Weekends..points or cash?

[lesley.a.murray@talk]

I've read that many people pay cash for weekend night stays instead of using their point for these nights. I take it that this is the way to go?

What sort of discount on the room rate do you get as a DVC member or is the AP rate better?

Any advice on this would be gratefully received!

 

[Hilary]

We once had a room booked for cash when we were on a waitlist for a middle night of a stay in VB (the waitlist finally came through and we didn't need the cash night). This was for midweek, so the cash/points comparison isn't the same as against weekend points but, even with a DVC discount it was around $230 for a studio - I had thought it might be less than that.

I thought the weekend on cash idea was, more often, done by moving to a resort outside of DVC , i.e. you move out of your DVC accommodation for a couple of nights and then back in. Maybe I've misunderstood!

For us, one of the reasons we joined DVC was for an 'easy' holiday. If that involves w/end points, then we'll use them if it makes our trip easier

 

[Boss Hogg]

What sort of discount on the room rate do you get as a DVC member or is the AP rate better?

I look at this for a couple of nights for our last tip in August.

I cannot remember the exact amounts they were quoting, but, do recall that the AP rate was a bit cheaper than the discounted DVC rate, not a huge amount - $30 tops I seem to remember. The other thing to think about is that DVC cannot book your AP rate, you go through to the "normal" reservations dept and they say there is no guarantee that you would have the same room. Not sure how this actually works in practice.

 

[lesley.a.murray@talk]

I thought the weekend on cash idea was, more often, done by moving to a resort outside of DVC , i.e. you move out of your DVC accommodation for a couple of nights and then back in. Maybe I've misunderstood!


Maybe you are right here Hilary and I've got it wrong. The whole idea seems a lot of hassle. I just wondered if the cash price was more attractive than using points but at $230, I'm not so sure.

I totally agree with you on the 'easy' holiday bit and really would rather just use the points but read that others didn't do this so it made me wonder why.
Thanks for the reply

 

[lesley.a.murray@talk]

I look at this for a couple of nights for our last tip in August.

I cannot remember the exact amounts they were quoting, but, do recall that the AP rate was a bit cheaper than the discounted DVC rate, not a huge amount - $30 tops I seem to remember. The other thing to think about is that DVC cannot book your AP rate, you go through to the "normal" reservations dept and they say there is no guarantee that you would have the same room. Not sure how this actually works in practice.

Good point about not having the same room. I'll have to look into this more.
Thanks Boss Hogg

 

[Halo]

I thought the weekend on cash idea was, more often, done by moving to a resort outside of DVC , i.e. you move out of your DVC accommodation for a couple of nights and then back in. Maybe I've misunderstood!

Yes you have misunderstood. Generally speaking from Sunday to Thursday you are better off using points than $ to book your rooms. For Fri and Sat though, you are better off using $ than points. If you look at a 2-bed villa at OKW in Adventure Season for example, it costs 22 points per night to hire Sun to Thurs, but for Fri and Sat it increases to 54 points per night. The cash $ price for staying does not increase for Fri and Sat. Lets assume its $350 per night for the sake of argument. Assume each point is worth $10 which you could rent it for. At 22 points per night for Sun to Thurs its obviously better to use points - 22 x $10 = $220 per night is less than $350 cash price. For Fri and Sat, however, the situation is reversed, cash price of $350 is less than the points price - 54 x $10 = $540 per night. You have to add tax on and resort tax to the cash price but you will still save if you make a cash booking rather than a points booking for those nights.

Obviously if you opt to move to another hotel for those nights you could save more - the above only works if you want to stay in the DVC accomodation. You can get your points and cash bookings linked, so you do not physically change villas.

Finally you could of course use it as an opportunity to debunk to a Universal resort hotel for the Fri and Sat night and get the benefit of FOTL there.

From my previous experience, I was told that my DVC rate (which was I think 25% off the rack rate) was the best discount available and I couldn't save as much applying any AP rates, but it is always worth checking to be sure.

 

[brightspark]

We are staying OKW when we go at the end of November, and then to save money (and points) we are going to POP for the last couple of days (ie expensive weekend nights)... IMHO I don't think that staying at DVC is sensible if you are paying cash!

 

[gilld]

Yes you have misunderstood. Generally speaking from Sunday to Thursday you are better off using points than $ to book your rooms. For Fri and Sat though, you are better off using $ than points. If you look at a 2-bed villa at OKW in Adventure Season for example, it costs 22 points per night to hire Sun to Thurs, but for Fri and Sat it increases to 54 points per night. The cash $ price for staying does not increase for Fri and Sat. Lets assume its $350 per night for the sake of argument. Assume each point is worth $10 which you could rent it for. At 22 points per night for Sun to Thurs its obviously better to use points - 22 x $10 = $220 per night is less than $350 cash price. For Fri and Sat, however, the situation is reversed, cash price of $350 is less than the points price - 54 x $10 = $540 per night. You have to add tax on and resort tax to the cash price but you will still save if you make a cash booking rather than a points booking for those nights.

