$/point reimbursement for friends / family?

[JeanJoe]

Here's a slightly personal question, if you all don't mind. We are in the process of joining DVC, and have friends and family who are interested in using any points we have "left over."

I wouldn't feel right asking for the "full" renting price that's on the rent boards (I guess frequently from $10-12/point, perhaps sometimes higher?), but it also obviously makes sense to ask for more then the annual MF, to account for the buy-in cost.

I was wondering whether people here might be willing to share what they consider a "fair" sort-of-at-cost-reimbursement-price for their points?

Of course, at the rate that DW and I are planning future vacations, we might not have to worry about "left over" points at all!

Thanks in advance

 

[rocketriter]

Be very, very careful about this. A lot of DVC owners have had problems with relatives who start acting entitled to "leftover" points, and pretty soon start defining what's a leftover and when the owner can use them so that enough are left for the others.

Truth is, if you purchased correctly you won't have leftovers. You might have small amounts that you want to push forward into the next year, but that's all. Any extra points are yours to use to treat your spouse and kids to more days or more rooms, and to bring along an occasional friend or relative by your invitation.

I suggest that you start from this position, and don't let your relatives begin discussing how to carve up your leftover points. If you choose to invite someone along as your guest, that's fine; just be sure to state up front who pays for other things like meals, park tickets and plane fare. And don't be ashamed to rent your points to relatives for $10. Send them to the WDW booking website so they can see how much DVC rooms cost for cash, and your $10 points will look like a real bargain.

Sorry to sound hard about this. But the "I just wouldn't feel right" stance is the first step toward being controlled by relatives' guilt trips. You're entitled to give relatives any gift you like, but people are human and shift from "gift" to "you owe me a bargain because we're related" very quickly.

 

[Nanajo1]

What are left over points ???
We take friends and family without reimbursement for the room. They usually go overboard paying for meals and treating us to gifts. My thoughts would include what your family could afford, if this was a one time only event. If the roles were reversed what would you expect to reimburse them? I would not expect to make a profit off family but I wouldn't want to be taken avantage of either. Make sure they understand that you have ongoing expenses with the DVC. Some folks think once you've bought in that every thing is free from that point.

 

[JeanJoe]

... A lot of DVC owners have had problems with relatives who start acting entitled to "leftover" points ...

Truth is, if you purchased correctly you won't have leftovers. ...

I suggest that you start from this position, and don't let your relatives begin discussing how to carve up your leftover points. ...

Sorry to sound hard about this. ...

Good advice, thank you! I do remember skimming a thread a month back about these problems.

So far, we're lucky that I actually don't have many relatives who even LIKE Disney (what's wrong with them?), and the one who is most interested (DSis) is actually very familiar with DVC and wanted to buy in a few years ago, and is still thinking about doing so.

Meanwhile, DGM actually wanted to "prepay" points for future family vacations, and I had to tell her that we didn't want her to do that, because we didn't want to feel "obligated," as we have plans for some non-family trips, too. I was happy that DGM understood, and later heard that DSis agreed.

Still, I'll keep in mind your good advice, and try not to fall into the all-to-easy trap... That was in part the reason for my question about a "fair" price, because if from the very outset, I let them know that it can't be a free lunch, but I'm also not planning to profit off them, we could start off on the right foot.

The "leftover" issue actually came about because we were foolish / lucky enough to have 2 simultaneous resales pass ROFR (when I was really sure that at least 1 would get bought back), putting us initially in a "what the heck are we going to do with these points?" situation. On the other hand, it's now getting SO easy to go from "Sun-Thu stays only with an overnight off-site for 1 day" to "well, we can afford to do 1 weekend day in a villa, right?", so leftover points is seeming like a smaller and smaller problem. Hmmm, maybe we need an add-on instead?

 

[RumpleMom]

I like the idea of having the relatives look into booking the exact same vacation, so you are comparing apples and apples, and they will see the actual cost. Then you can discuss an amount.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Left over points are never an issue here. I'm pretty protective of my points, and I don't envision letting family or friends "use left over points", but I WILL invite them to come share accommodations with us on occation! When that happens, they usualy pay for a nice dinner out or two in gratitude. Those who don't express their appreciation in any way are not invited back. Simple rule and makes for a lot of fun!

