Is Ebay safe to rent DVC points from?

[larissawbb]

I heard back from a couple of the sellers this morning. They are Wyndham members who traded for DVC weeks. They are including the $95 dollar resort fee into the rental. Before this, I didn't even know you could do that. One of the sellers told me that exchanges are even listed on a popular Dvc rental broker website. I wouldn't pursue it and would rather rent from a DVC member so I at least know I will have a place to sleep. Eliza61 may have put it best. I am not great with stress even in the best of circumstances. Thanks!

 

[MAO]

Sounds like a smart move! It's a shame that the Ebay seller is doing something that is technically illegal. I still think, however, it's best to not assume the worst of Ebay sellers - like they say 'when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.' Since we spend so much time here on Disboards, and many/most of us know about the DVC rent/trade board here, we tend to assume that's the best way to "score" a deal - either directly with a DVC owner or via a middleman service. Someone who uses Ebay to sell other items might, legitimately, consider it an avenue to unload points they can't use for some reason.

Good luck with your search for a reasonable, if not quite as cheap, Disney vacation.

 

[supersnoop]

Sounds like a smart move! It's a shame that the Ebay seller is doing something that is technically illegal.

It's not technically illegal. It's a violation of the owner's agreement with their own timeshare system. They aren't breaking any law.

There are repercussions. If caught, the reservation will be cancelled and you could be standing on the front desk after a long flight with nowhere to stay.

 

[David Brent]

How do you get caught? I was just curious because my friend booked a DVC reservation for a weekend in May through eBay for Animal Kingdom Lodge. He is very confident in his weekend rental purchase for his wife, 1 yr old and parents.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I am so glad I found this thread. I've looked into renting DVC points on Ebay before alongside my searches for deals at Wyndham Bonnet Creek, and the prices for some of the available 2 bedroom DVC units seemed like a bargain when compared to prices on other sites like David's DVC rentals. I now know what to be on the lookout for and what questions to ask.

 

[MAO]

How do you get caught? I was just curious because my friend booked a DVC reservation for a weekend in May through eBay for Animal Kingdom Lodge. He is very confident in his weekend rental purchase for his wife, 1 yr old and parents.

I'm not sure. The $95 fee is the real tipoff, is my understanding. I'm just not sure when it's paid - according to the post above, it sounds like the RCI owner is able to 'prepay' prior to check-in, which I guess would leave no trace to the Cast Members checking you in that there might be an issue.

 

[larissawbb]

I don't know if this helps or not but I was talking about this to my dental hygienist this morning. She has a silver leaf timeshare. She said anytime like a friend or family member uses her exchange, she has to pay for a guest certificate. It's possible Disney knows it's an RCI exchange rental if you don't have a certificate with you. The sellers didn't offer one on their listings. I also learned neither eBay or PayPal will cover you for timeshare rentals. I would hate to get there and have a garden grocer order waiting and no villa to go to.

 

[mom2my3kids]

What is RCI? I rented points twice off a lady I met on the DVC board here..

 

[MAO]

RCI is another timeshare. I don't know much about it, but I believe it's more like a 'traditional' timeshare where you 'own' at a specific property for a specific week. DVC has an agreement currently in effect with RCI where one can use DVC points to 'rent' at a subset of RCI properties. I don't really know why it's "wrong" to use RCI to stay at a DVC property, I just know that it's not supposed to happen.

 

[jimandami]

RCI is another timeshare. I don't know much about it, but I believe it's more like a 'traditional' timeshare where you 'own' at a specific property for a specific week. DVC has an agreement currently in effect with RCI where one can use DVC points to 'rent' at a subset of RCI properties. I don't really know why it's "wrong" to use RCI to stay at a DVC property, I just know that it's not supposed to happen.

It isn't wrong to use RCI to stay at a DVC property. There are legitimate RCI exchanges into DVC. What is against both RCI and DVC policy is to rent out an exchange reservation to someone else.

