Renting Points

[Cbaur88]

First off my apologies in advance I am very green to this so bear with some of my novice questions. My family and I want to explore renting some of our vacation points to offset the ever increasing annual fees.

My first question would be is that possible? If so has anyone ever done it that could share their experience? What is involved, fee's/commission, min points needed to rent, rental company recommendations, what to watch out for, etc...

Other question I had was just more me being nervous and skeptical but this is a one time thing? I am not signing over my points (LOL), or being scammed in some kind of way? I sincerely thank you in advance for your time and help with this. This would greatly help out my father financially and still allow this wonderful gift to be kept in the family for years to come and enjoy!

 

[Mickeypooh99]

When we rented our points to people we don’t know we felt safer using a rental company. They gave us 70% of the money when we booked the reservation and the rest at the time of travel. However a lot of people rent directly through this forum or there are Facebook groups for dvc rentals. We only rented to strangers a couple of times. We can usually find people we know in real life who rent our extra points.

 

[Cbaur88]

When we rented our points to people we don’t know we felt safer using a rental company. They gave us 70% of the money when we booked the reservation and the rest at the time of travel. However a lot of people rent directly through this forum or there are Facebook groups for dvc rentals. We only rented to strangers a couple of times. We can usually find people we know in real life who rent our extra points.

Thank you for that information, much appreciated. I didn't even know I could rent privately. How does that work with Disney? Am I making the reservation then renting it out? Who's name am I giving Disney? Sorry for all the questions, this is all very new to me.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Thank you for that information, much appreciated. I didn't even know I could rent privately. How does that work with Disney? Am I making the reservation then renting it out? Whose name am I giving Disney? Sorry for all the questions, this is all very new to me.

Yes you make the reservation and just put the renters name and information on it. You still always control the reservation as the owner of the points. So if they didn’t pay you then you could cancel it. You can check out sample contracts. I never felt comfortable renting privately to people I don’t know, but lots of people do.

 

[Cbaur88]

Yes you make the reservation and just put the renters name and information on it. You still always control the reservation as the owner of the points. So if they didn’t pay you then you could cancel it. You can check out sample contracts. I never felt comfortable renting privately to people I don’t know, but lots of people do.

Thank you again so much!!

 

[zavandor]

Most of the risk is on the renter, because you'll be in complete control of the reservation. It'll be in your dashboard and you could cancel it with one click. So they need to trust you to rent your points. It's easier if you have already done before and have references. Maybe the first time you could rent through a broker like the board sponsor to make things easier, but you can keep a bit more for yourself going direct.

Renting your points out has only one risk: if the renter trashes the room and disappears. Disney might ask you to repay for the damage and suspend your account if you don't.
I have heard this happening only once in so many years and it was resolved somehow, I don't know the details.
There used to be a risk of the renter cancelling their credit card leaving the bill unpaid. Now the risk is lower because Disney changes the card every $100 instead of everything at checkout.

 

[Cbaur88]

Most of the risk is on the renter, because you'll be in complete control of the reservation. It'll be in your dashboard and you could cancel it with one click. So they need to trust you to rent your points. It's easier if you have already done before and have references. Maybe the first time you could rent through a broker like the board sponsor to make things easier, but you can keep a bit more for yourself going direct.

Renting your points out has only one risk: if the renter trashes the room and disappears. Disney might ask you to repay for the damage and suspend your account if you don't.
I have heard this happening only once in so many years and it was resolved somehow, I don't know the details.
There used to be a risk of the renter cancelling their credit card leaving the bill unpaid. Now the risk is lower because Disney changes the card every $100 instead of everything at checkout.

Wonderful information, thank you very much. Great suggestion with going through a broker the first or second time so I can learn a bit more about the entire process before renting privately. Thanks again!

