Will point values diminish over time?

[Melrosgirl]

Another newbie question here Still trying to decide...

Is there any protection against massive arbitrary rate increases for either the points or the per point annual dues that you pay? Right now we see that this may be a good deal; however is it possible that whatever annual rate increases Disney imposes on Vacation Club members causes the overall value of the program to drastically diminish over time?

tia

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Well, if the sales price per point increases, it should actually increase the resale value of your points. As far as the dues go, there is a maximum that they can be raised by DVC without member consent. I THINK it is around 20%, but better versed members may correct me on this. Remember, by law DVC can not make a profit on dues.

Good luck.....

 

[RobDoc]

In addition to Maistre Gracey's comments about dues ( the limit is actually 15% per year- unless the membership votes for a higher raise), the point cost for a reservation is also limited. The total number of points needed to stay at the resort is fixed and cannot be changed.

DVC is allowed to use a point restructuring as long as the total is not affected. Thus some nights could be raised- but others would have to be lowered to maintain the balance.

In reality, this has happened only once- at OKW, in 1996- and a few nights went up a few points and other nights went down a few (many didn't change at all). DVC has this right to better manage utilization of the resort's reservation system.

Enjoy!

 

[Chuck S]

I'm not sure I understand your question completely about point values...are you asking if it will take MORE points for a room in the future? If that is what you are asking, the answer is a little complicated - yes & no. The TOTAL points required on a chart for a particular DVC resort can not change, but adjustments can be made within the charts. For instance, the number of points can increase for one season, but then they must go down in another season. Eventually DVC could have a chart that has one set number of points for any room without regard to season. That is extremely unlikely! Points have only been re-allocated once in the history of DVC, several years ago at OKW ( I think it was 1996). Since the charts have been stable for a good number of years, I think DVC is pretty happy with them the way they are.

 

[mb168]

A 15% increase every year would get everyone fired up I would think? In 5 years it would roughly double . There has been some grumblings here with the 5%(or so I think) this year.

 

[drusba]

As noted above, DVD cannot simply raise the number of points needed per night to reserve a room. In fact, it cannot simply lower them either. It reserves the right to lower or raise points needed for seasons or nights but then any raise must be offset equally by a reduction at other times and any decrease must be offset equally by a raise at other times. In other words, your "value" per point when it comes to overall use stays the same (it just might change for some particular dates during the year you want). On a different issue, the resale value of your points, if you ever decide to sell, is likely to go down when we start getting closer to the end date, 2042 (in the year 2040, no one is going to pay you a huge amount of money for a program that expires in January, 2042). Dues will undoubtedly go up but they are based on actual costs (not costs plus profit to DVD).

 

[Pig Pen]

So what happens in 2042? I guess I never asked this in the sales pitch? I know I no longer own anything (if I'm still around anyway) but what happens to the actual property?

 

[Lisa F]

Originally posted by Pig Pen
So what happens in 2042? I guess I never asked this in the sales pitch? I know I no longer own anything (if I'm still around anyway) but what happens to the actual property?

In 2042 ownership of the current DVC resorts (perfectly maintained over the past 40-50 years by member dollars) revert back to Disney. Pretty brilliant scheme, eh? Actually, this is the biggest reason that I have heard for why people (even disney nuts) won't buy into DVC... most other timeshares out there are "forever." Disney's argument to that is that they are not sure what condition a 50 year old resort will be in and often costs to maintain become prohibitively high and then you are locked into an ownership that you cannot sell because of high maintenance fees. That's an interesting point and I'm not sure what places like Westgate will look like when they are 50 years old. On the other hand, just look at the Disneyland Hotel. Isn't that one almost 50 years old at this point?

Lisa

 

[EROS]

Melros, you clearly have to expect annual dues increases. To date they have generally been in line with inflation, though this year they're a little steeper. However, the costs for hotel reservations/air travel etc ALL seem to rise each year, so I don't feel that DVC is that far out of line ......

 

[Melrosgirl]

thanks for the help on this one. (This was my dh's question, lol.)