I am shocked they were checking at SSR. They weren't in April.
I understand what you’re saying. And sure, I can talk to them and suggest ways they should run their business to best protect my interest. But why should I have to do that? That’s their job. And, to the best of my limited knowledge, the law requires it to an extent. I shouldn’t have to tell them.
I did contact my broker and asked the question and brought up my issue with it. So far, no solution or apology even has been offered for the fact that I didn’t know this was how it worked. I’ve searched their site and have not found anything disclaiming the process. I wrote them a check for the rental. I expected this to work the same. I pay “them”. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable expectation.
My purpose in posting here on the forums is twofold: first to confirm that what is going on is “normal”, although I don’t believe good business practice. And second so that if it comes up for someone else they have a resource. I searched the forums prior to posting and found nothing about this.
The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to believe the proper way these companies should handle this is exactly the way they handle the funds for the rental itself: accept direct payment from the renter and then they themselves pay the owner to add it to the reservation. Pretty simple.
There are some owners who rent who won’t add the dining plan to reservations for many of the same reasons who have mentioned. The broker has given you the extra security of making sure your reservation doesn’t get canceled by an owner. That is the reason, IMO, why a broker vs. a private transaction is used by many. If an owner cancels it or defaults on a membership and those reservations are canceled, you have some security in the contract you signed to what you would be entitled to.
Remember, The reservation you have is not your reservation. It is the owners until you check in. So, the rules of the game are that if the owner wants to allow a dining plan, then they require payment from the renter via credit card, gift card, or some other means. Sounds like the broker gave at least the CC option.
Renting saves money, for sure. But the drawback is that you are not dealing with Disney, so things will be different. You are working with DVC rules and as already mentioned, the broker has no ability to access your reservation in any way. They ar basically the go between.
In terms of a broker accepting payment for the dining plan, it would get way too messy for them and add another layer to the process.
I do think that you have a good suggestion that the specific rules for adding the dining plan could be clearer so one knows before renting, what that would entail.
When I rented out my points, I would not do the dining plan for guests since it didn’t want their info or the hassle.