Current owners: Do you feel that renters are impacting resort availability?

[CarolMN]

What if the company is just steering renters to reserve the hard to find rooms at in demand resorts on in demand weekends? That’s the loophole, they are coordinating individual members to do something instead of doing it directly themselves, although I am certain they also own a few LLC point banks that can found the way you mention.

I doubt there are many owners that contact a broker prior to 11 months. I think the rooms we are talking about go within seconds of the window opening. If the steering happens after that, I don't see the problem.

 

[DougEMG]

Oh really?

The prevailing rates for DVC Point rentals are around $24 each. Want to stay in a Grand Floridian room that costs 20 point...the rental cost is around $480. Certainly much better than Disney prices of $800-1000 per night plus 12% tax.

There's a rental website that currently has AKV Value studios listed for $287 per night. Again, pretty good rate for a Disney Deluxe resort. The thing is, that Value studio costs only 7 points per night. This rental is actually priced at FORTY-ONE dollars per point.

So maybe you're thinking "eh, that's just one member trying to get a rate that nobody will ever pay." The problem is, this same website currently has 228 confirmed reservations available to rent for AKV Value studios.

Let me repeat that. TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT RESERVATIONS. For Value Studios. All of them priced substantially higher than $24 per point. The same website has 65 Standard View Jambo Studios available and 3 (yes, 3) Jambo Savanna Studios.

There are only 8 dedicated value studios and 10 lockoffs at AKV. This one website is currently holding 362 room nights across the next 11 months, an average of more than one SV villa per night. They are holding--unrented--6-12% of all value studio availability. And that doesn't even include however many reservations they've already rented for dates between now and March 2025.

The same website also has 103 Standard View BW Studios vs 41 Garden / Pool and 3 BW view. At BLT, 50 standard view studio confirmed reservations available vs 21 lake and 1 theme park. They have 82 Beach Club studio reservations representing 402 room nights. At Riviera, there are 20 reservations for Tower Studios, 59 for Standard View Studios and 5 for preferred studio.

On the few where I did the math, some were $25 per point. Some were $27 per point. Some were $35 per point.

But if you think there aren't people targeting rooms where they can get $35-41 per point, you're being naive. The total asking price for those 228 AKV Value Studios is over $122,000. If we grant that they are renting for a premium of just 20-30%, it's absolutely worthwhile for professional renters to target those rooms. And it's clearly happening.

Well, this is pretty shocking to me! Did not realize just how bad things were.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

A website doing something like this should be called out by name. Why all the seeming secrecy?

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Well, this is pretty shocking to me! Did not realize just how bad things were.

Shocking to me too. I had no idea. Is there a reason the website is not named?

 

[lowlight]

Shocking to me too. I had no idea. Is there a reason the website is not named?

Disboards is really weird with this kind of stuff and I don’t wanna tick off the mods.

 

[CarolMN]

Shocking to me too. I had no idea. Is there a reason the website is not named?

Disboards is really weird with this kind of stuff and I don’t wanna tick off the mods.

Maybe 'annoy' instead of 'tick off'. We volunteer mods are not involved in the filter decisions and we are not privy to the reasons behind a decision to ban a particular website. None of us like to 'award' infraction points or delete posts.

That said, many (if not most) of the sites are in the filter because their owners decided to use the DIS to advertise or service their offerings, without permission or compensation. This is NOT OK. These boards are not cheap to offer & maintain. Target would not allow Walmart to set up a kiosk in a Target parking lot. The DIS isn't going to allow other websites to take advantage of the DIS in that manner, either. And that includes driving traffic to such sites.

PLEASE post a link to any business or site you wish to mention or discuss​

 

[Judique]

I bought most of my points at BWV 24 years ago.

If I had it to do over again, I would probably now want a guaranteed fixed week. They weren't available when I first bought and back then, I wouldn't have wanted it.

Never thought I'd say that, but trying to book at my home resort has been a challenge the last 5 years. Before that it was just get online at 11 months. Now, I don't even get a room until someone walking drops days, or in the case of December 2024, waitlist. Let's see how that goes.

Reality is I could just book garden/pool. But I'm squeezing in solo trips for myself here and there and i want the less expensive options. Also, I prefer the back of the resort rooms when alone for access to my car. Next round if I don't get standard I'll ask for my preferred location and start collecting room numbers. Never cared which room number before.

I walked a late February 2025 reservation for just a few days when we decided to go then. I was able to get a Boardwalk View 2 bedroom which I've enjoyed a few times for the view.

Reading this thread has been an eye opener. I'm not on facebook so don't see the rentals.

I remember a few years ago where someone created some kind of tool for scanning availability. Disney kicked the tool to the curb at the time. The person may or may not have wanted to monetize it. Disney does not like to share.

It's my opinion that Disney will do something when it impacts their own bottom line, ie cash rooms and breakage.

I'm still all for renting. I had one year out of 24 I had to rent and it was a lifesaver. I'm just not able to accept that an entity can have such a huge impact (for an individual) on availability of sought after rooms and not be slapped back.

