Renting at Beach Club- book a back up plan?

[megan17]

I'm planning a Disney trip for July 2018 and I put in a request with a DVC rental company for 2 studios at beach club (we have 5 adults altogether and 2 studios was much cheaper than a 2 bedroom). I put the request in at 11 months out but still no match from a renter for what we want. I know it may take some time to find someone who matches our request, but at what point should I be concerned that we may not get it? How likely is it that there will be availability for 2 studios as July gets closer? I'm wondering if I should just book 2 standard rooms through Disney and cancel if the rental comes through. We definitely want beach club but we were hoping to save a little by renting points. This is my first attempt at renting points so I'm just a bit unsure of how long the process takes. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

 

[Cyberc1978]

I would always have a backup plan, if you rent through Disney you can always cancel if your rental comes through.

As long as we aren't within the 7 months window when everyone is able to book you should be fine. Use the link below to see the booking pattern, have in mind that the data is more than 2 years old.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...tudios-some-1-bedrooms-prepared-2015.3419112/

Another thing to have in mind, why should a BCV owner use a rental company when the owner can use DIS to rent without the rental company as a middleman to take a cut. Not saying the some BCV owners wont use a company, but there is more money for the owner to be made without a middleman.

I'd recommend that you look at the rental/trade section of this board also.

 

[Marionnette]

I'm planning a Disney trip for July 2018 and I put in a request with a DVC rental company for 2 studios at beach club (we have 5 adults altogether and 2 studios was much cheaper than a 2 bedroom). I put the request in at 11 months out but still no match from a renter for what we want. I know it may take some time to find someone who matches our request, but at what point should I be concerned that we may not get it? How likely is it that there will be availability for 2 studios as July gets closer? I'm wondering if I should just book 2 standard rooms through Disney and cancel if the rental comes through. We definitely want beach club but we were hoping to save a little by renting points. This is my first attempt at renting points so I'm just a bit unsure of how long the process takes. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

Make the reservation with Disney directly since, as you stated, you can cancel it if the DVC retal comes thru. Your heart is set on BC and you want to stay there regardless of whether David can get you a reservation or not.

You're still 9-10 months away from dates in July. In order for David's to be able to secure your reservation(s), they need someone with enough points at BCV to book it. Owners at other resorts book cannot BCV until January. It's probably a matter of not having a BCV owner since at this point, it's unlikely that the studios are booked up. July is not a peak DVC season.

 

[Best Aunt]

Are they going to try to match you with one owner, or two? You didn't say how many nights you are trying to book. That's 18 points for 1 weeknight in 1 studio, 22 points for 1 weekend night in 1 studio. If you are trying to book a lot of nights for 2 studios, finding an owner who wants to rent out that many points might be an added difficulty.

I would definitely call to book a room-only reservation as a backup.

 

[ziravan]

2 bedroom isn't that much more expensive than 2 studios and likely cheaper than 2 cash studios.

Plan A: rent 2 studios before the 7 month window.

Plan B: rent a 2br at or before the 7 month window.

Plan C: rent 2 cash rooms now and cancel if A or B comes through.

It's close enough to the 7 month window that I'd call your point broker and tell them that you'd take a 2 bedroom if studios aren't avail.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Most rental agencies, if a request is looking for two units, tries to match with a single owner. Depending on trip length, for either 2 studios or 1 2BR, this can be a pile o' points.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

2 bedroom isn't that much more expensive than 2 studios and likely cheaper than 2 cash studios.

It's close enough to the 7 month window that I'd call your point broker and tell them that you'd take a 2 bedroom if studios aren't avail.

Actually, a week at BCV in July is 134 for a studio, so 2 studios would be 268. A week in a 2 bedroom at BCV in July is 350--quite a bit more. Actually, 2 studios is cheaper than a 1 bedroom, which is 269.
The 7 month window for July is still 8 weeks away.

 

[megan17]

This is all very helpful, thanks! I feel like I did a lot of research prior to submitting the request, but I hadn't thought of whether there would actually be availability for exactly what we want.

Are they going to try to match you with one owner, or two? You didn't say how many nights you are trying to book.

I put in the request as two separate reservations but they are aware that the two are being booked by the same person. I'm not sure if they look for two owners or one, from aurororaborealis above, it sounds like they try to match with one owner.

