Thoughts on Renting Out Points

[Sandisw]

So your not allowed to transfer and get paid, isn't that the same as renting?

No, it’s not the same. When you rent, you are making a reservation on your membership and renting that. It has value.

Points are a way of representing your fractional share of ownership to make it easy to determine.

Because they have no actual value, you can’t receive compensation because you can’t “sell” part of your ownership.

That is why there is a difference. Now, DVC chooses a don’t ask, don’t tell policy when it comes to this…

One of the reasons why they require you to make a reservation to get OTU points is because of it.

They transfer the points to your account and then you pay for the reservation made with them…

 

[Sandisw]

The POS specifically states points cannot be transferred for money and when you do the transfer they also make you say that you aren't getting paid for them.

I have never heard them ask that. If you mention money, they will not process the transfer but unless this is something new, they have never asked if money was changing hands.

 

[Girlstar30]

No, it’s not the same. When you rent, you are making a reservation on your membership and renting that. It has value.

Points are a way of representing your fractional share of ownership to make it easy to determine.

Because they have no actual value, you can’t receive compensation because you can’t “sell” part of your ownership.

That is why there is a difference. Now, DVC chooses a don’t ask, don’t tell policy when it comes to this…

One of the reasons why they require you to make a reservation to get OTU points is because of it.

They transfer the points to your account and then you pay for the reservation made with them…

Oh wow so interesting I always wondered why the annoying extra step of having to book something just to cancel lol I make it pretty obvious to the cm's thats what my intention is, perhaps I shouldn't

 

[AstroBlasters]

I was pondering on this more. I think another reason I really don’t like spec renting is because I believe it hurts the people with a smaller amount of points the most.

I have nearly 2000 points and we always go for the bigger room with the Preimum view…. so outside of the BW 2BD BW View it doesn’t really impact me much directly…. but for people with 150 points or less who need to stay in studios and are trying to stretch every point they can…. the spec renters are usually taking away inventory from them….

 

[Sandisw]

Oh wow so interesting I always wondered why the annoying extra step of having to book something just to cancel lol I make it pretty obvious to the cm's thats what my intention is, perhaps I shouldn't

They don’t care if that is your intent so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Again, its the legality of it all.

 

[Brian Noble]

for people with 150 points or less who need to stay in studios and are trying to stretch every point they can…. the spec renters are usually taking away inventory from them….

I'm strongly in favor of putting a stop to commercial renting. I'm even in favor of a broad definition of what "commercial" means, and probably have a broader definition than most. For example, I'm of the opinion that if you use a third party broker, that is commercial activity*, period-end-of-sentence.

But, at the same time, someone who is renting is also an owner, and all owners have the same opportunity** to book inventory.

---
*: My opinion does not matter, and Disney does not seem to agree with me, so y'all don't have to tar and feather me. Yet.
**: I'm ignoring bots for now.

 

[AstroBlasters]

I'm strongly in favor of putting a stop to commercial renting. I'm even in favor of a broad definition of what "commercial" means, and probably have a broader definition than most. For example, I'm of the opinion that if you use a third party broker, that is commercial activity*, period-end-of-sentence.

But, at the same time, someone who is renting is also an owner, and all owners have the same opportunity** to book inventory.

---
*: My opinion does not matter, and Disney does not seem to agree with me, so y'all don't have to tar and feather me. Yet.
**: I'm ignoring bots for now.

It wouldn’t be a chat board without opinions!

 

[PolyRob]

If another member has a reservation that has been made outside of the 7-11m window then they can get expiring transferred in points and swap them out for current use year points that could potentially get banked.

Not to derail the thread, but have you actually done this? Does UY matter when replacing points on a reservation with transferred points as long as the points haven't expired?

 

[AstroBlasters]

Not to derail the thread, but have you actually done this? Does UY matter when replacing points on a reservation with transferred points as long as the points haven't expired?

The only thing that matters is if the points on the original reservation are locked down as home resort within the 7-11m window or not.

If they are not then everything else is fair game. But…they have to be in the same UY as your reservation.

So you can transfer in points to the UY with the reservation and then call MS to reallocate them to a a reservation made within 7m that is already on the books.

 

[Judique]

I have never heard them ask that. If you mention money, they will not process the transfer but unless this is something new, they have never asked if money was changing hands.

Yes, they have. I was asked.

 

[Sandisw]

Yes, they have. I was asked.

