New incentive: 45+ years of free points

**Rozzie** · 03-15-2012,12:55 PM

Originally Posted by steve@bwv

When my sister bought at $68/point I thought it was highway robbery! Granted, we paid eighty something for AKV points from DVD before the resale markets tanked.

It is insane to think what I paid in, and what they are going for now. (BLT, etc) I've only been a member for 7 years--much less than you and the original OKW folks.

**denlo** · 03-15-2012,01:23 PM

I too think that a new buyer might be so impressed with this offer that they'll buy direct and be all excited with their "bargain".

But I just looked at the TSS listings and you can get 100 or 150 points for $75 per point. There were some 150 point contracts that would cost you less than the 120 with this new incentive. I'm just not convinced that buying direct is the way to go in today's retail market.

DVD must really want to get rid of some of their points for AKV and Aulani.

**steve@bwv** · 03-15-2012,01:51 PM

Originally Posted by lllovell

Per the article "Note that buyers are responsible for annual dues on the incentive points. " There is no way they could do the fees for free unless they were planning on sticking it to the rest of their owners and I don't see how they could do that legally.

LLL

Thanks! I read the article twice and missed that both times. DVD could always pay the fees to avoid sticking it to the other owners but that would create a long term obligation I am sure the bean counters would hate. Without free dues this is simply a 20% price per point sale not all that dissimilar to previous sales.

**TimK** · 03-15-2012,01:51 PM

Originally Posted by denlo

DVD must really want to get rid of some of their points for AKV and Aulani.

Well, extra incentives are nothing new. They have to stir up interest from time to time with something better than just $8-10 off per point.

That said, what other choice do they have?

IIRC AKV has been selling for over 5 years now--February '07 if memory serves. Similar to SSR, the market is saturated. It's going to take low prices to attract buyers.

Going forward, BLT and VGF will probably be the model they follow: smaller resorts with only a couple hundred rooms. Charging premium prices, they will try to sell less at higher profit margins. Just to illustrate, let's pretend that at $100 per point they make $50 profit. If VGF prices reach $150 with the same overhead, suddenly they are pocketing $100 per point. They can afford to sell points at a slower pace and still maintain or increase profitability.

With smaller resorts they will try to sell-out as much of a new resort as possible before points begin to hit the resale market en masse.

Aulani is tough to gauge since we don't have access to any sales information. Impossible to even know what sort of internal sales estimates DVC made. They certainly didn't expect to sell nearly 500 villas worth of points in just 2 or 3 years. That was looking like a 10-year project from the start.

**TimK** · 03-15-2012,02:09 PM

Originally Posted by steve@bwv

Thanks! I read the article twice and missed that both times. DVD could always pay the fees to avoid sticking it to the other owners but that would create a long term obligation I am sure the bean counters would hate. Without free dues this is simply a 20% price per point sale not all that dissimilar to previous sales.

That's true--we could assign a specific dollar value to every incentive. Even Disney's "free dining" promos are just bundled packages at a discounted price.

But this offer does appear to be noticeably better than others. Under the previous $500 gift card offer, 120 AKV points would run $13,800: $115 x 120 points. Deduct the $500 card and net price is $13,300.

Under this incentive 120 points is net $12,500: $125 x 100 points, plus the 20 free points.

**matthias14** · 03-15-2012,02:13 PM

"Without free dues this is simply a 20% price per point sale not all that dissimilar to previous sales."

It's not even that...it's 16.6% off. (you have to pay for 100 and ANOTHER 20 free thus its 20/120, not 20/100)

**steve@bwv** · 03-15-2012,02:23 PM

Originally Posted by matthias14

"Without free dues this is simply a 20% price per point sale not all that dissimilar to previous sales."

It's not even that...it's 16.6% off. (you have to pay for 100 and ANOTHER 20 free thus its 20/120, not 20/100)

Yes, you are correct. A 20% increase in points is not a 20% discount. As you show, not an insignificant difference. Thanks for making that clear.