David's Disney Vacation Club Rentals

[Jacquellie]

Hi! Anyone used David's to rent points to stay at WDW? I'm sorely tempted as it might be the only way I can afford to stay at AKL any time soon, but need more reasurrance it's bona fide and as great as the reports suggest. My main fear is that Disney doesn't approve and it'll be a bit like gate-crashing?

 

[BCVTalsJam]

I don't know about renting points but I know I did look at their website once and I saw a lot of errors in pricing for meal plans and a couple other things. But again I have never rented points being a DVC member...I would shop around before making a final decision. Good luck!

 

[lostpro9het]

We recently rented points from them for two up coming trips. The process was painless, fast and their team was very responsive to all questions we had. What I liked most about it, which is true of anywhere you rent I suppose, is you get a reservation number that you can add to your list of reservations in MDE. Some things to expect:
$90 up front to search for hold your reservation(refundable if they do not find what you want)
Full payment, less $90 you paid, is due once they have secured your points.
For popular resorts and popular times you will want to reserve as far out as possible for best chance to get what you want, we reserved our Christmas week trip back in March for AKV SV.

 

[Jacquellie]

We recently rented points from them for two up coming trips. The process was painless, fast and their team was very responsive to all questions we had. What I liked most about it, which is true of anywhere you rent I suppose, is you get a reservation number that you can add to your list of reservations in MDE. Some things to expect:
$90 up front to search for hold your reservation(refundable if they do not find what you want)
Full payment, less $90 you paid, is due once they have secured your points.
For popular resorts and popular times you will want to reserve as far out as possible for best chance to get what you want, we reserved our Christmas week trip back in March for AKV SV.

Thanks, that's very encouraging. Am I right in thinking that's Animal Kingdom Villas savannah view? Wow, that will be wonderful for Christmas. I'd be very interested to hear about your trip later! Is MDE magical disney express?

 

[lostpro9het]

Am I right in thinking that's Animal Kingdom Villas savannah view? Wow, that will be wonderful for Christmas. I'd be very interested to hear about your trip later!

Yes, we are looking forward to it and we haven't told our DD. She thinks we are going to POP again so we are hoping to surprise her pretty good.

Is MDE magical disney express?

No, I meant My Disney Experience, https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/ You can see your DVC rental reservation here just like you could as if you booked directly through Disney yourself.

 

[kshark1958]

I have not rented from them but I have rented my DVC points through them ( economic issues) and had no issues.I dealt with them via email and phone. They were very helpful and courteous.

 

[willtravel]

Hi! Anyone used David's to rent points to stay at WDW? I'm sorely tempted as it might be the only way I can afford to stay at AKL any time soon, but need more reasurrance it's bona fide and as great as the reports suggest. My main fear is that Disney doesn't approve and it'll be a bit like gate-crashing?

Used them for my past trip in May to BWV and no problems. Will use for AKV in future. Have a great trip.

 

[Rob562]

Used them to rent at Saratoga Springs last November with no problems.
A co-worker tried to book through them for her trip this December, but she waited too late and they didn't have any inventory to get them a Savannah View at AKL. (But even then, David's was very courteous and open with them through the whole process.)

-Rob

 

[lostpro9het]

A co-worker tried to book through them for her trip this December, but she waited too late and they didn't have any inventory to get them a Savannah View at AKL. (But even then, David's was very courteous and open with them through the whole process.)

-Rob

This actually happened to us too last March for our December trip. They said we could get our deposit back then or we could give them a couple weeks to try and secure the points. We opted to wait and not 3 days later they had Christmas week AKL SV for us!

 

[Lynne M]

My main fear is that Disney doesn't approve and it'll be a bit like gate-crashing?

Nothing to worry about. The DVC member contract specifically states that renting is allowed.

The resorts are in no way exclusive to members. On any given day, a significant percentage of guests at a DVC resort are not members. Renters, guests who have a cash reservation through Disney, family members of members, friends of members....no one will know or care which you are.

