I am not a DVC (Disney Vacation Club) owner. I have always wanted to stay in a DVC property but have found the Disney prices for the DVC resorts to be unattainable. I had frequently priced out staying at various DVC properties but could not justify the costs.
In recent months, I had read that some people rent points in order to afford staying in these rooms. I am always looking for ways to save money, yet have the Disney vacation of my dreams. As a result, I found a board that had members of DVC that were renting out their points. I had never frequented the boards prior to this, so do not feel that you must be a “board regular” to rent using the boards. I emailed the owner of the requested number of points needed after doing some research on the accommodations I wanted to request: I found online “calculators” that helped me determine the number of points I would need for the days of travel for the defined accommodations.
For my trip with my husband and son, we decided a studio would be plenty of room for our 5 night vacation. We had wanted to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge, but found that that resort was already booked solid. Instead, we went with Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. The number of points needed for our 5 nights was 70. The individual we were renting from requested $10 per point for a total due to the owner of $700. We paid the individual the money through Paypal. I felt confident in this purchase when backed with Paypal, since Paypal does have safeguards (check with the site for specifics).
After paying for the points, the owner booked our accommodations, and we were sent our confirmation in the mail about a week later. If we had needed to use the Disney’s Magical Express, the owner of the DVC points would have also had to book this for us. I will say that after renting the points from the member, I could not resist pricing out the costs of the studio for the same dates through Disney.com. With my annual pass discount, I was given a rate of $1856. I nearly fell out of my seat! What a great savings!
Next week I will discuss my room a bit and our accomodations at Saratoga Springs. Have a great week!
Contributed by: Natalie H. (NDM #268). Natalie is the Disney Driven Life’s resident resort expert and creator of Meet the Magic!
Natalie grew up in Nashville, TN. Married with one son, she lives on a farm. As if this weren’t enough to keep her on her toes, Natalie also works around the clock due to being self-employed .
Natalie often travels to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, giving her a vast knowledge of the Disney Resorts which she shares in her posts on The Disney Driven Life. She loves the research on the resorts and appreciates input for these articles as well.
In recent trips, Natalie has begun making a habit of meeting people while in the parks. This habit inspired her personal website, Meet the Magic, http://meetthemagic.com. This site helps her connect to others as well as hold space for Disney fans to post information about their Disney related sites. Her goal with this venture is to help people to “Meet the Magic” of their choice.
Great article Natalie. Wow that’s a huge savings I need to look into renting points! I’ve always thought Saratoga Springs looked like a great resort, can’t wait to hear about what you thought.
This is a fabulous post, Natalie! When Disney was building the TreeHouses at Saratoga Springs, I was going bananas because I wanted to stay there so badly! They hadn’t opened reservations on them yet but I was checking out the boards you mentioned and found a DVC owner that had LOTS of points available to rent and SSR was his home resort. He was a doll, he called first thing in the morning on the first possible day to make those reservations for us. We were able to get the 9 nights we wanted, he mailed us a contract which we signed and mailed back to him then he required us to pay half promptly and the other half to be paid 30 days prior to our vacation. As soon as we got our flights arranged from Seattle, he added Magical Express for us and when we decided to purchase the dining plan, he added that too! It was a fabulous experience for the 8 of us and I’m so happy we had the experience! 🙂 If anyone needs a recommendation, I’m sure he’d be thrilled! 🙂
Contract? Huh, there was no contract with my rental. There were many emails on the matter though! I guess that could have served as a contract within itself. I did, however, pay for the entire point rental up front. Actually, I paid for the points before I received the reservation information in the mail. I purchased through paypal, which will back up the buyer if the process does not go as expected. Thanks so much for reading and I hope to hear how your Tree House stay turns out!
Thanks for reading! More to come soon!
We are doing our first rental in May and I am really excited. So far everything has worked out well. We asked for a contract and the guy we were dealing with was very helpful. He was having problems booking the week that we wanted and really worked with us to make sure we got the room that we wanted. He was one of the nicest people I have ever dealt with. We are staying at the Bay Lake Towers with a Magic Kingdom view. It is truly going to be a magical vacation.