Members voiced their opinions regarding two unpopular practices during the December 2024 Condominium Association meetings, and the Disney Vacation Club Board of Directors offered some encouraging feedback.
During several of this week's resort meetings, attendees asked questions about two practices which are often viewed as a nuisence to run-of-the-mill owners. The first is commercial rental activity by owners who seemingly own or control thousands of points for the sole purpose of profiting off of them. Shannon Sakaske, Vice President, Member Experiences & Club Management described it this way:
"There’s two types of renting that members do. One that you alluded to, which is ‘I’m not going to use my points this year. They’re going to expire and I want to get some money to offset my dues.’ That’s allowed within our rules. We allow members the flexibility to rent.
"The other category is someone who is doing it commercially. They own a lot of points and it’s a frequent occurrence. We are actively figuring out ways to go after that, and stop that to the best of our ability. Hopefully this is not a conversation we will be having in future years. We’re going to go after that and try to remedy it as best we can."
Senior Vice President and General Manager Bill Diercksen confirmed that Disney Vacation Club has "added resources to our core team at DVC in order to pursue this and make sure that it is fair" to everyday members. According to Yvonne Chang, Executive Director, Business Operations "[w]e’ve got a whole team of folks focused on this. Hopefully by next year when we have this conversation, we will see some improvement.”
In a later session Sakaske was even more direct, saying that while they have no issues with members occasionally renting points, "[y]ou just can’t do it commercially. That is against our rules. We are actively pursuing plans to go after those people and stop that behavior."
All of the board members agreed that commercial rental activity is just a small portion of all member reservations. However, commercial renters tend to be among the most knowledgable owners, attempting to maximize their own revenue stream by targeting resorts, rooms and dates which will yield the greatest returns.
In a similar vein, board members also addressed the topic of "walking" reservations. Disney Vacation Club allows owners to make reservations 11 months in advance of their check-in date, for up to 7 consecutive nights. Walking is a process of starting a reservation weeks or months before the owner's targeted dates, and continuing to modify the arrival and departure dates. This effectively manipulates those booking windows and blocks other owners from booking certain accommodations, rolling the reservation forward a few days at a time.
Board members stated that their greatest concern when addressing this practice is to not create more "unintended consequeces" for owners. According to Sakaske "[w]e’re aware of that dynamic and the impact that it can have on others who are waiting on the 11 month window to book. We set those rules and it’s something we could change if we find a better approach."
Chang later added: "[o]ne of the responsibilities obviously as a board is always to listen to feedback and certainly to act on behalf of the membership as a whole. To make sure that whatever rules are changed are…because of your input and because it benefits everyone. Everything that is done sometimes has unintended consequences."
The Walking practice itself is an unintended consequence of an earlier procedural change at DVC. For nearly two decades, owners were permitted to book villas 11 or 7 months prior to their check-out date. For a weeklong vacation, this lead to owners having to contact Member Services 7 times to extend the trip one day at a time. Moving the booking date to 11 / 7 months from check-in was desgined to reduce those booking transactions, but also spawned this practice of rolling resrvations.
Steve Whittington, Director of Strategy and Development said that Walking, like commercial renting, is also not a common practice. "The members that are walking—they don’t like to do that either. So we’re looking at different solutions as Yvonne mentioned. How do we maintain the spirit of what we want, which is fewer calls into the reservation center [or going online] to make the booking. But at the same time, make sure we aren’t creating any unintended consequences."
One member responded that she appreciates the flexibility afforded by Disney Vacation Club, and hopes they don't make any moves which limit her ability to change dates, change resorts and modify her own guest list as circumstances dictate. Sakaske agreed, saying "“[w]e appreciate that plans change, you don’t necessarily know everything when you’re booking 11 months out, so that’s exactly what we’re talking about that we want to try to avoid. Unintended consequences of making (an operational) change.”