Obviously if you opt to move to another hotel for those nights you could save more - the above only works if you want to stay in the DVC accomodation. You can get your points and cash bookings linked, so you do not physically change villas.

Finally you could of course use it as an opportunity to debunk to a Universal resort hotel for the Fri and Sat night and get the benefit of FOTL there.

From my previous experience, I was told that my DVC rate (which was I think 25% off the rack rate) was the best discount available and I couldn't save as much applying any AP rates, but it is always worth checking to be sure.

But using your example of $350 a night and 54 points at weekends, by the time I have paid UK tax on the unearned income from renting the points, I end up with $324 - so I'm actually worse off by paying at weekends. Or am I missing something?

 

[TinkTatoo]

We plan to use cash for a weekend stay at Vero Beach. I don't mind using 22 points for the week day stays but I don't want to waste 108 of my points for two weekend nights. I'd rather use them for a 5 nights stay elsewhere

 

[Merylj]

I`ve been on the phone today to MS re the cost for a cash stay at BCV for a weekend in May, its $277 per night plus tax for a studio or 26 points. I think we`ll use borrowed points and when the points run out then pay cash. We did think of moving to POR - sometimes its hard to know what to do

 

[wilma-bride]

We are paying cash for 2 nights in a 2-bed villa at VWL in April. We got a DVC Member rate of $594 + tax, which is a 25% saving ont he normal rate for the room. I am quite happy with that saving - to be honest, though, if we'd had the points available, I would have used them but, unfortunately, we are 92 points short for our April trip.

 

[Halo]

But using your example of $350 a night and 54 points at weekends, by the time I have paid UK tax on the unearned income from renting the points, I end up with $324 - so I'm actually worse off by paying at weekends. Or am I missing something?

errrr yes. In my example you are 108 points short of what you need. What i am saying is rather than renting 108 points from someone else (i.e. its a cost to you so no UK tax issues!) you pay the cash price of $350 per night++. $700 < $1080. I wasn't suggesting that you arbitrage the situation if you had sufficient points by renting them out instead of using them, HOWEVER you could use those 108 points to stay for more days on the Sunday-Friday rate. When we did it, for example, we could stay 7 days with our points - however by paying cash for Fri and Sat we were able to stay for 10 days.

 

[paulh]

we have usaly stayed at a value when we arive,as it late and prefer to checkin to dvc early to pick the choice of rooms.We sometimes stay a couple of nights before doing our dvc.
Paulh

 

[gilld]

errrr yes. In my example you are 108 points short of what you need. What i am saying is rather than renting 108 points from someone else (i.e. its a cost to you so no UK tax issues!) you pay the cash price of $350 per night++. $700 < $1080. I wasn't suggesting that you arbitrage the situation if you had sufficient points by renting them out instead of using them, HOWEVER you could use those 108 points to stay for more days on the Sunday-Friday rate. When we did it, for example, we could stay 7 days with our points - however by paying cash for Fri and Sat we were able to stay for 10 days.

Apologies then if I misunderstood.

 

[Halo]

Apologies then if I misunderstood.

No worries - all credit to you for being so diligent in your tax return.

 

[lesley.a.murray@talk]

This has been very interesting. Thanks for the replies.

Please excuse my igorance as we have only just bought DVC and so this will be our first booking.


Next year, we arrive on a Sunday for 3 weeks, so moving out at the end of each week just seems a total pain.
If you had enough points for your entire stay, would you not just use them? or am I still missing something!

 

[Hilary]

If you had enough points for your entire stay, would you not just use them? or am I still missing something!

Yes, if had them and didn't plan to keep them for another trip, I'd splurge the points.

 

[lesley.a.murray@talk]

Thanks Hilary!
My newly acquired BCV contract has almost all the '07 points banked and with my 2008 allocation, that is more than enough to cover our stay in '08 and carry a couple of hundred points on to 2009.
And if I can't get my home resort booked, I'm happy to stay anywhere that will have me.
I'm SO looking forward to hearing "Welcome Home"!

 

[juliebrooks35]

Lesley,
Congratulations on your purchase. You must be so excited about your holiday next year.

I would also use my points (providing I had enough) to stay in the same accomodation rather than move elsewhere at the weekends.

 

[gilld]

No worries - all credit to you for being so diligent in your tax return.

If you earn the money - whichever way - you have to pay the tax.