well, it is official; dvc is a timeshare

[DebbieB]

A friend of mine did a deal at HH a few years ago (2001, I remember because their first trip was to WDW the week after 9/11). It was a 2 bedroom in February dirt cheap plus a free night. Tour was required. And guess what - they bought! They are not the type to fall for high pressure.

The rooms are empty - why not use them to try to get new members. A couple hour tour in exchange for a half price room, sounds good to me.

 

[wheelcap]

Everywhere across the country, people are "tightening the belt" a bit, to make sure their personal finances survive the current economic "downturn". That is evidenced at Walt Disney World, as well -- where people are buying t-shirts instead of the polos, and eating counter-service instead of table-service. This now includes the accomodations -- they're staying at Pop instead of Riverside or down-stepping from SSR to Carribean. What does that mean? There are lots of cash rooms available at SSR and OKW, and they want to fill them up. How do you do that?? With a SALE!! Offer people a deal on the room, and that room is now making more than it would have if it were empty -- plus -- now that they're on property, the spend money. It's not sleazy timeshare selling, it's just a way for Disney to make a few bucks to survive the bad economy.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We just got a call from Hilton Honors yesterday for a four night stay at a Hilton hotel/resort in Orlando for $109 for all four nights. And it included the timeshare tour for Hilton Grand Vacation Club. My husband was home when the call came, so he called me at work. He was all excited about the offer. They first offered $299 for four nights, but they came down to $109. Plus four adult tickets to Universal, Sea World or Disney.

When I told him that we would have to get there (one night in a hotel going down, one night coming back; gas; park tickets, plus put up the pets at the vets) so it would cost us about $2000 for four nights. Brought him back to reality really fast.

But DVC is already getting a bit more forceful with their sales. We all know that some of the guides will tell a potential buyer anything they want to hear, lie even. That's not to say there aren't some very good, very reputable guides, just that some of them are desperate to make that sale.

 

[Disneypirate85]

I got the email and forwarded to some friends that are thinking about buying in.we'll see heck its a great deal for those type of rooms. Shawn

 

[dvczerfs]

A friend of mine did a deal at HH a few years ago (2001, I remember because their first trip was to WDW the week after 9/11). It was a 2 bedroom in February dirt cheap plus a free night. Tour was required. And guess what - they bought! They are not the type to fall for high pressure.

The rooms are empty - why not use them to try to get new members. A couple hour tour in exchange for a half price room, sounds good to me.

i agree. anyone a ap holder? i got an email today on special rates for ap holders at ssr and okw studios. it also said be sure to ask about 1 and 2 bedroom villas. i didnt realy read to much of it but the headline was save 45 percent.

 

[quirty30]

This is right at the bottom of the email:

"THE PURPOSE OF THE OPEN HOUSE TOUR IS TO SELL A TIME-SHARE INTEREST BY DISNEY VACATION DEVELOPMENT, INC. "

Apparently even Disney thinks DVC is a timeshare.

 

[Sammie]

Sales are slow, they are getting desperate, another sign things have changed at DVC.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Jim Lewis needs private school tuition and overseas travel fares.

 

[Sammie]

Jim Lewis needs private school tuition and overseas travel fares.

 

[carlbarry]

This is right at the bottom of the email:

"THE PURPOSE OF THE OPEN HOUSE TOUR IS TO SELL A TIME-SHARE INTEREST BY DISNEY VACATION DEVELOPMENT, INC. "

Apparently even Disney thinks DVC is a timeshare.

It's a disclosure required by law. Disney can think DVC is whatever they want to think, but by law, it's a timeshare.

 

[DebbieB]

It's a disclosure required by law. Disney can think DVC is whatever they want to think, but by law, it's a timeshare.

And it always has been. I don't understand why people think it's changed, like it wasn't one before. DVC has had some questionable tactics in the past. Like "you can have 5 in a 1 bedroom even if the contract says 4" or "the amount of points per night for a room will never change". They could afford to not be "high pressure" because they had a steady flow of customers and the Disney name is easier to sell. I don't understand why they suddenly become "sleezy" because they offer a cheap room rate but require a tour to get potential customers in the door during harder times.

