DVC Maintenance Fees for 2015

[ParentsOf4]

Disney has started to notify Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members of annual Maintenance Fee (MF) increases for 2015.

Fees for 2015 are as follows:

- Bay Lake Towers (BLT): $5.0504/point, up 5.6%
- Villas at the Grand Californian (VGC): $5.1483/point, up 4.3%
- Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR): $5.1749/point, up 5.3%
- Villas at the Grand Floridian (VGF): $5.5216/point, up 2.1%
- Old Key West (OKW): $5.837/point, up 5.3%
- Beach Club Villas (BCV): $5.9748/point, up 3.2%
- Villas at the Wilderness Lodge (VWL): $6.0251/point, up 1.7%
- Boardwalk Villas (BWV): $/6.0735point, up 1.1%
- Animal Kingdom Villas (AKV): $6.2989/point, up 5.4%
- Aulani: $6.51/point, up 1.1%
- Hilton Head Island (HHI): $6.519/point, up 3.7%
- Vero Beach (VB): $8.06/point, up 4.0%

The overall average is up 3.4% in 2015.

 

[GoofGoof]

Disney has started to notify Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members of annual Maintenance Fee (MF) increases for 2015.

Fees for 2015 are as follows:

- Bay Lake Towers (BLT): $5.0504/point, up 5.6%
- Villas at the Grand Californian (VGC): $5.1483/point, up 4.3%
- Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR): $5.1749/point, up 5.3%
- Villas at the Grand Floridian (VGF): $5.5216/point, up 2.1%
- Old Key West (OKW): $5.837/point, up 5.3%
- Beach Club Villas (BCV): $5.9748/point, up 3.2%
- Villas at the Wilderness Lodge (VWL): $6.0251/point, up 1.7%
- Boardwalk Villas (BWV): $/6.0735point, up 1.1%
- Animal Kingdom Villas (AKV): $6.2989/point, up 5.4%
- Aulani: $6.51/point, up 1.1%
- Hilton Head Island (HHI): $6.519/point, up 3.7%
- Vero Beach (VB): $8.06/point, up 4.0%

The overall average is up 3.4% in 2015.

Another large increase for BLT. I'm starting to think 5%+ will be standard going forward. It's definitely outpacing cash resort rates over the past 3 years. I look forward to seeing what's causing the big increase.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Another large increase for BLT. I'm starting to think 5%+ will be standard going forward. It's definitely outpacing cash resort rates over the past 3 years. I look forward to seeing what's causing the big increase.

AKV (2007), BLT (2009), and VGC (2009) were all opened while Jim Lewis was president of DVC (2006-2011) and all 3 have seen big increases since Lewis and two others were terminated due to the badly mispriced dues at Aulani. Makes you wonder what games were being played at DVC under Lewis' helm.

 

[BigTxEars]

Disney has started to notify Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members of annual Maintenance Fee (MF) increases for 2015.

Fees for 2015 are as follows:

- Bay Lake Towers (BLT): $5.0504/point, up 5.6%
- Villas at the Grand Californian (VGC): $5.1483/point, up 4.3%
- Saratoga Springs Resort (SSR): $5.1749/point, up 5.3%
- Villas at the Grand Floridian (VGF): $5.5216/point, up 2.1%
- Old Key West (OKW): $5.837/point, up 5.3%
- Beach Club Villas (BCV): $5.9748/point, up 3.2%
- Villas at the Wilderness Lodge (VWL): $6.0251/point, up 1.7%
- Boardwalk Villas (BWV): $/6.0735point, up 1.1%
- Animal Kingdom Villas (AKV): $6.2989/point, up 5.4%
- Aulani: $6.51/point, up 1.1%
- Hilton Head Island (HHI): $6.519/point, up 3.7%
- Vero Beach (VB): $8.06/point, up 4.0%

The overall average is up 3.4% in 2015.

AK is getting the worst of it IMO, high cost and high increase. Of course the resort cost more to maintain so it does make sense. Our are up around $42 this year. Mickey better make it worth it!

 

[GoofGoof]

AKV (2007), BLT (2009), and VGC (2009) were all opened while Jim Lewis was president of DVC (2006-2011) and all 3 have seen big increases since Lewis and two others were terminated due to the badly mispriced dues at Aulani. Makes you wonder what games were being played at DVC under Lewis' helm.

Last year the big bump at BLT was for the dedicated front desk, but that should be built-in already this year. I'm curious to see what went up. Maybe transportation since they were doing some work on the monorails.

There will always probably be a big bump right after a new resort is fully sold since you lose the offsets from cash guests. But BLT has been open over 5 years now.

 

[artvandelay]

My maintenance fee for SSR is now over $800 a year (160 points). A 5.3% increase is big. I guess it's for the room renovations going on now. Might be time to sell...

