TouringPlans sunsetting room requests

[walt34]

No. What I am saying is that there is no priority when assigning rooms.

Whether you are a cash guest or on a DVC points reservation is irrelevant when they assign rooms.

If a cash guest and a points guest requests the same thing, the cash guests chances are as good as the points based guest and vice versa.

I think Disney does the best to grand requests if they are there and then assign the rest of the rooms in way they match.

But, they do not consider how the reservation was booked when deciding.

As a DVC owner, they don’t consider that when they decide which room I am going to get.

I had friends who did a TPV 2 bedroom last year at BLT and were on Floor 10 and they were cash guests

That means there were DVC owners who were on lower floors, which some would say isn’t as good.

Basically, no one is currently given any priority over others.

So, I completely agree with this. This is as it should be.

But how do you go from this to Disney being able to charge money for prioritizing room requests for DVC rooms? Wouldn't this mean that they start to treat guests differently.

I'd see this a bit differently if the money charged for room requests would go back to the association (and reduce the dues). But it definitely shouldn't be going into Disney's pockets, as they shouldn't be able to treat guest who are paying them extra better when it concerns DVC room allocations.

 

[Sandisw]

So, I completely agree with this. This is as it should be.

But how do you go from this to Disney being able to charge money for prioritizing room requests for DVC rooms? Wouldn't this mean that they start to treat guests differently.

I'd see this a bit differently if the money charged for room requests would go back to the association (and reduce the dues). But it definitely shouldn't be going into Disney's pockets, as they shouldn't be able to treat guest who are paying them extra better when it concerns DVC room allocations.

Because I see nothing to prevent them from doing a paid service for room choice.

That was the question…can they legally do it and so far, my reading of it is, the answer is yes.

Now, it’s a good question of to where the funds go and you’d need to go back to the parking fees they charged cash guests.

I honestly don’t remember if we got any of that income.

In the end, though, Disney gets to create programs to offer their guests and if they want to make this an add on feature they can…and we, as DVC owners can’t tell them they can’t.

 

[walt34]

In the end, though, Disney gets to create programs to offer their guests and if they want to make this an add on feature they can…and we, as DVC owners can’t tell them they can’t.

As long as we are talking about Disney hotel rooms, I have not argument with this. They can do whatever they want to do. But the moment they start prioritising some DVC room bookings over other DVC bookings in exchange for money (cash bookings, a room preference fee,...) during room assignment, this looks very much like self-dealing to me.

 

[Sandisw]

As long as we are talking about Disney hotel rooms, I have not argument with this. They can do whatever they want to do. But the moment they start prioritising some DVC room bookings over other DVC bookings in exchange for money (cash bookings, a room preference fee,...) during room assignment, this looks very much like self-dealing to me.

Might be, but DVC rooms offered via Disney for cash get the same benefits as all other cash guests.

I know it wouldn’t be something people might want to see, but it’s whether or not the POS would prevent them for having a program for DVC owners and/or cash guests to pay to choose their rooms.

Unless you are seeing something I am missing in the contract that would prevent it?

What Disney chooses to offer guests staying in DVC rooms via the cash arm is not something we owners get a say in.

For example, they can charge whatever they want for a cash rate and the only thing we get is a maximum of 2.5% of operating costs. The rest is pure profit for them.

The only potential piece is whether owners would be entitled to any of the fees…and my guess is that would be based on how the program works.

Technically, nothing in the contract would even prevent them from prioritizing cash guests for room assignments now over DVC owners…

They say they don’t, but if they want to? They absolutely could because we, as owners, give them complete authority to decide who gets what room.

To be honest, I hope it never comes to that. I wish they’d get rid of requests all together, you get first available when you arrive, unless there is a documented medical reason to need a specific room type.

 

[walt34]

Technically, nothing in the contract would even prevent them from prioritizing cash guests for room assignments now over DVC owners…

They say they don’t, but if they want to? They absolutely could because we, as owners, give them complete authority to decide who gets what room.

To be honest, I hope it never comes to that. I wish they’d get rid of requests all together and it’s always first available when you arrive, unless there is a documented medical reason to need a specific room type.

I believe the key is in what you wrote earlier:

The rooms belong to the association But we pay Disney to decide which room we get, through the property management agreement.

We pay DVCM to do this. It doesn't mean that DVCM can act in Disney's interest over the owners' interest here. I don't think they can decide to give the best rooms to Disney+ - members. I don't think they can charge a fee that goes to Disney for prioritising one group of owners over the other.

My law degree doesn't cover Florida - so I might be completely wrong, maybe someone with expert knowledge (Florida Statue 721.13 maybe?) can weigh in?

 

[Sandisw]

I believe the key is in what you wrote earlier:

We pay DVCM to do this. It doesn't mean that DVCM can act in Disney's interest over the owners' interest here. I don't think they can decide to give the best rooms to Disney+ - members. I don't think they can charge a fee that goes to Disney for prioritising one group of owners over the other.

My law degree doesn't cover Florida - so I might be completely wrong, maybe someone with expert knowledge (Florida Statue 721.13 maybe?) can weigh in?

Except the association has hired Disney to manage the property and that contract gives Disney full authority to assign rooms.

Again, the contract is clear that we can be assigned any room in the category.

So, how Disney chooses to do that is up to them…

As I said, in terms of fees? I don’t know how that would work in coming back to the association.

The closest to look at was the parking fee that Disney charged cash guests staying in DVC rooms.

I’ll go back to what I said earlier, if they decided to do a paid program for choosing DVC rooms, I think it would apply to all reservations, both points and cash.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

DVC has handled room assignment in the past by creating a separate booking point category. OKW got ‘by hospitality house’ whereas SSR got ‘preferred’ for those closest to Disney Springs.

