What's happening? No DVC Resort availability December and January

[Dean Marino]

Just guessing?

REAL OWNERS have booked. WE certainly have. Hence? You are pretty much shut out. Sorry - this is why we bought in to DVC.|

Owners at BRV.... we book at 11 months, we do not try to get the semi-fake 7 month bookings.

All personal opinion - I'm not necessarily right, no one else is necessarily wrong.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Just guessing?

REAL OWNERS have booked. WE certainly have. Hence? You are pretty much shut out. Sorry - this is why we bought in to DVC.|

Owners at BRV.... we book at 11 months, we do not try to get the semi-fake 7 month bookings.

All personal opinion - I'm not necessarily right, no one else is necessarily wrong.

What are you trying to get at by saying you are real owners? OP said they have been DVC members for 13 years.
. Are they fake?

 

[SL6827]

What is a semi-fake 7 month booking?

 

[senadler]

My husband and I just decided on a bonus trip in February when they announced additional DAH dates. I was surprised that the only availability was a SSR preferred room. Not my ideal use of points, but we booked it anyway. We out owners at BCV, since that is one of our preferred resorts and we know we have to book there early, but have not had a problem booking other resorts in the past. I did not expect the most popular options to be available, but to see nothing else was a bit of a shock. We wait listed at CCV and Kadani, but if nothing opens up I guess we will be checking out SSR for the first time.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I realize all of this. We have been members for 13 years; however, it was never like this. We used to be able to grab a few days here and there. Even Saratoga is booked now.

I'm uncertain then what you are looking at because if you just want to grab a few days there is availability many places. Especially at the end of January but also nights thru out January for grabbing a few.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The internet has also removed a lot of friction on points use. Brokers certainly help matters, but consider that in 1992 the only way to really "rent" your points was to offer them to your brother-from-another-mother, your weird uncle, or someone at work. We lacked the easy option of the interwebz.

Disney cannot legally oversell DVC. They legally have sold the points that are out there. Demand not being equal 365 days a year, there will be issues.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Demand not being equal 365 days a year, there will be issues.

And they built in a way to handle that from the start.....lottery.

However, one would have to put in for it much further than 3 months out.

 

[SnowWhite2]

I'm sure all of those points for the Poly bungalows that are being used elsewhere aren't helping the situation either. Especially since many of them seem unoccupied when I've gone by.

 

[disneynutz]

I doubt that Disney has an issue with renting, full resorts means more people buying tickets and spending money. As I posted it also means more people buying additional home resorts, many of them direct which is even more money for Disney.

Bill

 

[lbus42]

DVC is not lying or misrepresenting anything. If you are trying to book a very popular time, like September - October or December - January, and a LOT of other people are trying to do the same thing, then you might see low to no availability. I just looked at availabiltiy for Studios in April of next year (7 month window). Boardwalk, Poly, Jambo House, Kidani, OKW, SSR, Contemporary, and Boulder Ridge, all have availability the week of April 12 - April 20. Several other resorts have partial availability or have availability in 1BR and 2BR villas.

 

[chalee94]

What are you trying to get at by saying you are real owners? OP said they have been DVC members for 13 years.
. Are they fake?

The contrast would probably be all the "fake owners" who decided to rent their points (possibly using a broker.) The OP and BillPA have suggested that they would rather flush their pts down the toilet than be involved with a broker.

While I respect their individual choices, I think I get Dean's satire in saying that it's all real owners (whether using their points themselves or having to rent them for cash to book December) who are blocking the OP from booking at 3 months out...

(But I think several posts have been deleted from this thread so it's hard to say for sure.)

 

[SL6827]

Lord I don't have enough points to even consider flushing any down the toilet, but if I did and something came up I wouldn't think twice about renting them out instead of forfeiting them, if I could. Am I wrong here? I'm so green with DVC I'm not really sure. It is bad for DVC members to not be able to get a last minute reservation because there is hardly anything ever open because of the renting, but if DVC members had something come up and could not use their points, renting could be a possible option for them to retain some of the value of those points.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Lord I don't have enough points to even consider flushing any down the toilet, but if I did and something came up I wouldn't think twice about renting them out instead of forfeiting them, if I could. Am I wrong here? I'm so green with DVC I'm not really sure. It is bad for DVC members to not be able to get a last minute reservation because there is hardly anything ever open because of the renting, but if DVC members had something come up and could not use their points, renting could be a possible option for them to retain some of the value of those points.

