Good points Dean. I read on the Vistana forum that the Westin St John folks were all given some great incentives while they wait for it to be re-built. I can't recall the details but the postings I read made it sound like many owners were happy with how they were treated. I would assume Disney would do something similar or better if HH or VB were wiped out. I hope to one day trade my StarOptions to stay at WSJ so that is why I have been keeping up with those resorts. I assume that is a long term goal for us since owners with a WSJ home resort will be trying to get in as soon as they can and it will take a few years to rebuild it. I am amazingly impressed with how the Caribbean resorts are rebuilding so quickly in general.
The technical requirements are what I stated and that's all one should expect. The variables are going to be what happens to the points that are shorter notice, passed banking windows banked, borrowed or would be in holding plus lost reservations. Based on what I've seen over the years Disney in general and DVC specifically does great with individual issues but not as well with large picture issues. They've had a few opportunities over the years to handle big picture issues. They did great with hurricane interruptions but they did poorly with the valet parking change and with several refurbishment projects with in place reservations. And I believe they ponied up money to avoid a SA when VB was damaged before.
Specific to the valet issue. Valet parking was free to DVC members for years even after the valet was outsourced. But the contract came up and the company was no longer willing to do it just for tips so DVC had to decide whether to pay full price for those that wanted it or to go pay to play. Clearly with those choices, pay to play for those that wanted to use it was the correct choice but they implemented it poorly. They didn't notice it to the point where some checked in with free parking and left with charges with no warning. It was like cloak and dagger in the middle of the night.
They have a history of planning major refurbishments and scheduling them after reservations are already set. Can you imagine you reserve minute one at 11 months out or even walk a reservation that's difficult to get then it's pulled out from under you. There were 2 major AKV refurbishments and one BWV that impacted DVC members significantly that come to mind. The BWV took members away from BW view rooms and away from the resort many to SSR but overall they seemed to do better than the AKV ones. The 2 AKV ones did the same and one took them away from once in a lifetime concierge club stays almost exclusively to SSR. In addition, they handled it individually depending on who you talked to and where they were in the process. Some got the SSR for free, free dining plan and return of all points. Some got nothing but just a return of the points difference and no options except SSR with lots of in between. With AKV they left it up to the resort both times to notify and plan it which was a big mistake IMO and it was clearly not done well.
Let's say VB or HH were wiped out but they planned to rebuild, here's my assumptions of what they would and would not do. They would let you use your points at the 7 month window at other resorts as required and bank per rules. They would likely take points in holding status and give them back without the restriction. They would likely allow banking after the deadline. They would likely return borrowed points to the original UY. They would not allow extension or further banking of banked points (they didn't with the hurricanes). They would not allow booking outside the 7 month window elsewhere. They could not create inventory availability so if no availability means you lose the points, so be it. They would not allow non qualified points to be used for cash type items like the DC or DCL. They might allow a priority wait list in specific case by case situations but not en mass. There might or might not be some dues credits in the meantime but if there were it would be due to lower costs of items that dues cover while it's down.
Marriott has taken on resorts over the years some of which are no longer with Marriott, in some cases Marriott simply dumped them and in others they just agreed to disagree. Obviously each issue I'll reference has it's own nuances but for sake of this discussion, I'll generalize. I can think of at least 8 resorts off hand that are no longer in the Marriott system. For some of these, Marriott sold weeks as Marriott's through their resale side. Many who bought did so in large part for the exchange priority through II back into Marriott's. Of course that option went away once a given resort was no longer a Marriott. With the first 2 that left early on, I don't think Marriott sold any of those but for the rest I think they did at all or most. With the first one that left where they had sold weeks, I am told they gave those owners that had bought from them the opportunity to trade for another week still in the system but in inventory though I don't know details. Later they didn't give that option and denied it when asked.
It's just like the Marriott HH Hurricane thing this past year, they had to chose who got the rooms and who didn't. I know many have issues with how they did this but that they had to chose is factual. The reality is that the owner or exchanger is taking risk for these issues per the contract and legal documents and what's written is all the company is required to do and frankly, all that should be expected is within the framework of what the documents say.