This is a ‘fee’ of sorts but it is not an additional cost to owners because it was balanced with overall points.

DVD has a certain number of points for cash rooms that it ‘held back’ and owns and they have the same availability at 11 months and 7 months with this to pull room categories. They can pull more at a certain time past 7 months I think but don’t remember the specifics).

To give more preference to cash guests versus DVC guests for room choice beyond categories does not seem allowable. To do so equally does seem allowable.

So, even if cash guests were charged a fee for requests, which they can’t do for DVC, they would have to find a way to still make requests equal between cash and DVC - which IMO would be near impossible.

Thus, outside of separate room categories, I don’t see there being any change to the system. Disney does not want a separate vendor involved in anything unless they approve it and get their share of the money. Thus the action that started this thread.

 

[Sandisw]

DVC has handled room assignment in the past by creating a separate booking point category. OKW got ‘by hospitality house’ whereas SSR got ‘preferred’ for those closest to Disney Springs.

This is a ‘fee’ of sorts but it is not an additional cost to owners because it was balanced with overall points.

DVD has a certain number of points for cash rooms that it ‘held back’ and owns and they have the same availability at 11 months and 7 months with this to pull room categories. They can pull more at a certain time past 7 months I think but don’t remember the specifics).

To give more preference to cash guests versus DVC guests for room choice beyond categories does not seem allowable. To do so equally does seem allowable.

So, even if cash guests were charged a fee for requests, which they can’t do for DVC, they would have to find a way to still make requests equal between cash and DVC - which IMO would be near impossible.

Thus, outside of separate room categories, I don’t see there being any change to the system. Disney does not want a separate vendor involved in anything unless they approve it and get their share of the money. Thus the action that started this thread.

I thought the discussion was whether they can create a paid program for all guests, cash and DVC, to choose a specific room.

And that is what I have been discussing. I don’t see anything that prevents them from doing it.

I actually don’t see them every doing paid room choice, even if legally allowed.

 

[walt34]

Except the association has hired Disney to manage the property and that contract gives Disney full authority to assign rooms.

I don't think the indirect contract (DVCM hires Disney to do something for them) changes anything regarding the duties DVCM has. Either self-dealing is prohibited or it isn't. If I hire you to manage my parking lot and you hire a subcontractor, the subcontractor is then not suddenly allowed to give preferential treatment to his friends.

Again, the contract is clear that we can be assigned any room in the category.

Absolutely. But it also says nothing about treating different groups (cash bookings, fee-payers,...) differently when it comes to room assignment. Other timeshares, that give priority to different classes of users for bookings, etc. clearly say so in the POS.

 

[Sandisw]

I don't think the indirect contract (DVCM hires Disney to do something for them) changes anything regarding the duties DVCM has. Either self-dealing is prohibited or it isn't. If I hire you to manage my parking lot and you hire a subcontractor, the subcontractor is then not suddenly allowed to give preferential treatment to his friends.

Absolutely. But it also says nothing about treating different groups (cash bookings, fee-payers,...) differently when it comes to room assignment. Other timeshares, that give priority to different classes of users for bookings, etc. clearly say so in the POS.

Which is why one of my original comments was that I believe they can create a paid program that is available to all onsite guests.

The point was more that we own a timeshare on Disney property and the contract discusses our rights when it comes to access to things they give cash guests, including paid programs.

It still remains that Disney decides who gets what specific rooms and if you are getting the room category you booked, then you got exactly what you were booked.

In that sense, there really is no such thing as priority that can occur when rooms are assigned because in terms of DVC, and cash, the only thing that matters is category.

There is no “better vs worse” rooms within one, except a subjective one from an individual. So, as long as what Disney is giving DVC owners is a room that fits their category, Disney is fulfilling their responsibility to owners.

I even said that owners would have a good case that Disney can’t exclude them from a paid program for room choice if it is perk of staying onsite.

It’s why we get free water park on check in day and the free kids dining in 2026 when adults purchase….because those are offered to all onsite guests and DVC can’t be excluded.

I think we discussed a few things so maybe some confusion happened in what we were discussing.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

To answer your question as to ‘charging for room selection’ my answer in the post was in synopsis, DVD can not charge DVC for rooms other than to change point values.

The page back and forth about charging is not what this thread was about. Perhaps you can start a new thread ‘Fees for room requests’

 

[Boopuff]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I follow several different DVC threads, forums, pages etc... I own OKW, so many of the discussions around OKW always ask "best location" answer almost always "near HH or Turtle Pond" I've seen renters and cash guests remark that they "don't see HH as a choice or grayed out" in the drop down menu. So I often thought that maybe OKW owners only see HH as a choice. Of course I'm sure that 's incorrect. Anyone know for sure?

 

[Sandisw]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I follow several different DVC threads, forums, pages etc... I own OKW, so many of the discussions around OKW always ask "best location" answer almost always "near HH or Turtle Pond" I've seen renters and cash guests remark that they "don't see HH as a choice or grayed out" in the drop down menu. So I often thought that maybe OKW owners only see HH as a choice. Of course I'm sure that 's incorrect. Anyone know for sure?

It’s a booking category and Disney doesn’t advertise it as such for cash rooms. It doesn’t mean that cash guests may not end up in those areas.

 

[Sandisw]

To answer your question as to ‘charging for room selection’ my answer in the post was in synopsis, DVD can not charge DVC for rooms other than to change point values.

The page back and forth about charging is not what this thread was about. Perhaps you can start a new thread ‘Fees for room requests’

Someone had asked about paid programs for rooms choice.

Anyway, since Touringplans was charging guests to put in requests, it makes sense they stopped it.