July direct sales

[The Jackal]

I dont think I would call the current incentives at SSR a firesale. A 200 points purchase would cost you $41,000 before discounts and $34,500 after and only save you $6,500 or $172.5 per point.

You might be able to add in the Magical beginnings but I dont know if it applies to SSR.

But I do think as long as the economy is not the best for DIS there will be more sales than not.

It does apply to SSR.I believe it applies to any resort that is not a 2042 resort.

 

[Sandisw]

It does apply to SSR.I believe it applies to any resort that is not a 2042 resort.

I have read that someone was told no MB program for SSR.

 

[Nursemanit]

The question isn't how many people aren't buying Riviera because of the restrictions. The question is how many people are buying direct instead of resale because of the restrictions.

The post you quoted did not buy Riviera because of the restrictions, but did buy points direct from DVC. And now has points that can be used at Riviera, VDH and every future restricted resort. It's not worth examining how much weight every single buyer gives to that aspect. But the restrictions give direct purchases a boost that resale simply cannot match.

We have seen no evidence of more people buying direct until the direct prices got close to resale last month. Outside of that resale has been growing - so I don’t buy this

 

[Wakey]

I wonder if its because you are SELLING your points back to Disney. When selling and making a profit you need to pay tax' and for non U.S citizens that would mean getting an ITIN number reporting to IRS and a whole lot of paperwork.

Google give you one automatically with a simple form when you start earning as a non US based YouTuber. Takes 5 mins to complete the form. Why can’t Disney do similar?

 

[Sandisw]

Google give you one automatically with a simple form when you start earning as a non US based YouTuber. Takes 5 mins to complete the form. Why can’t Disney do similar?

I think it has more to do with laws related to incentives and how they can offer them to different people.

MB is a rebate program and not a taxable situation.

But, I thought the MB program not being available was when a non US resident wanted to buy over the phone. I could be wrong.

 

[tjkraz]

We have seen no evidence of more people buying direct until the direct prices got close to resale last month. Outside of that resale has been growing - so I don’t buy this

You're never going to be able to assign specific volumes to individual factors. But it stands to reason that more people are buying direct points because of AP discounts, Moonlight Magic, lounges and ability to use points at all resorts because those perks are only offered to direct buyers.

 

[Sandisw]

We have seen no evidence of more people buying direct until the direct prices got close to resale last month. Outside of that resale has been growing - so I don’t buy this

If they couldn't sell VGF, a non restricted resort, without lowering the price to close to resale, doesn't it support that restrictions, or lack there of, is not enough to drive or depress sales on its own?

For me, that is the take away from all of this. DVD can have restricted products as long as they find a way to make the pricing strong and have a resort, like VDH, that has a uniqueness to it that people buy anyway.

All we know, is that the sales for July topped 200K, and that two of the three resorts are the new model of being restricted.

As I mentioned earlier, if incentives don’t get remarkedly better in Sept for RIV , its a pretty strong indicator they don’t seem to care how strong the sales are for that resort.

 

[Genie+]

You are thinking like a member of the DIS DVC forums, not a typical DVC buyer. They are not the same.

But who were the group that pushed VGF into that high sales bracket for July?

 

[Sandisw]

But who were the group that pushed VGF into that high sales bracket for July?

For that level of sales, my guess is the DIS posters were still a very small % of total contracts.

 

[Genie+]

There are so many moving parts it’s never close to being apples to apples.

Restrictions are weird - personally they’re off-putting but also they increased my interest in direct. They added value out of thin air.

 

[Genie+]

For that level of sales, my guess is the DIS posters were still a very small % of total contracts.

I mean more what chunk of VGF July sales were informed buyers. I’d love to see the breakdown for both VGF and RIV into who were fresh meat buying onsite or on a cruise etc, who were just new buyers, who were existing members who only owned resale, and existing members who already owned direct. That would be interesting to compare.

 

[Sandisw]

There are so many moving parts it’s never close to being apples to apples.

Restrictions are weird - personally they’re off-putting but also they increased my interest in direct. They added value out of thin air.

I think that’s why some of us can’t agree that it’s restrictions and restrictions alone making the differences.

I can’t believe that DVD didn’t go into this without expecting growing pains with sales until they had a few resorts with them.

It also comes to perspective. Are they looking for data to keep or remove? Are they happy that they can sell cash rooms as easy as they can at RIV so who cares?

I am sure they are just happy they sold what the did! What I do think is that maybe they will keep this MB program in play for a while!!

 

[Sandisw]

I mean more what chunk of VGF July sales were informed buyers. I’d love to see the breakdown for both VGF and RIV into who were fresh meat buying onsite or on a cruise etc, who were just new buyers, who were existing members who only owned resale, and existing members who already owned direct. That would be interesting to compare.

Sometimes you can tell by the average size of contracts, but I can’t decide with these numbers.

