Thoughts on Renting Out Points

[Sandisw]

There may be a better thread to post this on...or not...but as a newbie I have some questions which VGCGroupie briefly touched on on a different thread when I was in the process of closing my first contract (resale).

So first, what is spec renting? What I am gathering is that members are making reservations that they don't intend to use during popular times of the year...or have I got that wrong?

Secondly, once I get my membership number and can actually log into my account, there is going to be 19 points from 2024 that have to be used by end of February 2026. Honestly, if a bit of begging would get MS to bank them for me as a one time courtesy, that would be my first choice. Obviously time is running out to find any availability for 1-2 nights to book then "rent" it out so I thought maybe finding another member who could use them and then do a "trade" would be better but I am still in the learning stages of how any of that even works.

I have just enough points to alternate between 7 night and 10 night trips each year and that is exactly what I plan on doing....which is why keeping those 19 points for myself would be my first choice but I don't think that is very likely.

If someone knows of a more appropriate thread to direct me to, please feel free. I have read the required reading posts but am still full of questions.

Spec renting is booking a room first and offering it for rent.

It can be also seen as renting a confirmed reservation.

Sometimes, people grab hard to get rooms and offer for rent because they can get a higher rental rate.

Sometimes though, a confirmed reservation could be offered because the owners planned to use it and had to change plans.

It’s the ones that owners book for the sole purpose of renting from the start that frustrate some owners.

Those 2024 points have already been banked so they can’t be banked again. There is no exception for that situation.

In this case, because you are running out of time, you may need to book something and offer it as a confirmed reservation because it is going to be a one night stay.

 

[#1Disfann]

Yes, spec renting is basically reserving a room with your DVC points for which you have no intent on staying but plan to rent out. It is done frequently with December reservations and other high demand times of year, and probably most often with resort view studios because those tend to be the easiest rooms to rent out (because they're the cheapest).

I imagine you're out of luck on banking those 19 points. You could rent them - although, to successfully rent them, you may end up needing to borrow from the next UY. Assuming you close 45 days before Feb. 1st, you could transfer them into Interval International and then you'd have 2 years to use them there. Of course, at the end of the day, if you assume dues on those points were about $9, we're only talking about $170 or so worth of dues, so I wouldn't stress about things too much one way or the other.

If I were you, I might sign up for an owner account on dvcrentalstore.com and you can monitor the rental requests - the payout would only end up being $13 or $14 per point there, but if you're not going to use them, might as well IMO.

Thanks for the info. My deed was recorded in early September so I should hopefully be getting my member email within the week. As much as I would also like, I would use them myself before they expire but I was just there last month so I definitely won't be using them and like most of us, don't want them to go to total waste. I will check out the DVC rental store.

 

[#1Disfann]

Spec renting is booking a room first and offering it for rent.

It can be also seen as renting a confirmed reservation.

Sometimes, people grab hard to get rooms and offer for rent because they can get a higher rental rate.

Sometimes though, a confirmed reservation could be offered because the owners planned to use it and had to change plans.

It’s the ones that owners book for the sole purpose of renting from the start that frustrate some owners.

Those 2024 points have already been banked so they can’t be banked again. There is no exception for that situation.

In this case, because you are running out of time, you may need to book something and offer it as a confirmed reservation because it is going to be a one night stay.

Thanks for the info!

 

[sndral]

…Obviously time is running out to find any availability for 1-2 nights to book then "rent" it out so I thought maybe finding another member who could use them and then do a "trade" would be better but I am still in the learning stages of how any of that even works.
…

FYI, a ‘trade’ would be hard to accomplish because you only get one transfer in or out a year - so if you transferred your 19 points to another member that would count as your one transfer & DVC would not allow you to transfer the other member’s points into your membership.

 

[toesmom]

I am comfortable with the amount of points I’m buying. I am not planning to regularly or frequently rent them out (and I’ve paid a fair amount of attention to the commercial renting threads).

I have lots of other future plans for using them and regular renting is not a part of that plan. I do think it is a nice benefit of the current DVC market for owners to occasionally rent their points, and I was thinking about this even before my current pending purchase. Really, my mind has gone this way simply because of the poor exchange rate on Disney cruises direct through Disney.

But, I do take the point that I could easily wait to buy the resale points and put that cash to work differently in the meantime. It’s not bad advice. I’m not likely to take it at the moment , but I appreciate the perspective.

It sounds like you have done your research, keeping in mind Disney policy likely being enforced about using points for personal use. I have extra point this year which I will try to offer as transfer to another member, have you considered points transfer rather than rental?

 

[airjay75]

It sounds like you have done your research, keeping in mind Disney policy likely being enforced about using points for personal use. I have extra point this year which I will try to offer as transfer to another member, have you considered points transfer rather than rental?

Thanks. I've given passing thought to it. I know that, notwithstanding the rules about transfers for money, people do it on these boards and through at least one broker of which I'm aware (and Facebook too). I guess, because it is much more clearly a violation of the terms of our ownership than spec renting, I've tended to not give serious thought to it. That said, in my mind, spec renting arguably hurts other members more than transferring points to another member for them to simply use (assuming they aren't going to take them and do commercial renting themselves).

Maybe I'll give it some more thought.