Weekends..points or cash?

[brightspark]

Def stay in the same place if you you have the points... we are only moving cause we don't have the points!

 

[Halo]

Here's our real life example.

We stayed in a 2-Bed at OKW for Easter 2006.

.......................................PTS........$
1...Wednesday....29/03/06....30
2...Thursday.......30/03/06....30
3...Friday...........31/03/06....73.......$608.28
4...Saturday.......01/04/06....73.......$608.28
5...Sunday.........02/04/06....30
6...Monday.........03/04/06....30
7...Tuesday........04/04/06....30
8...Wednesday....05/04/06....30
9...Thursday.......06/04/06....30
10..Friday..........07/04/06.....73......$ 608.28
11..Saturday......08/04/06.....73......$ 608.28
12..Sunday........09/04/06.....41
13..Monday........10/04/06....41
14..Tuesday.......11/04/06....41
15..Wednesday...12/04/06....41
16..Thursday......13/04/06....41
17..Friday..........14/04/06... 100......$ 608.28
18..Saturday......15/04/06...100......$ 608.28
19..Sunday........16/04/06....41
.....................................====
.....................................918

To have stayed there for 19 days on points would have required 918 points.
We own 230 points.
By excluding Friday and Saturday Nights the points total fell to 456. This was do-able on the basis of banked or borrowed points.

To pay for the Fridays and Saturdays on points would have required a further 462 points. You would have to find this many points to rent and at $10 a point the cost would be $4,620. Plus the inconvenience of probably renting from multiple renters.

The cash booking rate we got from CRO using DVC discount was $608.28 per night. NB the cash rate did not increase with the season change over.

On a cash basis it equalled $3,649.68 versus the cost of renting points would have been $4,620 - nearly a $1000 difference. (Actually its a bit less because you have to pay resort tax etc on cash bookings, but the principle is the same.)

I appreciate not everyone would be prepared to pay $3,649 for accommodation, and that we could have got cheaper elsewhere but DW didn't want to move.

The bottom line is that it can work out substantially cheaper to pay cash rather than to rent (i.e. borrow) points. If you have the points, you can get better use out of them by using them to stay for more days by paying cash for the Fridays and Saturdays (for example we got 13 nights on our points, rather than the 10 we would otherwise have got).

 

[CustardTart]

...If you had enough points for your entire stay, would you not just use them? or am I still missing something!

I agree! They're your points - do what suits you best...

 

[Halo]

If you had enough points for your entire stay, would you not just use them? or am I still missing something!

But what if, as in my example above (see post 22), you had the choice of;-
a) using 100 points for a night; OR
b) renting 100 points out for $1000 (at $10 per point) and staying for $608+tax. A potential profit of $300+ per night.

In practice most people with the points would do (a), but you should be aware of option (b) too.

 

[Halo]

If you earn the money - whichever way - you have to pay the tax.

Presumably you would be seeking depreciation allowances on the basis it was furnished, and claiming your airfare as inspection costs etc.

 

[gilld]

Presumably you would be seeking depreciation allowances on the basis it was furnished, and claiming your airfare as inspection costs etc.

Now that's one I hadn't thought of. I'll run it past the accountant.
Watch this space.