Are DVC Rentals out of control?

[VWL Mom]

Now I'm not referring to the owner who can't make a trip one year and rents out their points but rather those that are making a part time business out of it.

With resale prices being so low, inventory is being snatched up for the purpose of renting them out and it bothers me. I'm all for free enterprise but some of the threads I came across while waiting to pass ROFR recently just made me angry.

The amount of space that is booked and is up for rental is alarming to me as an owner. I can't get BCV for F&W but I can rent it? Christmas space, no problem,one person has 6 listings available (and not cheap either). Basically every holiday is available to rent.

Is it just me that finds this bothersome?

[DVC2004]

I'm really surprised DVC doesn't crack down on this. It's not meant to be a "business" and isn't marketed as a business opportunity investment, but of course there is always someone who will find a way to manipulate the system. There are limits as to how many points an individual can own but other than that, that's about it.

I agree, it is harder to get in nowadays than it used to be when we first joined. I can never, ever get into Hilton Head in the summer. Never. Usually they have one or two odd days like a Tues and Thurs or something. However, I can go online and find one to rent. Terrible!

[AgentC]

I'm just curious. How does that work? I don't own DVC and only paid cash to stay in DVC units. I knew you can rent, but I thought you rented and then asked someone to book for you.

So people actually prebook trips and then try to rent popular locations/weeks??

[CajunDisneyDad]

I thought Disney monitors all this. We are about to get into DVC (we are buying a resale) and it would appear from the hoops we are having to jump through that they keep a tight grip on this to avoid overcharging/undercharging for points...

[greengeen]

Not being able to book a non-home resort has nothing to with rentals. It has to do with not being your home resort! If there's a resort you want to book every year, like HHI, you buy points there.

[Mickey'sGirl]

Originally Posted by greengeen

Not being able to book a non-home resort has nothing to with rentals. It has to do with not being your home resort! If there's a resort you want to book every year, like HHI, you buy points there.

I have to agree. I bought at the BoardWalk because I want to stay at the BoardWalk, and I've never had trouble booking exactly what I want there when I want it.

Are these renters making it impossible to rent at your home resort? If so, that's horrible!

[BrerGnat]

I bet if Disney stopped allowing rentals altogether, you'd see the rooms in better shape.

I think it's odd that they ever allowed this in the first place. Do other timeshares allow renting out your points???

[VWL Mom]

Originally Posted by greengeen

Not being able to book a non-home resort has nothing to with rentals. It has to do with not being your home resort!

Originally Posted by Mickey'sGirl

I have to agree. I bought at the BoardWalk because I want to stay at the BoardWalk, and I've never had trouble booking exactly what I want there when I want it.

Are these renters making it impossible to rent at your home resort? If so, that's horrible!

And I agree, buy where you want to stay but I'm not talking about home vs non-home. I'm referring to getting shut out of all resorts at 6 months but being able to find rentals available. People actually blocking space to rent out which they may never use. Just doesn't sit well with me.

Originally Posted by BrerGnat

I bet if Disney stopped allowing rentals altogether, you'd see the rooms in better shape.

I agree.

[dlpmikki]

Originally Posted by BrerGnat

I bet if Disney stopped allowing rentals altogether, you'd see the rooms in better shape.

I think it's odd that they ever allowed this in the first place. Do other timeshares allow renting out your points???

I can only speak for Marriott who allow you to get guest certificates if the owner is not staying. I suspect it is a common practice to allow rentals of some type.

On page 7 of the 2012 DVC user guide it does say "use of your membership for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited"

[DizneyRox]

Originally Posted by greengeen

Not being able to book a non-home resort has nothing to with rentals. It has to do with not being your home resort! If there's a resort you want to book every year, like HHI, you buy points there.

This has always been the rule, although there seems to be a lot of question on it's validity. There's no denying the 11 month booking winoow gets you a head start, but it doesn't prevent being shut out.

Originally Posted by CajunDisneyDad

I thought Disney monitors all this. We are about to get into DVC (we are buying a resale) and it would appear from the hoops we are having to jump through that they keep a tight grip on this to avoid overcharging/undercharging for points...

If you are referring to the contract language regarding renting points as a business, there's a difference between what's in the contract and if Disney is actually enforcing this. I suspect that they aren't, they are just happy that people are buying the points resale instead of forcing Disney to foreclose and then assume ownership/reponsibility of those points and have to resell them.

Another thing i suspect is that people are "using" DVC for cheaper vacations. Only a month or so after AKLV was for sale by Disney, I noticed contracts up for sale on the resale market. I think people bought and use the points for a vacation and then tried to quickly flip the contract before it started costing them more (Interest and maintenance fees). Never really ran the math on it, but really, if it cost less than 11 a point for that use, it makes sense.

I'm not privy to any rental sites, to see if it's as rampant as everyone claims. Just never cared to go looking actually. If there's money to be made and/or savings to be had, people are surely abusing it. I will say, prebooking a trip using DVC points and seeing if there's any takers sounds fairly attractive, since I haven't been going to Disney lately, it does sound like something that might help use up these points I'm sitting on. Less leg work trying to coordinate with someone over what they wan. Booking XMas week and selling it off would be much less work on my part.