Very interesting. This is the first report I have seen of them asking the owners if money was involved.

ETA: Did each owner have to confirm it was being done gratuitous?

 

[Judique]

Very interesting. This is the first report I have seen of them asking the owners if money was involved.

ETA: Did each owner have to confirm it was being done gratuitous?

I only remember myself being asked.

 

[airjay75]

Just thought I’d update this thread quickly. I’m not sure if the points charts changed, the cash rate changed or if I was doing my calculation incorrectly before, but the same cruise I was looking at before (one of the 7-night 2027 “specially priced” ones) is coming in at under $10/point for an exchange rate now. I feel like going from $15 to $10 takes it from being a pretty good deal to a pretty lousy one .

 

[cruisehopeful]

Just thought I’d update this thread quickly. I’m not sure if the points charts changed, the cash rate changed or if I was doing my calculation incorrectly before, but the same cruise I was looking at before (one of the 7-night 2027 “specially priced” ones) is coming in at under $10/point for an exchange rate now. I feel like going from $15 to $10 takes it from being a pretty good deal to a pretty lousy one .

That's happened to me a couple times. I'm not sure where I am messing up. I'll look and see about $15/point exchange rate and then when I have more time to crunch the numbers, they are more like $10. I haven't put any time into figuring out what I am looking at when I think it's $15.

Even still, I would do the exchange for a last minute cruise if I felt like I had excess points.

 

[airjay75]

That's happened to me a couple times. I'm not sure where I am messing up. I'll look and see about $15/point exchange rate and then when I have more time to crunch the numbers, they are more like $10. I haven't put any time into figuring out what I am looking at when I think it's $15.

Even still, I would do the exchange for a last minute cruise if I felt like I had excess points.

Yeah, I think the most likely explanation is that I calculated the exchange rate wrong the first time. My only explanation is that maybe I took the points in the chart and didn't double it for 2 people since all of the points are per person for double occupancy.

I could also see doing an exchange for a last minute thing where you had extra points to burn - but, since I'm planning this particular cruise over a year out, I'm probably back in the camp of thinking about renting some of my points out.

 

[Girlstar30]

I havent rented yet, but I heard its pretty easy, I will def use David's or DVC rental store when the time comes to not go to WDW for a year.

The possibility of having issues with no protection isn't worth it to do it on my own imo. Id rather pay the middle man for peace of mind.

 

[Genie+]

I am against Spec Rentals because the DVC system was designed around Personal Use.

The major difference is that personal use is limited to what ONE member can utilize, which turns out to be a much different pattern of usage than for profit which targets the highest dollar to point rooms and then searches the entire public for a match. It’s an exploitable advantage.

Personal use owners don’t go into the RAT, see 2 days in CCV studio pop up in December and grab them purely because they are highly coveted. It has to be something they will or might use. So the odds are the first For Profit looker grabs them, while many personal use owners leave it, and by the time a personal use owner comes along who can actually use it it’s already taken by For Profit as they have the entire public to utilize it.

For profit Spec Renting does not need to pick a lower demand room when it has the entire inventory to cherry pick. A personal use owner is MUCH more likely to occasionally book lower demand options. That’s what keeps the system sustainable.

 

[airjay75]

Thought I'd post another update.

Long story short - I booked a cruise! (with cash not points). And, I have no idea whether I'll try to rent some of my points - TBH, the longer I have thought about it, the more I would prefer to hold on to them and bank them to use in the future for better/longer stays. But the nice thing about booking a cruise on cash if you do it far enough out is that you have A LOT of time to figure out how you want to pay for it. Thought I'd share a couple of thoughts/insights in case it is helpful for anyone else.

One, in addition to not getting a terrible exchange rate on your points, booking with cash gives you a lot more flexibility IMO. I've booked a cruise sailing in February 2027, and all that was required to book was about a 10% deposit - the rest isn't due until about 4 months out from my sail date. And, if you want to use your Disney Visa, you can get 6 months of 0% on any payments. So, you don't actually have to pay for most of the cruise expense until after your cruise if you go that way (of course, make sure you pay it off ). Cancellation policies vary depending on how long your cruise is, but there is really quite a bit of time to change your mind. Booking further out gives you a lot more choices on your room selection, and also gives you time to see if the rates decrease at all. If I had used my points, I could have exchanged them now for the same cruise (for just over 900 points LOL), but those points would be stuck as points for use in the Disney Collection system if I ever cancelled. Plus, you've got the $95 exchange fee, which is waived if you have MMB, but I'm not planning to buy that until 2026, so I would have had to wait and likely had less selection of rooms on the ship. So, just a lot of reasons booking with cash is a lot more flexible than using points.