Our plan is to stay for 8 nights in mid July. 2 studios comes out to 304 points for our dates while a 2 bedroom is 398. Looks like renting two standard BC rooms from Disney on the same dates comes out to about $3000 more, so I really hope we can get the rental to work out!

I think I'll probably wait until a bit closer to the 7 month window and then make our back-up reservation if we still don't have anything by then.

 

[crisi]

Yeah, there are two points to availability with a DVC rental.

One, there has to be an owner available. That is someone at this point (and with BCV, arguably always) willing to rent out their BCV points. There are far more people looking to rent into BCV than owners who are not planning on using their points and are going to rent them out. That's actually the tricky one with DVC rentals - its less predictable. We can tell you with some confidence that those rooms will be open for a few months yet, we can't tell you whether there will be an owner matched with you during that time. And with smaller, in demand, resorts, waiting to find an owner whose points will work at seven months, puts you at risk of the second availability problem.

Two, once there is an owner who is not using their points for themselves this year, there needs to be availability in your unit for your dates.

Make a cash reservation. Cancel it if something comes through.

ETA: And stalk the DVC rental board here. Having the match control in your hands will up your chances. On the broker side, what seems to happen (when I rented out my points) is when they got a request like yours, an email went out to everyone like me describing the reservation (2 studios, BCV, dates, number of points). You'd then respond if you wanted to book it or not. If I was busy that day, I wouldn't book it and I'd wait for the next one to come through. If it was a reservation I didn't want to deal with (someone who wanted a F&W reservation - I own BWV and don't want to bother with that), I'd pass. I probably skipped three or four reservations because I wasn't in a reservation making place that day. That sort of behavior is something neither the broker or you have any control over.

 

[kboo]

Yeah, there are two points to availability with a DVC rental.

One, there has to be an owner available. That is someone at this point (and with BCV, arguably always) willing to rent out their BCV points. There are far more people looking to rent into BCV than owners who are not planning on using their points and are going to rent them out. That's actually the tricky one with DVC rentals - its less predictable. We can tell you with some confidence that those rooms will be open for a few months yet, we can't tell you whether there will be an owner matched with you during that time. And with smaller, in demand, resorts, waiting to find an owner whose points will work at seven months, puts you at risk of the second availability problem.

Two, once there is an owner who is not using their points for themselves this year, there needs to be availability in your unit for your dates.

Make a cash reservation. Cancel it if something comes through.

ETA: And stalk the DVC rental board here. Having the match control in your hands will up your chances. On the broker side, what seems to happen (when I rented out my points) is when they got a request like yours, an email went out to everyone like me describing the reservation (2 studios, BCV, dates, number of points). You'd then respond if you wanted to book it or not. If I was busy that day, I wouldn't book it and I'd wait for the next one to come through. If it was a reservation I didn't want to deal with (someone who wanted a F&W reservation - I own BWV and don't want to bother with that), I'd pass. I probably skipped three or four reservations because I wasn't in a reservation making place that day. That sort of behavior is something neither the broker or you have any control over.

I totally second stalking the DVC rental board here. Both times I tried to rent through a broker, I got the room I wanted sooner (and cheaper). Once was through an owner, the other time was, oddly, through Disney cash reservations (!!). Ever since those first 2 DVC stays, I haven't even started with a broker, and have just gone directly to the rent/trade board here.

 

[blluefaerie]

Is the rent/ trade board here good. I haven't heard of any scams etc. That would be my only fear. Otherwise great.

 

[ziravan]

Is the rent/ trade board here good. I haven't heard of any scams etc. That would be my only fear. Otherwise great.

Find an owner who posts here quite a bit. If someone has 500 posts here, they're not going to throw away their membership in the community over a scam.

And a scammer isn't going to take the time to become a member via frequent posting.

 

[Steph01002]

I've had a great experience renting points from a member of the Disboards. She was able to provide references (which I didn't check though) but, I felt confident renting through her after a few emails with her and a google search.
I had rented through David's for our 2013 BCV stay which they were able to match me with an owner quickly. It was taking a while when I called in for a 2015 BCV stay with David's and I began looking for other alternatives. It worked out great to rent points from a Dis member for us!

 

[mustinjourney]

Find an owner who posts here quite a bit. If someone has 500 posts here, they're not going to throw away their membership in the community over a scam.

