Disney Vacation club and RCI

[1965]

I believe that every year many Disney Vacation Club Members are depositing
Disney Vacation club points from all disney Vacation club Resorts and some of those DVC Point deposits are points equal to two bedrooms.

If the only Disney Vacation club Resort that you can get thru RCI exchange is a one bedroom at Saratoga Springs

What is Disney vacation club and or RCI, doing with all the Disney Vacation club deposits from all other Disney Vacation Club Resorts and for the two bedroom unit DVC Point deposits?

 

[vacationhopeful]

Disney ... like many other chain timeshare operators ... decides on WHAT is deposited into RCI. While an owner certainly might (to them) be depositing their BLT or AKV or VWL points ... Disney chooses to actually deposit WHAT resort THEY (Disney) chooses and the size of the unit.

AND RCI is very happy to go along with them as they are collecting the exchange fees and getting MANY NEW MEMBERS whose goal in life is to stay onsite Disney (stay at DVC).

I can NOT deposit a Wyndham Royal Vista week (booked within my HOME RESORT period points) to get a HIGH value in RCI ... as Royal Vista is NOT associated with RCI (II) ... I deposit Wyndham points out of my account into the Wyndham Corporate interface to RCI ... and use the RCI "wyndham-ize" hocus pocus and get an exchange ... Give lots of points, get a better and bigger week.

It is pretty standard with the big points companies ....

 

[dioxide45]

Owners aren't depositing their 2BR units. They are relinquishing points to DVC for an RCI exchange. The DVC owner is just giving up points that could allow them to book a 2BR in DVC, or perhaps book two 1BR units, depending on the time of the year.

Thus DVC actually decides what to give to RCI. Perhaps if the DVC owner took a 2BR out of RCI for exchange, DVC may give RCI two 1BR units. We don't know how it all actually works behind the scenes though.

 

[1965]

What does Disney Vacation club do with say 270 Beach Club villa Points
that a DVC owner gives up to get a RCI two bedroom exchange? If they do not deposit those 270 Beach Club villa Points with RCI that they received from the Disney Vacation Club Beach club Villa owner?

 

[DeniseM]

What does Disney Vacation club do with say 270 Beach Club villa Points
that a DVC owner gives up to get a RCI two bedroom exchange? If they do not deposit those 270 Beach Club villa Points with RCI that they received from the Disney Vacation Club Beach club Villa owner?

DVC is not required to disclose this info, so no one knows.

Starwood is the same - if you deposit your Starwood timeshare, Starwood can basically do what ever they want with it.

 

[dioxide45]

What does Disney Vacation club do with say 270 Beach Club villa Points
that a DVC owner gives up to get a RCI two bedroom exchange? If they do not deposit those 270 Beach Club villa Points with RCI that they received from the Disney Vacation Club Beach club Villa owner?

RCI doesn't take DVC points deposits. They take actual units that are deposited. In a simple form, Disney just takes the equivalent amount of inventory that those 270 points are worth and deposits that physical inventory in to RCI.

 

[Deb & Bill]

It may be because the number of points a DVC member is required to trade for a two bedroom outside of DVC into RCI is about the same number of points for a one bedroom at SSR or OKW or AKV at WDW. The DVC member gets a two bedroom villa for their one bedroom trade.

 

[chalee94]

What does Disney Vacation club do with say 270 Beach Club villa Points
that a DVC owner gives up to get a RCI two bedroom exchange? If they do not deposit those 270 Beach Club villa Points with RCI that they received from the Disney Vacation Club Beach club Villa owner?

most likely, more beach club villas availability for DVC owners...

 

[Kburns3761]

Aren't DVC units available, selectively, for rent by the general public on the Disney web site? I believe I saw them there--for an outrageous price, I might add. This might be the most lucrative path for Disney to use those deposited points.

 

[chalee94]

Aren't DVC units available, selectively, for rent by the general public on the Disney web site? I believe I saw them there--for an outrageous price, I might add. This might be the most lucrative path for Disney to use those deposited points.

if the DVC owner deposits their pts and DVC provides RCI with that many pts worth of SSR 1BRs, where would the extra inventory come from?