Two, a lot of people probably know this, but use a “travel agent”- you'll get charged the exact same rate as booking direct with Disney and your payment is still processed by DCL (so you can get the Disney Visa 0% if you want). And, most TA's will throw in something as a bonus for you for using their services. The one I used is giving us a nice Disney Gift Card, and it is incredibly helpful to be able to speak with someone about what you're booking, the ship, the itinerary, etc. And, at least the TA I am using, offered to monitor cruise rates in case they come down and help with any of the planning and logistics along the way. So, highly recommend using a TA.

On whether to rent points to pay for this, I guess I'll see. But, booking far enough in advance with cash and using the Disney Visa to pay for it really does give me a lot of time to decide what to do. I do wish we could get better exchange rates direct with Disney, but so long as it is under $10/point, I'm going to have a hard time going that way. Another thought that crosses my mind as an alternative to renting is banking enough of my direct points to use for AP purchases in the future since we are actually getting pretty good exchange rates on those. Hopefully we continue to get nice exchange rates on that.

 

[Girlstar30]

Thought I'd post another update.

Long story short - I booked a cruise! (with cash not points). And, I have no idea whether I'll try to rent some of my points - TBH, the longer I have thought about it, the more I would prefer to hold on to them and bank them to use in the future for better/longer stays. But the nice thing about booking a cruise on cash if you do it far enough out is that you have A LOT of time to figure out how you want to pay for it. Thought I'd share a couple of thoughts/insights in case it is helpful for anyone else.

One, in addition to not getting a terrible exchange rate on your points, booking with cash gives you a lot more flexibility IMO. I've booked a cruise sailing in February 2027, and all that was required to book was about a 10% deposit - the rest isn't due until about 4 months out from my sail date. And, if you want to use your Disney Visa, you can get 6 months of 0% on any payments. So, you don't actually have to pay for most of the cruise expense until after your cruise if you go that way (of course, make sure you pay it off ). Cancellation policies vary depending on how long your cruise is, but there is really quite a bit of time to change your mind. Booking further out gives you a lot more choices on your room selection, and also gives you time to see if the rates decrease at all. If I had used my points, I could have exchanged them now for the same cruise (for just over 900 points LOL), but those points would be stuck as points for use in the Disney Collection system if I ever cancelled. Plus, you've got the $95 exchange fee, which is waived if you have MMB, but I'm not planning to buy that until 2026, so I would have had to wait and likely had less selection of rooms on the ship. So, just a lot of reasons booking with cash is a lot more flexible than using points.

Two, a lot of people probably know this, but use a “travel agent”- you'll get charged the exact same rate as booking direct with Disney and your payment is still processed by DCL (so you can get the Disney Visa 0% if you want). And, most TA's will throw in something as a bonus for you for using their services. The one I used is giving us a nice Disney Gift Card, and it is incredibly helpful to be able to speak with someone about what you're booking, the ship, the itinerary, etc. And, at least the TA I am using, offered to monitor cruise rates in case they come down and help with any of the planning and logistics along the way. So, highly recommend using a TA.

On whether to rent points to pay for this, I guess I'll see. But, booking far enough in advance with cash and using the Disney Visa to pay for it really does give me a lot of time to decide what to do. I do wish we could get better exchange rates direct with Disney, but so long as it is under $10/point, I'm going to have a hard time going that way. Another thought that crosses my mind as an alternative to renting is banking enough of my direct points to use for AP purchases in the future since we are actually getting pretty good exchange rates on those. Hopefully we continue to get nice exchange rates on that.

I dont think ill rent out my points either when we do our 2027 trip. The reason being is im on all borrowed points and it would be nice to reset at least a couple of those contracts and then I dont have to go thru the hassle of selling them. Id rather just treat my dvc as entirely seperate, I literally would have three years to use those points.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Long story short - I booked a cruise! (with cash not points).

Congrats on booking your cruise! I agree that paying cash is ultimately the most flexible way to go. The hardest part is waiting sooo long for the cruise to happen. I wish the last minute specials were less expensive than booking a year and a half out, but the reality is, the heavily discounted price is usually more than opening day prices. At least you can relax and let your TA keep an eye on that for you. Don't expect the price to go down, though.