Another dumb newbie question -

[SyrCinderella]

If I understand correctly, the CRO gets a certain number of rooms in each DVC resort. My question is at what point - if ever - do they release those rooms back to MS if they aren't booked? For example - MS has turned the rooms over to CRO because they aren't booked by members at the 30 day window. The CRO shows it as being available a couple of days before check in. What if a member then requests that type of room? Can MS take back that room a couple of days before? If so, at what point is that allowed? Seems kinda silly for Disney not to allow that, the room could sit empty instead of collecting points (money) for it -

(I ask the question because CRO shows availability for a room we would like but MS doesn't have availability-)

 

[CarolMN]

The question isn't dumb.

The vast majority of rooms at the DVC resorts that are sent to CRO are the result of members using their points for soemthing other than DVC. For example, if a member decides to cruise on points, DVC converts the points spent into the equivalent number of DVC resort nights and sends the nights to CRO. CRO gets a percentage of the revenuw generated and the remainder goes back to DVC which uses it to pay for the cruise. So think of those rooms that go to CRO as the result of "member trades".

Disney retains ownership of a small percentage of every DVC resort (about 4%). If those rooms aren't needed for administrative reasons (like rooms taken out of service for maintenance/rehab, overbooking, etc), they are sent to CRO to rent to the general public for cash.

If a resort isn't sold out yet, any rooms that are not part of the member inventory are sent to CRO to rent for cash. Until the points are sold, the room nights belong to the developer and not the members. So CRO may have quite a few SSR rooms available for cash as that resort isn't sold out yet.

Bottom line - there are many reasons why CRO may have rooms available for cash when DVC has none for points and vice versa.

Sometimes, at the very last minute, MS wil call CRO if they still have rooms and make arrangments for a room to be returned to the DVC inventory and thus made available for points. It doesn't happen very often and I think that what really happoens is MS "trades" asnother date for the one they get back.

Also, DVC often (not always) sends unreserved rooms from member inventory to CRO at the 60 day mark. When that happens, members still have access to those rooms for points, but they are competing for them with members of the general public who pay cash. Any cash generated from those rooms goes back to DVC and is used to offset operating expenses (thus reducing our dues). You will see this in the annual budget statements under "Breakage Income".

Hope that helps you understand.

Hope you get nights you want via the waitlist - good luck!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Carol, that was an excellent explanation, and should be archived for future reference by all of us!

 

[SyrCinderella]

Thank you Carol, that was very helpful. It still seems somewhat wasteful to me for CRO not to rent those rooms (the balance of the 4%) to DVC after a certain cut off point, but at least now I understand.