January is usually a good month for direct sales of Disney Vacation Club points and 2017 has continued that trend, easily beating numbers from both the last calendar month and the same time period a year ago.
The 200,917 DVC points sold in January 2017 for the nine Disney Vacation Club resorts at Walt Disney World represented a 45% increase over January 2016 sales. Month-to-month, sales rose 61.1% above December 2016 numbers, marking the 5th consecutive January in which sales have registered at least a 45% increase over the previous month.
January 2017 was the best month for point sales in almost two years for the Walt Disney World resorts. The last time sales exceeded 200,000 points was in March 2015 when 226,527 points were sold. Back then, sales for Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows had just begun while points for the Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa were also being actively marketed.
Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows — With 169,259 points sold In January 2017, the Polynesian nearly recorded its best month for sales in its two-year history. Only April 2016, with 169,377 points, had a higher point total.
The Polynesian has now sold over 2.5 million DVC points, or 62.2% of its 4,032,720 total points. It still has 1,444,912 left to sell to the general public. If it can maintain the same sales pace that it has had over the last 12 months — 128,77 points a month — it would take the resort about 12 months to sell out. However, with sales for Copper Creek Villas & Cabins starting up soon, it will be interesting to see if the Polynesian can maintain this pace.
Some people think that sales for the Polynesian have been weak, especially when compared to sales for its predecessor, the Grand Floridian. However, sales for the two resorts have been quite similar. From February 2015 to January 2017, the Polynesian has averaged 104,103 points per month in sales. By comparison, in the 22 months (July 2013 to April 2015) that the Grand Floridian was the focus of Disney’s marketing efforts, the resort averaged 105,440 points per month, only slightly more than the Polynesian.
The last declaration for the Polynesian was made on October 17, 2016, bringing the resort’s DVC inventory to 74.1%. Another declaration should happen quite soon because Disney has drawn points from all of the declared Residential Units. The only question is whether Disney will declare all of the remaining inventory at one time or will continue to make smaller incremental declarations.
Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas — Sales data for December 2016 and January 2017 for Aulani is not yet available. The Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances, which records deeds for Aulani, does not update its website as timely as the other county clerks that service the other DVC resorts. Sales data for December 2016 is not yet available. In November 2016 only 25,324 points were sold for Aulani, the fewest number of points sold in any month in the 31 months that sales have been tracked for the resort.
The sales data includes all nine DVC resorts at Walt Disney World, as well as Disney's Vero Beach Resort, Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort, and Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas. Point sales data is not available for the Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel. The data is compiled from deeds filed by Disney Vacation Development and recorded with the Orange County (FL) Comptroller, the Indian River County (FL) Clerk of Court, the Beaufort County (SC) Register of Deeds, and the Hawaii Bureau of Conveyances.
Thanks to Imdizfan for helping compile sales data!
Wil Lovato is a contributor to DVCNews.com and has been a Disney Vacation Club owner since 2009. His DVC Home Resorts include Bay Lake Tower, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Aulani. He can be found posting on many Disney discussion forums under the username of “wdrl.”