Honestly, it's all anecdotal that renting is what is causing the change. There's been a lot of things that have changed with DVC even just in the past 5-10 years that are larger contributors IMO. Good economy, online booking, a cascading effect of being shut out at 4 months leads to people booking at 6 months Shut out at 6 months? Then book at 7 months. Shut out at 7 months? Then book even earlier. Smaller "boutique" properties that are booked in the home priority window so less at 7 months - again driving other owners to book during the home priority window. More savvy owners who have bought where they want to stay and understand the system (there were reports in the past of owners not even knowing they could bank points!) Some point intensive accommodations that it's unlikely were sold up to full usage such as GV's at VGF, Bungalows at PVB and now Cabins at CCV that do have a flooding effect on the system. And not to be forgotten Disney parks has made concerted efforts to make the parks more attractive for what used to be slow times of the year and have implemented premium pricing on tickets for busier times to also encourage people towards slower times.

That points are being used now that may have expired in the past, for whatever reason, more or less just means that it was a nice time for other owners to get last minute reservations but that time is gone or has at least diminished. Renting is allowed. It was sold as a flexible points system and still works that way. Flexible was never meant to mean the room you wanted most would be available whenever you decide you want to book it.

 

[DebbieB]

I got 3 nights at Poly in a standard studio for Sept 22 to 25 at 50 days out. Keep trying, something may pop up.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I got 3 nights at Poly in a standard studio for Sept 22 to 25 at 50 days out. Keep trying, something may pop up.

There are rooms for a few nights already (mostly in January - a lot at the end of January) so I'm not even certain what this was all about.

 

[Cyberc1978]

Actually, I think It is a legitimate question. In my opinion, when EVERYONE is needing to plan 7 months in advance, then the system is too tight. People pay a LOT of money for DVC and should really have a little more flexibility in how they can use it. Disney is not honest in their presentations, they don’t fill their commitments well, and we let them get away with it..

I disagree, DVC is popular and everyone wants to book and therefore the availability is tight - even at 7 months for some time of the year. If you want more options at 7 months you could look at the summer months they will have more but still not for all resorts and room sizes.

Until DVC gets rid of the rental brokers the 7 month availability will never get any better, same goes with the fall frenzy.

Thats not gonna happen, if the owners aren't allowed to rent their points how would DVC be able to rent theirs?

Does anyone think that this could/would ever happen?

nope, DVC might put in some restrictions but again they will be minor and will not matter to most.

Disney might try to tighten things up a bit, but if they want to place blame for the rise of rental brokers, they have only to look at their own rise in hotel prices. Why would someone pay $500 per night for a room that they can get from a rental broker for $250, and, hey, DISNEY used to charge $250 for that room!

Agree why pay more when you can pay less. If I weren't allowed to rent my points then I sometimes would be forced to take an extra trip - that would cause the same constraint(assuming renting is the problem)

The renters have all learned to book at seven to eleven months out.

I disagree a lot of renters still expects that there is availability which they can rent with short notice ie 4-5 months out. They have read at Davids that they only need to pay $13 per point less than 7 months in advance. When they learn that they need to book more than 7 months in advance then the availability at 7 months will be even less.

IMO renting is not the problem or at least not the sole problem. It shouldnt matter if I book my home resorts and stay my self or I rent them and go somewhere else.

Part of the problem is (I think) that a lot of owners buy SSR and expect to be able to use their points elsewhere and when they can't they complain about the system. That is not affecting the 7 months availability but it is affecting the availability less than 7 months.

 

[Travel60]

Remember a couple of years when DVC waived the $95 fee for booking outside DVC? I thought at the time it might be to encourage using the points outside DVC to lessen demand (or make additional $ by allowing them to rent additional space).

