DVC additional fees

famy27 · May 10, 2015

I'm considering (finally) purchasing a DVC contract. I'm a current Wyndham owner, so I am used to be charged every time I sneeze or use the washroom. I am just wondering if DVC has many additional fees (housekeeping, transactions, guest certificates, etc.). From the research I've done so far, the only thing I've seen is a $95 fee to use the Disney Collection resorts, but since I'll be buying resale, I won't be eligible to use those anyway. Is there anything I'm missing or do MFs cover pretty much everything with DVC?

darius · May 11, 2015

Famy,

There are no other hidden or surprise fees like several other programs. The only fees I know of us the $95.00 fee for booking a cruise, or specific other hotel based programs that are only available for a direct purchase anyway.

Enjoy your membership!

Darius

PearlCity · May 11, 2015

No fees like that but you get charged extra beyond your 1 mid week cleaning and for Hawaii you have a Transient Occupancy tax (but Wyndham, Hilton and Marriott all charge that).

frank808 · May 11, 2015

Disney is the best regarding fees. They donot charge a club fee, transaction fee, banking fee, etc. like almost all other timeshare operators. You can say that all these fees are already built into their maintenance fee structure. DVC is one of the most expensive timeshare units to purchase and with yearly maintenance fees.

Southerngirl528 · May 12, 2015

It's the state of Hawaii that charges the Transient Occupancy fee, not the timeshares.

And my MF's at Marriott's Maui Ocean Club are easily as high as my nearly 500 points w/DVC.

frank808 · May 13, 2015

All timeshares on maui have high maintenance fee because of the property tax rate on timeshares in maui county. Compare to a 500 point vero beach contract with maintenance fee over $4000. Aulani maintenence fee for 500 points would be over $3250. More than 500 points will be needed to book aulani 2br in half of the seasons. What is the maintenace on you marriott 2br units?

Southerngirl528 · May 15, 2015

Hi Frank, my MF's at MMOC/Napili Oceanfront are $2276/year.

Because I own 160 points at Vero, my nearly 500 total points are costing me right at $3000/yr now. The rest of my points are at OKW. Still love that place!

Southerngirl528 · May 15, 2015

Oh, and those annual fees for Maui? They are paid annually on an EOY TS.

frank808 · May 16, 2015

Wow $4500 for a 2br in maui every year for marriott? That is nore than what is being charged at westin Kaanapali by far! I did not think marriott in maui was that much for a 2br every other year with a legacy week.

Southerngirl528 · May 17, 2015

Frank, I did not make clear that we own TWO weeks in a 2 bdrm Oceanfront villa EOY. It does even out to the equivalent of a week a year, but we can spend 4 weeks EOY if we lock off. We usually do 1 week in our 2 bdrm as we usually have one or more of our kids with us, then we will lock off for weeks 2 and 3. Does that make more sense?

elleny76 · May 22, 2015

famy27 said:
I'm considering (finally) purchasing a DVC contract. I'm a current Wyndham owner, so I am used to be charged every time I sneeze or use the washroom. I am just wondering if DVC has many additional fees (housekeeping, transactions, guest certificates, etc.). From the research I've done so far, the only thing I've seen is a $95 fee to use the Disney Collection resorts, but since I'll be buying resale, I won't be eligible to use those anyway. Is there anything I'm missing or do MFs cover pretty much everything with DVC?[/QUOTE

We bought this year a DVC @ SSR.. We love SSR and no so far no hidden fees or paying for maintenance or none of that non sense. Free transportation from airport included...I love my SSR_DVC!

(we also own Wyndham)

JimMIA · May 22, 2015

elleny76 said:
We bought this year a DVC @ SSR.. We love SSR and no so far no hidden fees or paying for maintenance or none of that non sense.

There are no hidden fees with Wyndham -- just a different way of charging fees. But all of the fees are very clearly spelled out in the owners guide and online -- nothing is hidden.