 

[DL1WDW2]

What happened to the discussion of the new Trust Membership that was referred to last Condo *** Meeting ?
Is the fix in the system and we’re just not seeing it?
Make it so confusing that we will accept anything as the answer to the problem they choose to ignore .
It just seems strange that DVC is not concerned about Membership in so many ways now.
But I am concerned and it reflects in my desire to purchase ever again and will warn others to really understand Membership details and the fine print …
It makes me sad to have this interfere with whatever is going on.
But it sure feels like something is amiss .
And we should not blame “ renters”

 

[Sandisw]

What happened to the discussion of the new Trust Membership that was referred to last Condo *** Meeting ?
Is the fix in the system and we’re just not seeing it?
Make it so confusing that we will accept anything as the answer to the problem they choose to ignore .
It just seems strange that DVC is not concerned about Membership in so many ways now.
But I am concerned and it reflects in my desire to purchase ever again and will warn others to really understand Membership details and the fine print …
It makes me sad to have this interfere with whatever is going on.
But it sure feels like something is amiss .
And we should not blame “ renters”

The current CFW cabins are being sold as part of a trust and are RTU instead of leasehold.

It has been set up to allow for future projects to be included but as of today, it’s just CFW.

It is the POS related to that which has much stronger language regarding rentals and could be the start of future decisions by DVC.

What DVC does behind the scenes for indivial memberships in holding them accountable for violatons won’t be something we will ever be privy to.

 

[tjkraz]

What happened to the discussion of the new Trust Membership that was referred to last Condo *** Meeting ?

There was no discussion of a trust during the condo meeting

Is the fix in the system and we’re just not seeing it?
Make it so confusing that we will accept anything as the answer to the problem they choose to ignore .
It just seems strange that DVC is not concerned about Membership in so many ways now.
But I am concerned and it reflects in my desire to purchase ever again and will warn others to really understand Membership details and the fine print …
It makes me sad to have this interfere with whatever is going on.
But it sure feels like something is amiss .

As @Sandisw said, the trust is currently just a vehicle for the Fort Wilderness cabins. All other resorts are set up as a "condominium association" while cabins are a Trust. Functionally, nothing has changed with regard to booking at 11 or 7 months, villa availability, resale rights, etc. And it may never change. Any speculation that trust is a prelude to massive changes for DVC is still just speculation.

And we should not blame “ renters”

There's plenty of evidence that certain rental practices diminish availability for run-of-the-mill owners. Whether or not anything can be done to change that is another discussion.

 

[Chuck S]

There's plenty of evidence that certain rental practices diminish availability for run-of-the-mill owners. Whether or not anything can be done to change that is another discussion.

I took DLTWDW2's post a different way, meaning not to blame the people the DVC Owners rent the reservations to, as they are just looking for a less expensive travel option.
But I certainly may be wrong, they could have meant not to blame the DVC Owners doing the mass "commercial" spec reservations, which to me is borderline abuse of the system, whether they are actually breaking any official rules or not.

 

[DL1WDW2]

I guess the renter reference was We should not automatically place the blame on renters , giving DVC an easy pass on this problem.

I thought there was an off-handed reference to the Trust in the most recent condo meeting .
Possibly a statement that was a mistake during the public question session .
I must have misunderstood I did not attend but will this year for sure .

Are we in agreement that it is getting harder to rent at the 11/7 month windows?
Purchasing a fixed guaranteed Week is not a cheap solution … But it is definitely the only way I would ever make a purchase ever again . I hate all the walking .And the disappointment .

 

[Chuck S]

Are we in agreement that it is getting harder to rent at the 11/7 month windows?
Purchasing a fixed guaranteed Week is not a cheap solution … But it is definitely the only way I would ever make a purchase ever again . I hate all the walking .And the disappointment .

I would agree that studios in general, and especially special category studios, are harder reservations to get at the 11/7 windows, BUT most other room types don't seem to be affected.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Sorry I guess I’m still bitter about todays 7 month Cabins availability Today for the new Fort Wilderness ! Thank you Walkers or BoTs ?
No Thanksgiving dates for me Moving forward to Holidays !
Guess I’ll keep trying. Might get lucky .

 

[Chuck S]

Sorry I guess I’m still bitter about todays 7 month Cabins availability Today for the new Fort Wilderness ! Thank you Walkers or BoTs ?
No Thanksgiving dates for me Moving forward to Holidays !
Guess I’ll keep trying. Might get lucky .

Yes, but that pretty much happens with all new DVC Resorts, unless they are very large resorts. You're not only competing with commercial renters, but vloggers wanting to review the new resort, added to increaseed holiday crowds.

 

[lowlight]

Are we in agreement that it is getting harder to rent at the 11/7 month windows?

Opinions vary, but for me, yes. Once I realized every single room category for VGF was being walked for weeks 48-50, it was too late. I couldn’t get an opening to even start walking myself, and had to pick up whatever was left over the day after. I couldn’t get anything for week 48 and had to move my week to week 49 this year, which isn’t ideal for work. I almost sold my contracts that day, because if that’s the way it is going to be I don’t wanna do it anymore.