 

[GoofGoof]

My maintenance fee for SSR is now over $800 a year (160 points). A 5.3% increase is big. I guess it's for the room renovations going on now. Might be time to sell...

Those 160 points are still enough to get you about 10 nights a year in a studio so you are still getting a room for $80 a night. That assumes you actually want to spend 10 nights a year at WDW.

I know where you are coming from. BLT had very low fees compared to the older resorts when I bought in, but we are catching up quickly. I'm still waiting for the year where the fees only go up 1%. Hasn't happened since I've been an owner. It's starting to get concerning.

 

[lostpro9het]

Pardon my ignorance but is there a cap that DVC can charge per point for MF. I mean, is it plausible that the MFs can reach $20+/point?

 

[GoofGoof]

Pardon my ignorance but is there a cap that DVC can charge per point for MF. I mean, is it plausible that the MFs can reach $20+/point?

No cap. Max increase per year is capped at 15% (not including RE taxes). The fees will eventually hit $20 if the program continues.

Fees are linked directly to actual expense for the resort and are governed by timeshare law. Each DVC property has audited financial statements so it would be hard for Disney to raise fees just to generate a profit. There are some ways to play with the numbers, but it's not a windfall for Disney.

 

[artvandelay]

Those 160 points are still enough to get you about 10 nights a year in a studio so you are still getting a room for $80 a night. That assumes you actually want to spend 10 nights a year at WDW.

I know where you are coming from. BLT had very low fees compared to the older resorts when I bought in, but we are catching up quickly. I'm still waiting for the year where the fees only go up 1%. Hasn't happened since I've been an owner. It's starting to get concerning.

This is the first year in a long time that we didn't go to WDW. I did rent 130 points to a friend for there trip. We did go to Disneyland for the first time in February and loved it ( couldn't get a room at GCV).

 

[GoofGoof]

This is the first year in a long time that we didn't go to WDW. I did rent 130 points to a friend for there trip. We did go to Disneyland for the first time in February and loved it ( couldn't get a room at GCV).

We're planning a CA trip in a few years, but I've heard GCV is very hard to get. I'm hoping to get lucky.

 

[lostpro9het]

No cap. Max increase per year is capped at 15% (not including RE taxes). The fees will eventually hit $20 if the program continues.

Fees are linked directly to actual expense for the resort and are governed by timeshare law. Each DVC property has audited financial statements so it would be hard for Disney to raise fees just to generate a profit. There are some ways to play with the numbers, but it's not a windfall for Disney.

As someone who is planning on buying this spring, this news is a bit disheartening. I viewed your spreadsheet from last year's increase and trend is not looking good. Tell me this, what is defined as "Member activities"? That was a sizeable piece from the list you posted last year.

 

[GoofGoof]

As someone who is planning on buying this spring, this news is a bit disheartening. I viewed your spreadsheet from last year's increase and trend is not looking good. Tell me this, what is defined as "Member activities"? That was a sizeable piece from the list you posted last year.

Member Activities - Cost of the quarterly Member newsletter, annual Association meetings and printing and postage for Association legal mailings. Also includes the cost of certain Member recreational activities and events at the Resort.

I think at BLT the increase was due to recreational activities at the resort. There is a community hall that has full time staff. I assume they may have increased the staff last year. I wouldn't expect to see a big increase again this year. I'm curious to see what is driving the increases. Could be property taxes too. Seems like a bunch of resorts have above average increases with a few being well below.

 

[artvandelay]

We're planning a CA trip in a few years, but I've heard GCV is very hard to get. I'm hoping to get lucky.

I haven't luck with availability at GCV. The place looks great and is very convenient to the parks.

 

[Computer Magic]

AKV (2007), BLT (2009), and VGC (2009) were all opened while Jim Lewis was president of DVC (2006-2011) and all 3 have seen big increases since Lewis and two others were terminated due to the badly mispriced dues at Aulani. Makes you wonder what games were being played at DVC under Lewis' helm.

I was wondering if this dated back to Jim Lewis. Seems he is now doing okay at WalMart. He is born in the same home town as I was so I use to keep tabs on his raise and ultimately demise at Disney.

