DVC = Disney Vacation Club
DVC "members" buy points at WDW that they can use every year at DVC resorts. If they don't use their points for a particular year, they can rent them out. There are several websites that specialize in helping DVC members rent their points. Most charge $13/point but point rentals can be found for less on, say, eBay. The nice thing about the websites is that several are well-established so the risk is low.
For example, a DVC "Studio" (basically a hotel room) costs 134 points to rent for a week in the summer at the Beach Club. At $13/point, that comes out to about $250/night, when a room normally costs over $400/night.
There usually are 3 downsides to renting DVC points:
- DVC rooms book early. You'll need to plan 7-11 months ahead of time.
- Most of the time, the room is nonrefundable. So you need to be very sure about your vacation plans.
- There is no maid service and they change towels only after the 3rd night. (Full maid service after 7 nights.) We actually prefer this since we don't like having to straighten up for Mousekeeping.
Be careful about renting DVC points from ebay/craigslist. If doing so, I would only use an established reseller that gurantees the room will you be yours. They act like a vacation rental by owner service. its worth it to spend the few extra bucks a point for peace of mind. Most of thse sites work by you putting in a request for a certain time period and then they check their inventory to see if anything matches up. Depending on the time of year you go, paying for a room at the reg discounted rate from Disney directly is about the same as using DVC points.
( was that convincing at all )
