Would you pay a “Membership Fee” to Disney for direct benefits?

[jimonb]

What if Disney offered, or required a “membership fee” to resale purchasers? In exchange for a one time fee of say $1000 for first time resale customers, they get all of the benefits, eliminating the 2 classes of owners. Also, Disney would make money on some Resales as well. It would be payable to Disney at closing, but if you already had a “membership” it is waived. It would also be waived on direct purchases. Would you go for this? What cost should Disney charge for this? Do you think it would be optional or mandatory?

 

[LittleFishy101]

I would think it should be optional and it would be say $1000 per uy to get the benefits. In my opinion though, it’s not likely to happen.

 

[MarBee]

I would! ‍

 

[disneynutz]

If DVD stops selling new resorts then I could see it happening. The whole purpose of treating resale as second class citizens is to drive people to direct buying and to convince direct prospects that direct is the way to go.

Bill

 

[CarolMN]

$1000 isn't even close to the amount DVD makes on a direct sale. If the purpose of the Membership Extras is to sell more direct points, I don't think this is a winning strategy for them and would encourage resale over direct. Also, if they were to sell memberships in this fashion, wouldn't they have to "guarantee" the perks for at least some period of time? Doubt they want to do that, unless the price charged was an annual one or significantly higher - maybe more than anyone would pay.

The fact that this question is even asked lends support to DVD's current strategy of requiring a minimum number of directly purchased points to qualify. It appears many value the ME enough to buy at least some number of points directly.

I do not think I would pay for ME as they currently exist.

 

[John-DVC]

I wouldn’t pay. Don’t really see the benefit.

 

[Networth]

Not a chance

 

[ziravan]

But that’s just it. They already offer a membership fee. They obviously think it’s successful as they just more than tripled the price:

~$12,000.00 initiation fee.
~$500.00 annually to maintain membership.

That’s about how much it costs to buy 75 points direct at SSR or OKW. (Membership fee might be a bit cheaper if you buy VB or HHI but balances out over time.)

I understand your point. My point is that DVD doesn’t care about whatever SSR and OKW points they have in inventory. They believe that the membership perks have a value to their direct sale business and they’ve placed that value as being worth more than 10x what you suggest.

And that’s a very recent re-evaluation significantly upwards. While the economy is humming along, they aren’t going to sell you something for $1000 that they recently declared to be valued at $12,000.

You can have a new membership for $12,000.00. Hell, they’ll throw in a few SSR or OKW points for free with the deal.

 

[LAX]

I think most people who purchase resale to begin with will likely crunch the numbers to decide whether it's worth paying for the membership benefits (much like what many had done for the 25-pointers before that got shut down). Obviously, if the benefits are subject to change at any moment, most probably would opt out unless they can use the benefits upfront to justify the cost.

However, like someone already mentioned earlier, such offer will likely not happen as the intention is to sell more DVC points directly, not to squeeze out more from existing resale purchasers. Otherwise, it just serves as another backdoor for people to avoid direct purchase after DVD just closed one of them.

LAX

 

[ziravan]

If DVD gets into the tiered benefit business (and I think that they will), they might eventually allow you to qualify some resale points for a fee. But. Like most timeshares that do so, that fee would be combined with a mandatory purchase of points.

For example, if you own 160 resale points and wish to qualify for the 320 point tier, you can qualify your original 160 points for $15/point —— with a purchase of another 160 points direct. . .

But then you’ll have to ask yourself, just how much are 2 extra FPs pp/per day worth? (Or whatever goodies they’ll offer)

With a little push, DVC might become its own little Club16.5!

 

[kniquy]

They make much more money making people buy the 75 min point contract, so no real benefit for them.

 

[JETSDAD]

I gladly would have paid it at $1000 and just purchased more points resale vs buying the 25 point addon. It certainly wouldn't be $1000 though.

 

[ScubaCat]

They make much more money making people buy the 75 min point contract, so no real benefit for them.

Right, but the REAL point of the minimum is to threaten dissuade prospective buyers from considering resale.

 

[Dean]

What if Disney offered, or required a “membership fee” to resale purchasers? In exchange for a one time fee of say $1000 for first time resale customers, they get all of the benefits, eliminating the 2 classes of owners. Also, Disney would make money on some Resales as well. It would be payable to Disney at closing, but if you already had a “membership” it is waived. It would also be waived on direct purchases. Would you go for this? What cost should Disney charge for this? Do you think it would be optional or mandatory?

I'm sure many would that don't have it now or new resale buyers if the fee were "reasonable". But for DVD to offer the benefit, they'd likely charge roughly the difference in resale vs retail, enough to make one just buy retail if they felt those benefits had enough value. And likely about as much or more than just adding 75 retail points. What I could see them doing is a retail purchase with the option to make all of your points qualified if you bought 75 retail. As for a VIP system, it does make sense but if they haven't done it so far, I doubt they will. As time passes it becomes more and more difficult and they'd have to totally revamp the current qualified vs non qualified system to do so.

 

[thelionqueen]

Nope!! I think the perks aren’t worth it at all. Maybe like $50 then I’d think about it lol