The experience is just like a cash stay at a Disney resort; the only exception is that you'll have limited housekeeping (not daily). If you want housekeeping more often, there's a reasonable per-day charge. Just call housekeeping when you get there and schedule it.

 

[kshark1958]

Nothing to worry about. The DVC member contract specifically states that renting is allowed.

The resorts are in no way exclusive to members. On any given day, a significant percentage of guests at a DVC resort are not members. Renters, guests who have a cash reservation through Disney, family members of members, friends of members....no one will know or care which you are.

The experience is just like a cash stay at a Disney resort; the only exception is that you'll have limited housekeeping (not daily). If you want housekeeping more often, there's a reasonable per-day charge. Just call housekeeping when you get there and schedule it.

I just searched through my DVC contract and did not see anything that states you are allowed to rent your points. In fact when I rented my points the one time I called member services to inquire and was told I was not allowed. What the CM did tell me wink wink was that I could allow a guest to use my points. I then contacted Davids and proceeded to rent my points through them. When they found someone to rent them I had to call member services to make the reservations and also to sign them up for the meal plan.They didn't use the ME. Davids handled everything else. If I had to rent them again ( which I hope not) I would definitely use Davids. But as Lynne M stated nobody would even know you were renting them so enjoy yourself.

 

[dreamfinder]

I just searched through my DVC contract and did not see anything that states you are allowed to rent your points. In fact when I rented my points the one time I called member services to inquire and was told I was not allowed. What the CM did tell me wink wink was that I could allow a guest to use my points. I then contacted Davids and proceeded to rent my points through them. When they found someone to rent them I had to call member services to make the reservations and also to sign them up for the meal plan.They didn't use the ME. Davids handled everything else. If I had to rent them again ( which I hope not) I would definitely use Davids. But as Lynne M stated nobody would even know you were renting them so enjoy yourself.

Did you check the POS document? Snippet from a post on another site

Page 56 (or page 13, it says both on the page) of my Multi-site Public Offering Statement (not the Bay Lake specific one) dated 9/2008:

"When a Club Member uses his or her Home Resort Vacation Points to reserve Vacation Homes on behalf of a non-Club Member, and the Club Member does not charge any rental or other fees to the non-Club Member for the reservation, the non-Club Member is eligible for all or some of the Club Member privileges and benefits that a Club Member would normally receive during his or her stay in the reserved Vacation Home. If the non-Club member is renting, it is the responsibility of the Member to notify Member Services when making the reservation. Member privileges and benefits cannot be extended to non-Club Members who rent Vacation Homes from Club Members."

It is so completely obvious from that that renting is NOT illegal, since they have rules about what benefits renters can get.

Page 69 (and 7):

No rental assistance is being offered to you by....or any affiliate or subsidiary of TWDC. This means that if you wish to rent your Ownership Interest, you must rent your occupancy rights solely through your own efforts. As stated above, The TWDC Companies, including, without limitation, DVC, will be in competition with you for renters, and DVD will place its own inventory of Ownership Interests into a rental program of its own. All renters and exchangers must comply with the rules and regulations affecting occupancy of Vacation Homes, and the renting Owners will be responsible for the acts or omissions of their renters or any other person or persons permitted by the Owners to use a reserved Vacation Home."

So they've made sure to make rules about renting...there aren't rules about illegal things, other than "that's illegal, you can't do it and you'll be in trouble if you do".

So they do allow non commercial point rentals. There is a limit on the number of times points in a given account can be rented in a year. This basically precludes someone from buying 4,000 points, and then just renting them out and not actually ever staying there.

If you do choose to rent points (and we even have had a guide suggest we try a rental to see if we like the accommodations before buying), remember that you will run into any issues with availability as if you already owned there. IE trying to book at BWV for opening weeking of F&W Fest a month out, will almost definitely not happen. So if you go that route, I'd suggest reaching out to the broker as early as you can, while remembering that you typically cannot cancel your reservation.

