Am I being too judgy judgy about owners who rent prolifically?

[BaybeeYoda]

I advertised a rental on FB bc I have extra days in a xxxxxxxx. My family member isn't coming out with us. I mentioned that I will cancel my rooms next week if I don't get a taker. My price was pretty high because the idea of giving up my bwv points just pains me. Basically, the price is what I would be willing to give up my beloved bwv points.

So, that being said, one of the prolific renters on the site PM'ed me asking that I coordinate with her if I cancel my rooms so that she can "grab" it.

It just doesn't feel ethical (to me). I booked these rooms at the 11th month mark at 8am on the dot, wary of walkers, for a seven day stretch in late June, about two months from now. It seems a bit greedy of this person to "grab" these standard rooms so that she can rent them out at a profit. What are your thoughts?

feel free to tell me that this uncomfortable feeling in my gut is just me being judgy judgy....

Details removed

 

[Mommb]

I completely agree with you. You are under no obligation to share information about when and what you are cancelling. If someone needs or wants the reservation, she can offer to rent it from you, just as anyone else can.

I wouldn't tell her anything. If you feel a need to respond, you can wait until well after you cancel and just say "I canceled" without specifying when.

I hope you do find someone who wants to book the few days at the rate you are offering so that this becomes a moot point.

 

[Genie+]

Personally I’d just ignore that person and go about my business. A June standard booking has a great chance getting rented, especially those 10 and 12pt nights. I’d be surprised if it took more than a couple weeks. Hang tight and worse case scenario, cancel some time that last possible week when convenient to you and don’t tell anyone, lol.

 

[BaybeeYoda]

Personally I’d just ignore that person and go about my business. A June standard booking has a great chance getting rented, especially those 10 and 12pt nights. I’d be surprised if it took more than a couple weeks. Hang tight and worse case scenario, cancel some time that last possible week when convenient to you and don’t tell anyone, lol.

My price was super high. ha ha. only because these points are near and dear to me. It’s basically a price that, if met, makes me ok with giving them up. But seriously, I need my xxxx points. I love them. I'm obsessed with xxxxx and my std rooms.... so the idea of some woman just "getting it" without ANY effort, not being a xxxxx owner, and just taking it from a stranger, just to rent it out and make money off my effort at the expense of other ppl’s waitlist, when it is so near and dear to me.... i dunno. It just doesn’t seem fair or right….

 

[lowlight]

I think you should tell her you are canceling it at 300am Sunday morning, and then cancel it a day later for real. I despise for profit spec renters.

 

[Genie+]

My price was super high. ha ha. only because these points are near and dear to me. It’s basically a price that, if met, makes me ok with giving them up. But seriously, I need my xxxxx points. I love them. I'm obsessed withxxxxx and my std rooms.... so the idea of some woman just "getting it" without ANY effort, not being a xxxx owner, and just taking it from a stranger, when it is so near and dear to me.... i dunno. I find it offensive and annoying! Esp on behalf of the bwv owners or anyone else who are on the waitlist for these dates!

Lol we felt the same. I had 18pts BW which were a combo of bank, current, and orphaned borrow. I was able to get 2 nights out them at 10 months that included EP and MK EEH. The small amount of points wasn’t worth renting for less than $30 - we’d just have given the days away. The site we used tacked on more fees than figured, bringing total over $40pp. As horrible as that sounds, we’ve booked near term rentals ourselves at similarly high expense because it still was better than alternatives (OKW 10pt night for $320 when onsite was near fully booked anyway).

I have an easier time justifying owners offloading the occasional rental than hustlers turning DVC into a business, but who knows what/why that individual does what they do… I’d just ignore them. At some point DVC could address what the definition of commercial use entails. Let the chips fall where they may. Those that bought for personal use should be fine.

 

[DanCali]

My price was super high. ha ha. only because these points are near and dear to me. It’s basically a price that, if met, makes me ok with giving them up. But seriously, I need my xxxxx points. I love them. I'm obsessed with xxxxxxand my std rooms.... so the idea of some woman just "getting it" without ANY effort, not being a xxxx. owner, and just taking it from a stranger, just to rent it out and make money off my effort at the expense of other ppl’s waitlist, when it is so near and dear to me.... i dunno. It just doesn’t seem fair or right….

There is only so much pricing power you have on FB where renters are relatively informed. Those points may be dear to you but renters don't care. The the price per point is something they do look at and if it's excessive most will balk. If you price it reasonably, a summer reservation should go quickly.

I saw an owner peddling confirmed reservations for AKV Value studios on FB at ~$250/night (which does sound attractive to a non-owner) but the responses they got were mostly that the price per point ($30) was way too high.

I happen to value my AKV and VGF points more than some other points, because they are direct and can be used at RIV and also because we love the club level rooms at AKV and had reasonable success booking those. But I don't think that if I listed those points at a higher asking price I'd get a lot of sympathy from renters.