And a scammer isn't going to take the time to become a member via frequent posting.

Never heard of the long con?

 

[ziravan]

Never heard of the long con?

I know this is jest, but a long con is proportional to the payout.

If someone wants to spend a few hundred hours over months creating the cred to scam a few grand, then they're an idiot.

There's better ROI doing just about anything else, legal or not.

Besides, a quick search can reveal not just the number of posts, but the quality of them. To pass as a legitimate poster would require hundreds of hours of learning not only the ins and outs of Disney and DVC, but the culture of the forum as well.

Jest or not, post count and possibly quality of posting is a very reliable gauge of intent. I wouldn't rent from someone with a few dozen posts or where ALL their postings are in the rent/trade board.

The two times I've rented from this board were both with posters with well north of 1,000 posts. Not only were they legitimate, they were very knowledgeable to assist me with questions.

 

[mustinjourney]

I know this is jest, but a long con is proportional to the payout.

If someone wants to spend a few hundred hours over months creating the cred to scam a few grand, then they're an idiot.

There's better ROI doing just about anything else, legal or not.

Besides, a quick search can reveal not just the number of posts, but the quality of them. To pass as a legitimate poster would require hundreds of hours of learning not only the ins and outs of Disney and DVC, but the culture of the forum as well.

Jest or not, post count and possibly quality of posting is a very reliable gauge of intent. I wouldn't rent from someone with a few dozen posts or where ALL their postings are in the rent/trade board.

The two times I've rented from this board were both with posters with well north of 1,000 posts. Not only were they legitimate, they were very knowledgeable to assist me with questions.

Obviously I was making a cheap joke. With that said, I knew of someone back in college that had a TON of free time and spent months building his street cred on a rival's message board, just so he could later troll them in epic fashion during the football season without getting quickly banned. So there are some crazies out there...but certainly I would not expect that to happen on a Disney forum. Far too niche.

 

[ScubaCat]

I know this is jest, but a long con is proportional to the payout.

I was planning on cashing in at 2000, but it looks like I'll have to contribute a little longer. Wow, that's actually a lot of posts. I wish I hadn't looked at that just now.

In reality, I suppose I could rent some of our BCV points... if we had any left and weren't always using the following year's before the end of the current year. That's the real issue for me. Do I rent the points? Or spend a week poolside. Hmmmm...... tough one.

I wonder what the success rate is in terms of finding BCV points to rent? They're very easy to unload as an owner, so there's definitely more demand than supply.

 

[kboo]

I was planning on cashing in at 2000, but it looks like I'll have to contribute a little longer. Wow, that's actually a lot of posts. I wish I hadn't looked at that just now.

In reality, I suppose I could rent some of our BCV points... if we had any left and weren't always using the following year's before the end of the current year. That's the real issue for me. Do I rent the points? Or spend a week poolside. Hmmmm...... tough one.

I wonder what the success rate is in terms of finding BCV points to rent? They're very easy to unload as an owner, so there's definitely more demand than supply.

I rented (in October 2016) a BCV studio for last August (2017) from an owner at 10 months. Granted, it was late August, and crowds were low, but I was ready to book and had been watching the rent/trade board like a hawk. As soon as a BCV home resort owner posted, I was on it with the dates etc. I'll echo what @ziravan said, this owner and the VGF owner we rented from (also at 10 months) were REALLY helpful, not only in DME, but room requests for VGF and also generally talking about DVC and what they liked and didn't like at their home resorts. We had already been looking at buying DVC and were trying to decide on home resorts. Ultimately we pulled the trigger earlier (March 2017) but I'm glad we did, because prices went wayyyy up by the time our August trip rolled around. That said, our stays at both resorts had me (and DH) wondering if we should have gotten a VGF or BCV contract instead... Grand Floridian is still our family's overall favorite resort, hands down, having stayed in both the hotel and DVC, and we were SO not expecting that.

 

[megan17]

Thanks for the advice. I'm a bit nervous about the idea of renting straight from an owner, but it makes sense that someone would be safe it they have a big presence on the boards. I've been searching on Disney's website to book a BC room as a backup, but it does not show any availability for a 2 BR for my dates online. Does that mean that they are all booked up or that there are just no more available to the general public (not DVC owners)?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

None available on cash. That is separate inventory.