Yea! You’re planning a Disney Parks vacation! As you start the planning process you may have run across the option to stay at a Disney Vacation Club resort using DVC points, even if you’re not a DVC member.
AllEars answers your Walt Disney World planning questions — read about them here!
If you have heard about renting DVC points — or if you’re just hearing about it for the first time — you might assume the process is complicated or difficult. You might be wondering if it’s safe or where you should even start.
We have gathered the basics to renting DVC points for your next Disney vacation in the hopes of making it easier for you to decide if renting is for you!
The Basics of Renting DVC Points
Decide When You Are Going
After deciding you want to go to Disney, you will need to know WHEN you are going to Disney. This will determine the timeframe during which you can or should rent your points. DVC members can start making reservations at their “home resort” up to 11 months in advance, so points for the various DVC resorts should be available to rent then.
Check out AllEars’ DVC primer here — everything you need to know about Disney Vacation Club!
Determine Where You Want to StayÂ
In order to “shop” for points and calculate their cost, you will need to know where you want to stay. Currently, resorts with DVC options include:
Walt Disney World
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
- Disney’s Beach Club Villas
- Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
- Disney’s Old Key West Resort
- Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
- Disney’s Riviera Resort — Opening December 16, 2019
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
- The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Disneyland
Other Locations
Get Your Calculator Out
Time to crunch the numbers! Work with your travel agent, or do the work yourself, and price out your vacation if you were to purchase it directly from Disney or your travel agent. Be sure to check Disney’s special offers when you are evaluating the numbers. AllEars.net recommends Mouse Fan Travel — learn about why you should use a vacation planner/travel agent for your Disney trip here.
Now, find out how many DVC points you would need to rent for your vacation and the price per point, as well as any other rental fees. You can find DVC points calculators on several websites, including David’s Vacation Club Rentals.
Find Out How and Where to Contact DVC Members
You can find DVC members renting points on message boards, on online auction sites, and on sites dedicated to DVC rentals such as David’s Vacation Club Rentals. Each of these approaches comes with its own benefits and drawbacks.
Additional Options — If You’re Flexible
David’s Vacation Rental offers two other options for finding rentals, but you’ll have to be flexible to take advantage of them. The first is the site’s Dedicated Reservations. These are reservations that are set in stone; Resorts are booked for specific dates with specific room types and views. But if you browse these last-minute options and find one that works for you, you might score a great deal as they are often a reduced price.
David’s also offers Last-Minute Specials which are typically only shared via email to subscribers. If you’re flexible enough to book a spur-of-the-moment trip, you may get a great deal that way, too.
Make Your Reservation
After you have reached an agreement on dates, location, and price go ahead and make your reservation with the DVC member.
Remember, this is not your conventional hotel reservation. You are entering into a private transaction with the DVC member, regardless of how you contact them. This means you are trusting them to make the reservation and maintain the reservation for you. Disney will not be able to help you if something goes wrong — they have entered into the transaction with the DVC member, not with you.
Get Ready for Your Vacation!
You can use the Disney website with your reservation number (be sure to get that from the DVC member). Mark your calendar for your 180-day window to make Advance Dining Reservations and your 60-day window for FastPasses.
Have you rented DVC points before? Would you recommend it? Share your DVC rental experience with us in the comments!
Check out these posts for more trip-planning advice:
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Renting DVC points is simple and without risk if you use a legit 3rd party website. We have used the cited service (DVCrequest.com) at least 10 times and it is smooth as silk. Just spent a week in Disneyland (Grand Californian) and heading back to WDW in October (Bay Lake Tower). You save 30-40% versus the official Disney reservation rate, but you lose flexibility. Once the reservation is booked, it’s booked. No refunds or changes. So that is the trade off. Highly recommended!
We made our transaction through David’s DVC Rentals and stayed at Kidani Village and Boardwalk Inn. Absolutely loved it and don’t want to go any other way now! An affordable way to stay at a deluxe resort. The only tricky part is that there are no refunds if you have to cancel your trip. You can get travel insurance which adds an expense. But it was definitely a wonderful Experience and we will do it again….I would love to try the Beach Club next time as we loved the location of the Boardwalk Inn.
I love renting DVC points. We have stayed at Old Key West 3 times and the Boardwalk twice by renting DVC. Our next vacation stay will be at Kidani Village in November, and we are very excited. I think it is cost effective, and we get a chance to stay at these beautiful resorts which normally would be outside our price range.
We are former DVC members. Since we sold our membership (long unhappy story) we have rented points any number of times. We found several renters thru Disboards and have had with derful experiences with all of them. Oftentimes we have contacted the same people for subsequent trips with happy results. My only comment is this: this is a “trust transaction”. You trust that they will not pull the confirmation and they trust that you will not trash the room or leave it in an unsafe/partially destroyed manner which would require that they pay for clean-up or repairs. We have had virtual “handshake” agreements and contracts. Most Disney people are honest and above-board. Do be wary of someone who asks you send money Western Union. That’s sorta sketchy. And always get an official WDW confirmation with YOUR names on it. We have an agreement with someone right now for a December visit.i have every confidence in this verbal agreement and look forward to that visit.