Ugh... Question.

[ProudMommyof2]

You know you can rent out points and put the other person's name on the reservation.

A friend of ours rented us points and they made the reservation in our name. I have control of the reservation from my end. I would do the online check in, not them.

I guess that's what confuses me here. Is that what you did? Or was the reservation in your name?

The reservation can be made in your name by an owner, but you do not have any control over it. You can not even talk to Disney about it, only the owner. The mistake that was made here was doing the online check in for the friends. They should have just checked in themselves when they got to the resort and put their own credit card on file.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

The reservation can be made in your name by an owner, but you do not have any control over it. You can not even talk to Disney about it, only the owner. The mistake that was made here was doing the online check in for the friends. They should have just checked in themselves when they got to the resort and put their own credit card on file.

Non-members can do their own online check-in by linking their reservation to My Disney Experience. You're correct, though, that they can't talk to Member Services or make any changes themselves. (At least prior to arrival. There are occasionally reports of the front desk doing things that they shouldn't. One example was a renter who asked for an "upgrade" when they checked in, and the front desk cast member took the extra points from the member's account to upgrade them to a larger villa.)

In this case, the member linked their credit card during the online check-in. Even if they hadn't, though, if the renters had skipped out on their room charges, it still would have been the member's responsibility to resolve. What surprised me most in this case is that the correspondence went to the address on the reservation instead of the one on the membership.

 

[Sandisw]

I said this exact same thing when I called yesterday. We visit probably 5 times a year... and every single time we do online check-in and we put our company debit card on file. When we get there to pick up the packets... they check our bands, ask us if we remember the pins we had set previously, then they ask us for the card.

When we brought my parents in December, they did not ask them for a card and, in fact, told them that there was already one on file. My dad was nervous because he thought they somehow already had HIS card information on file. They were able to, obviously, switch it out at that point.

But... I don't understand why, if the name on the reservation didn't match the card on file, it wasn't at least questioned at check-in.

I'll never rent points out again because of this experience. At least it's all cleared up on the accounting side of things now, but... it could have been a mess come February when we went to check in and were told that we had a $1400 bill to settle first!

CY

Pins are set up by individuals--my daughter had a different one then I did, even though it was going to my card-- so when they checked in, they probably were simply asked to enter a pin, since the card was already on file. They entered it and off they went which allowed them to charge.

Any pins you have set up would have been for you, not the card.

And, IIRC, the benefit to entering card info on file with online check in is so that the people at the front desk don't have access to it. I wonder if they can even see the name on the card.

I am sorry that this happened and it is one of the reasons why I am so leary to rent to anyone other than close friends...

Good luck! I hope they come through for you and pay up what they owe!