 

[Weather_Lady]

We just rented points for Wilderness Lodge Villas (6 nights in a 2-bedroom villa) from David's about a month ago. The payment and contract paperwork were a breeze. I had e-mailed them with several questions ahead of time, and they were always responsive (by which I mean, I typically got a reply within a few minutes!) and friendly. When I called, I got a real, live, English-speaking person on the phone.

We put in our request before the 11-month reservation window opened, and a few weeks later, they increased the price they were charging by $1 per point. They assured me that since I'd made our request beforehand (even though the reservation couldn't even be made yet), they would charge me the lower price. When they didn't have points for us at 11 months, they said they'd put me on their waiting list and would try to satisfy our request if a new member joined. They came through on both promises: when a new member joined with points to satisfy our request a few weeks later, they made the reservation immediately and charged us the "old," lower amount per point.

In other words, our experience so far matches the glowingly positive user reviews posted on David's website. We'd go through David's again in a heartbeat.

One caution about renting DVC points: you can't cancel and get a refund. For about $200, we purchased travel insurance to cover our expenses in the event somebody gets sick and we have to cancel at the last minute. There's a 99% chance we won't need it, but it's worth it to me to know that our $3500 investment is covered.

 

[RickEff]

I recently had some points that I couldn't use and used David's service to rent them out. Absolutely top notch. Great to deal with and would highly recommend using them.

 

[DVC Mike]

Hi! Anyone used David's to rent points to stay at WDW? I'm sorely tempted as it might be the only way I can afford to stay at AKL any time soon, but need more reasurrance it's bona fide and as great as the reports suggest. My main fear is that Disney doesn't approve and it'll be a bit like gate-crashing?

David's service is top-notch and is highly recommended.

 

[KwikE]

Hello, I have some points for rental at the AK . If anyone's interested. Thanks

 

[janoimagine]

We used Davids before buying our own DVC. We were very satisfied with the whole thing.

 

[ford91exploder]

Hi! Anyone used David's to rent points to stay at WDW? I'm sorely tempted as it might be the only way I can afford to stay at AKL any time soon, but need more reasurrance it's bona fide and as great as the reports suggest. My main fear is that Disney doesn't approve and it'll be a bit like gate-crashing?

David goes by daddio on most of the major Disney related boards and i've rented a couple of times from him before making decision to purchase DVC, To the latter point renting is allowed by DVC

 

[alissafalco]

I'm just curious how is the pricing when renting points? Is it really cheaper than when Disney runs their 30% off deal? I really would like to rent points if it is a better deal. Also, as another OP said you have to pay 90$ upfront for them to search for you, do you know what the price will be before they search? or do they tell you how much it will be after they find something? what if they find something and then Disney comes out with a better deal? Can you get your 90$ back if you decide not to rent?

 

[GoofGoof]

I'm just curious how is the pricing when renting points? Is it really cheaper than when Disney runs their 30% off deal? I really would like to rent points if it is a better deal. Also, as another OP said you have to pay 90$ upfront for them to search for you, do you know what the price will be before they search? or do they tell you how much it will be after they find something? what if they find something and then Disney comes out with a better deal? Can you get your 90$ back if you decide not to rent?

David's rents for a flat $14 per point. Once you book I don't think you can get your money back. Not sure about the $90. If you want to see if its a better deal use one of the DVC point charts to find where you want to stay.

As an example based on next summer pricing.
1) BLT for a week next summer in a Standard view studio is 123 points or $1,722 if rented @$14 per point.
2) That same room has a rack rate of $504 per night after taxes or $3,528. Its a hair over 50% off the rack rate. 3) Cheapest room at the CR in the garden wing is $450 per night after tax or $3,150. Roughly a 45% discount off the rack rate.
4) A room with a king bed at Coronado Springs has a rack rate of $280 per night or $1,960. You would be paying roughly 12% below rack. If you got CS at 30% discount it would cost $1,372 so you would be paying an extra $350 for the week or about $50 a night more than a moderate at a 30% discount.