DVC Rental Site Comparisons?

I’ve loved that John now has the weekly dedicated rental deals posts, but it did get me thinking about pros/cons of the various sites. While I’ve always just used David’s when making a request, I know they have all been raising rates and such to stay competitive amongst each other.

Currently, are there any pros/cons of using David’s/DVC Rental/DVC Store/DVC Shop/Etc.?

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I’ve used a couple of them and they all are comparable service wise. When I’m looking for a dedicated reservation I want, I scour all four of the sites in the link below and look for what I want. As far as booking well in advance, the biggest difference is whether “insurance” is included and price per point.

If you want a hard-to-get reservation, you’re best off going directly through an owner at a property.

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I haven’t crunched any numbers at all to compare who’s selling what cheaper when to comes to the various rental sites, but I do have this nifty summary counting how many unique dedicated rentals each site has had since I started.

DVC-Rental obviously lags overall, but I also started including them several months after the others.

What I find kind of funny: before I started paying attention to DVC rentals, if you asked be who the biggest (or any) site was, I probably could only have named David’s, yet it has had a lot fewer dedicated rentals.

It could be the case, of course, that they focus more on “regular” requested bookings, but I have no way to measure the volume of those non-dedicated rentals for any of the sites.

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I think David’s are sticking with the original way of renting points.

The others have realised they can get away with charging far more per point by doing confirmed reservations. To the point they prefer people to book something with their points to list. Their cut is proportionately bigger that way, and it’s easier to disguise how much the per point cost actually is.

As @PrincipalTinker pointed out in the other thread, $40 a point for a value studio at AKL. That is insane. If they tried asking for $40 a point for a “normal” points rental I don’t think they’d get too many takers. But disguise it as a cost per stay without divulging how many points it is, it becomes much easier to fob off, err sell to, someone.

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Also the Rental Store won’t deal with international owners. At least they wouldn’t before or during Covid.

As such I would never use them, even if they changed their position. That was just laziness on their part IMO; they certainly couldn’t give me a reason when I asked, just said it was “policy”.

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I love that data! Thanks for sharing.

Mainly my question is around the requested bookings. For example, are the point premiums/asking value different at 11 months for one vs the other or something. I think David’s started adding a premium for certain resorts “recently”. Perhaps they are all the same…IDK.

I currently have a trip booked with DVC rental store. I had it narrowed down to 4 rental stores with all different prices per point, deposit requirements and cancelation policies. I ended up going with DVC rental store (the most expensive per point). My trip is for a Poly studio in December for 6 nights. This has been a harder room to book. I booked at 11 months out. I had initially planned to use the least expensive per point company. They told me they didn’t have enough Poly points flat out. I’m glad they did and will always check with them first for their honesty and quick response. The difference was between Daves, DVD Rental Store and another (can’t remember). Dave’s was the least expensive in price per point but no cancelation policy. The one I can’t remember was $1 less per point than DVC Rental and had an up to 75% refund policy. The trip is 100% happening. But there is this slight chance I want more space. If my trip was much closer or I was looking at SS or OKW, I would have went with a company that was cheaper and no refund or the one with 75% refund. DVC Rental Store is great to work with though. I will say I feel like I’m getting what I’m paying for. They also pay top dollar to the owners so I felt I had a better chance getting the coveted Poly reservation.

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When I rented in 2019 there were four price points at David’s and DVC Rental Store - 11 month premium resorts, 11 month non-premium, 7 month premium and 7 month non-premium. As an owner these catagories totally make sense - some resorts are just much harder to book than others.

I hate the prebooked rentals because it encourages people to book hard to get dates on speculation, and makes them harder foe others to get at the 7 month mark. If they were booking a specific rental, I am fine. But booking and holding desirable dates annoys me.

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Pretty sure that pricing structure has been around for several years. I think the first year we rented out points was 2017; we used David’s and that was the pricing structure then too. And I don’t think it was new.

Agree that it makes sense based on demand.

Definitely - seems to have been this way for awhile!

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Curious side question…because it’s me. It’s what I do.

Has anyone had a negative experience when Disney finds out we’re staying on rented points?

It’ll be my first time actually using rented points since they were “refunded” from a cancelled winter trip. Am I supposed to lie and say I’m using a friends (something I’m not SUPER comfortable with)?

Like when I called today to get tickets for the HS after hours members thing. I’m staying on site at the treehouses. I am an owner, even though the reservation “name” isn’t mine for the day I’m staying to get advance tickets. I’m still on the reservation and it’s showing up in MDE, but I don’t know the name of the person who actually owns the points.

Can Disney not honor the reservation if I told them I rented points through a site?

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Is this for Moonlight Magic? I think you have to be a DVC owner to go. Are you an owner of direct or grandfathered points? Staying on rented points I wouldn’t think you’d be able to even get tickets, but I don’t know as I’ve never tried.

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You’re fine. Renting is expressly permitted. There is no need to “say” anything at all.

However, if you are meaning the Moonlight Magic then you do need to be staying on your own points (or “on your membership”). I’m surprised it let you buy tickets.

If you mean the After Hours event, where all onsite guests get advance booking, you’ll be fine.

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Hello @Bubblez! Glad to see you around! :kissing_heart:

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In addtion to what @Nicky_S said, if anyone were to “get in trouble” it wouldn’t be you. There is vague language in the DVC contracts that you are not supposed to own for commercial gain (I am paraphrasing) but that is really to keep a company from buying thousands of points to simply rent out. So it would never impact you as a guest.

The company just doesnt want you going in and saying “I have a rental through the DVC Rental store” for thier own reasons.

Also, I am suprised they didn’t give you the name.of the person you were renting from…

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No one has ever even asked me if I’m renting points or whose points they are. All the front desk cares about is that my name is on the reservation.

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Hi!
I’ve always gotten instructions to say I’m a guest of ________ (insert points owner here). I’ve only rented twice… The first time I did this with no issue at all. The CM addressed me by name as it was on the reservation. This was for a 2 night stay at the Contemporary.
Edit: I haven’t stayed yet for my second rent but I will do the same if it comes up. I don’t think I will volunteer the info this time.

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We bought BLT points when it was first built.

Good! I felt icky when I had received an email last year to say I was staying as a guest under so and so’s room if asked. This was back when I had originally booked for the cancelled winter trip.

The computer wasn’t showing any tickets loaded to buy, even though I had an email with a link sent to me for advance purchase.

I remember they had when I booked originally. I specifically noticed because a noticeably large amount of points were from the same person. I don’t remember seeing a name this time but I’d have to go look to be sure.

I’ll have to look to see which event too. It was during the first two weeks of May, whichever that was. But when I tried to get tickets yesterday she asked me if I was the member booking and I choked and stammered through a friend excuse. I am the world’s worst liar.

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Moonlight Magic is on May 11th but early registration for DVC members with a reservation doesn’t open until April 4th.

Whereas I know booking for the After Hours events opened yesterday for those with onsite stays. Any onsite stay counts.

That’s the paid event. Sounds like it must be that you booked. In which case you’re fine. Doesn’t matter if you’re staying at the All Stars, GF, a DVC points stay, renting points.

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I’ll add that if you’re booking AH, the name they wanted was yours since you’re on the reservation (presumably - if you went through a reputable broker or if the owner knows what they’re doing).

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