DVC owns their own DVC points - unsold, foreclosed, ROFRed. DVC also allows DVC members to trade their pts for cruises and WDW hotel rooms and such - in order to pay the other Disney division, they need to rent those pts for cash. (DVC also has the right to rent "breakage" inventory that is unbooked at 60 days out or so...but I suspect that is not a very high number relative to renting their owned points and renting to pay for trades out of the DVC system.)

it's not completely impossible that Disney skims some of the RCI trade inventory but I wouldn't consider that the most likely possibility.

 

[stanleyu]

I of course don't know any more about what Disney is doing than the next guy, but ----- I do know that there is more demand for SSI DVC owners looking to trade out than to trade in. Therefor it seems logical to me that they fill their internal requests first and then send out the kleftovers - in this case SSI - to RCI.

 

[Vacationfuntips]

I booked a Walt Disney World Resort. I booked with Club Wyndham points and paid the RCI exchange fee. I was given a $49 option to upgrade to a 2 BR Disney Resort based upon availability 14 days before check in. No additional points were needed for the potential upgrade, just the fee.

These Walt Disney World Resorts were available to select from for upgrade purposes and could potentially be matched to me 14 days before check in: Disney's Saratoga Springs 2 BR, Disney's Bay Lake Towers 1 BR or larger, Disney's Wilderness Lodge Villas 1 BR or larger, Disney's Beach Club Villas 1 BR or larger, Disney's Boardwalk Villas 1 Br or larger, Disney's Old Key West 1 Br or larger, Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas 1 BR or larger. There was no Disney's Grand Floridian Villas (on my wish list). However, there were other properties outside of Disney available. You select the area location. You could pick some, none or a bunch? I was looking for Walt Disney World - so I decided to stick with that.

In past years, it was much easier to select from a select list of Walt Disney World Resorts without having to agree to pay for this upgrade feature. This 2015 year, is different. I still do not know if this whole upgrade thing will work? I kept my list small and only for Disney.

I think RCI is holding onto the other Disney properties for special inventory, ongoing searches, and for increased revenue with upgrades. Additionally, a larger selection of resort properties may go to RCI Platinum members who pay more for it in addition to their regular RCI membership? I really don't know if this is true or not? I am thinking that it might be the case - but again I don't know?


Cynthia T.

 

[bnoble]

I suspect that is not a very high number relative to renting their owned points and renting to pay for trades out of the DVC system.

Could be, but it's non-trivial. WDTC reimburses DVCMC for some of the breakage rental income, up to a cap of 2.5% of total budget. This year, someone (DVC Mike) asked at the annual meeting how much breakage there was beyond that, and was told it was substantial:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/dvc-annual-meeting-summary.3468312/page-2

 

[bnoble]

I think RCI is holding onto the other Disney properties for special inventory, ongoing searches, and for increased revenue with upgrades.

Nope. If you were a TUG Member, you'd see the Sightings threads. Any of these categories would eventually be reported by some other TUGger.

The simplest explanation is that DVCMC simply isn't depositing anything else. That's not hard to imagine---they are depositing later, closer to check in date, which gives Members more time to book before inventory is taken out of the DVC Point system for exchanges. These are the least popular unit size (1BR) at the least popular resort (SSR) so that's the bulk of what is left to deposit.

Frankly, I have a hard time complaining about this. If I were a Member, I'd expect it to work this way. Not too many years ago, I managed to get a 1BR at BCV during Food & Wine via RCI exchange, and there is no way that should ever happen. It's nearly impossible to get that at 7 months internally.

Wyndham does the same thing, but the results aren't quite as stark.

 

[Vacationfuntips]

Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa(#DV06)
Transaction Date:
Dec-2015
Travel Dates:
Mar-2016
BR(s)
1 Bedroom
(I put in an RCI Upgrades & Changes Request for this resort and requested some other Disney World Resorts from the selection list. I agreed to pay the $49 fee if a match is found. I will report later if it works? However, I won't know until 14 days before arrival if I get the upgrade or change. It would be nice to know if I get it sooner, but that's okay with me IF it happens?)

Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa(#DV06)
Transaction Date:
Nov-2014
Travel Dates:
Apr-2015
BR(s)
1 Bedroom

Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort(#DV09)
Transaction Date:
Jan-2014
Travel Dates:
Aug-2014
BR(s)
1 Bedroom

The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge(#DV08)
Transaction Date:
Nov-2013
Travel Dates:
Jun-2014
BR(s)
1 Bedroom

Disney's Beach Club Villas(#DV02)
Transaction Date:
Dec-2012
Travel Dates:
Jun-2013
City
BR(s)
1 Bedroom

Disney's Beach Club Villas(#DV02)
Transaction Date:
Oct-2011
Travel Dates:
Aug-2012
BR(s)
1 Bedroom

This will be my 6th Disney World Vacation booked with timeshare points (next is March 2016) using timeshare points exchanged with RCI. Over the years, before we bought into timeshare, we stayed at additional Walt Disney World properties as well. We stayed using our timeshare points in April, June, and Aug. This year, we will go in March. We have also been to Disney in October, December, March, June, July and August (without timeshare). You would think that we would have become a Disney Vacation Club Members by now - NOPE! We just spend the money and mostly go when we want. RCI Timeshare exchange has cut our costs a bit. We are happy for that!

I never set up an ongoing search for for any of these Disney properties. I just went and picked out what I wanted from RCI inventory. Recently, this has changed, it is mostly SSR that I see for 1 bedrooms. Availability is most of the time - when searching RCI. I have noticed a change in deposit times as well. I saw Aulani in RCI inventory 1 time last year. I should have booked, but I hesitated. I never saw Aulani again. I think Disney is trying to promote people going to the new Downtown Disney - Disney Springs area. This might also be a factor?
I called the RCI call center and spoke with an RCI rep - who told me that her family recently stayed at Disney's Grand Floridian Villas and just got back. They loved it! She checked RCI inventory for me - said she only saw SSR for March. People are getting Disney inventory regardless of the posted Sightings. It appears more challenging these days to get different properties.

I think the ongoing search feature must be coming into play? Not everyone posts on TUG BBS or in the Sightings Forum. The RCI Platinum feature might also help to find more inventory? The new upgrade and changes fee of $49 might change things a bit for RCI exchanges? Disney is very popular. With RCI, you have to check regularly! You could get lucky? This has been my experience - YMMV.

Cynthia T.

 

[paxsarah]

I think that TUG users are probably some of the savviest RCI exchangers, so I suspect that what we see in the Sightings forum is pretty representative of what RCI is actually depositing from DVC. When we do see non-SSR units posted as a result of a member's OGS, they're usually much closer to check-in than even the SSR deposits, and they appear in much smaller numbers.

I agree the $49 option to upgrade or change is a good one because it carries very little risk. I checked back to last summer's sightings, and there was at least one non-SSR DVC property that showed up within 14 days of check-in. So it's not impossible and was worth a few minutes of my time to set up the request.

But overall, I don't think there's anything we're really missing - if the other DVC properties were in RCI in any significant quantity, we'd hear about them. I think they're just 99% not there.

Edited to add: It's been a while since I've seen an update on this, but there are several TUG members (apologies for forgetting which users) who outspoken about DVC weeks that are clearly RCI exchanges being posted for rent on eBay. After the change in deposit patterns, those users reported that only SSR weeks were showing up in eBay as well. I think we can assume that the eBay DVC renters are another group of above-average exchangers, and they were only getting SSR as well.

 

[bnoble]

I never set up an ongoing search for for any of these Disney properties.

That's all fine, but there was a very distinct change in deposit patterns---if memory served, that change was late fall 2014. Any experience prior to that has next to no bearing on what is possible right now, today.

 

[MichaelColey]

DVC and RCI are the ones who make the rules. We're "just" their customers. They're the ones with all the cards to play. And as long as they both get what they want out of the relationship, we have very little that we can do.

DVC members seem relatively satisfied with things. Most don't want to exchange out, anyway. And why would they? With one of the most expensive ownerships out there, most bought to use at Disney.

RCI members seem glad to grab up whatever scraps DVC deposits into RCI. They never last long, and whatever changes they've made in the past, we've still taken everything they've given.

I don't see any reason why DVC or RCI would change based on member feedback. We complain, but we take what they give us.