 

[lllovell]

I don't expect guests that are staying with us to pay anything towards our accomidations. It would be nice if they took us to dinner or something, but even that is not expected. However, if we got them their own individual hotel room at a time of their request, that is different to me and we "charge" them based on what seems fair to me.

Spring break, we took some friends and their little girl (close enough that our children call them aunt/uncle and same for their girl towards us) with us renting two studios at OKW. We charged them $300 for the week instead of $500 (market going rate of $10 a point) because we wanted all of us to be able to enjoy a vacation together. If they were in a much better financial position, we would have "charged" them more, but this worked out well for us both. We got spending money for our trip and had a wonderful time with our close friends while giving us all extra space to have down time. It was great.

So I would say it depends on the situation.

As for the "extra points" and people deciding, that would never happen to me. If someone asked me and we could do it (like this next year where we will have an infant) no problem. If we can't - again no problem. They belong to me and I dont mind sharing and if the people around you expect things like that from you then you need to re-evaulate who you are associating with - friends OR family. (IMHO)

 

[BostonDisneyKid]

If you do have "left over points" might I suggest figuring out the ratio of the points deemed as "left overs" to your total points. Then use that ratio (example 150 pt contract, 15 points "left over" = 10%) and charge them that percentage of your annual dues, since they are family and friends. If your dues are $800 - charge them $80. This will be an "extremely" good deal for them just paying the dues of the points used - especially after they look at the prices on-line for rack rates.

But, as others have said - 'What are left over points?'

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

First off, I'd bank my points and avoid having leftovers.

BTW, $12/point is a steal comparied to the going rate for DVC accomodations (S-Th). I wouldn't feel guilty about asking for that amount/pt.

Alternativlely, if you friends/family want to use your points every year, I'd direct them to the resale market where they can buy 50-100 points of their own. You can then offer to buy their leftovers for $4/pt.

Happy planning!

 

[Mike]

If you do have "left over points" might I suggest figuring out the ratio of the points deemed as "left overs" to your total points. Then use that ratio (example 150 pt contract, 15 points "left over" = 10%) and charge them that percentage of your annual dues, since they are family and friends. If your dues are $800 - charge them $80. This will be an "extremely" good deal for them just paying the dues of the points used - especially after they look at the prices on-line for rack rates.

But, as others have said - 'What are left over points?'

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to multiply your MF rate by the number of points (ie in your example $5.33 x 15)

 

[tamu91]

One of my aunts who taught I was crazy buying into DVC had problems getting a 'decent' room at a 'reasonable' price during spring break week this year 'hinted' to me about renting our DVC points.
Out of the goodness of my heart , I reserved a Studio and charged her $6/pt. I thought about just charging her the maintenance cost, somewhere in the $4.25 neighborhood, but nahhhhhh!

 

[crisi]

That's pretty close to what I figure a point costs me. Without worrying about future value calculations, we bought points for $63 a point and had 40 years left. So about $1.60 per year per point. Add $4.25 in dues and we are at about $6. Close enough for relatives. Not that we have points left.

(pumpkinboy can come in her and explain that I really need to figure the value of the annuity in year X or whatever, but without getting into the tables in my accounting textbook, this works).

 

[JeanJoe]

That's pretty close to what I figure a point costs me. Without worrying about future value calculations, we bought points for $63 a point and had 40 years left. So about $1.60 per year per point. Add $4.25 in dues and we are at about $6. Close enough for relatives. Not that we have points left.

(pumpkinboy can come in her and explain that I really need to figure the value of the annuity in year X or whatever, but without getting into the tables in my accounting textbook, this works).

Thank you -- that's about where my simplistic line of thinking would put me, without dealing with amortization / future value / all that stuff that I just don't get. It'll work for now, if I need to go there.

 

[rocketriter]

Everybody's making good points about this (no pun intended). I think part of the distinction lies around whether you've invited relatives along or they're going by themselves on your "extra" points.