 

[quirty30]

It's a disclosure required by law. Disney can think DVC is whatever they want to think, but by law, it's a timeshare.

Even I knew it was a timeshare, and I bought into DVC anyway. I'm not quite sure why so many people take offense to that moniker. It is what it is.

 

[dis-happy]

A guide stated to me last week that sales for GCV were much slower than expected. This new promo bears that out. Wish I had asked about BLT sales too! Wonder how they are doing. Plus they have Hawaii in the pipeline. Sounds like the marketing dept. is trying desperately to bring in new owners any way possible.

 

[tjkraz]

Really? Huh - when we bought in the summer of 2007, we were told we had to decide within 72 hours of coming home in order to get the incentives that were quoted. It was a little annoying actually, but we still like our guide -- actually we were told this by two guides.

It's not just you--that used to be the standard "hook" used after taking an on-site tour. But I'd say within the last 12-18 months reports of this 3-day incentive period have all but vanished. Every so often I'll see one, but it's pretty rare.

Sales are slow, they are getting desperate, another sign things have changed at DVC.

Don't know that I'd call it desperate but certainly sales are being hurt by the economy. It's not any of Disney/DVC's doing. They have arguably the best lineup of properties ever offered combined with some pretty nice incentives. But the market is certainly small than it has been at any point in the last 5-7 years.

If they weren't trying to formulate innovative ways of attracting more sales, layoffs would follow. If you don't have the sales, you don't need as large of a sales staff. You don't need as many people to process the contracts. You don't need designers or builders for a Washington DC property or a second Contemporary Tower if DVC is sitting on a backlog of points.

We already know Disney is hurting. What's wrong with finding creative ways to fill the rooms and expose more people to the DVC product?

 

[d-r]

A guide stated to me last week that sales for GCV were much slower than expected. This new promo bears that out. Wish I had asked about BLT sales too! Wonder how they are doing. Plus they have Hawaii in the pipeline. Sounds like the marketing dept. is trying desperately to bring in new owners any way possible.

I think you are right about the CGV, we went to one of the blt previews for dvc members tonight and they were offering $17 a point incentives for BLT but $24 a point for gcv.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I think you are right about the CGV, we went to one of the blt previews for dvc members tonight and they were offering $17 a point incentives for BLT but $24 a point for gcv.

True, but to get an accurate assessment of the cost, we need to look at the point charts to figure cost per night.
VGC may currently be $7/pt cheaper, but it may be many more points per night to stay there.

MG

 

[Golden Rose]

We would have loved this kind of offer when we were considering buying DVC. We actually asked if anything like this was available, and were very disappointed that there was no way to try out the rooms at a discounted rate. I can't be sorry that DVC is finally offering this... only sorry they didn't offer it sooner.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I absolutely hate sinking to the level of sleezy timeshare shenanigans.
I really hope the next step is not a high pressure sales pitch.

MG

Please allow me to clarify my earlier post..
It's not the cheaper rooms that are the sleezy shenanigans, but rather it sounds like this *may* be a first step down that slippery slope.
If it truly stops at discounted rooms than I have no problem with that.

MG

 

[disneynutz]

We would have loved this kind of offer when we were considering buying DVC. We actually asked if anything like this was available, and were very disappointed that there was no way to try out the rooms at a discounted rate. I can't be sorry that DVC is finally offering this... only sorry they didn't offer it sooner.

DVC rooms are available with cash through the CRO group and through the Disney website. We booked DVC rooms for a couple of years before we decided to become members.

 

[d-r]

Please allow me to clarify my earlier post..
It's not the cheaper rooms that are the sleezy shenanigans, but rather it sounds like this *may* be a first step down that slippery slope.
If it truly stops at discounted rooms than I have no problem with that.

MG

I understand what you mean 100%