TK-Tampa
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2019
I don't think they care either way. I suspect their goal is to make huge profits on the sale of Riviera and they are likely looking at Reflections, as well. Together, those resorts will have in the neighborhood of 10 million points to sell in the next 4-5 years. That's a lot to unload. If they kill the competition, they get sold faster and and make bigger profits.Doesn't Disney realize that 'driving down the price of Resales' will be ultimately unsuccessful as a strategy? They can drive it down as far as possible, and it still won't help them with Direct Sales. Why? First, because there IS inherent value in DVC points. They can be used to stay at DVC resorts. Even if that resort is ONLY Riviera, when the price is low enough, people will buy it, just so they can save money at Riviera. When that happens, Disney will once again lose the sale. Someone will look and say, "Hmmmn. I could buy 100 Rivera points Direct (or Reflections, or whatever they are selling then) or, for the same amount of money I can get 400 points at resale, and stay four times as long. Duhh!" In fact, when that happens, Riviera Resale will be so appealing that Disney will lose and lose and lose.
I think a strategy of trying to take away value from Resales, and drive the price down, is idiocy. THE MARKET WILL ALWAYS SELF ADJUST, because there IS value there and when the price is right, it will always be very attractive. Meanwhile, there will be a lot of people looking at Riviera or Reflections or whatever and saying right from the beginning, "I'm NOT going to buy there, Direct from Disney! Why would I? I love the resorts. I like staying at them, but Disney is NOT treating their owners nice, and they are driving Resale prices down. If I buy Resale instead, then I can NEVER lose money, because it won't go down any more, AND I will get more points, too."
I just don't understand how all the 'smart people' at Disney are not seeing this? They can NEVER beat the Resale market by attacking the Resale market. If they want to win, they can only make their own product worth more, and more attractive. And if that also causes Resale prices to rise, that will be EVEN BETTER for them. Higher Resale prices tip the balance towards Direct prices.
They would probably argue that this is better for all members because it gives them a bigger motive to build more resorts.