyone a favor. I don't think its wrong to charge someone, I mean, who are we to decide what's right or wrong for someone else? It's just that it's not the way we go.

When our friends invite us to stay at their house they don't expect anything but our company, same goes for us when they stay by our house. When they get two rooms with their travel points, instead of one, to accomodate us, they don't ask for money. When either of us hosts the other, the guests buy dinner out one night for the other couple and we always split the food for the kitchen equally.

Monetary compensation has never even been discussed among us or any of our family or friends that we travel with. One of the main reasons we bought DVC in the first place was not only to provide great vacations for ourselves and children, but precisely so that we can enjoy travelling with friends and family too. It's AWESOME!

As it stands, I had 2 friends come with me last November, we stayed in a gorgeous 2 bedroom savannah view in AKV, then in February DH and I spent the week at BW, friends of ours (who we've hosted before) actually bought at AKV and traded for BWV the same week we were there, so now, we are all in the same place at the same time, enjoying vacation together, yet all on our own points!

I'm hosting 4 cousins this coming Nov in BW, can't wait! And my kids will get to use it for long weekends with their significant others or friends whenever they want. We just see that that is the "blessing" or the gift, that we can hang out with the ones we love in the places we love best and by blessing or gift, I don't mean just us giving to them, I mean we are all blessed that we have this time together, us with them, them with us.

It's awesome and we can't wait to do it again
As it stands, we are currently looking into getting a two bedroom through RCI in south Florida on the Gulf coast for next year to share with another couple. God willing, we'll have many happy healthy years of doing this again and again.

In the meantime, everyone enjoy your family and friends, no matter how you choose to do so

 

[dzorn]

IOHO we just wouldn't ever think to ask someone to pay for an invitation. It's our choice to share our place with friends. To us, it's about the company, not about doing anyone a favor. I don't think its wrong to charge someone, I mean, who are we to decide what's right or wrong for someone else? It's just that it's not the way we go.

When our friends invite us to stay at their house they don't expect anything but our company, same goes for us when they stay by our house. When they get two rooms with their travel points, instead of one, to accomodate us, they don't ask for money. When either of us hosts the other, the guests buy dinner out one night for the other couple and we always split the food for the kitchen equally.

Monetary compensation has never even been discussed among us or any of our family or friends that we travel with. One of the main reasons we bought DVC in the first place was not only to provide great vacations for ourselves and children, but precisely so that we can enjoy travelling with friends and family too. It's AWESOME!

As it stands, I had 2 friends come with me last November, we stayed in a gorgeous 2 bedroom savannah view in AKV, then in February DH and I spent the week at BW, friends of ours (who we've hosted before) actually bought at AKV and traded for BWV the same week we were there, so now, we are all in the same place at the same time, enjoying vacation together, yet all on our own points!

I'm hosting 4 cousins this coming Nov in BW, can't wait! And my kids will get to use it for long weekends with their significant others or friends whenever they want. We just see that that is the "blessing" or the gift, that we can hang out with the ones we love in the places we love best and by blessing or gift, I don't mean just us giving to them, I mean we are all blessed that we have this time together, us with them, them with us.

It's awesome and we can't wait to do it again
As it stands, we are currently looking into getting a two bedroom through RCI in south Florida on the Gulf coast for next year to share with another couple. God willing, we'll have many happy healthy years of doing this again and again.

In the meantime, everyone enjoy your family and friends, no matter how you choose to do so

And for those that can afford it good for them, but there is nothing wrong for not wanting to pay for someone elses accomidations. We do not need anythng bigger than a 1 bedroom for my immediate family. If we get larger accomidations then it means less vacations. For certain people (family) I do get accomiations so they can accompany us. As an example my sister is going on the next trip. She is on a fixed income and has a life long disability. No way I expect her to pay for the room. Other family members make significantly more than DH and I so I feel no need to get a larger room for them. If they want to go they are more than capable of paying for it themselves. I would gladly get a transfer of points to accomidate them but It would not be comming out of my vacation budget.

