Apparently Disney came out with something regarding third party points rentals beginning next year. I've searched a few times on a few sites and can't find anything about this. Can someone tell me what's up?
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DVC 3rd party points rental changes for 2015?
- Thread starter sweetpee_1993
- Start date
I have not heard anything from DVC. What kind of "third party" points are you referring to?
dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Haven't heard nor seen anything about this.
Third party as in thru one of the brokers. So if you rented points thru one of the broker services (ie. David's) there is supposedly some sort of changes going into effect for 2015. I saw it mentioned in conversation a few times but cannot find any info with specifics. I expect at some point Disney is going to dislike points rentals and want to take some sort of action because those are guests that aren't booking their hotel rooms. The points rentals deeply undercut the crazy inflated deluxe room rates even with discounts. Disney didn't like what resales were doing for their bottom line so they made changes. I totally expect some sort of action on their part with the points rentals considering how popular the practice has grown. Ya know?
I had thought that the rental sites are simply the go between. Services such as David's cannot call MS to make a reservation, so there is no way for Disney to know that a member went through that service. The member has to do everything for the reservation, and David's simply takes a cut for putting the renter and rentee together. Well, plus a contract that protects both sides.
That was my understanding of how the brokers worked, too. I've tried to imagine what Disney could possibly do. Points rentals have gained a lot of popularity and I'm sure if Disney can throw a kink somehow they will. Like they did with the resales. I wish I could find more info. Driving me crazy having seen mention of some sort of change but not finding any info.
As far as I have heard, the ability to rent out your point privately is something that has to be allowed due to timeshare legislation. I might be wrong about that, but I have read comments to that regard somewhere on the internet, so take it with a grain (or a whole pot) of salt.
I have seen people mentioning things as well, but the DVC forums and websites don't have anything on it. If there were some restrictions coming, I am sure you would see plenty of smoke! I remember how the DVC forums were busy and everyone was talking about it when they introduced the resale restrictions.
Yep. I didn't think Disney could block owners from renting their points. Maybe they could find a way to make it less comparable to booking a regular hotel room, tho. Interesting.
I'm glad you said something about seeing the conversational mentions but total lack of info. When I initially started looking for info I fully expected to find DVC forum boards on fire but that's not been the case. Hmmmm. Either way, glad to know I wasn't imagining that. Heck, even the "likes" from @ParentsOf4 & @Tom on my first post without a response kinda confused me a little. I was raising a skeptical brow wondering "Do y'all know something I don't????" LOL!
Ok, this really started to bother me. But I think the only place where I have seen it was in the "2015 rates being released soon" thread. There was this post. Someone questioned the guy and he came back with a very unprecise answer that he does not know anything and it should be on the member website.
That was one of them! I saw at least 1 more somewhere. I'm not a member so I can't check the member website. That's kinda why I reached out on this forum.
I think the other post I saw linked a web page or maybe a blog. I still didn't find whatever it is.
There is nothing on the member web site about any changes for 2015, with the exception of a few point changes for certain rooms. Some of the rooms at two of the resorts are being reclassified, and their points changed. Nothing that I can see has been posted about rental points.
Well thanks for checking the site. I appreciate it. If I see mention again I'll ask directly for more info.
dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
I do believe they put a restriction in place a few years back on the number of points you could book in someone else's name in a year, or something like that. Basically a way of preventing people from buying up thousands of points and then simply renting them all out, essentially renting points as a business. But it was worded in such a way that they weren't prohibiting a normal member from renting out points that they were going to be unable to use for one reason or another.
slappy magoo
Well-Known Member
I believe there is a restriction in place that says you can not use your DVC membership as a for-profit venture and doing so could result in forfeiture of your points. At the time, I think what they were really cracking down on was people who'd book rooms at the 11 month window for Christmas or Easter week or other traditionally super-busy times, then charge a premium or auctioning off the room, especially because there would be no quality control. They didn't and don't seem to have issues with occasional renters, especially if you know you wouldn't be able to use your membership for a year or so
I suspect they didn't envision businesses like David's DVC rentals that would become the facilitator between owners and potential renters, and perhaps they're looking at creating a similar "business" inside the DVC fold in order to squeeze out other people making money off of DVC on the side. I'm sure that's why they started the "you can rent up to 15 points a year from us," so you woudn't bother looking elsewhere.