We have used points to book some amazing non-DVC locations over the years....., New York City, Arizona, San Diego Del Coronado.

Fortunately, were just able to book 8 days at HHI in 3 bedroom at the 11 month window. Just hoping it is still there after Florence.

 

[Frederic Civish]

Remember a couple of years when DVC waived the $95 fee for booking outside DVC? I thought at the time it might be to encourage using the points outside DVC to lessen demand (or make additional $ by allowing them to rent additional space). .

Wish they would do that now. It is an “artificial fee” with NO basis in their actual expenses. If they would waive it Disney would make MORE money, by having more of the EXPENSIVE DVC villas to rent out, and WE would get a bit of relief from the oppressive 3 to 7 month booking scarcity. Sounds like a Win-Win. Are you listening, Disney.

 

[Marionnette]

To be fair, I know three original SSR owners and none of them complain about not being able to book non-home resorts at 7 months. My brother routinely gets OKW, which he loves, but he's quite happy to stay at SSR. Another couple, who is there now, almost never books with more than 4 months' notice and they're completing a trip today. They have no issues with doing a split stay and this time it was 5 nights OKW and 3 nights at AKV. Not everyone wants a BCV studio!

However, it's my belief that there are a number of factors at play here that have contributed to making the 7-month window a more difficult situation:

• PVB owners who are seeking something bigger than a studio. A lot of them are new owners who were sold the idea that it's easy to book a non-home resort at 7 months. And then there are the point-sucking bungalows that contributed to the pool of points for PVB but the people who own there based the number of points purchased on getting studios. I also believe that the CCV cabins will contribute to the problem once the resort has been completely sold.
• Resale owners, who bought small contracts and can only afford studios, looking to stay at non-home resorts. This would be especially true for those who purchased HHI, AUL, and VB but also includes those who bought cheap SSR points thinking that they will use them for PVB and VGF. Those small contracts were once add-ons to larger original contracts at those home resorts. So, what once may have been one owner at BWV with a minimum buy in of 150 points and a couple of 50-point add-on contracts became 3 owners on the resale market when sold. And most of them want studios but all the 2 50-pointers can afford each year is 5 nights in a std. view studio or OKW studio during the lowest point periods.
• Restrictions on how resale owners can use their points. No trading into the Disney Collection. No booking cruises with their points. Either use your points or trade into RCI (a system I don't understand and don't feel comfortable with) or rent out those points.
• Renters who only want studios. They're mostly bargain hunters looking to save money, not book a whole villa. They've bought into the "stay deluxe for the price of a moderate" sales pitch. At 7 months, when a point is a point, brokers are emailing their owners with renter info the night before, asking them to be ready to book right at 8 AM eastern. And in quite a few cases, every studio booked reduces a 2-BR to a 1-BR. Some of those points may have been allowed to expire in the past but as renting becomes more mainstream, they are more likely to get used.
• Increased walking due to the latest website enhancements. The modify function has made it so much easier to walk and I foresee this becoming a real issue during the seasons with highest demand. It was already a problem but it will become more widespread now that there's no need to call MS to accomplish it. Admittedly, this only truly affects the day that booking opens but I watched as day after day, another day opened up for a BWV std. view studio leading up to Christmas week as individuals walked their reservations for the holiday. I also witnessed this happening for Star Wars weekend (May the 4th is a Saturday in 2019). And now that we can modify online, I fully expect to see Fall Frenzy become Fall Frustration.

 

[Bing Showei]

Restrictions on how resale owners can use their points. No trading into the Disney Collection. No booking cruises with their points. Either use your points or trade into RCI (a system I don't understand and don't feel comfortable with) or rent out those points.

This is a great point. Which makes me wonder why, given how this is universally accepted as a poor use of points and no real benefit to direct buyers, Disney doesn't allow resale buyers to use points on DCL, ABD, Concierge Collection? Then they would open up the pool of people they could take advantage of. An unintended benefit for owners would be that there may be decreased stress on the system for 7-month bookings. It would be a win/win/kinda-win. The "kinda-win" being the owner who now has the option to leave money on the table.