Tips for Renting Disney Vacation Club Points
Renting Disney Vacation Club points is a great way to save money and get Deluxe-level hotel rooms at Walt Disney World for Moderate-level prices. Since purchasing Disney Vacation Club (or DVC, as it’s known) can be a significant financial investment, renting Disney Vacation Club points is also a great way to “test the waters” of Disney Vacation Club, so to speak, and determine whether buying into the club is right for you. Plus, since the only thing as expensive as a hotel at Walt Disney World is airfare for the trip, renting points will save you a lot of money over booking a hotel. (Sorry, can’t help on airfare…although look for airfare savings in a future article! 
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Renting DVC points is the one-time use of a set number of a Disney Vacation Club member’s points to book a Deluxe Villa room at a Disney Vacation Club Resort. The owner of the points agrees to “rent” the points out to a rentee, and in exchange for payment to the owner of the points, the owner makes a room reservation for the rentee in the rentee’s name. The amount of the payment is determined by the number of points needed for the booking, with a per-point cost being agreed upon by the parties. For example, if the agreed upon price is $13, and the rentee wants to stay 4 nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas, which will require 40 points during a given time of year, the total payment under the agreement will be $520, or $130 per night. The owner calls or goes online to check Disney Vacation Club availability at the resort where the reservation is desired, and the agreement is finalized if there is availability. There are a few other details that will be discussed below, but that’s the general jist of renting Disney Vacation Club points.
In recent years, renting points has gone from relatively uncommon to a bit more mainstream practice. There are individual owners who rent points because they either aren’t going to be able to use their points or need a way to offset some of the considerable cost of membership, and there are companies that exist solely for the purpose of renting Disney Vacation Club points to savvy Walt Disney World and Disneyland guests.
One caveat from the outset: we have never actually gone through with a DVC point rental ourselves. We’ve contacted individuals on forums about rental and have gone through the process of inquiring about rental when we were considering renting points, but we have never actually completed a rental. We’ve also stayed in the same room as someone else who rented Disney Vacation Club points, but we’ve never actually paid to rent points ourselves. We plan to do so this year for a stay at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel (we don’t own enough points for the stay), and I had planned on writing this article then, but we’ve received a lot of emails about points rental and several comments and questions about it on our Disney Vacation Club Buying Guide, so I figured I’d at least share what we’ve learned from our extensive, albeit incomplete, experience, along with my thoughts about the pros and cons of each method of renting points.
Let’s start with the pros and cons of renting DVC points in general to determine whether it’s right for you.
Pros & Cons of DVC Point Rental
The biggest benefit of renting Disney Vacation Club points is saving money. The example of Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas above is a good one. If you wanted to book a stay August 19-23, 2013 in a value view studio, that’s exactly how many points you’d need, and how much it would cost if you rented points through the DVC Rental Store. For a stay December 2-6, 2013, it would be even cheaper! Other nights throughout the year would cost more, but you get the idea. You couldn’t even stay in a Moderate Resort for the rates you can get by renting Disney Vacation Club points, let alone a Deluxe.
Another benefit of renting Disney Vacation Club points, for some people, is getting the Disney Dining Plan without purchasing park tickets. This means that you can purchase tickets from an authorized ticket broker like Undercover Tourist, rather than buying directly from Disney, thereby saving even more money. It’s not huge, but if you’re goal is to save money (and clearly it is if you’re renting DVC points), every little bit helps. Depending on the size of your party and the tickets you get, this could amount to another $100 or more in savings!
The biggest downside to renting Disney Vacation Club points is that you don’t have total control over the reservation. Someone else books the reservation for you, and someone else has to make any changes to the reservation for you (such as adding Disney’s Magical Express or the Disney Dining Plan). Disney Vacation Club won’t discuss the reservation with non-members, so even if your name is on it, you’re at the mercy of the person who booked it if you need changes.
Another downside for some guests is that, since the unit rented is a villa and not a hotel room, housekeeping service is not daily. Most stays will only have one visit by Mousekeeping. This isn’t a problem for us (we always have the “do not disturb” sign up), but for some people, not having the full hotel experience might be a fatal blow to renting DVC points. On the plus side, the villa room means a kitchenette and greater ability to prepare food and do laundry!
Where To Rent?
If you’re convinced that renting Disney Vacation Club points is right for you, the next question is who to use. There are a couple popular choices here, including the DVC Rental Store and David’s Vacation Club Rentals. The advantages to renting through them are that both are accredited by the Better Business Bureau, both have a team that does this as its full-time business, and has both have a sterling reputation. The other upside to renting from the DVC Rental Store or David’s is convenience. They have “home resort” inventory for every Disney Vacation Club resort, meaning that if you want a popular resort (like Beach Club or Grand Californian), you can book with him at the 11 month mark. If you want a hard-to-book resort and plan on booking through an individual, you need to do so 11 months out and find an owner who has the resort you want as a home resort. That can make the whole process of booking through an individual more time consuming and tedious.
The downside to using one of these companies that that both charge about $1-2/point more than the average individual who might rent their own points out on a forum. There are a few other options, such as the Timeshare Store, and DVC-Rental, all of which seem to have their following. I’ve seen a few reviews of each of these, and they are all generally positive.
The alternative to renting points from David’s Vacation Club Rentals or the DVC Rental Store is renting from individuals. There are a few places to do this, but I’m only going to list two: the Disboards DVC-Rent/Trade Board and MouseOwners’ Rent/Trade/Transfer Board. There are other options out there, but the ones of which I’m aware don’t even bear mentioning as they’re not reliable.