As an aside, I'm used to listing on Redweek from our Marriott ownerships. I tried it with a short July PVB reservation we couldn't use priced at $21.50/pt and got multiple inquiries, so I probably underpriced it a bit (it wasn't a lot of points anyway). It does cost ~$40 to list there, but seems like a reasonable avenue to try for some resorts, especially with so many overpriced listing there from the same broker, which makes reasonably priced listings stand out...

 

[tjkraz]

(Some) people suck.

 

[lowlight]

I'm used to listing on Redweek

Redweek is at least 90% listings by one third party shop, spec rentals at really high dollar per points. That is one business I’d like to see made an example of by Disney. Maybe if enough people complain.

 

[Sandisw]

Details removed of the resort.

 

[Brian Noble]

one of the prolific renters on the site PM'ed me asking that I coordinate with her if I cancel my rooms so that she can "grab" it.

"Sure! It will cost you $5/pt."

 

[DanCali]

Redweek is at least 90% listings by one third party shop, spec rentals at really high dollar per points. That is one business I’d like to see made an example of by Disney. Maybe if enough people complain.

This is true, but also somewhat isolated to a few "cheap" resorts where they can pull that off (e.g., AKVJ, BWV). Currently they have 330 listings for Jambo (but only 57 for Kidani) so for anyone wondering where the value studios go, look no further than that broker listing on Redweek. There are also 176 rental listings for BWV, mostly the cheap studios.

But it's a lot less crazy for the pricier resorts like PVB (currently only 26 rental listings) or Grand Floridian with 64 rental listings currently.

 

[samsp99]

Hmm, i wonder how they get that many reservations for highly desirable rooms?

 

[zavandor]

Hmm, i wonder how they get that many reservations for highly desirable rooms?

Only explanation is that they have script that scans the DVC website looking for nights dropped by members and they book then automatically with SAP points.
I wish Disney adds some form of limits to the searches on their website. Like: 5 searches an hour are free, then a captcha verification would appear.

 

[Cyberc1978]

I saw an owner peddling confirmed reservations for AKV Value studios on FB at ~$250/night (which does sound attractive to a non-owner) but the responses they got were mostly that the price per point ($30) was way too high.

Renters that complain about those prices are just uneducated. Unfortunately many renters are because they tend to look solely at the price per point and not the total price per night or total price for the reservation.

Paying $294 (14x$21) at Poly in September for a std studio is apparently better than paying $175(7x$25) for the same night at AKV for a value room. Renters would go for the lower price per point even if it costs them more. Only reason to go with the poly room is if you prefer the poly over AKV. If a renter wants the cheapest room possible then they need to do their math and not look at the price per point because that’s misleading.

 

[DanCali]

Renters that complain about those prices are just uneducated. Unfortunately many renters are because they tend to look solely at the price per point and not the total price per night or total price for the reservation.

Or, an alternate way to see it, is that when the price is $30/point the renters know that either (i) there is a reasonable chance the owner might take $25/pt and still be happy, or (ii) a different owner might have that reservation and be happy with $25/pt (which is still almost 3x the annual dues and 20%-30% above what the vast majority of owners get).

In your example you also don't compare to cash rates, and the Poly rental may offer more savings at $21/pt vs the higher rate at AKV (albeit probably not at $25/pt). The point is, I don't think renters who look at that stuff are "uneducated"...

If I was renting out those types of reservations myself (which I haven't done to this point), I'd be super happy to take $25/pt and move on. And I'd price it that way to start with. In the grand scheme of things, for a 1-2 night reservation that extra $5/pt might add up to $40-$80, arguably not very consequential to either side, so it's a matter of who cares more about the principle of it...

 

[zavandor]

Renters that complain about those prices are just uneducated. Unfortunately many renters are because they tend to look solely at the price per point and not the total price per night or total price for the reservation.

Paying $294 (14x$21) at Poly in September for a std studio is apparently better than paying $175(7x$25) for the same night at AKV for a value room. Renters would go for the lower price per point even if it costs them more. Only reason to go with the poly room is if you prefer the poly over AKV. If a renter wants the cheapest room possible then they need to do their math and not look at the price per point because that’s misleading.

According to Disney, a night at the Poly is worth more than a night at AKV. Personal preferences may be different, but both the point cost and cash rates are higher for the Poly.
So, someone looking to rent, may feel that paying $175 for a night at AKV value is not as a good value as $294 at the Poly, which is not only in a prime location, but also a larger room with two bathrooms.
Personally, I love AKV and between the two I'd pay the lowest price for a resort I love, but not everyone might think the same, not irrationally.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Only explanation is that they have script that scans the DVC website looking for nights dropped by members and they book then automatically with SAP points.
I wish Disney adds some form of limits to the searches on their website. Like: 5 searches an hour are free, then a captcha verification would appear.

Noooooo. They're all 75 year old meemaws from Wichita who sadly had to cancel their SSR reservation and just happened to stumble across (on their first try) those incredibly rare AK Value rooms after some nice young man on the internet suggested they give it a shot.