Why is there empty room left unbooked?

[MoreTravels]

If all the points have been sold at Saratoga, then those owners should use up the points, right? So why is there always so much vacancy there? For example, I was checking a few weeks ago for August... there is always room, even until the day of check in.

I know you can reserve in other resorts. But the resort owners can reserve reciprocally there too. So it should all even out. It is like a "game of zero sum". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game

With all these vacant spaces, are people simply letting their points expiring?

 

[drusba]

SSR is the largest resort with the most owners by far. it is also the last resort to book to capacity. As to what happens at 7 months out when members can make moves to non-home resorts, the usual pattern is high to extreme demand for near park resorts, and more modest demand for the others.

You also have seasonal differences. August is moderate demand and many things stay open well beyond 7 month window. There are really two basic DVC demand periods: (a) end of Sep through marathon weekend in Jan which is high demand, and (b) the rest of the year which is medium to low demand. The difference between those two periods is like night and day and even SSR disappears completely very often during that high demand period, and by four to six months out for some of the times during that high demand period.

It is doubtful many points are just going unused by members who can use them. Resorts eventually do book up most times of year, even slower times. You also have trade outs sending points to be used outside of DVC, and then there is banking and borrowing which can skew points usage somewhat from year to year. You also have at any given point in time, a number of members whose point usage has been suspended due to failure to pay loans or dues and those points can remain in unused purgatory for some time while the foreclosure process is pursued.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

There have been scary tales told of people letting points expire.

 

[hakepb]

It would be interesting to see the hard numbers. But, yes there are some members that don't know about banking, or renting. There may e a few more members banking than borrowing. Instead of a few members not using any points, it might be many members not using a few points. Ie 1000 members with 10 extra points add up quickly.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Maybe because August isn't a prime time to go to WDW. It's hot, there can be hurricanes in FL and school starts for lots of states.

It's not Oct through Dec. And those people are all waitlisting anything that time of the year if they didn't book it exactly at seven months out.

 

[bakerworld]

It wasn't until I used by pts and read these forums that I understood the whole banking, borrowing, wail list options.

 

[Chuck S]

Plus you have members that trade to the Disney Collection and cruises. Those points turn into a room available for cash. It will sit empty if not rented, and that room can not be reclaimed for points, as it technically is already rented on points, used for the trade.

 

[jerseyduke]

Points expire. Points get used for other things such as cruises, etc.

I think Disney has to keep 2% of the points for themselves.

100 percent is never 100 percent. Rooms have to be kept for emergencies to move guests.

I would love to know how many points expire!

 

[Anal Annie]

Sometimes "stuff" happens. We were just almost in a situation where we might have lost over 300 points (a combination of mostly current, but some banked and some borrowed points). We had booked a big trip to VGC and Aulani for this August when, at just 8 days out, our DS had a medical emergency that prevented him from being able to fly for 3 weeks. So there we were, under 30 days out with a Dec. UY (meaning we HAD to use those points by Nov. 30th) so we HAD to do something quickly (once school started we'd be SOL) or else we'd lose all of those points. When I called MS to cancel VGC and Aulani I then asked what, if anything, was available in FL instead, thinking we could drive down rather than fly. There were NO studios available anywhere but luckily there was ONE 1-bedroom open at SSR which meant we wouldn't have to forfeit those points. The rep told me if I wanted it not to hang up to think it over because it was the only 1-bedroom open anywhere. Cancelling the 11 nights in studios at the other 2 properties worked out to be almost a wash for 9 nights in the 1-bedroom (only losing 7 points). So for us, even in August, the availability was not all that high but luckily it was THERE.

Anyway, my point was that sometimes "stuff" happens at the last minute that causes people to have to cancel and that could cause some of these openings and could cause some folks to lose points (accidently). There's a distinct possibility that our last minute cancellations at VGC and Aulani left studios sitting empty for up to 4 nights at VGC and 7 nights at Aulani. There's also the possibility that someone lucked into last minute availability for these villas too when you would think it impossible to find at the last minute. Had we not been able to find the availability for ourselves tho, rather than lose the points we would've tried to find someone else to use them (either via transfer or renting to another member or gift a trip to family).

 

[wdrl]

Another factor that comes into play is that the DVC system always has more capacity than owners. That is especially true right now because Aulani, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Villas at Grand Floridian are still in the active selling phase. DVD has declared many more points than it has sold at these resorts. For example, if every AKV owner booked every accommodation at AKV, there would still about 675,000 points worth of accommodations that are available for bookings by non-AKV owners. In VGF's case, there are about 1,475,000 points worth of accommodations that can be booked by non-VGF owners. I don't know how many excess points Aulani has, but I suspect it is somewhere between the numbers for AKV and VGF.

With all this excess capacity in the DVC system, there will always be accommodations that will seemingly go unused. It doesn't necessarily mean that members are letting their points expire.

 

[jerseyduke]

Another factor that comes into play is that the DVC system always has more capacity than owners. That is especially true right now because Aulani, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Villas at Grand Floridian are still in the active selling phase. DVD has declared many more points than it has sold at these resorts. For example, if every AKV owner booked every accommodation at AKV, there would still about 675,000 points worth of accommodations that are available for bookings by non-AKV owners. In VGF's case, there are about 1,475,000 points worth of accommodations that can be booked by non-VGF owners. I don't know how many excess points Aulani has, but I suspect it is somewhere between the numbers for AKV and VGF.

With all this excess capacity in the DVC system, there will always be accommodations that will seemingly go unused. It doesn't necessarily mean that members are letting their points expire.

Excellent point. I wonder what will transpire after the Poly. Will they keep building?

I also wonder what will happen in 2042. Hopefully they do not have a lot of banked 2041 points

 

[Dean]

If all the points have been sold at Saratoga, then those owners should use up the points, right? So why is there always so much vacancy there? For example, I was checking a few weeks ago for August... there is always room, even until the day of check in.

I know you can reserve in other resorts. But the resort owners can reserve reciprocally there too. So it should all even out. It is like a "game of zero sum". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game

With all these vacant spaces, are people simply letting their points expiring?

In addition to the other factors listed, SSR has the lowest demand of the on property resorts so statistically it will be available more than anything else. I believe the demand is a much larger factor than the size.

Another factor that comes into play is that the DVC system always has more capacity than owners.

Overall I don't not think this is the case. For resorts in active sales there is always a small amount of unsold but declared inventory. For the rest, there is a 2-4% hold back in unsold points that are first used for maint but they are still in play. Given that a points system as flexible as DVC is inherently inefficient so there is always going to be wasted points in one way or another.