VGF averaged 169 points per contract.That has always tended to mean more new buyers than current owners. But, the sweet spot for current pricing is 150 points so I am not sure we can make any assumptions from that.

RIV averaged 163 points per contract. Again, tends to lead me newer buyers.

 

[Genie+]

What I do think is that maybe they will keep this MB program in play for a while!!

I think it’s a smart incentive. Makes the point price much more attractive. Helps sytem availability for first booking since those get pushed out a bit further on average, increasing satisfaction. Puts a nice chunk of money back in buyer’s pockets right after the purchase is settled, a nice cushion financially for that first trip which again helps increase satisfaction.

 

[RichVIII]

At some point soon, the restricted versus non-restricted won't be a discussion point (remember the rage over wall-mounted shower products)?

I don’t like restrictions but it changed our behavior. In general, I think pricing is a huge factor - for both informed and non-informed buyers. Informed saw a great deal with VGF and jumped. Uninformed saw a great deal and probably jumped a vacations for years to come. Some of those informed just dropped premium prices before all the discounts hit to book a revenge vacation, DVC and pricing no where near the “rack rate of their cash stay“ or the $217 “rack rate of points” was really good. Everybody wants to feel like they are saving a buck.

 

[laurend]

We are/were brand new buyers this summer so I'll throw in my thoughts - I did some research here lurking in the background but we likely would have made the same choices regardless, call us semi-informed buyers. VGF direct was the winner due to incentives, and now we're adding on resale points at BCV because of course we are (gotta have an EPCOT area home base too!).

- Restrictions were a consideration for the first purchase but not a dealbreaker. If we had really liked Riviera we would have considered adding on direct there, but the location is just a little more isolated than I really want, especially for the next several years. I definitely want to stay there at least once so having some direct points to make that happen without a big fuss is good. I guess in that sense restrictions tilted my opinion in favor of owning some direct points instead of all resale.

- We have 2 children, one of whom is a toddler, so location was a big factor for our first home resort. We will want to spend at least part of each vacation very close to MK for the next several years, and we also have a teenager so we wanted enough points to get a 1 br so we could all spread out a bit. I really like the GF vibe and between lower dues and the direct pricing ending up close to resale after we got in contact with a DVC guide, it was an easy choice.

- Direct benefits were also not a dealbreaker, but given everything else they're a good bonus. We bought sorcerer passes and basically cut our park pass costs in half, if not more, for the next two years' trips (Apr 24/Feb 25) and we now have less pressure to make the most of every park day when we go.

 

[Cfabar1]

Glad DVC corrected... the new model is much more affordable.... I am hopeful they learn the right lessons from the current round of incentives and recognize that they needed to reprice. $217 is not sustainable, and that is why they had to up the incentives.

This all happened in the absence of ROFR, which has since returned. I wonder how many people are like me, who had thought they would be resale only buyers, than looked around and thought, wow, for not much more (or in some cases less), I can be a full DVC member, get the points right away, not be locked out of future resorts, and not have to wait half a year to get my points.

 

[RichVIII]

Glad DVC corrected... the new model is much more affordable.... I am hopeful they learn the right lessons from the current round of incentives and recognize that they needed to reprice. $217 is not sustainable, and that is why they had to up the incentives.

This all happened in the absence of ROFR, which has since returned. I wonder how many people are like me, who had thought they would be resale only buyers, than looked around and thought, wow, for not much more (or in some cases less), I can be a full DVC member, get the points right away, not be locked out of future resorts, and not have to wait half a year to get my points.

We added some direct since the delta between resale and direct wasn’t much. That has shifted for most resorts at this point but VGF is on fire for your reasons you point out.

$217 sucks (to me) for current owners who want to add on smaller contracts over time. I realize the 25 points contracts will also go away with newer and newer resorts but even 50 points at over 10k is a bigger commitment now. I get why they deals play at larger point breaks but I don’t need another 200 points right now. I need 25-75 points.

 

[Sandisw]

We added some direct since the delta between resale and direct wasn’t much. That has shifted for most resorts at this point but VGF is on fire for your reasons you point out.

$217 sucks (to me) for current owners who want to add on smaller contracts over time. I realize the 25 points contracts will also go away with newer and newer resorts but even 50 points at over 10k is a bigger commitment now. I get why they deals play at larger point breaks but I don’t need another 200 points right now. I need 25-75 points.

That’s me. We would love 50.

 

[Stargazer65]

I wonder how many people are like me, who had thought they would be resale only buyers, than looked around and thought, wow, for not much more (or in some cases less), I can be a full DVC member, get the points right away, not be locked out of future resorts, and not have to wait half a year to get my points.

I don't know broadly, but I'm definitely in that camp. I was already blue card from an original BLT contract, so I had even less reason to add direct, and I figured I would only add on BLT and SSR resale. Then the new incentives came out.