Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is cracking down on how members use their points.
DVC has made significant strides recently in offering new perks to its members, including lounges and exclusive offers for Disney vacations. Deciding to become a Disney Vacation Club member could be one of the heaviest financial decisions about Disney you make, but also one of the most rewarding if you’re able to use your membership in a way that works for how you want to vacation. But if you’ve hesitated over the lack of availability for bookings, this may be DVC’s way of turning things around soon.
Being a Disney Vacation Club member can certainly have its perks. For one, you use a points system to book your vacations, and can choose from a whole collection of Disney Deluxe category hotel villas and Deluxe studios. And, while you’re on vacation, you may enjoy other perks like higher discounts on select merchandise and restaurants, occasional gifts offered to members as you’re passing by a DVC kiosk in the parks or at Disney Springs, and even a lounge to hang out, relax, and pick up a few refreshments.
While this is a great option to consider for how you could book your future Disney World and Disneyland hotel stays, buying into Disney’s timeshare program is a hefty investment financially. In order to become a member, you’ll buy into a set amount of points, which is what you will pull from each year when you go to book your subsequent Disney World hotel stays. While this might sound fairly easy and straightforward to do (and it is in practice), many members have recently seen a surge in the lack of availability for booking hotel reservations.
Members have been vocal about their disappointment with the booking availability for some time now. Most of these complaints have been lack of availability to book their preferred hotel for the entire length of stay they’re vacationing (which results in having to split stay and book a second hotel stay for the same vacation), or not being able to use their points at all during the times they’re able to vacation.
In recent years, availability has dwindled for members to book even their “home” resorts as early as they could, and has forced members to check back for availability and waitlist future vacations (this means you’re automatically booked after you “waitlist” a stay and it becomes available in the system). This could be due in part to the increase in Disney Vacation Club members “renting” their points out for Disney hotel stays to non-members looking to try out the program (or discount a cash reservation directly from Disney) in exchange for cash value to the DVC member.
All of these complaints seem to have made their way to Disney Vacation Club, and they’re looking to ease the burden of existing availability on their members by implementing a few changes. Recently, DVC has updated its Terms and Conditions to outline that hotel stays booked with member points should be reserved for personal use. Here’s how they’ve actually outlined this use:
While that description could seem a bit vague, we called Disney Vacation Club to find out how they defined point usage going forward. What we learned is that DVC now requires a box to be checked off as you’re booking a future hotel stay with your membership points, acknowledging this is for personal use.
Additionally, DVC will be cracking down on how many bookings you’re making with your membership and if your names are listed as the lead guests on the reservation. While the policy change does outline that occasional or infrequent reservations made to rent or sell points out to someone who is not a current owner will be allowed, they will essentially be keeping tabs on those who are using membership reservations that way.
In short, the supervisor we spoke with strongly advised against booking reservations for profit to the member, as that’s the intent of the update to DVC’s terms and conditions. This was a popular practice for many to use their points to help someone else out on their next stay, and then in turn use the money towards their DVC annual dues, or other types of Disney vacations like sailing on Disney Cruise Line or booking an Adventures By Disney trip where the point conversion doesn’t translate as effectively.
While it’s not a perfect system, it does seem like this is the answer DVC has come up with to discourage and identify those who have purchased memberships with the intent of running them as a for-profit business model, rather than actually using them for vacation membership purposes. It will be interesting to see how these new terms and conditions are received and how long, if at all, they will have a noticeable impact on DVC booking availability.
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How do you feel about this change to Disney Vacation Club’s terms and conditions? Sound off in the comments below!
I don’t disagree and I think it should be more strict. Strict guidelines like only 1 reservation per year without the members name and cap the number of points that can be used for that reservation. At seven months the only resorts available are SSR and OKW. One bedrooms use to be easier to get, now it doesn’t matter.
I’ve been member since 1990 at OKW. It has become so hard to book at several studio resorts especially in prime locations. I use to be able to book in 9 month window with no problem but now even on waitlist it becoming harder. I recently spoke to a couple while staying at Jambo whose home resort was boardwalk. They said they haven’t been able to stay there due to studio always being booked up. I’m glad they told me because I was thinking I would buy into Boardwalk so to have earlier access to one of my favorite resorts. If you look at the reservations window it’s even booked past the 11month window. How?
How will this help? It seems as though they have sold more “points” than they have capacity. Whether the points are used by the member or by someone else the points still exist to be used. I thought about buying in back in 2001 but didn’t some days I regret it but mostly I think I made the right call.
They say they will but they won’t. It puts bodies in the park. If the points aren’t being used they still got their money but they also want bodies in the parks. I tell them every time I try and book something robots are grabbing up rooms. It is almost impossible that using a world clock even that a human can’t hit book and get something right at booking window. It’s a robot. It’s a joke. Nothing will be done. And I know it says they are but they won’t.
I have been a DVC Member since 1994. It was a great program back then, and it is still a great program today. I have used it only for vacation purposes for family and friends. Even for a few golf trips to Florida and Hilton Head. Although the price per point has increased significantly since 1994, I would still recommend the program as cost justified. It is very flexible and the folks at DVC have been very helpful to accommodate my needs.
US Disney parks’ quality and guest experience has sunk lower and lower since iger took over like 20 years ago but over the past 5 years have been the worst. It seems they are trying to make up for their studios failing by taking advantage of families going to their destinations. It also seems that guests are lowering expectations as prices go up and they seem to try to justify the lack of value for their money. It’s sad. Disney was always expensive but you got something for you money. Now you get the bare minimum.
Joe, your comments don’t address DVC points rental which is the focus of the article.
Finally!!! We have made complaints for several years about this issue. Hopefully this will open up more reservation possibilities.
It’s about time Disney cracked down on the rogue owners who basically use DVC as their personal, profit-making businesses.