 

[GoofGoof]

I got my breakdown for BLT tower and did a little digging. It turns out that property taxes are the main driver this year. I would not be surprised if that was the case at some of the other resorts too. The Ad Valorem Taxes went up over 15% at BLT If you back out the impact of the tax increase the rest of expenses combined are only up 1.89%. The good news is that it looks like BLT expenses have stabilized. The tax won't go up every year. The bad news is my dues are still over $5/point and up almost 20% over the past 3 years

For those interested here is the breakdown by category:


2014 2015 % Change
Admin/Front Desk 0.6088 0.6331 3.99%
Annual Audit 0.0025 0.0025 0.00%
DVC Resevation 0.0061 0.0062 1.64%
Fees to Division 0.005 0.0050 0.00%
Housekeeping 0.8498 0.8854 4.19%
Income Taxes 0.018 0.0185 2.78%
Insurance 0.0883 0.0936 6.00%
Legal 0.0002 0.0002 0.00%
Maintenance 0.4818 0.4802 -0.33%
Mgmt Fee 0.3568 0.3660 2.58%
Member Activities 0.2046 0.2118 3.52%
Security 0.0364 0.0358 -1.65%
Transportation 0.2965 0.3013 1.62%
Utilities 0.2528 0.2382 -5.78%
OPERATING EXPENSE 3.2076 3.2778 2.19%

Int Income (0.0012) (0.0012) 0.00%
Late Fees (0.0229) (0.0233) 1.75%
Breakage Income (0.0930) (0.0953) 2.47%
(0.1171) (0.1198) 2.31%

MEMBER OPERATING ASSESSMENT 3.0905 3.1580 2.18%

Capital Reserves 0.5358 0.5589 4.31%
Ad Valorem Taxes 1.1583 1.3335 15.13%

TOTAL DUES 4.7846 5.0504 5.56%

 

[GoofGoof]

The large increase at AKV was also driven primarily by tax increases. I'm assuming that OKW and SSR also had big tax increases. My guess is that these are part of some tax re-assessment and that the other DVC resorts may get hit next year with something similar. I thought maybe BLT had a bump in assessed value due to GFV and Poly coming online soon, but that wouldn't explain why AKV is up or why VWL is not.

 

[BigTxEars]

I got my breakdown for BLT tower and did a little digging. It turns out that property taxes are the main driver this year. I would not be surprised if that was the case at some of the other resorts too. The Ad Valorem Taxes went up over 15% at BLT If you back out the impact of the tax increase the rest of expenses combined are only up 1.89%. The good news is that it looks like BLT expenses have stabilized. The tax won't go up every year. The bad news is my dues are still over $5/point and up almost 20% over the past 3 years

For those interested here is the breakdown by category:


2014 2015 % Change
Admin/Front Desk 0.6088 0.6331 3.99%
Annual Audit 0.0025 0.0025 0.00%
DVC Resevation 0.0061 0.0062 1.64%
Fees to Division 0.005 0.0050 0.00%
Housekeeping 0.8498 0.8854 4.19%
Income Taxes 0.018 0.0185 2.78%
Insurance 0.0883 0.0936 6.00%
Legal 0.0002 0.0002 0.00%
Maintenance 0.4818 0.4802 -0.33%
Mgmt Fee 0.3568 0.3660 2.58%
Member Activities 0.2046 0.2118 3.52%
Security 0.0364 0.0358 -1.65%
Transportation 0.2965 0.3013 1.62%
Utilities 0.2528 0.2382 -5.78%
OPERATING EXPENSE 3.2076 3.2778 2.19%

Int Income (0.0012) (0.0012) 0.00%
Late Fees (0.0229) (0.0233) 1.75%
Breakage Income (0.0930) (0.0953) 2.47%
(0.1171) (0.1198) 2.31%

MEMBER OPERATING ASSESSMENT 3.0905 3.1580 2.18%

Capital Reserves 0.5358 0.5589 4.31%
Ad Valorem Taxes 1.1583 1.3335 15.13%

TOTAL DUES 4.7846 5.0504 5.56%

Take about getting nickled and dimed to death.

But who am I kidding they would have to really go nuts (like $20 per point) for us to sell. Mickey has me by the short hairs on this one.

Now the question is if DVC MFs are going up how are the non DVC resorts dealing with the increased cost? Higher rates I would guess so DVC should still be a great deal long term right?

 

[GoofGoof]

Take about getting nickled and dimed to death.

But who am I kidding they would have to really go nuts (like $20 per point) for us to sell. Mickey has me by the short hairs on this one.

Now the question is if DVC MFs are going up how are the non DVC resorts dealing with the increased cost? Higher rates I would guess so DVC should still be a great deal long term right?

No clue how the resorts will react. I would assume more price increases to cover the cost.

I have no idea how the real estate tax process works for DVC, but I'm assuming it will be addressed in some way at the annual meeting since it looks like it impacts 4 resorts at least.

 

[BigTxEars]

No clue how the resorts will react. I would assume more price increases to cover the cost.

I have no idea how the real estate tax process works for DVC, but I'm assuming it will be addressed in some way at the annual meeting since it looks like it impacts 4 resorts at least.

Freaking government, tax the living crud out of my bonus at work (35%), the bonus I use to pay for Disney each year. And then then take more taxes while I'm at Disney. Me and Uncle Sam need to talk bout this!