DVC reservations question:

[Burnate]

Sorry for the long post, long time reader first time poster.

So, my wife and I are considering becoming DVC members. We know it will be worth it especially considering how many times we are planning to go to Disney World in the near future. I have a good friend who is a DVC member that I frequently go to when I have questions. He recently told me of a situation he ran into 3 times that kind of turns me off from DVC a little.
On 3 different occasions he tried to make last minute reservations (last minute being 1 month out and twice 2 months out) for a 1 bedroom villa at Saratoga and was told by DVC none was available. He realized that last minute was hit or miss at best but when he and his sister checked the Disney travel website, it showed availability on all three occasions. All three times he called back DVC only to be told 3 different things:

1)DVC and Disney travel are 2 different companies and are given separate allotments of DVC rooms, when one books up, rooms cannot be taken from the other.
2)DVC could not give a reason.
3)DVC told him that Disney travel routinely over books DVC properties because of frequent cancellations. DVC on the other hand does not overbook so if there is nothing available then there is truly nothing available.

Personally I believe the first reason is most likely the truth, but here is my concern, if I were a DVC member I would be extremely upset that I couldn’t book a room through DVC, yet pay full price to get what I want through Disney Travel. Somehow that just doesn’t seem right to me. I do see myself trying to book last minute with the understanding that there may be nothing available, but if I’m told nothing is available then there really should be NOTHING available. This isn’t a make or break for me, I just want to know how things really work in these last minute situations.

Does anyone have any insight on this or have had a similar experience?

 

[Pioneer Hall]

When Disney sells a DVC resort they only sell about 98% (I could be wrong on that number but I believe it is around there). The other 2% remains Disney's and they sell those rooms as cash rooms. Now, it does happen occasionally if you make a stink enough that they will convert a room to DVC for you, but they don't really have to since they are ultimately renting out their points to a cash guest for those rooms. DVC is a system that works best if you can book farther in advance, and most owners will tell you that. Timeshare resorts are built to be close to capacity at all times, so if you wait to book then you can be out of luck unfortunately.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Personally I believe the first reason is most likely the truth, but here is my concern, if I were a DVC member I would be extremely upset that I couldn’t book a room through DVC, yet pay full price to get what I want through Disney Travel. Somehow that just doesn’t seem right to me. I do see myself trying to book last minute with the understanding that there may be nothing available, but if I’m told nothing is available then there really should be NOTHING available.

Was he only trying to get a room at Saratoga, or did he ask about other DVC resorts too?

 

[Burnate]

Thanks for the response DisneyInsider, that makes sense. I know DVC is really intended for booking far in advance, which is really true for booking at Disney in general. Getting a last minute booking to feed the Disney addiction would be a welcomed treat, no matter how unlikely.

DisneyJoe, I don't know if he asked for anything other than Saratoga, perhaps if he did he could have found something even if it was just a studio. All he told me was DVC had no openings at Saratoga for a 1 bedroom villa but Disney Travel did (for the same date range).

 

[DVCOwner]

Also remember that when a member (as I did this year) uses my points for something other than DVC (in this case a DCL trip) those points must be than sold for cash to pay for my DCL trip.

 

[Lynne M]

There are four ways that a DVC villa can end up available for cash reservations:

1. Disney retains ownership of a small percentage of inventory at each DVC resort (< 10%). They sometimes use these to swap in and out of member inventory if a villa needs to be taken out of service for maintenance. Otherwise, they send them over to CRO to be rented out to the general public. No reason that members should have access to this inventory, as we don't own it.

2. When a member trades out of the DVC system for a cruise, non-DVC Disney resort, other hotel, etc, the receiving resort expects to be paid for those accommodations. If a member books DCL on points, DCL wants cash for that cruise. So DVC takes a villa of equivalent value out of member inventory and sends it to CRO to be rented for cash, which they use to pay the resort, cruise line, etc. These villas are of course not available for members to book on points. This system is what allows members to use points to book out-of-DVC options.

3. If villas in the member inventory are not booked by 30 or 60 days out (I always forget which), they go to CRO to be rented for cash, and that money comes back to the membership in the form of breakage income, which offsets our dues. This is the one case in which a villa that's in CRO's system can be brought back into DVC's system to be booked on points, if a member calls and asks to book it.

4. Some resorts (BLT for example) are not completely sold. DVC sells off a piece of the inventory to each member who buys in at that resort, and until it's all sold, Disney of course retains ownership of the remaining inventory and can do whatever they like with it. They rent the rooms out through CRO.

It's a little complicated to learn this stuff, but there's nothing evil going on.

 

[becanya]

I'm with you, it is incredibly frustrating to know there is inventory out there that you can't book with your DVC. I have run into this problem with trying to book at Hilton Head. The first time I booked it was our first booking at DVC members and even though I called right at the 7 mo window there was no availability. Because it was my first reservation, they converted cash inventory to our DVC reservation (they are only willing to do this once, for your first booking, within 6 mo of buying into the program). We tried to book 5 mo in advance for this october, but there were no studios available. The cash rate was only $205 per night, so we just went ahead and booked that way. I guess I figure that if we want to do a last minute trip we will just have to pay for our room the regular way, but yes, it is frustrating! Good thing I plan most our vacations like 2 years in advance.

 

[Burnate]

Wow! Thanks everyone for your input, I knew this was the place to get some straight answers. Now that I am better informed about how the DVC works, I will be more understanding if I should ever run into the same situation my buddy did. I'll be sure to pass along this information to him.

 

[ScoutN]

I booked a Saratoga One Bedroom while in Orlando the day of last Wednesday. It is all the luck of the draw. In May we were set to hop around room due to last minute booking. We went to the front desk and they had openings to stay in one room. The desk clerk had us all DVC, she spoke with them, and we were booked to stay in the same room for the next six nights vs three different rooms.