When Disney raises ticket prices, do they lose Disney Vacation Club members?
On October 4, 2015, Disney announced some radical changes to its theme park Annual Pass pricing. The traditional Annual Pass and Premium Annual Pass for Walt Disney World--now dubbed the Platinum and Platinum Plus Pass, respectively--rose by as much as 22%. Meanwhile Disney introduced a Gold pass which minimizes the financial damage while adding four weeks of block out dates during which the pass's owners are prohibited from accessing the parks.
Many Disney Vacation Club owners expressed concern over these changes, with some claiming they would sell their DVC contracts due to the escalating costs.
But do owners actually follow through with these threats? To answer that question, we contacted our friends at The Timeshare Store to see what sort of activity they saw following the October 4 pricing changes.
According to The Timeshare Store, their listings for October 2015 actually decreased when compared to the prior calendar year. In October 2014, The Timeshare Store listed 171 properties representing 27,079 points.
In October 2015, those numbers dropped to 157 contracts for 25,751 points.
Sales Manager Jason Erpelding elaborated further, noting that several owners did contact them immediately following Disney's pricing announcement. The Monday following the Annual Pass price increase, eight sellers listed their contracts with The Timeshare Store, all claiming that their decision was driven by the rising ticket prices.
But the member outrage appeared to be limited to just those eight sellers. Erpelding stated, "we thought it would continue but it did not."
Disney Vacation Club currently has over 50 million points spread over thirteen properties. The number of individual owners or contract holders is not known but it is believed to be over 200,000.
The Timeshare Store, Inc. is one of the premier resale agents, specializing in Disney Vacation Club properties. While their listings do not speak for the entire resale market, the relatively insignificant fallout that The Timeshare Store witnessed following the price increase suggests that only a very small number of owners immediately responded by selling their DVC points.