[gratuspater]

On page 7 of the 2012 DVC user guide it does say "use of your membership for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited"[/QUOTE]

Couldn't allowing this be considered a breach of contract, on Disneys part? I'm sure it is not something they want to address, because their bottom line is heads in beds, but I can see how habitual renters, with LOTS of points to rent, that are used and advertised exclusively for renting, (there may even be some recent threads on this topic ), could affect regular DVC owners ability to book certain times of the year, (Because of pre booking rooms and then posting them for rent), thus limiting our use of DVC for their own profit.

[DVC2004]

Well, I used to work for DVC and they are well aware of several people who were regularly renting their points out as a business. Aware as in if you asked everyone knew the names of the people of the tops of their head. I would guess there's even more doing it now. Nothing was done about it.

[BrerGnat]

Originally Posted by DVC2004

Well, I used to work for DVC and they are well aware of several people who were regularly renting their points out as a business. Aware as in if you asked everyone knew the names of the people of the tops of their head. I would guess there's even more doing it now. Nothing was done about it.

They should just allow it, but charge a HUGE flat fee for each rental. Then, maybe people would think twice about it and only really do it when they absolutely had to offload unusable points.

[Aurora]

Originally Posted by DVC2004

Well, I used to work for DVC and they are well aware of several people who were regularly renting their points out as a business. Aware as in if you asked everyone knew the names of the people of the tops of their head. I would guess there's even more doing it now. Nothing was done about it.

If Disney's not actually doing anything about it, it must not be cutting into their own rentals of DVC rooms, which makes me think there aren't as many people abusing the system as it seems.

Remember there are millions of points to be had at each resort, and there are plenty of regular owners who will book up the most popular dates as well. The renters won't have an unfair advantage in that regard. (Unless, of course, there are DVC reservation agents who are also owners renting out their points, but that's a whole other conspiracy theory.)

Owners are within their rights to rent out their points, even if they do it at the same time every year. Unless you're seeing hundreds of rooms offered for rent on the same dates, it's probably not a real issue.

[Mrs Bus Driver]

Maye I am just naive but aside from helping to pay your membership fees. What profit is there. If you can only own so many points then what is the point? I don't really see people making a killing on this maybe just enough to pay for their vacations. Just my

[DizneyRox]

Well...

At $93 a point (using an example of BLT points available right now)...

Imagine I buy 100 points. That's $9300 for my initial costs. I think a going rate is like $12 a point for a rental. So, I can get back $1200 a year renting them out. If the contract is good until 2052 I could get $48,000 over the life of that contract.

Now, that's not taking into account maintenance fees, etc, BUT, I bet the "good" weeks are commanding more than the $12 a point for rental costs.

Its' not an immediate money makers, but the break even point is closer than you might think. I don't beleive the $12 is going to be the going rate much longer, it too will go up as the years go by, but the initial $9300 won't provided you don't finance it.

There's surely money to be made in renting points...

[suebeelin]

Can someone help me understand what sites have the rentals for a specific week?

I rented a week in November (2 bed at my home resort, BWV-- I rented this 11 mo out in advance) for my sister, and she just cancelled on me. Now, this week is during food and wine, and NJ teachers conference week when all the kids are off.

I am just about to cancel the week.

I am going to Disney myself the week after and was able to get Beach Club, a 1 bed, 7 mo in advance.

But I am renting the 2 bed at BWV with my rolled over points from last year (which expire in Feb), and was going to cancel that reservation and rebook my 1 bed at Beach Club with these points (and roll over my this year points).

I know the week in November during F&W is a big deal, and a 2 bed is hard to get at BWV, but I don't know any sites that specifically rent out the week and dates. So any advice or links would be appreciated, as I have to cancel my 2 bed at BWV by the end of this month.

I sort of regret the purchase of my DVC points.

[dlpmikki]

Originally Posted by suebeelin

Can someone help me understand what sites have the rentals for a specific week?

I rented a week in November (2 bed at my home resort, BWV-- I rented this 11 mo out in advance) for my sister, and she just cancelled on me. Now, this week is during food and wine, and NJ teachers conference week when all the kids are off.

I am just about to cancel the week.

I am going to Disney myself the week after and was able to get Beach Club, a 1 bed, 7 mo in advance.

But I am renting the 2 bed at BWV with my rolled over points from last year (which expire in Feb), and was going to cancel that reservation and rebook my 1 bed at Beach Club with these points (and roll over my this year points).

I know the week in November during F&W is a big deal, and a 2 bed is hard to get at BWV, but I don't know any sites that specifically rent out the week and dates. So any advice or links would be appreciated, as I have to cancel my 2 bed at BWV by the end of this month.

I sort of regret the purchase of my DVC points.

I'm very sorry but we won't be able to help you from this site as we don't do rentals or links to other sites. I can only suggest you try a google search or suchlike and have a look at some options that come up.