With DVC and some other timeshares, all of the expenses of both your home resort and the overall system are combined into one all-encompassing annual charge...which DVC laughingly calls "Annual Dues" because it's a Club, after all! :hysterical: That includes taxes, maintenance, housekeeping, MS, reserves, cost of the "free" bus transportation, etc, etc. If your home resort is co-located with a regular Disney resort, your "dues" also include a pro-rated portion of the cost of the hotel's front desk operation, public areas of the hotel, guest services like concierge and bell services, etc.

With Wyndham and some others, fees are charged based on what you use. In one sense, that's a better way of apportioning costs -- those who use certain services pay for them. So you have a certain number of reservation transactions, for example, included in your base fees. If you use more than those, you get charged. And there are other charges. To be perfectly honest, in five years of ownership of Wyndham, we have never paid a penny in extra charges.

Free transportation from airport included...I love my SSR_DVC!

Nope. Free airport transportation has NOTHING to do with DVC. It is NOT a perk of DVC.

Disney's Magical Express is a free kidnapping service (designed to make you a captive guest so you cannot leave the property, and will therefore spend all your vacation money with the Mouse). It is provided to every guest of any onsite Disney resort.

frank808 · May 22, 2015

Southerngirl528 said:
Frank, I did not make clear that we own TWO weeks in a 2 bdrm Oceanfront villa EOY. It does even out to the equivalent of a week a year, but we can spend 4 weeks EOY if we lock off. We usually do 1 week in our 2 bdrm as we usually have one or more of our kids with us, then we will lock off for weeks 2 and 3. Does that make more sense?

Okak got it. So it is still $2276 a year mf for 2br oceanfront. Still less than comparable 2br ocean view at aulani. That makes more sense than the $4500 annual mf that i thought.

PearlCity · May 29, 2015

Southerngirl528 said:
It's the state of Hawaii that charges the Transient Occupancy fee, not the timeshares.

And my MF's at Marriott's Maui Ocean Club are easily as high as my nearly 500 points w/DVC.

Except that dvc grand California includes the TOT in the maintenance fee which they shouldn't if they don't include it for aulani.

AnnaS · Jun 1, 2015

$95 exchange fee for RCI wether you buy resale or direct).

No other hidden fees (besides your MF fees of course).

famy27 · Aug 1, 2015

Well, we finally have a contract for DVC points. We've been discussing this for years and decided it was time. Now, we're just hoping to make it through ROFR.

chriskre · Aug 2, 2015

famy27 said:
Well, we finally have a contract for DVC points. We've been discussing this for years and decided it was time. Now, we're just hoping to make it through ROFR.

Congrats and welcome to the DVC family.

Hope the ROFR goes smoothly.

AnnaS · Aug 2, 2015

famy27 said:
Well, we finally have a contract for DVC points. We've been discussing this for years and decided it was time. Now, we're just hoping to make it through ROFR.

good luck with ROFR!!

Southerngirl528 · Aug 2, 2015

Hey Famy27, be sure to come back here and let us know what happened with your ROFR! I'm waiting on Marriott's ROFR for a resale week myself right now. Waiting's hard, huh?

Myxdvz · Aug 2, 2015

JimMIA said:
To be perfectly honest, in five years of ownership of Wyndham, we have never paid a penny in extra charges. Nope.

While I agree that there are no HIDDEN charges, there are extra charges. I am on my 3rd(?) year of Wyndham ownership and I am finding that I am hitting against my reservation transaction limits so I am always now holding back on my bookings. Also, unless you don't pool your points in the credit pool, there's still that $39 charge.

So far, I haven't paid anything "extra" except for the credit pool fee. But I had extra RTs my first year. I am finding though that if one does take advantage of the ARP, and if that changes, at all -- one will hit the RT limit.

