trading power??

[jvincent16]

starting a new thread. I am currently deciding whether to buy into the DVC.
I had some other questions that you all answered today in seperate threads. thank you. one question that many couldnt answer is how hard/easy has it been to trade your dvc for a world passport hotel? it seems like most of the people on here vacation at a disney resort every year and are unable to answer because of this. if there are any of you out there that trade on a regular basis please let me know about your experience. our guide told us it would never be a problem since dvc "timeshares" are a very desirable vacation but they all say that regardless of timeshare location. it would be nice to hear from actual "owners" or should i say leasers/renters.
thank you!!

 

[Caskbill]

Do you really mean the World Passport collection, or do you mean the Concierge collection?

World Passport is a 7-day trade through Interval International, or trades through Buena Vista Trading company for Club Cordial or Club Intrawest. Those trades are a minimum of one night.

The Concierge Collection has the 'hotels' you can use points for. But many do not find it a good use of points due to the high point requirements. For example a room at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island goes from 40 to 87 points per night (depending on room and season).

The average of all the hotels is probably 30-35 points/night. If you owned at SSR, that would get you a 2-B/R villa.

 

[BroganMc]

Having said that, there are people who do trade for the hotels. I don't think availability is as much a problem as the relative point cost.

For the budget conscious renting points and using the proceeds to book hotels is a better deal. For the stress conscious, using points is far easier.

I use my DVC for Disney stays and my Marriott for hotel stays. The system seems to work better for me in Marriott (one 2bd week fetches me 110,000 points which is 4 nights in a Cat 7 hotel and 5 nights in a Cat 6, cash would be $900 for the same stay at a Marriott vacation club and over $4000 in the Cat 6 hotel).

 

[dianeschlicht]

I think the World Passport trades a decent values if you plan to go somewhere that would be a pricey exchange were you to buy the vacation outright. That is why many who trade in the World Passport trades, do so only to those types of destinations. We have traded to Hawaii, but I would never consider trading a domestic exchange to be a good value. I also find the Concierge Collection to be far too "pricey" (using too many points) to be a good value either. In most cases, you would likely be better off buying that stay OOP.

As Caskbill said, remember that the World Passport exchanges are NOT hotels, but other full service timeshares like DVC, so you get a bit more in accommodations than a "hotel" room, and you get a full week versus a night here and there.

 

[Dean]

starting a new thread. I am currently deciding whether to buy into the DVC.
I had some other questions that you all answered today in seperate threads. thank you. one question that many couldnt answer is how hard/easy has it been to trade your dvc for a world passport hotel? it seems like most of the people on here vacation at a disney resort every year and are unable to answer because of this. if there are any of you out there that trade on a regular basis please let me know about your experience. our guide told us it would never be a problem since dvc "timeshares" are a very desirable vacation but they all say that regardless of timeshare location. it would be nice to hear from actual "owners" or should i say leasers/renters.
thank you!!

I probably know more about this issue than anyone here on the boards. I think most all of the direct points exchanges are not a good deal, the current exceptions might be Disneyland and in some cases, the BVTC exchanges to Club Intrawest and Club Cordial.

Speaking for the timeshare exchanges through II, there are some things you should know. Timeshare exchanging in general is very dicey, it is not guaranteed in any way. It can be a little like Vegas, somewhat of a gamblers mentality. DVC limits what you can exchange to to about 15% of the II options. As for trading power, I think the guides make it seem like you can get anything you want that's on the list anytime you want it. The may even hint that II simply holds inventory just for DVC owners because DVC is such a desirable option. If this is what you were led to believe, you were misled. DVC has very good but not great trade power, many other resorts trade as well or better than DVC with a lot less restrictions and often for far less csot. That's not to say DVC can't go well, it can, but not enough to justify owning DVC as an exchange vehicle.

To sum it up, there are no exchange options through DVC that are worth buying in for. Some are break even at best and that's about the most you can hope for, most are a $$ losing proposition.

 

[ebenmax]

What finally attracted my husband to DVC was the II/Concierge portion of DVC aside from that fact that he does love Disney. I hope that he/we may be able to find something that is a reasonable exchange.

When you say that some are a basically break even value, which resorts or destinations are the best value for trading?

TIA

 

[Dean]

What finally attracted my husband to DVC was the II/Concierge portion of DVC aside from that fact that he does love Disney. I hope that he/we may be able to find something that is a reasonable exchange.

When you say that some are a basically break even value, which resorts or destinations are the best value for trading?

TIA

Simplistically, there are no DCL cruise or concierge options that are even break even. For the Disney Collection, the only think that comes close right now is DL and that's because of a special they have been running the last couple of years. For timeshare exchanges, it tends to be a better value but even then only a small subset are reasonable choices. Sure there will be that occasional exception where you find the right week where there are not other discounts and it will work out in favor of points. For DCL that is only true if you miss the early booking discounts or in some cases, if you look at the highest level cabins. Not only are none of these consistent enough to buy for, they would all be taken away tomorrow.

One would be much better off buying less points and paying cash or adding a non DVC timeshare plus less points, if you wanted to use the additional options routinely.

 

[RobDoc]

Simplistically, there are no DCL cruise or concierge options that are even break even.

I know many will agree the line of thinking noted above - but IMO, the value of a point is in the eye of the beholder and as with many things, there is certainly another point of view to consider.

If you use a rental rate to compare the "value" of using DVC points for DCL, World Passport, Concierge Collection then you can often rent points to others and use cash to pay for the other options at a good rate of exchange. In that situation, you do have the additional work/expense/hassle of finding renters and satisfying their needs in order to complete the transaction.

However, if you simply use the cost of the maintenance fees on the points needed for the "option", using points can be a very good deal - especially if you have points you will not need to use at a DVC resort. Using $4-5 as the true value (I'm defining "true value" as what did those points actually cost me this year), then cost of those non-DVC options is very good and quite competitive with paying cash for the reservation.

YMMV.