When people come with you...

[dianeschlicht]

I don't know, it all depends on the situation. If I invite them, they pay nothing and I expect nothing. But if they say hey can we come, and I had no intentions of getting a larger unit, well then they would definately help pay the difference.

We have a 2 bedroom for New Years, we invited my parents, they said no, so I offered my inlaws the space for 2 nights as a Christmas present, 2 nights over New Years, with the kids, plus birthday celebration for my son at Hoop Dee Doo. Now my parents decided, gee maybe we do want to go. We could squeese them in, that would be 8 in a 2 bedroom, not my idea of vacation. so I said your welcome to join us, but I am out of points, try to get a room, or I will try with my DVC discount. Sounds harsh, but they should have taken me up the first time!!! Plus why should we be crammed!

I think that was a good way to handle it. That will help everyone to understand this isn't just an easy freebe.

 

[N&B'smom]

N & B's mom - Thanks for understanding. Once our DVC is paid for, then I would never dream of charging my parents. But right now, it's just not possible.

I wonder if charging our parents will put us on DVC's 'bad member list'

TheRustyScrapper -

Add to your list $3 x # of times you were made to eat liver for dinner (because they "love liver")

Exactly, once it is paid in full they can come whenever they choose for free. LOL about being on the bad member list. At least we'll be together on it!!!

Shelby

 

[manning]

Good luck with trying to ditch the other 30 people they invited!!

Oh no!! I hope you didn't start the capacity issue again!! However it would be interesting seeing 30 people in the unit. let's see, 4 or 5 in the king, 3 in the tub, 1 or 2 in the shower............

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

We would never personally charge someone we invited as long as we didn't have to upgrade. Since there is 5 in our immediate family, there is usually extra room in the 2 bedroom for one or two more people without us being crowded. Now if we were in a one br and then needed to get a two bedroom because of the additional guests, that is a different story and I agree that charging the difference in points times a reasonable rate is a good way to calculate that out.

Of course, we do have an open invitation to my mom and single sis or my inlaws any time we go. My mom does do alot of cooking when she goes with us. We don't ask her to, but as a wonderful homemaker she does the meal planning and preparing and makes it look so easy and then of course we also get a night out alone. SHe always says she feels bad because she can't contribute financially to the vacation, although we constantly reassure her that what she does saves us lots of money and is greatly appreciated. We do eat out a few times and we'll pick up her tab then also (what she gets is nothing compared to the rest of us).

Sometimes you got to do what you got to do and compared to rack rates, you are still giving them a great benefit.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

My parents will be joining us for our first trip HOME next year. Because we JUST bought into DVC this past Spring I don't exactly know how to handle it. They will be sleeping in the room with the king size bed while we have the studio portion of the 2 bedroom villa. (VWL) I'm wondering how in the world I'm supposed to come up with a figure so I know how much to charge them. I'm not looking to charge them full price what they'd pay if we just booked the trip like normal. But I do want to offset some of our initial costs. Does that make sense? Any ideas on how to handle this?!?!?

Thanks in advance, I'll be booking soon!

Shelby

I haven't read all of the replies you've received yet Shelby, but just from your original question -- If it were us, we wouldn't not charge family. Now, I've rented to my friends before and charged them $8/point. We only charge them when they are taking trips without us. If we were traveling together and sharing a 2BR, we wouldn't charge them. They usually end up buying us a meal or two and that is more than enough for us.

 

[crisi]

To date we haven't charged guests.

We talked about it, and the hubby and I have some ground rules.

Anyone we invite we have to agree to invite. We sit down and plan who we might invite on our trip.

Anyone who invites themselves gets told "oh, gee, we have our plans in place for the next few years, we will have to see." Our intention is anyone who asks that we take and didn't really intend to but decide it will be ok will pay dues. Honestly, however, we are a low point family, and unless we commit to more points, I think our guest list will be booked with immediately family and eventually just the kids and us (and kids friends if we decide to go that route).

In the OPs case, where she has family that has invited themselves along and isn't able to weasal out of the obligation, I'd charge enough that they figure out there are better deals out there than mooching off her points. $12 a point - the high end of the rental rate, and the difference between the studio and the two bedroom. This is the sort of behavior you want to discourage or your DVC purchase quickly becomes their resource. (OK that's a little extreme, but I would charge more than dues....and more than dues + cost).

 

[rocketriter]

When we invite guests, we pay for accomodations (only) and only expect that they'll come up with a meal or two as thank you. But we put them in the studio room and keep the master with the king bed and jacuzzi ourselves! (We also sit at the head of the table when we invite guests for dinner at our own house...)

 

[newholidayx2]

My friend and her daughter will be staying w/me in a VWL studio for 4nights. There is no way I'll charge them!
She is the type to pickup a meal and I dont even want her doing that!

I am asking her to pay for their park admissions and their own meals though.

 

[pplasky]

I guess that I am in the "bad child" camp. I charged my Mom and Sis. This is our story. There was a total of 7 going and we had decided that we were going to stay in a DVC 2 BR. We first looked at rack rates... way to high. Then we deicided to rent. About $3000 for our stay. We divided that between the 3 families going. DH and I realized that $3000 would go along way toward buying our own points. LOL! So we kept the plan to split the vacation costs, bought our own points, and used the rental money towards paying cash for the points. I didn't feel bad at all because we originally talked about splitting hotel costs.

