Why did they reallocate weekends?

[Cfabar1]

I'm curious why Disney decided to reallocate the disparity between weekday and weekend points. Was that brought about by member feedback? Did they feel like they couldn't get enough weekend bookings? What brought about this change?

I think it remains the single biggest reallocation they have done.

 

[Sandisw]

Members were not booking the weekends in the same way they were weekdays.

So, DVC needed to reallocate tj balance the demand as best they could.

 

[intamin]

It's the same reason they adjusted the travel seasons. The goal is to have the rooms at 100% occupancy at all times. Sure they can turn the rooms within 60 days to cash but you still want the majority of rooms to be booked by owners so that way you can get their money in the form of dining, merchandise etc. With such a huge disparity between weekdays and weekends a lot of members I imagine were booking M-F only and staying during weekends offsite or in a value resort perhaps whereas Disney would rather have the harder to fill rooms booked at all times.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Sure they can turn the rooms within 60 days to cash but you still want the majority of rooms to be booked by owners so that way you can get their money in the form of dining, merchandise etc.

I totally agree with the rest of your post, but this part I'm not so sure about.

I think Disney LOVES renting out declared DVC rooms for cash. As far as the room itself, if a member stays in the room, Disney gets the original purchase price of the points, and the annual dues. If Disney rents that room for cash, they get the original purchase price of the points, the annual dues, PLUS the cash paid for the rental.

With regard to dining and merchandise, I wouldn't be surprised if a cash renter who is reserving a room within 60 days of arrival is less likely to be cooking as many meals in the room as a member might (more likely to be someone who would normally be looking at hotel rooms and dining out 100% of the time), and is also likely spending more on merchandise than a member (I know we don't leave every trip with armfuls of Disney stuff, or at least not as much as a less-frequent visitor). Sure, there are likely people from across the whole gamut, but I'm guessing cash renters might spend more on food and merchandise on average.

 

[intamin]

I totally agree with the rest of your post, but this part I'm not so sure about.

I think Disney LOVES renting out declared DVC rooms for cash. As far as the room itself, if a member stays in the room, Disney gets the original purchase price of the points, and the annual dues. If Disney rents that room for cash, they get the original purchase price of the points, the annual dues, PLUS the cash paid for the rental.

With regard to dining and merchandise, I wouldn't be surprised if a cash renter who is reserving a room within 60 days of arrival is less likely to be cooking as many meals in the room as a member might (more likely to be someone who would normally be looking at hotel rooms and dining out 100% of the time), and is also likely spending more on merchandise than a member (I know we don't leave every trip with armfuls of Disney stuff, or at least not as much as a less-frequent visitor). Sure, there are likely people from across the whole gamut, but I'm guessing cash renters might spend more on food and merchandise on average.

Oh no I agree completely, sorry I kind of thought it was a given we’re the less desirable prom date metaphorically speaking . I know they love putting those rooms back up for cash as well. It essentially lets them double dip on those rooms. However, I do think at the end of the day they want the minimum amount of DVC members and maximum of cash reservations needed to reach maximum capacity. But that’s kind of the key to it, to reach maximum capacity at all times because of the reasons I alluded to before and they would rather have a DVC member in there than nobody. I hope I phrased that correctly LOL.

Also, we find ourselves still going to table service locations and coming back with a bunch of merch so you and I combined are at least worth half of a guest

 

[mamaofsix]

Did I miss something? When did this reallocation occur? Recently?

 

[pinkxray]

I must have missed this too. Definitely makes sense. On our next trip the points are so much higher during the weekend I was tempted to stay at a value or even Cabana Bay at Universal for the weekend. We ended up booking a studio for the weekend and move to a one bedroom on Monday.

 

[CarolMN]

Did I miss something? When did this reallocation occur? Recently?

It was in 2010 and there was a further adjustment for 2011. Here's a very long thread discussing that change. For those who will say TL;DR - a whole lot of members did NOT like the change.

DVC POINT CHART CHANGES for 2011

 

[mamaofsix]

It was in 2010 and there was a further adjustment for 2011. Here's a very long thread discussing that change. For those who will say TL;DR - a whole lot of members did NOT like the change.

