If you do not think Universal smelled blood in the water before...

[Cesar R M]

Generally, companies like timeshares because, as far as real estate goes, it's a quick and hefty ROI.

In Disney's case, what DVC does is sacrifice long-term profits for short-term profits. Since the executives making these decisions tend to be focused on this year's bonus and stock options, DVC is a no-brainer for most.

DVC works on a points system. It takes a certain number of points to book a room. There are 2 primary costs associated with DVC; the purchase price and an annual Maintenance Fee (MF). Both typically are thought of in terms of price-per-point.

I'll use the Boardwalk Villas (BWV) as an example.

BWV opened in 1996 at a purchase price of $65/point. Today, it takes 108 points to book a Standard View Studio for a week at BWV during the summer or spring break, which means someone would have had to pony up $7020 back in 1996 to purchase enough points to book that room today. That $7020 looked really good to the bottom line in 1996, and executives would have been well-compensated back then for strong DVC sales.

However, there are long-term consequences.

In 2014, it takes 108 points to book that room. With the current BWV MF at $6.01/point, that means the room costs the DVC member $649/week or less than $93/night including tax!

I double-dog dare you to find any room at the Boardwalk Inn for $93/night for any time of the year.

What Disney has done with BWV is sacrifice profits for decades in order to realize substantial profits back in 1996.

Realistically, how many Disney executives in the 1990s were worried about the problems they were creating in 2014 when they OK'ed the BMV DVC?

Didn't most of these "old" executives retired foraged with money when the switch to Iger happened?

 

[ParentsOf4]

Didn't most of these "old" executives retired foraged with money when the switch to Iger happened?

Bill Sullivan and Bob Mathieson were forced out in the mid-1990s. In my opinion, they were the last of the Old Guard at WDW; those in senior positions who were true believers in the Walt Disney way of running a theme park.

After that, nearly anyone who remained in positions of power had to sell their souls to the Eisner/Wells way of thinking in order to keep their jobs.

There were individuals in lower level positions who still were true believers, but they had little power to influence major decisions. It was a difficult time for those who had come to adore the Walt Disney way.