On our last trip we invited relatives along, put them up in the studio side of our 2-bedroom, and charged them nothing for the room (they covered all their own other expenses). It worked out very well. But another couple of relatives heard about this and let us know that we should borrow from the next year's points so we could also invite them along on the same trip. We told them they were welcome to join us but would have to go to the website and make their own reservation. They did, took a look at the cash price, and vanished.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Everybody's making good points about this (no pun intended). I think part of the distinction lies around whether you've invited relatives along or they're going by themselves on your "extra" points.

On our last trip we invited relatives along, put them up in the studio side of our 2-bedroom, and charged them nothing for the room (they covered all their own other expenses). It worked out very well. But another couple of relatives heard about this and let us know that we should borrow from the next year's points so we could also invite them along on the same trip. We told them they were welcome to join us but would have to go to the website and make their own reservation. They did, took a look at the cash price, and vanished.

LOL, good tactic!

 

[kathleena]

Leftover Points = isn't that kind of like an oxymoron? I never have leftovers, and never plan to have leftovers.

That said.

Minimum - I would charge at least the maintenance fee per point. So that for me is about $4.20 (I can't remember what it is right now)

Loss of Use - I assume if someone uses my points, that i have now lost the use of them for another trip. I consider that loss to be relative to what my cash outlay was for the points, annualized for the length of the contract. This rather scientifically arrived at, yet admittedly "guesstimated", dollar amount brings me up around $2 per point.

So about $6 per point total.

But basically - ya want points, ya buy your own!

 

[mamatojon]

This is a very timely thread for us. We just bought 150 points on our last trip in February and are considering taking our first DVC trip this next January. We have always gone to WDW with my MIL and FIL and split a FW cabin. We were thinking that this time we would get a 2 bedroom and split it between the six of us. My thought initially was that we would charge them 10$ a point since that works out to be about what they paid when we split the cabin at FW, and frankly they will be getting much nicer digs at SSR, their own bathroom, privacy, etc. They seem pretty cool with the idea but now I'm feeling a bit like a grinch, LOL. But, if we take them on this trip we have to forego the next years trip since we will have to borrow to reserve a two bedroom, I just figured we could put the money in savings and go to Disneyland since we always stay off site when we go there.

I don't think we will ever have the problem of relatives wanting to use our points without us, none of the rest of our family can get it together to pay their own house payments, let alone a WDW vacation.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

We're planning to go next summer for 5 nights and invite my sister's family too. We'll probably charge them $60-70 per night or $300-350 total, which would mean getting a kitchen and w/d for less than a room at a value. Of course, they need deluxe accomodations b/c BIL is 6'4" which also means that we would have to give them the King Master , so I'm leaning more toward the $70 than the $60........

A 2BR will cost us 200 points for 5 nights. So $350 is still less than 1/2 of our maintenance fees on the 200 points. Of course, if it were just our family, we'd probably get a 1 BR for 150 points. Even if you look at just charging them for the difference in points (200-150=50), it comes out to be $6-7 per point. BTW, I checked out the rack rate on a 2BR BCV villa this summer and it was $808 per night (or $4K for 5 nights, IF you could get them). So 5 nights for 1/2 the cost of 1 night. Anyway you look at it, it's a bargain for them.

If my sister's family were going by themselves, I would lean towards charging them the going rate, which would still be a bargain. We plunked down a lot of cash to buy into DVC and are paying close to $800 on MF's this year. That's $ out of OUR pocket we used to pre-pay for OUR vacations. We'll share at a discount, but we're not in a position to give it away.

 

[Cruelladeville]

The problem with "left over" or "extra" anything is that it sounds like it's not wanted or needed by you, so family members/friends begin to feel that you should give it to them, and if you don't, you're the grinch. The first time I rented out the points, everybody got mad at me! I learned a lesson, though, and now I never have left overs. I still have lots of people ask, but I just offer to connect them to someone who will rent the points to them.

 

[lisareniff]

That's pretty close to what I figure a point costs me. Without worrying about future value calculations, we bought points for $63 a point and had 40 years left. So about $1.60 per year per point. Add $4.25 in dues and we are at about $6. Close enough for relatives. Not that we have points left.

Ditto.

I have offered this deal to a friends family if they were to go with us but then decided not to go. Most of my family and friends are not interested in Disney.