DVC Dues increses for 2013

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
Tipping the maids? 30% is a crazy increase in one year! Did they add on a bunch of rooms? We have stayed there three times and I was shocked at how many housekeepers they have per floor and I always see them BS'ing in the hallway or in the storage room. Housekeeping was very nice and friendly, but certainly not working extremely hard. If they even worked for half the day they would be more productive. The annual maintenance fees are ony supposed to pay for on average 2 cleanings per room per week (1 full and 1 towel/trash) and all subsequent cleanings should be paid for by members who pay for extra service or by cash reservations through CRO. I hope they had a good explaination for why that large of an increase was needed.

Remember, they also have to do a full clean every time a room changes hands. I seem to notice a lot of posts where people are splitting a trip, and staying at a "cheaper" resort most of the trip and then one or two nights at BLT just so they can check out the rooms and see the fireworks, but they are not staying for a long time because of the point cost. The increased churn at the resort will cause the rooms to be cleaned more than twice a week. I don't know if this is the reason for the increase, but it may contribute.

What you really need to look at is not the increase, or the cost per point, but instead the cost per room. I'll give you the numbers for SSR, if you would like to supply the ones for BLT, then we can compare.

SSR is 888 vacation homes (a mix of studios, 1BR, 2BR, grand villas, and the treehouses). Housekeep in 2013 is budgeted for $10,361,056. That comes out to $11,667 per room per year. Now that seems high, but housekeeping includes "Cost of cleaning Vacation homes and public areas and replacement of disposable amenities. Also includes the purchase, replacement, and cleaning of linens and towels."

I wonder how much the other resorts spend per room per year on housekeeping and how it compares to the $11.6K spent at SSR.

-dave
 

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
Yeah I was looking for SSR to increase after all the painting, room remodeling and the redo of the Paddock pool area figuring they would have knocked the hell out of the slush fund with all the work over the past 2 years.


There is still $5.5 Million left in the exterior painting fund. SRR at the close of 2012 is expected to have $68M left in capital reserves. To me, it looks like they are managing the capital projects quite well.


-dave
 

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
I hope they address it at the annual meeting. Last years BLT increase was blamed on less cash guests as more points were sold. My completely uneducated theory is that maybe there are more shorter stays than anticipated at BLT. If everyone stays a week then there is 1 major cleaning and a towel drop at mid week. If 3 people stay 2 nights and a person stays 1 night that would require 4 full cleanings in a week. Maybe due to newness and proximity to MK people are using it for add on nights. Just a theory with no real evidence. It's hard to imagine needing a 30% increase in housekeeping. Seems pretty easy to budget to me.

I posted almost the same thing before I read your comments.

-dave
 

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
All I can say is I'm glad I figured out how to rent points and not overpay. I saw no increase at all this year.


You may, you never know. I wonder what the retal market will look like next year. Especially for points at resorts that took a big hit in dues.

-dave
 

captainkidd

Well-Known Member
Nice!

I guess we will have to wait until 2014 to see if you have any increases.


-dave

Probably 2015. We're going to Disneyland in 2014. At least, that's the plan.

Thinking back on since I started renting points, I've done pretty well. The most I've paid was $11 per point, and the least I paid was $8 (that was a rare 1 time thing.) It seems like we've been stuck on $11 for the past 3 years I believe.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Original Poster
Remember, they also have to do a full clean every time a room changes hands. I seem to notice a lot of posts where people are splitting a trip, and staying at a "cheaper" resort most of the trip and then one or two nights at BLT just so they can check out the rooms and see the fireworks, but they are not staying for a long time because of the point cost. The increased churn at the resort will cause the rooms to be cleaned more than twice a week. I don't know if this is the reason for the increase, but it may contribute.

What you really need to look at is not the increase, or the cost per point, but instead the cost per room. I'll give you the numbers for SSR, if you would like to supply the ones for BLT, then we can compare.

SSR is 888 vacation homes (a mix of studios, 1BR, 2BR, grand villas, and the treehouses). Housekeep in 2013 is budgeted for $10,361,056. That comes out to $11,667 per room per year. Now that seems high, but housekeeping includes "Cost of cleaning Vacation homes and public areas and replacement of disposable amenities. Also includes the purchase, replacement, and cleaning of linens and towels."

I wonder how much the other resorts spend per room per year on housekeeping and how it compares to the $11.6K spent at SSR.

-dave
BLT has $4,873,531 budgeted for housekeeping and has 295 rooms so $16,520 per room per year. Much higher than SSR. I also wonder if maybe they went over budget in 2012 so part of the increase represents the "make up" for the budget shortfall.
 

PhilharMagician

Well-Known Member
BLT has $4,873,531 budgeted for housekeeping and has 295 rooms so $16,520 per room per year. Much higher than SSR. I also wonder if maybe they went over budget in 2012 so part of the increase represents the "make up" for the budget shortfall.

There is definately a differant managment style between SSR and BLT with their housekeeping. They seem to hustle more @ SSR. To me the differance has been quite noticable.

There is still $5.5 Million left in the exterior painting fund. SRR at the close of 2012 is expected to have $68M left in capital reserves. To me, it looks like they are managing the capital projects quite well.


-dave

SSR has always been one of the best managed rosorts with their money.

Remember, they also have to do a full clean every time a room changes hands. I seem to notice a lot of posts where people are splitting a trip, and staying at a "cheaper" resort most of the trip and then one or two nights at BLT just so they can check out the rooms and see the fireworks, but they are not staying for a long time because of the point cost. The increased churn at the resort will cause the rooms to be cleaned more than twice a week. I don't know if this is the reason for the increase, but it may contribute.

What you really need to look at is not the increase, or the cost per point, but instead the cost per room. I'll give you the numbers for SSR, if you would like to supply the ones for BLT, then we can compare.