DVC POINT CHART CHANGES for 2011

Ah, I see. So it's news from thirteen years ago. From this thread, it sounded like a recent change. Thought I'd missed the release of the 2025 point chart or something, lol.

 

[New Mouse]

Their reallocation strategies in general are puzzling as 1brs are now drastically overpriced.

I've seen seemingly way more " last minute" availability than there's ever been before.

 

[drusba]

The change was made for WDW resorts via the point charts issued for 2010 and 2011. They used two years to complete the shift of points from weekend (Fri and Sat) to weekday (Sun thru Thurs) because they cannot change the points for any given night more than 20%, up or down, in any one year. and the total change ended up being close to a 30% decrease for each of the two weekend nights.

Before the change, there were often times within 7-months out for many rooms where the weekdays were fully booked but the weekends still open. That still happens sometimes now but it is far reduced from what occurred pre-2010. The result of the point change, of course, was that there were large numbers of disappointed owners, many of whom were members who had purchased enough points to get 5 weekday nights and had habitually avoided weekends. Also, prior to that point shift, there had never been any point shifts at any of the resorts except a seasonal shift of points made for OKW in the mid-1990s.

One bedrooms, which are often the last to reserve, have always had the much higher point costs than the studios. A main cause of that is that the points applicable to a night per-room were, for many years, based on the sq ft of the room, and since 1BRs were much larger than studios, the point difference was large. That concept continues today except it was modified for specialty rooms -- Poly bungalows, CCV cabins.

 

[peabody58]

S-Th bookers. Guilty as charged. And still guilty!

We;re point misers even though we added on recently.

We've done a few weekends since 2010, but with all the Post-Covid changes, the weekend stays for the parks is just not that enjoyable for DW and myself.

 

[tom1944]

We book a week to 10 days so we will always have a weekend.

 

[DonMacGregor]

S-Th bookers. Guilty as charged. And still guilty!

We;re point misers even though we added on recently.

We've done a few weekends since 2010, but with all the Post-Covid changes, the weekend stays for the parks is just not that enjoyable for DW and myself.

100% S-Th WDW bookers here too, including 3/5-3/10, 7/9-7/14, and 12/3-12/8 of this year. I've stayed a total of 1 Friday or Saturday night in the last 5 years.

Conversely, at Aulani, all stays are usually Th-Tue, since there are no weekend rates there.

 

[Skywalker3]

we've almost always booked part of a weekend with our stay. Usually Sat-Sat, sometimes Sun-Sat/Sun, just depends. never factored in our planning that the weekend points might be more, that's just how we travelled.
About 80% of our stays have been 1 bedrooms, and we've seen the points go up for those since buying in 2011, especially the last 2 years' reallocations. they've gone up about 1 or 2 points a night, at the times we travel in the last couple of years.

 

[OKW Lover]

We typically have booked shorter (not full week) stays. So yes, we look for the less expensive nights points wise.

DVC needed to reallocate points to make booking patterns more even and get to the point where they are "fully" booked on all days.

 

[BL2020]

Its not just the reduced points but the crowds are less on weekdays generally, so we do try to book those Sun-Thur nights exclusively, for both reasons. That is if we can, these nights go faster too!

 

[DebbieB]

I remember when I was first a member in early 2000’s, I would stay at OKW Saturday to Friday so that I only had 1 weekend night. Saturday the parking lot near our building would be empty. Sunday it would fill up. It kind of messed me up because I bought based on Saturday to Friday, 6 nights. When they reallocated, it went up. When they added more resorts with higher point charts, I had to rethink anyway. I mostly downsized from 1 bedrooms to studios.

 

[Brian Noble]

If I remember correctly, a very common point-stretching strategy folks on the DIS would discuss was to book the weekday nights on points, a weekend day on the Member cash discount, and link the reservations.

 

[Sally524]

When OKW first open the number of points required for a Friday or Saturday was 2 1/2 times as many as Sun - Thu. So it cost the same number of points for 5 weeknights as 2 weekend nights. To make points go further many would try to avoid Friday and Saturday night if possible.