 

[Dznypal]

I just did rented out our points last year and I’m not good with computers but I used a rental com who takes care of everything. I had 82 points to rent. I had a ton of questions and they were super fast at answering everything. I felt really comfortable doing this so within 2 weeks I had all my questions answered and all points were rented. There were 2 different families for 2 different trips. The rental place takes care of everything. I would diffently do it again. Of course the com takes a fee but it was worth it to us. Hope this helps. Basically if I can do do it anyone can

 

[drusba]

Members have a right to rent subject to the restriction that the membership cannot be used for a "commercial purpose" which is further defined as a "pattern of rental activity" from which one could conclude the member is acting as a "commercial enterprise" (a legal term that appears in many statutes and is generally understood legally to mean a person or entity that engages in for profit transactions as part of an ongoing business. There is a DVC interpretive rule for the commercial purpose provision which says that if the member makes more than 20 reservations during any one-year period, a presumption will be created that the commercial purpose restriction is being violated.

In other words, doing a few rentals to offset some of the annual dues, while still doing your own trips, is fine. There are a number of DVC rental agencies, which find renters for members who want to rent, and essentially do most of the work for you for creating the rental, including getting rental contracts signed and collecting the rental money, Your main activity required is to actually make the reservatio and potentially do some things for those renting that only the member can do, such as make non-guaranteed location requests. The agencies charge a rental rate to the person who wants to rent and you get a proportion. For example, one such rental agency is the DVC Rental Store (dvcrentalstore.com), a sponsor of this website, that typically pays the member for a rental made $18 a point if the reservation is made during the 11-month window and $16 a point otherwise, and the agency sets the actual rental rate often in the $22 to $25 per point range (note prices can be less and the member can get less if the agency is doing discounted rentals. You can find other agencies by doing a Google search for "DVC rental agencies."

You could do it on your own without such an agency but in that case you need to do all the interaction with the one renting, prepare and get applicable contracts signed and make sure money is paid. Many require payment up front, restrict any changes, and the one renting cannot get any money back if he cancels.

Disboards has a rent/transfer section that you may be able to use if you want to do it on your own, but to determine that and learn all the restrictions, you need to first read the Required Reading Before Posting section: www.disboards.com/threads/required-reading-before-posting-dvc-rent-transfer-policies-updated-january-2022.3734006/

 

[crisi]

Most of the risk is on the renter, because you'll be in complete control of the reservation. It'll be in your dashboard and you could cancel it with one click. So they need to trust you to rent your points. It's easier if you have already done before and have references. Maybe the first time you could rent through a broker like the board sponsor to make things easier, but you can keep a bit more for yourself going direct.

Renting your points out has only one risk: if the renter trashes the room and disappears. Disney might ask you to repay for the damage and suspend your account if you don't.
I have heard this happening only once in so many years and it was resolved somehow, I don't know the details.
There used to be a risk of the renter cancelling their credit card leaving the bill unpaid. Now the risk is lower because Disney changes the card every $100 instead of everything at checkout.

The second risk is that you set up terms for payment that allow for you to get taken advantage of. Most people who rent privately ask for half up front - and then get the second half sixty days out. Other people get the whole amount up front. That lets you cancel before the 31 day holding window if you don't get paid. Also, make the reservations non-refundable (but a lot of owners will try and work with the renter if something happens - if you are going to do that, try and rent your points early in your use year to give you maximum flexibility if your renter needs to move their vacation or cancels.)

There was a spate of rentals maybe a decade or so ago where people would get their half up front, then the renter would spend weeks claiming that they'd pay the rest "soon" or asking to let them pay after the vacation happened. Usually, that resulted in the owner not getting the value for their points. There was also a sob story scam happening around that time "can someone rent me points at a discount, my kid has cancer" sort of thing. Don't let that happen.

When I rented points out - a long time ago - I used a broker because it was easy and I was busy - I didn't want to spend the time dealing with a renter - the broker did all that work for me, I just made a reservation and forwarded the information to the broker. I'd probably do the same again since I'm a misanthrope, but as was said upthread, you'll make more money renting out yourself.

 

[sndral]

… My family and I want to explore renting some of our vacation points to offset the ever increasing annual fees.

My first question would be is that possible? If so has anyone ever done it that could share their experience? What is involved, fee's/commission, min points needed to rent, rental company recommendations, what to watch out for, etc...
…

Your father will have to report the rental funds he receives as income to the IRS, although he can deduct expenses & depending on his situation it may be NBD, but it’s something to be aware of.