Villa availability for DVC vs cash purchase?

[ufpajenn]

Is the inventory the same for both DVC point and cash purchases or do they keep separate inventory? I was wondering because it appears they may not be the same. Anyone know for sure?

 

[Lynne M]

They're not the same inventory. At sold-out resorts, all but a very small percentage is owned by the members, and is not available for booking by the general public.

DVC retains ownership of < 10% of the inventory at each resort. Most of this inventory is eventually rented out as cash reservations.

Under a couple of very specific circumstances, member-owned inventory can end up being made available for cash reservations:

• Members occasionally trade out of the DVC system to other Disney resorts, DCL, ABD, RCI, and other options. In this case, a villa of roughly equivalent value is rented out for cash, which is used to pay the receiving resort/cruise line for the member's stay. These villas are never returned to member inventory, as they are being used to pay for the exchange.

• At a certain point, villas in the member inventory that are not booked by members are made available for cash bookings. The revenue from these bookings, called 'breakage income', is used to offset member dues. Should a member wish to book one of these villas, they can be pulled back into the member inventory.

At the resorts that are only partially sold, like BLT, DVC still owns a bigger chunk of the inventory, so you'll see more villas available for cash at these resorts. As ownership interests in the resort are sold, more units are 'declared into inventory', and move from the general-public inventory to the member inventory.