This is a little different than already owning the points and then charging your parents. I may have done what you did as well. But once you own charging parents just seems wrong. Siblings yes, parents, no. Sorry, just the way I feel. Can't ever repay parents for all they have done.

 

[Simba's Girl]

In early October we'll be doing a large family vacation. Its the first trip for BIL and DN&N and SIL hasn't been for decades. They don't know if the'll ever go again (but will probably be invited by us again if this trip goes well). They are "rooming in" with us in a 2BDR. MIL/FIL get a separate studio, and have come with us before. We aren't charging them and acutally haven't discussed "compensation" for the accomadations, though we've made clear how much they are worth via the disneyworld.com website (yeah, I'm passive agressive sometimes ). We don't expect anything, though we won't be surprised if some meals/grocery tabs are picked up (using our DDE card as well). If they are that would be a total bonus to us and we would be greatful for it. Its one of those things though, like if you are invited to someone's house for a BBQ or dinner, you bring a small gift/token of appreciation or a side dish. Its a polite gesture but not 'required' and how DH was raised (I, OTOH come from "the other side of the tracks" but have since changed my ways ). We would never ask for compensation if we invited them, all we want out of this really is to have a good time.

Heather

 

[robinb]

If we invite someone to stay with us, we never charge them. Like others here, we do allow them to buy groceries or meals.

ETA: I see now that your parents somehow invited themselves. I still wouldn't charge them anything myself. They may have invited themselves, but you have the opportunity to still go alone. If you didn't want them to come along you could have said "no" to them and just booked a 1 BR. It sounds like you made the decision to charge them anyway. I'm not going to make any right/wrong judgements on the matter.

FWIW, When I share a unit with fellow DVC members (like our NYE OKW GV), our friends transfer points into our account to cover the cost.

 

[QuiltTeddy]

We invited my sister, husband and their three kids the first time we "went home" and didn't ask them for anything. Figured they would at least offer to buy my husband and I dinner one night in "thanks", but boy were we ever wrong. My sister actually pulled out a calculator and figured out what our portion was. Yes, it was the first and last time. Now hubby and I just go and would ask friends....not family.

 

[Deemarch]

Even though most of us wouldn't.

But the one thing I would NEVER DO...Give up the "owner's bedroom"!!! LOL

 

[CRSNDSNY]

We invited my sister, husband and their three kids the first time we "went home" and didn't ask them for anything. Figured they would at least offer to buy my husband and I dinner one night in "thanks", but boy were we ever wrong. My sister actually pulled out a calculator and figured out what our potion was. Yes, it was the first and last time. Now hubby and I just go and would ask friends....not family.

Ya gotta love family, huh? My sis would have probably done the same thing! Luckily, we've never taken sis and family.

 

[wdwzues]

Either that or charge the for the point usage of a studio, that would be fair. They are using the king room portion and everyone is using the living portion. I think the studio point cost would be ok.

 

[QuiltTeddy]

Ya gotta love family, huh? My sis would have probably done the same thing! Luckily, we've never taken sis and family.

I can't understand it. They could have well afforded to make the trip on their own and then to actually be calculating it down to the penny? Obviously my husband I were just speechless. We made sure not to have any meals with them from that point on and we sincerely hope they enjoyed their visit, 'cause as I said....it was their last on us.

 

[manning]

We invited my sister, husband and their three kids the first time we "went home" and didn't ask them for anything. Figured they would at least offer to buy my husband and I dinner one night in "thanks", but boy were we ever wrong. My sister actually pulled out a calculator and figured out what our potion was. Yes, it was the first and last time. Now hubby and I just go and would ask friends....not family.

If it was me it would have been dueling calculators. I would have pulled mine and figured out their portion of the room charge, subtracted our portion and announce "get out your check book, your share is bigger!!"

"And don't let the door hit you on the way out!"

 

[Shelby5514]

My mom and my In-laws will be joining DH and I in Feb. at the BCV. We'll be staying in a 2brm, us in the master, the my In-laws in the studio and my mom in the living room. They are paying for their own park tix and travel expenses and souvineers(sp?). We have a family fund that came from an inheritance so we will use some of that to pay for food. I would not even think of charging them for the room. As long as I have enough points next year for a vacation I don't mind borrowing a few so that we can all go together this year.

 

[robinb]

I can't understand it. They could have well afforded to make the trip on their own and then to actually be calculating it down to the penny? Obviously my husband I were just speechless.

Honestly, the same thing happened to me except it was before 1999 and the family members involved also had free park passes. They had a free room and they had free park passes. When the bill came at the end of our stay we gave it to them so they could break out the charges to their room key. Imagine my shock when they said "Should we just split the cost of the meals that we put on our room key?".

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Honestly, the same thing happened to me except it was before 1999 and the family members involved also had free park passes. They had a free room and they had free park passes. When the bill came at the end of our stay we gave it to them so they could break out the charges to their room key. Imagine my shock when they said "Should we just split the cost of the meals that we put on our room key?".

Robin - was that the last time they vacationed with you?