Incentives for 2009 vs. Past Incentives

[helloconnie]

Does DVC offer incentives every year? If so, how does this year measure up against past years?

[Ed T]

There are always incentives through out the year for encouraging people to join DVC. When we bought in 1994 they were offering 2 all park passes for the length of stay anytime you booked into a DVC resort of course OKW was the only one at the time and that was good for the next 5 years until 1999.

[tjkraz]

Incentive programs usually run for about 2-4 months and they are subject to end at any time. The current "free Disney Cruise" offer has been around since January or February. The extra cash discount began on April 1st. Nothing concrete at this point but both of those could end as early as May 31st.

DVC likes to keep changing the offers to appeal to different tastes.

[drusba]

As noted incentives have generally existed in the past but they are not always the same and there have been a number of times when you could not say they were even that enticing. For example, I remembering a time when they were selling BCV and the incentive was they would give you $5 a point off but you would have to give them your first year's points. You could have at the time paid full price and rented your first year points for close to $10 a point.

[gkrykewy]

I think the incentives are particularly good right now - certainly better than the $8/pp incentive for AKV when we bought in 2007 - but the other thing to remember is that they raised the prices by roughly 10% this past fall when the economy was already going downhill.

So they improved the incentives, but this just ends up keeping "net" prices flat to where they were a year and a half ago (i.e., we paid $96 per point after incentives for AKV in August 2007, which I think is exactly what you end up with under the current cash incentive).

[ssawka]

Originally Posted by gkrykewy

I think the incentives are particularly good right now - certainly better than the $8/pp incentive for AKV when we bought in 2007 - but the other thing to remember is that they raised the prices by roughly 10% this past fall when the economy was already going downhill.

So they improved the incentives, but this just ends up keeping "net" prices flat to where they were a year and a half ago (i.e., we paid $96 per point after incentives for AKV in August 2007, which I think is exactly what you end up with under the current cash incentive).

Yes, but you can't really compare the current incentives to the incentives in 2007. You make it sound like they aren't really giving incentives, and compared to 2007 you are right, however prices will not go down. So you need to consider incentives as if the prices now and the prices in 2007 were equal.

[gkrykewy]

Originally Posted by ssawka

Yes, but you can't really compare the current incentives to the incentives in 2007. You make it sound like they aren't really giving incentives, and compared to 2007 you are right, however prices will not go down. So you need to consider incentives as if the prices now and the prices in 2007 were equal.

No - I said that they are offering incentives, and that they are very good! You're right that prices will never go down, but they could certainly have stayed the same (given the economy), or risen by a smaller extent. That's what I meant.

What they did is essentially the equivalent of a store raising prices by 25% before having a "DOORBUSTER" 20% off sale It's good marketing though.

[christa112]

We were down at the World in Sept and they were basically matching your deposit and getting developer's points for AKV.

I am glad we waited a while. We got the incentives that are going on now. I think it is a better deal, we were able to purchase more points at a cheaper rate.

I guess you have to figure out what is the best incentives for you. Someone may love the idea of a free cruise, for us, we could care less about the cruise.

[whitfamily]

We just purchased about a week ago. When we toured in January there were developer points given on top of current $ off/pt at both AKV and BLT. Those development points are no longer available. We were able to join at Jambo AKV with a starting Dec. '08 use year. We got 200 pts now and will get another 200 pts in Dec....a nice buffer to start with

We actually came out on top by waiting until now. We got more $ off/pt and we also learned about using a DVC member referral. Like others we chose the $ off incentive over the cruise. We were told by a DVC guide when we called in that the current incentive are rumored to end June 15th. With current incentives and our member referral we got $18 off per point at AKV saving us $3600 (assuming you choose the cash incentives over the cruise). BLT would be $16 off per point with referral.

Good luck with your decision - I know we are so glad that we FINALLY chose to do it after sitting around for 3 years and watching the cost increase!

[pyrxtc]

when Ibought in a couple of years ago when AKV first opened, I got $8 off per point and double developer points to be used anywhere at 7 months. The rule was I could NOT use it at AKV but anything else was good. I got a week at AKV in concierge 2 bedroom in April and 10 days at BCV's 1 bedroom in January. After that, I still hd my original points that I bought.

[Agent P]

Agree that the current incentives negated the price increase for buying into AKV. Looked a couple of years ago and it was essentially the same cost as now.

[jlewisinsyr]

Originally Posted by christa112

We were down at the World in Sept and they were basically matching your deposit and getting developer's points for AKV.

I am glad we waited a while. We got the incentives that are going on now. I think it is a better deal, we were able to purchase more points at a cheaper rate.

I guess you have to figure out what is the best incentives for you. Someone may love the idea of a free cruise, for us, we could care less about the cruise.

Myabe my math is wrong, but we bought AKV at $94 a point last September, which also included Developer Points equal to the number of points purchased. If I'm correct, even with the current discount offered, the current price per point is higher then $94.

[Sandisw]

Originally Posted by jlewisinsyr

Myabe my math is wrong, but we bought AKV at $94 a point last September, which also included Developer Points equal to the number of points purchased. If I'm correct, even with the current discount offered, the current price per point is higher then $94.

New members who buy 200 points or more can get AKV as low as $94.00 right now.

[jlewisinsyr]

Originally Posted by Sandisw

New members who buy 200 points or more can get AKV as low as $94.00 right now.

Nice deal, but they lose out on the other items like the cruise and developer points, correct?

[Crystal_27]

Originally Posted by jlewisinsyr

Nice deal, but they lose out on the other items like the cruise and developer points, correct?

Yes, that is correct. Still, though, compared to the $112/point that it could be, $94/point is a significant savings (although of course not as good a deal as it was last year at that price point plus developer points).