Please help...I've rented points and need advice

[Brian Noble]

So I finally received a Guest Certificate, after I told him if I didn't receive one I wanted a refund. Everything appears correct on the guest certificate.

If the guest confirmation is in your name, you will become the lead guest. However, it takes a few days--sometimes as much as a week--for the exchange company to communicate changes to DVC. Their computer systems are not completely integrated.

Give it about a week from the time you got the guest certificate, and then call DVC Member Services. Explain to them that you are an "inbound exchange guest," that you were given a week by another timeshare owner, and that you have a guest certificate and need to make sure the guests are all listed on the reservation. You will need the resort name, check in date, and your last time. You can take the "landlord" off the list of guests at that time, and make any other corrections necessary. You can also add the Dining Plan at that point if you want to.

The process of looking up the reservation can take a few minutes, so don't sweat it if they have to put you on hold.

 

[Brian Noble]

When you call, ignore the prompts for your Member Number. Just hit the pound-sign when they ask you for that.

 

[Best Aunt]

Give it about a week from the time you got the guest certificate, and then call DVC Member Services. Explain to them that you are an "inbound exchange guest," that you were given a week by another timeshare owner, and that you have a guest certificate and need to make sure the guests are all listed on the reservation. You will need the resort name, check in date, and your last time. You can take the "landlord" off the list of guests at that time, and make any other corrections necessary. You can also add the Dining Plan at that point if you want to.

I've lost track -- is OP a DVC Member? And if not, can OP call DVC Member Services for this situation? (Typically, a renter can't call.)

 

[SteveMouse]

Neither party is a DVC owner, per se. The OP bought a rental from someone else who transferred points in from another timeshare. They may be a DVC member with other points; this discussion is only about the points in this specific rental.

 

[Brian Noble]

is OP a DVC Member? And if not, can OP call DVC Member Services for this situation?

I don't know, but yes.

Having an inbound Interval (or RCI) exchange is the one single exception to the rule that Member Services will only speak to the Member who "owns" the reservation.

Here's what is going on. When DVC Members want to book a Worldwide Exchange option, they relinquish some DVC points and in return book a vacation through the third party exchange, currently Interval International. As Members make these exchanges, DVC has to supply inventory to "balance the books," and all of this inventory is in the form of full-week stays in some DVC room somewhere.

Once an Interval owner guest an exchange into a DVC unit, they become the "lead guest" of that unit. They can't change the booking, so the dates, unit type, and view are fixed and were chosen by DVC when the unit was deposited. But the Interval guest is entitled to call Member Services to supply the occupants names, etc.

When the Interval account has multiple owners, any of the owners can serve as the lead guest. If none of those owners are traveling, they are expected to buy a Guest Certificate in the same of someone who will be traveling, and that person becomes the lead guest.

 

[Giraffe_Zen]

So if the OP calls MS and changes themself to the lead guest on the reservation. Can the guy that "rented" it to her not just call back in if it's truly a shady thing and change it back to his name with Member Services or say that OP "stole" the reservation from him?

 

[SteveMouse]

If the OP is the named user on the certificate, the person they got it from is effectively out of the record (that's a major pojnt of the cert being issued in the OP's name).

 

[Giraffe_Zen]

If the OP is the named user on the certificate, the person they got it from is effectively out of the record (that's a major pojnt of the cert being issued in the OP's name).

I get that, but if he never removed his name as lead and she's having to put it in right now to even see her reservation, then she's obviously not really the lead and he hasn't really removed himself.

 

[Brian Noble]

Once the Guest Certificate is issued and communicated to DVC, the person on the GC becomes the least guest. The reason the OP can’t see it yet is because there is a several-day lag between the Certificate being issued by the exchange company and DVC knowing about it.

 

[Travel60]

We already know the person renting out the exchange is disreputable (violating rules of exchanges, changing terms of contract). That person could also access credit card info, charge stuff to unit, get a key to unit.

Probably cheaper than renting from DVC or a member but much riskier.

 

[RapunzelRN]

Playing devils advocate here, but isn’t there a chance this guy does not want to go to a Disney resort after he did the exchange and needs the funds back to recoup, has no intention of breaking into a timeshare or stealing CC info via MDE, is probably not a frequent property visitor and wants to get rid of his reservation easily off his site of choice eBay and is unaware this is an illegal/violation of rules?

 

[Brian Noble]

Very doubtful. Most timeshare owners in that position would cancel the exchange and use the deposit credit for something else. That is much easier than figuring out how to list it and rent it on ebay unless this is something you do all the time. For example, someone who knew enough to disclose the $190 fee on check-in is probably not a first-time exchanger.

However, I also don't think the landlord wants to do anything nefarious with the OP's credit card. Rather, the landlord is taking advantage of the fact that timeshare exchange can be very inefficient in the economic sense, and is a way to make non-trivial money. There's a lot of opportunity to cash in if you are willing to risk the ire of the exchange company. If you don't have to issue Guest Certificates, you save yourself a few dollars in cost, and the risk goes down, and by a lot. IMO, That's the most likely explanation.

My exchanges cost much less than it would cost to rent from an owner. Heck, they are often a little bit less than an owner would spend on the stay just in Dues, even if the points were free. Of course, I'm only getting the leftovers that DVC decides to deposit after Members have a month or three of "open season" bookings, so it's rarely super prime inventory---lots of SSR Standard 1BRs, for example---but beggars can't be choosers. There's also a significant learning curve. Honestly, if I'd just used that time on some work task I could have billed to a client, I could have bought DVC several times over and had money left. It's a hobby more than anything.

But if I were willing to risk my exchange account being terminated (I am not) there's definitely money to be made.

 

[Monykalyn]

just FYI I couldnt change guest names without calling member services-inbound interval exhange into DVC. Somehow got the names horribly mixed up - including a name that was NOT on friends and family list!! Call to member services (thanks for tip about pounding the # key to talk to real live person!!) and 10 minutes later cleared up. However if you mess up as bad as I did then you need to call My Disney experience to fix it on THEIR end so proper names show up (and can link proper tickets to them)

Moral of story-be careful inputting names on II exchanges

 

[AwfulWaffle]

Doesn’t matter anyways if his name is on the reservation or not. He can cancel the reservation at any time. Doesn’t make sense to keep it on their imo but doesn’t give you any added protection if it wasn’t so yeah… That’s why we just stick to Dave’s when we need to rent some points. .
Good luck mate.