I have about 549K points. I have 7 RTs, and I only have 1 RT left back in March. Yes, my fault because I've had to move our 4th of July dates and Thanksgiving dates multiple times. But it does happen

So far, I haven't had to pay extra for HK but again, to be transparent - if one does a lot of short trips, there is a risk of going over your limit and have to pay extra.

So in summary: Credit Pool fee, and RT and HK fees in cases where you keep on changing your plans or do a lot of short stays.

There are no additional fees for similar transactions with DVC. The $95 exchange fee is an BV/RCI fee really and not a DVC fee. So, if you stay within the DVC resorts, no fees aside from MF.

Ty1on · Aug 2, 2015

Myxdvz said:
While I agree that there are no HIDDEN charges, there are extra charges. I am on my 3rd(?) year of Wyndham ownership and I am finding that I am hitting against my reservation transaction limits so I am always now holding back on my bookings. Also, unless you don't pool your points in the credit pool, there's still that $39 charge.

So far, I haven't paid anything "extra" except for the credit pool fee. But I had extra RTs my first year. I am finding though that if one does take advantage of the ARP, and if that changes, at all -- one will hit the RT limit.

I have about 549K points. I have 7 RTs, and I only have 1 RT left back in March. Yes, my fault because I've had to move our 4th of July dates and Thanksgiving dates multiple times. But it does happen

So far, I haven't had to pay extra for HK but again, to be transparent - if one does a lot of short trips, there is a risk of going over your limit and have to pay extra.

So in summary: Credit Pool fee, and RT and HK fees in cases where you keep on changing your plans or do a lot of short stays.

There are no additional fees for similar transactions with DVC. The $95 exchange fee is an BV/RCI fee really and not a DVC fee. So, if you stay within the DVC resorts, no fees aside from MF.

If you can plan ahead, you get all the reservations you can eat in one day for one RT.

Myxdvz · Aug 2, 2015

Ty1on said:
If you can plan ahead, you get all the reservations you can eat in one day for one RT.

I can plan ahead... but 13 months of ARP goes in buckets.... there's no way to ARP in one RT @ 13 months: Spring Break, 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

That's 4 RTs right there. Basically, I've learned NOT to ARP unless it's Glacier Canyon or Christmas. I found that Thanksgiving is an easy holiday to book so I will stop ARPing that.
Add in the long holidays (MLK, Presidents Day, Columbus Day, Memorial Day weekend) and that's basically ALL my RTs assuming I don't make ANY changes at all.

carlbarry · Aug 2, 2015

I own Wyndham and DVC.
I recently booked a stay at Disney World for a friend, through DVC. There is no cost for a "guest" staying.
After I booked it, she asked me to change the dates. I did. No cost.
Then she asked me to change the location to a split stay. I did. No cost.
Then she asked me to change one of the stays from a 1 bedroom to a studio, and thus fewer points. Problem: the points were borrowed, so they would be returned to my soon expiring use year. I called DVC. They made the change. No charge. AND they put the points back into the original year, as if I had never borrowed them. Try that with Wyndham.

Ty1on · Aug 3, 2015

carlbarry said:
I own Wyndham and DVC.
I recently booked a stay at Disney World for a friend, through DVC. There is no cost for a "guest" staying.
After I booked it, she asked me to change the dates. I did. No cost.
Then she asked me to change the location to a split stay. I did. No cost.
Then she asked me to change one of the stays from a 1 bedroom to a studio, and thus fewer points. Problem: the points were borrowed, so they would be returned to my soon expiring use year. I called DVC. They made the change. No charge. AND they put the points back into the original year, as if I had never borrowed them. Try that with Wyndham.

Pretty demanding friend you have :hysterical:

carlbarry · Aug 3, 2015

Ty1on said:
Pretty demanding friend you have :hysterical:

Well, I didn't mention, as not being relevant to my post, that AFTER I changed half her stay to a studio AND DVC was nice enough to return my points, she then asked me to change the other half of the stay to a studio!