Denise in MI

 

[DeeCee735]

And for those that can afford it good for them, but there is nothing wrong for not wanting to pay for someone elses accomidations. We do not need anythng bigger than a 1 bedroom for my immediate family. If we get larger accomidations then it means less vacations. For certain people (family) I do get accomiations so they can accompany us. As an example my sister is going on the next trip. She is on a fixed income and has a life long disability. No way I expect her to pay for the room. Other family members make significantly more than DH and I so I feel no need to get a larger room for them. If they want to go they are more than capable of paying for it themselves. I would gladly get a transfer of points to accomidate them but It would not be comming out of my vacation budget.

Denise in MI

As this is done on points, if we have them available (and we are always borrowing to vacation the way we choose to), we book the rooms we what with whom we choose to invite. As far as money toward dues, it's no one else's problem that we have dues to pay, and since I'm not laying out any money for the room, just points, I don't ask for the money from anyone because I'm not inviting them to make or take extra money. We don't take into account someone else's level of income when we invite them to join us. We're not giving out favors, neither are they when they invite us. Again, it's about the company for us.

On that note, I don't ever recall saying I can afford to pay for someone else's vacation (I wish). If we don't have enough points to accommodate someone else, we go alone, if we do and we're in the mood to hang out with other people, than we invite them. For us, it's just not about the money, it's about what type of vacation we want to have.

Also, as I stated in my earlier post, this is just the way we do it, I don't have an opinion on how some else chooses to travel with guests. It's not my place to judge.

Happy planning and many wonderful vacations ahead....

 

[disneybirds]

We typically take either friends or family with us and don't ask for money to pay for our points. However, for our next trip we are going during the summer and just didn't have enough points for 2 rooms during the summer months. We asked them to pay for the 50 extra points we had to purchase. They are responsible for flights, meals, etc. Although I am planning to bring meals for everyone for a few nights. We bought into DVC so we could take family and friends to Disney and Hilton Head with us.

 

[dzorn]

As this is done on points, if we have them available (and we are always borrowing to vacation the way we choose to), we book the rooms we what with whom we choose to invite. As far as money toward dues, it's no one else's problem that we have dues to pay, and since I'm not laying out any money for the room, just points, I don't ask for the money from anyone because I'm not inviting them to make or take extra money. We don't take into account someone else's level of income when we invite them to join us. We're not giving out favors, neither are they when they invite us. Again, it's about the company for us.

On that note, I don't ever recall saying I can afford to pay for someone else's vacation (I wish). If we don't have enough points to accommodate someone else, we go alone, if we do and we're in the mood to hang out with other people, than we invite them. For us, it's just not about the money, it's about what type of vacation we want to have.

Also, as I stated in my earlier post, this is just the way we do it, I don't have an opinion on how some else chooses to travel with guests. It's not my place to judge.

Happy planning and many wonderful vacations ahead....

We as a general rule do not borrow points as we want to travel every year. No reason for us to miss a vacation to take others along, but if your willing to give up vacation to time to have company on vacation have fun.

I do really think there is no right way or wrong way as long as everyone know up front what the expectations are.

Denise in MI

 

[TDC Nala]

My friends in general know that if they would like the extra bed that's fine, and I do charge a little for it (per night, not per point). Helps with the dues and they are getting a definite bargain. I don't charge my parents, but they're my parents.

 

[wendyt_ca]

My friends in general know that if they would like the extra bed that's fine, and I do charge a little for it (per night, not per point). Helps with the dues and they are getting a definite bargain. I don't charge my parents, but they're my parents.

This is similar to what we currently do. I just chose a flat amount for the week.

 

[jpeka65844]

We've treated friends a few times and handle it on a case-by-case basis.

1. Family- no charge although DH's uncle usually slips us a little something.

2. Friends #1- they go all the time and usually stay @ a Value. If we're able to get them a room on points, we take what they'd be paying @ the Value.

3. Friends #2- They're treating us to a do-it-yourself F&WF day at Epcot, capped by dinner at Le Cellier.

We love sharing our points with people and aren't really interested in what we get back. And so far, we haven't been burned.

Can you hear that? It's us knocking on wood.......