 

[Deb & Bill]

RCI is another timeshare. I don't know much about it, but I believe it's more like a 'traditional' timeshare where you 'own' at a specific property for a specific week. DVC has an agreement currently in effect with RCI where one can use DVC points to 'rent' at a subset of RCI properties. I don't really know why it's "wrong" to use RCI to stay at a DVC property, I just know that it's not supposed to happen.

RCI isn't a timeshare; it's a timeshare trading company. It is the means to trade one timeshare for another for a single vacation. It's not a means to trade ownership of one timeshare for a different timeshare. One of the agreements that RCI and DVC has is that trades cannot be sold. They can only be used by the person trading or they must purchase a guest certificate. And I believe they are limited to the number of guest certificates they may buy.

 

[crisi]

How do you get caught? I was just curious because my friend booked a DVC reservation for a weekend in May through eBay for Animal Kingdom Lodge. He is very confident in his weekend rental purchase for his wife, 1 yr old and parents.

RCI and DVC can audit. If the name on the reservation doesn't match the name on the exchange, its a red flag. From there, fraud software can discover how connected the name on the reservation is to the name on the exchange - if its a parent or child (even my good friends come up as associates in the fraud software I've seen), you are clear. If there is no association between parties, DVC is within its rights to cancel the reservation and RCI within its rights to not reimburse the RCI owner.

 

[David Brent]

RCI and DVC can audit. If the name on the reservation doesn't match the name on the exchange, its a red flag. From there, fraud software can discover how connected the name on the reservation is to the name on the exchange - if its a parent or child (even my good friends come up as associates in the fraud software I've seen), you are clear. If there is no association between parties, DVC is within its rights to cancel the reservation and RCI within its rights to not reimburse the RCI owner.

Thanks for the info. I was just curious to see how that works. He said the owner "transferred" his name on the reservation, or whatever that means.

 

[StitchBuddy]

We have done this twice once through a DVC owner and one rented from someone using RCI. Sounds like it could almost be the same person. He sent us a gift card to pay the $95 when we got there and everything worked out great!!

 

[crisi]

Thanks for the info. I was just curious to see how that works. He said the owner "transferred" his name on the reservation, or whatever that means.

That means the name on the reservation belongs to the person staying there. But the name on the exchange doesn't change. And that is the first audit check. But you need to change the reservation in order for a guest to stay there, they won't let you check in unless the name on the reservation matches your id and you.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Other tipoffs to RCI rentals is they are usually for one week, usually Fri to Fri, Sat to Sat or Sun to Sun. There is no opportunity to change the dates. The seller might have multiple reservations to sell. Or have sold multiple reservations in the past. And they aren't selling by the number of points with a price per point, just a flat fee. And the post might have errors in it, like saying SSR has the twin sized sleeper chair. A DVC owner might post they have points to sell and offer a range of dates or sizes of villas, unless they have a spec reservation (like Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc). A lot of the RCI reservations are for studios, especially OKW, SSR, AKV.

 

[delmar411]

How do you get caught? I was just curious because my friend booked a DVC reservation for a weekend in May through eBay for Animal Kingdom Lodge. He is very confident in his weekend rental purchase for his wife, 1 yr old and parents.

Booking for just the weekend is obviously a direct DVC rental not RCI. RCI rentals can only be booked for a week and there is no changing the dates.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I have rented twice through a DVC owner, had no problems and my name was on the reservation but she had to do everything I could not call or change anything..

 

[kerri714]

Im so confused by all this, At what point would disney cancel the reservation? When you are actually standing there trying to check in? So, for arguments sake, if Jane Doe had a week booked at OKW through RCI, and had an emergency and couldn't go, she couldn't try to sell it on ebay? What if she wanted to transfer that week to her co-worker Sally Smith? Can that be done without the chance of Sally being rejected at the desk?

 

[Lewisc]

RCI isn't a timeshare; it's a timeshare trading company. It is the means to trade one timeshare for another for a single vacation. It's not a means to trade ownership of one timeshare for a different timeshare. One of the agreements that RCI and DVC has is that trades cannot be sold. They can only be used by the person trading or they must purchase a guest certificate. And I believe they are limited to the number of guest certificates they may buy.

RCI is a division of Wyndham