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

[xdan0920]

Just an interesting factoid. On the first page of this website, as I am typing this, 7 of the most recent posts are DVC Point Rental posts.

 

[Chuck S]

Just an interesting factoid. On the first page of this website, as I am typing this, 7 of the most recent posts are DVC Point Rental posts.

So? Point rentals are not the same as pre-booked existing reservations. When I rented points last June, every reservation I booked for renters was 1 to 2 nights, made in six separate reservations, 9 nights total, and were inside the 7 month booking window, Some of the renters had existing reservations they simply wanted to extend. So how is that affecting availability?

3 of those nights were at OKW
5 nights at SSR
1 night in a Kidani standard view studio.

 

[Sandisw]

Just an interesting factoid. On the first page of this website, as I am typing this, 7 of the most recent posts are DVC Point Rental posts.

This is why this subject is a complicated one because there are different things that sometimes seems to be intertwined as being the same things or causing the same issues and violations.

People advertsting to rent reservations on their memberships is allowed and the more owners there are, the more rental opportunities their will be for others to rent.

So, the rental market has gotten larger simply because there are more owners. But, there are also a concern that some owners out there are renting a lot of them that it turns them into what should be a commercial renter.

Of course, the other is the number of owners who have chosen the route of doing a confirmed reservation instead of just offering to rent.

Long way to say that not all of those situations are outside the realm of what we have the ability to do but sometimes get commingled with the conversation relating to the section of the market that seems to be in violation of the contract.

 

[DVCkidz]

My comments have all been directed at availability, as well. I haven't suggested a ban on renting so not sure if your reference to such was intended for me. I do not think renting should be banned.

The issue for me is rental brokers using web tools to snag access to premium rooms at premiums times. Doing so tilts the playing in their favor and disadvantages the average owner. If you and others are fine with that, then cool. I am not.

Do such tools exist?? I was trying to book right at the 11 month window and ended up moving the trip up a week because the rooms vanished before my eyes. I was thinking maybe someone has a trick.

 

[Chuck S]

Do such tools exist?? I was trying to book right at the 11 month window and ended up moving the trip up a week because the rooms vanished before my eyes. I was thinking maybe someone has a trick.

Such tools CAN exist, and I suspect some people may use some. We used a script that former moderator CaskBill wrote for years on the Rental board, it would read new posts in the board, approve or decline them, and track them, though it still required some manual input from the moderators. It was an older version, and when Windoiws updated after CaskBill passed away, while we had a copy of the files, that version was not compatible with the Windows update. There were also rule changes for posting on the Rent/Trade board that we could not program. It was certainly faster than doing it all manually, as we do now.

But the point being, the basic script operating programs are out there, and have been for many years, if you want to take the time to program them. As to whether they could be completely automated to make DVC reservations, is anyones guess. Bill's script program, though more sophisticated, reminded me of the script programming I did in the old Dbase III+, 20+ years ago.

 

[Jack Kerouac]

Your original supposition is incorrect. I'm not sure Disney knows what you think you know, but I know they don't have any plans to do anything about it, at least in terms of resorts under the original TOS. They don't have a dog in the fight, so they don't care. The rooms 'get gone' and they're going to 'get gone anyway. Disney needs 100% occupancy of the TS. They don't care who's in the rooms.

Do I care? No, but only because nothing is going to be done and there's nothing I can do about it. I try really hard not to worry about things I can't control as I have gotten older. I try not to worry about most things now as a matter of fact. Most of the things I worried about when I was younger never came to fruition. There was a great life lesson in that. It just took too long to learn.

You’re absolutely right. Two things I like to remember when it comes to worrying: first, worrying is like a rocking chair, it’s something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. Second, Carl Richards made a Ven diagram showing “Things that you can control” and “Things that matter”. You only concern yourself with the things where those two circles overlap.

 

[Genie+]

There’s a lot of parallels in these rental conversations to how DAS conversations used to play out.

Arguments would be made that it made little difference to others, if Disney cared they’d change it, legally they can’t anyway, etc.

Now DAS is getting overhauled.

Until DVC moves we can only speculate. Just don’t be surprised if they do make changes regarding rentals. None of us have the right to run rentals like a business. It is for personal use only.

 

[lowlight]

There’s a lot of parallels in these rental conversations to how DAS conversations used to play out.

Arguments would be made that it made little difference to others, if Disney cared they’d change it, legally they can’t anyway, etc.

Now DAS is getting overhauled.

Until DVC moves we can only speculate. Just don’t be surprised if they do make changes regarding rentals. None of us have the right to run rentals like a business. It is for personal use only.

Yes, but also Disney only changed DAS because it impacted their bottom line. Maybe when enough potential buyers tell their guides it is easier to rent the hard to get weeks from a site than to buy points and walk the week themselves Disney will act.

 

[MyDogTink]

Yes, but also Disney only changed DAS because it impacted their bottom line. Maybe when enough potential buyers tell their guides it is easier to rent the hard to get weeks from a site than to buy points and walk the week themselves Disney will act.

Exactly. Until it affects DVC’s profit I don’t see them caring. If guides aren’t selling and hear members say they aren’t adding on because it’s already too difficult to book with their existing points because of spec renters/ large resale companies owning the points or potential new members say the rental market is sufficient, then DVC isn’t going to care.

 

[TheDailyMoo]

Here is a question to ponder. If you decided to rent your room that you worked hard to get because of its demand, how would you define that?

Interesting question. Well I have zero desire to rent the room because as I mentioned this is a holiday week and going in April was so wonderful this past time that we can't wait to go again. And I'm super excited for a club level room so yeah absolutely no chance in renting however I did mention it definitely crossed my mind as a thought after the fact.

I know this is all semantics but if I did rent it now knowing I could get a decent sum (I assume anyway) I'm not sure I'd consider it a spec rental since that wasn't my original intent but again others would see it as such and it's all perspective. Also I will have had 4 DVC stays BEFORE renting it so I wouldn't see myself as a spec renter. I personally wouldn't do it as a side business but I can see how it wouldn't be too hard to set up an LLC, buy a ton of points and start renting them out. Or even as a smaller side hustle just buy 1000 points and rent less than 20 reservations a year just to add a little income.

This conversation isn't so cut and dry of course...lots of gray area. I think any software used by anyone is outright cheating. I think rental companies are fine as middlemen to rent points. It stinks to think of any individual or company making it their full time job to grab the best rooms in order to profit off them. It's definitely not in the true spirit of what we bought into. But I wouldn't begrudge anyone doing it once or twice just to add some income if needed. And it's also a huge disadvantage to those that aren't as computer literate or just don't have the ability to check the dashboard 10 times a day at exactly 11 months.

I've been very happy so far with how the system has worked. I've gotten pretty much everything I wanted, especially because we like split stays so that helps. I can see how there are some inequities in the system vis a vis rentals but the same can be said about any system I guess. It is what it is though and as such one must do their best to play by the rules set forth in the system.

 

[SL6827]

Yes, when it starts affecting Disney's pocketbook, then change will come about.