Timeshare bought off of Ebay

[liam840]

I've done this 3 times with 3 different sellers and no problems. Communication was great. Our best deal was a 2 bedroom at AKL for 1/2 price. I think one was through RCI. Anybody else try this method?

 

[sndral]

I've done this 3 times with 3 different sellers and no problems. Communication was great. Our best deal was a 2 bedroom at AKL for 1/2 price. I think one was through RCI. Anybody else try this method?

Not sure what you mean by Timeshare ‘bought’ - are you saying you made a reservation for a DVC unit for one vacation or that you bought a contract eg became an owner at a DVC resort for 50 or so years of vacations?
BTW rental of RCI trades into WDW DVC resorts are forbidden by RCI, so in addition to the normal concerns with renting (scams, owner cancels after taking your money, owner fails to pay dues or loan and DVC cancels reservation) you risk having the RCI one canceled for that reason alone.
A lot of people rent DVC points for their stays, there are brokers who facilitate these rentals and an active rent/trade section here on DIS, whether it saves money and how much depends on price charged by owner, size of villa, time of year, resort, etc., compared to whatever price w/ discount you could get from a regular reservation through Disney.

 

[liam840]

Sorry about that. I wasn't clear. Someone who owns DVC couldn't use it so they booked a room for me. I paid them much less than if I had booked from the Disney website.

 

[Meglen]

Sorry about that. I wasn't clear. Someone who owns DVC couldn't use it so they booked a room for me. I paid them much less than if I had booked from the Disney website.

I mean all rentals are over 50% off rack cash rate. have you checked other rental sites? and compaired that price to what you payed?

 

[Lynne M]

There's nothing inherently wrong with finding a rental on eBay. There are a couple of caveats.

Be aware that PayPal explicitly excludes vacation rentals from their "we'll help you if something goes wrong" policy. In other words, don't expect any help from PayPal if the reservation disappears.

I wouldn't touch an RCI-into-DVC trade with a ten foot pole, no matter how cheap it was. As mentioned above, RCI forbids the reselling of these reservations, and has been known to cancel them when they find them.

There's sort of a sliding scale of risk with DVC rentals. Going through a broker like dvcbyrequest.com, you've got some protection if something goes wrong and the reservation is cancelled. Going directly through an owner on our rent/trade board, there's more trust involved, but if the person is a regular poster here, you can get some sense of the person, at least. With eBay, you can look at reviews and hope they're legit, but that's about it.

For first time renters, I'll often recommend dvcbyrequest.com, because I've rented my own points out through them, and I know how good they are at documenting the process and the responsibilities of the owner and renter in the transaction. For those who are new to the rental process, that's really helpful. For those who are a bit more experienced with rentals/trades, it's possible to save some money by going directly through an owner.

 

[Nancyg56]

I've done this 3 times with 3 different sellers and no problems. Communication was great. Our best deal was a 2 bedroom at AKL for 1/2 price. I think one was through RCI. Anybody else try this method?

I would not touch a DVC rental on Ebay on a bet. Renting points is a nice way to save some money, and there are plenty of avenues in which to do so, but for me, an Ebay rental is not one of them. I would rent my points from a trusted site as has been listed or from someone I know. Not a stranger on Ebay who may or may not be renting points I can actually use.

 

[firefly_ris]

I've done this 3 times with 3 different sellers and no problems. Communication was great. Our best deal was a 2 bedroom at AKL for 1/2 price. I think one was through RCI. Anybody else try this method?

I haven't yet but I've been watching some certain users and their reviews. I won't be back to wdw for a few years but it's something I'm considering. Prices for 1 bedrooms at SSR can be found for a major steal it seems. These are DVC owners though not RCI. I think RCI has rules against it. I'm more comfortable with eBay than a lot of people on these boards are though. There's always risk involved with travel listings like this such as the lack of Paypal protection but there are a couple repeat listers with excellent feedback. I don't see how that's different from renting from another stranger on disboards. They're both at your own risk.

 

[magicaldisney]

As a DVC owner I'm glad you had a good experience. It saddens me when I read about people who have sent money to someone just to be let down with no actual reservation because of fraud involved. I personally would never touch a rental on ebay. There are a good number of rental companies that have wonderful trusted history behind them. The chance of fraud is much greater on ebay.

 

[Marionnette]

I haven't yet but I've been watching some certain users and their reviews. I won't be back to wdw for a few years but it's something I'm considering. Prices for 1 bedrooms at SSR can be found for a major steal it seems. These are DVC owners though not RCI. I think RCI has rules against it. I'm more comfortable with eBay than a lot of people on these boards are though. There's always risk involved with travel listings like this such as the lack of Paypal protection but there are a couple repeat listers with excellent feedback. I don't see how that's different from renting from another stranger on disboards. They're both at your own risk.

How do you know that these people are DVC owners? Because they say they are? If these are week long reservations for 1BR villas at SSR, the likelihood that they are RCI exchanges are extremely high.

 

[firefly_ris]

How do you know that these people are DVC owners? Because they say they are? If these are week long reservations for 1BR villas at SSR, the likelihood that they are RCI exchanges are extremely high.