SSR is 888 vacation homes (a mix of studios, 1BR, 2BR, grand villas, and the treehouses). Housekeep in 2013 is budgeted for $10,361,056. That comes out to $11,667 per room per year. Now that seems high, but housekeeping includes "Cost of cleaning Vacation homes and public areas and replacement of disposable amenities. Also includes the purchase, replacement, and cleaning of linens and towels."

I wonder how much the other resorts spend per room per year on housekeeping and how it compares to the $11.6K spent at SSR.

-dave

No I understand that a full cleaning is required after every check out, but there are also times that rooms go unoccupied so maybe one cleaning per week may be required. BLT may be one resort suffering more from the short stays and full occupancy all the time which will drive up the housekeeping costs. Nonetheless the differnce between the cost you gave ($11,667) and the number from GoofGoof ($16,520) is about $5000 or about 50% higher @ BLT. There is something wrong with that picture. I would love to see more cost comparisons from all of the other DVC resorts.

$11,667 is not that bad of a number when you add in cleaning products, toiletries, coffee, linens, towels, labor and whatever else may be tied up in there.
 

Sharkreef11

Well-Known Member
Probably 2015. We're going to Disneyland in 2014. At least, that's the plan.

Thinking back on since I started renting points, I've done pretty well. The most I've paid was $11 per point, and the least I paid was $8 (that was a rare 1 time thing.) It seems like we've been stuck on $11 for the past 3 years I believe.

Where do you rent your points? What's the website?
 

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
There is definately a differant managment style between SSR and BLT with their housekeeping. They seem to hustle more @ SSR. To me the differance has been quite noticable.



SSR has always been one of the best managed rosorts with their money.



No I understand that a full cleaning is required after every check out, but there are also times that rooms go unoccupied so maybe one cleaning per week may be required. BLT may be one resort suffering more from the short stays and full occupancy all the time which will drive up the housekeeping costs. Nonetheless the differnce between the cost you gave ($11,667) and the number from GoofGoof ($16,520) is about $5000 or about 50% higher @ BLT. There is something wrong with that picture. I would love to see more cost comparisons from all of the other DVC resorts.

$11,667 is not that bad of a number when you add in cleaning products, toiletries, coffee, linens, towels, labor and whatever else may be tied up in there.


I wonder how muh of that difference is labor and how much is "other". BLT does have common areas that require more cleaning than SSR (carpet vs concrete floors) but I can't see it being THAT much. SSR is also a LOT more spread out. There are people who just deliver the linens via Pargo all over the resort. Could BLT linens need more replacing or be more costly to replace? Maybe people steal a lot of soap and shampoo from BLT. :)

-dave
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Original Poster
Could BLT linens need more replacing or be more costly to replace? Maybe people steal a lot of soap and shampoo from BLT. :)
-dave

Blame me. We stayed at BLT for only 3 days during Thanksgiving.

One of my secret plans to increase resale prices at my Home Resort of BWV is to stay 3 nights or less at all the other DVC resorts in order to drive up their annual Maintenance Fees so my BWV dues don't seem as high.:cool:

Did you swipe the linens and shampoo when you visited? We could be on to something here;)
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Original Poster
I never heard back from member services, but DVC news has a summary of the condo meeting. It sounds like the housekeeping line item increase is partially related to new bedding in the units. They are replacing the heavy bedspreads with something called triple sheeted bedding. The remainder of the increase is related to employee costs which are mostly driven by increased health insurance costs. The bad news is that all DVC resorts will be getting the new bedding in either 2013 or 2014 so if your home resort didn't see a big increase in housekeeping for 2013 it's coming in 2014.

Here's the link to the full summary. It does have a picture of the inside model for GFV. Looks pretty cool:
http://dvcnews.com/index.php/dvc-program/owning-dvc/2148-2012-condo-association-meeting-summary
 

copcarguyp71

Well-Known Member
I am not an owner but I have a couple of questions...

Did they pose any of this increase due to bedding to members who it would be for before doing so?

The extra money for the bedding has been spent so does that mean since it is paid for that your dues will go back down next year? My gut reaction is no if they operate like any other company but it would be worth pointing out to them that once the capital expense is paid for through dues increase then said increase should disappear. Likely it will not and they will pocket the difference using some sort of convoluted formula. Not poking at DVC specifically but big business in general.
 

GoofGoof

Premium Member
Original Poster
I am not an owner but I have a couple of questions...

Did they pose any of this increase due to bedding to members who it would be for before doing so?

The extra money for the bedding has been spent so does that mean since it is paid for that your dues will go back down next year? My gut reaction is no if they operate like any other company but it would be worth pointing out to them that once the capital expense is paid for through dues increase then said increase should disappear. Likely it will not and they will pocket the difference using some sort of convoluted formula. Not poking at DVC specifically but big business in general.

There is not really a system for owners to vote on every line item of the budget. The nature of these particular charges is a little confusing. The DVC news link states that Disney intends to pay the cost of the initial bedding transition, but members dues will cover the cost of future bedding replacements and other related charges. It doesn't sound like it will be a one time charge that will result in dues going back down next year. However, it should not be a driver of an increase next year either since it will already be in the budget and dues.

To answer your question about Disney pocketing the difference, that can't really happen. The DVC dues are set based on budgets and can only be used to cover actual costs and/or set up reserves for future capital improvements. This is a requirement under FL law for all timeshares. The budgets and actual spend are subject to annual audits by an independent accounting firm (audit fees are a component of the dues themselves). The only thing Disney can really "profit" from with DVC dues is maybe allocating a larger portion of shared services expense to DVC at resorts like BLT or BWV where there are both hotel rooms and DVC units. Even that allocation is most likely subject to audit so they can't really stretch it too far.
 

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