But I really don't know.
BigTxEars
Well-Known Member
I think that is fair, not profiting from them I mean. On one hand we "own" the points we paid for on the other Disney has to exercise some control over them I think. A more complex issue than it appears I would guess.
I tell you what I would LOVE to see. A "pool" of unused DVC points where we could drop the 3, 4, 5 or more points we don't use where those points could be used to give a group like Wounded Warrior the ability to send one of our incredible wounded heroes to WDW along with their family for a trip. Now that would get points from me every year, even if I did not have any unused points I think.
I like your thinking, @BigTxEars !
Some friends of ours hold lots of points from lots of contracts they've amassed over the years. They have a set amount they rent out most every year to cover maintenance fees. They don't auction them. Don't book hard to get times then sell off the reservation. They just rent their points privately and cover some of their annual costs. Not a bad concept, I think. Disney got their dime and continues to get business from them as well as the guests they rent to.
Some friends of ours hold lots of points from lots of contracts they've amassed over the years. They have a set amount they rent out most every year to cover maintenance fees. They don't auction them. Don't book hard to get times then sell off the reservation. They just rent their points privately and cover some of their annual costs. Not a bad concept, I think. Disney got their dime and continues to get business from them as well as the guests they rent to.
BigTxEars
Well-Known Member
No doubt, I have hear of folks renting points to cover annual dues, that is pretty smart
I also agree rather it be my family or a co worker's family I rented my points to in a Disney room it is all the same to them. But I also admit "I don't know what I don't know" about DVC points and the complexity of them, I would guess I am over simplifying it.
Disney COULD try to pull some shenanigans to restrict rentals but it's hard to envision what format that might take. They've made a lot of threats over the years regarding this ambiguous "no commercial rentals" policy, but I have yet to hear of a single threat being carried out.
One of the problems they face is the reality that Disney itself IS a point renter. Disney owns points at many resorts and those points are converted into rooms which are sold to cash guests. THAT'S A RENTAL. Period.
Disney is effectively trying to tell owners that they shouldn't rent...while being the single more proliferate renter by a landslide.
Sites like DVCRequest.com (David's) technically don't rent points. They are middlemen...matchmakers. They merely bring the two parties together. Not really sure Disney has any grounds to harm any of the brokers.
Until proven otherwise, I really think that all of DVC's threats regarding rentals (limit 20 per year, noncommercial, will cancel reservations, etc.) are empty. If challenged, I'm not sure what grounds Disney could stand on when they themselves are massive point renters.
That said, they could do something like make EVERY reservation change (name, add dates, drop dates) a complete cancel and re-book. That would at least keep some of the more unsavory renters from pre-booking prime dates and seeking the highest bidder. But this sort of policy change would have even greater negative repercussions on all run-of-the-mill owners whenever a reservation change was necessary. Doubt many would view that as a positive move.
One of the problems they face is the reality that Disney itself IS a point renter. Disney owns points at many resorts and those points are converted into rooms which are sold to cash guests. THAT'S A RENTAL. Period.
Disney is effectively trying to tell owners that they shouldn't rent...while being the single more proliferate renter by a landslide.
Sites like DVCRequest.com (David's) technically don't rent points. They are middlemen...matchmakers. They merely bring the two parties together. Not really sure Disney has any grounds to harm any of the brokers.
Until proven otherwise, I really think that all of DVC's threats regarding rentals (limit 20 per year, noncommercial, will cancel reservations, etc.) are empty. If challenged, I'm not sure what grounds Disney could stand on when they themselves are massive point renters.
That said, they could do something like make EVERY reservation change (name, add dates, drop dates) a complete cancel and re-book. That would at least keep some of the more unsavory renters from pre-booking prime dates and seeking the highest bidder. But this sort of policy change would have even greater negative repercussions on all run-of-the-mill owners whenever a reservation change was necessary. Doubt many would view that as a positive move.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
They should do this. The airlines allow you to donate FF miles to charity they should allow us to do it with points.