Yes, a combination of them saying they are and their feedback record by their buyers. That's about all you can do on eBay is use the info you have. Good to know about the RCI thing with SSR, thanks. Looks like it's off site for us then, lol.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I wouldn't do it on ebay either, especially if they are RCI exchanges, although I would guess you might be able to tell from the entry if you are talking about an actual owner or a RCI exchange? I would say about all you have is the reservation. You can't change it, cancel it or make any kind of additions to it, only the owner could do that. If you have a cooperative owner, it would work, but if the owner flakes out on you then you are totally out of luck. Might be better to deal with an owner directly, or a specialist DVC points broker, rather than through eBay.

 

[AngiTN]

I wouldn't get a resort stay off someone on eBay if I was paid to. About as safe as burning your hard earned cash.
Why eBay instead of one of the approved and verified DVC rental sites? Unless one just likes to gamble I guess.
The DVC rental sites do all the same things with back up in case something goes haywire. And it's about half off the Disney direct prices too. You gain nothing off eBay but a possible huge headache.

 

[AngiTN]

I haven't yet but I've been watching some certain users and their reviews. I won't be back to wdw for a few years but it's something I'm considering. Prices for 1 bedrooms at SSR can be found for a major steal it seems. These are DVC owners though not RCI. I think RCI has rules against it. I'm more comfortable with eBay than a lot of people on these boards are though. There's always risk involved with travel listings like this such as the lack of Paypal protection but there are a couple repeat listers with excellent feedback. I don't see how that's different from renting from another stranger on disboards. They're both at your own risk.

You left out renting from brokers. There is NO risk in using them. None at all.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I booked a timeshare deal on Ebay for Silver Lake Resort many moons ago. Actually my ex-husband did it. It worked out ok but we had to do a presentation but never would I do that again. Seems way too shady. But we were young and he loved a deal.

I've booked DVC through the rent/trade board here and was nervous about it but it worked out great. No way would I book DVC through Ebay. I would be thinking why did the order choose Ebay and not a broker to rent their points? Seems fishy.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you find a DVC reservation for sale that implies that a fee must be paid to Disney when you check in, forget that one. It is an RCI trade and both RCI and DVC can cancel it leaving you with no reservation when you arrive. Other clues to RCI, usually a SSR one bedroom, but it could be other resorts and sizes as well if the person did an ongoing search. Usually the reservation will be for a seven nights starting on Fri, Sat or Sun.

Even brokers get a bad reservation, but usually only once in a blue moon. There was a DVC owner who was found to be renting reservations (no commercial use of DVC points permitted by DVC) and had exceeded the number of reservations allowed. All of his reservations were canceled leaving those guests without any reservation and out the money they had paid. He was counting on the money from the rentals to pay the member dues that he owed. There were a few reservations made by a broker with a member who was almost in foreclosure with DVC. They also got cancelled and the broker refunded the money to the renter. Their reservation was during Fall Frenzy and there were almost no possible reservations left for the guest. I think the broker did find a few nights, but not in the resort and not the exact nights the guest wanted. They did get a refund.

But in every case, if you post anything about possibly renting DVC points and get private messages, IGNORE THEM. And notify the Webmaster of these. Scammers are getting very good at faking a reservation and stealing your money. Read this thread. https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...firmed-scammer-alert-update-08-12-19.3764108/

 

[_auroraborealis_]

I would never trust a Friday or Saturday SSR 1BR check in for a week off eBay. 95% chance it's an illegal RCI trade rental.

 

[Marionnette]

You left out renting from brokers. There is NO risk in using them. None at all.

I wouldn't say that there is NO risk (an owner could not pay their MFs and DVC could cancel all their reservations). But your money is safe if something like that happens. The brokers guarantee that you will either have a reservation or you get a full refund but they cannot guarantee that they can acquire another reservation for you.

Suffice it to say that the brokers are a pretty safe route to take. But a private rental thru the Rent/Trade Board here can be pretty safe if you do your due diligence. There are a number of owners who post there who are active members of the disboards.

 

[firefly_ris]

You left out renting from brokers. There is NO risk in using them. None at all.

Correct, but they are not in my price range.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Correct, but they are not in my price range.

So rent from an owner on this board instead. I'd never book from Ebay, ever. It may be a bit less expensive, but you are still going to pay more than an RCI trade into SSR.

Or just book an offsite resort at Disney Springs. Most are pretty nice and you can still get FP+ at 60 days out.

 

[firefly_ris]

So rent from an owner on this board instead. I'd never book from Ebay, ever. It may be a bit less expensive, but you are still going to pay more than an RCI trade into SSR.

Or just book an offsite resort at Disney Springs. Most are pretty nice and you can still get FP+ at 60 days out.

I'll most likely end up at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek or the Doubletree Suites like I figured I would originally. I could save up the $3600 they are asking for OKW or SSR by the time we are going, but I don't think my husband would go for that, ha. It seemed like it could be a potential way to make it work but oh well, no big deal.