The advantages to renting from individuals is that you save money. The average per point price on these boards is $11-12, with points sometimes going for as little as $9/point if the owner is desperate or the points are about to expire.
The downside to renting from individuals is that you have no guarantee that you aren’t going to be ripped off, or that the owner will be available to assist you if something goes wrong with the reservation. You’ll have a bit of uneasiness until the moment at the check-in desk that your reservation pulls up.
Basically, it comes down to how risk averse you are and how much more you can save by going through an individual. Back when we were looking at renting Disney Vacation Club points in 2010, I found several owners who were renting for $8-9 per point on the forums, which was a few dollars in savings over the DVC Rental Store. Unfortunately, each of these owners that responded to my posting was a “New Member” on the forum, with only a handful of posts, which made me uneasy. Anyone can rip you off, but my thinking was that someone with an established reputation on the forum would be less likely to do so. We ultimately ended up not needing to rent because we bought into Disney Vacation Club ourselves.
For what it’s worth, in my time researching rentals, I heard of very few instances of people being ripped off by individuals on the forums. It does happen, but it seems to be very, very infrequent. When we rent in the future, I’m not sure how we’ll do it. It largely depends upon prices. If it’s a short weekend trip and the DVC Rental Store is charging $13/point versus $11/point on the forums, I can’t see using the forums to say what will amount to $30 or less. The possibility that we could be scrambling at the last minute to find an alternate hotel room for such a short trip wouldn’t be worth it. I’d prefer to just pay the bit extra for the peace of mind. If it were a 10-day trip in a Grand Villa, I’d probably be more likely to go through an individual because the savings are greater, but then I’d be concerned that such a big purchase were risky. I really don’t know what I’d do, it’s a tough call.
If we did end up going through an individual, I would do a few things to protect myself as best I could. First, I wouldn’t rent from any new members or individuals with only a handful of posts. I’d want someone with an established reputation on the forums. Second, I’d ask for references. Third, I’d pay with an American Express credit card rather than any other form of payment.
Ultimately, Disney Vacation Club point rentals is a great way to save tons of money without making the long term commitment to joining. If you’re currently booking Moderate or Deluxe Resorts directly from Disney, it’s definitely something to consider. Most of the time, renting Disney Vacation Club points will be cheaper than booking a Moderate, and it will ALWAYS be cheaper than booking a Deluxe (even with the best discounts!). Renting from individuals is the best way to maximize your savings, and renting from the DVC Rental Store or David’s Vacation Club Rentals is the safest way to rent–plus they’re full service companies with great customer service that can help you through the process and answer all of your questions!
Finally, if you’re trying to figure out where you should rent points, make sure to read our DVC Resort Rankings!
Your Thoughts…
If you’ve rented Disney Vacation Club points, we’d love to hear how you rented them, and what you thought of the process? If you do rent, how are you likely to do it? If you have any other questions or comments, please share them below!
28 Responses to “Tips for Renting Disney Vacation Club Points”
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Great article. We enjoy renting DVC points and have done it twice. Once through David’s Vacation Club Rentals and once through The DVC Rental Store. I had great experiences with both companies, the customer service was wonderful with both. The DVC Rental Store does allow you to make payments up until the 45 day mark so that fit in better for our family.
Thanks for the feedback on your experiences!
I’ve rented out my own points twice. Both times to friends that I know I can trust. The first was super easy. We had booked a trip that we could not take, and a friend was able to use the existing reservation. We just had to change the names, gave them the paperwork, and off they went to have a great time.
The second time was more work. As the DVC owner, you have to be the middleman between the renter and Disney. If your renter wants Disney Dining, you have to arrange to get their payment to Disney. Ugh. My friend decided not to take the dining plan, but there was talk for a while there of making a three-way call to the DVC so they could give the CC info to Disney. You have to arrange the Magical Express too, but at least that doesn’t mean handling someone else’s credit info.
Since you are already DVC members, have you looked into a points transfer for your trip? Seems like you could get the points added directly to your account and then handle your own reservations. I’ve never tried, but it might be worth a look.
Don’t know why I hadn’t thought of a points transfer–obviously that would be the way for us to go as owners! That would probably dramatically reduce risk if we rented through individuals, too.
One way to do the dining plan without using your credit card is to make the purchase with a Disney gift card.
I haven’t rented points as of yet but it is in realm of possibility for our next trip. I’ve heard that if the person renting the points decides they want to do something like getting the DDP that you can buy a gift card and have the owner book it with that. That way no CC info Wed have to be used.
Is it just by coincidence that you both posted the gift card thing, or is this a common concern among renters? Like you point out, gift cards are a way around it. So is Paypal, or a one-time use credit card number (which you can request from most CC companies).
The biggest “con” I can see is that it the rental cost is non-refundable. People are using their points to book for you which puts restrictions on those points so it only makes sense. The other “con” is that it is a great selling point. I had never seriously considered owning until I rented. Since we don’t believe in financing purchase like that, we have started a savings account to buy our own points and will likely forego a family vacation or two now to male it happen!
Spot on about both, but I’m not sure the second is so much a “con.” Once you stay in a Deluxe Villa, it’s difficult to go back to regular rooms, so renting DVC points is essentially a “gateway drug” to buying DVC. But is that really such a bad thing?
Thanks to a crazy Cast Member discount our friend got us in 2007 and 2008, we had already stayed in Deluxe Villas when we were considering renting back in 2009/2010. We knew we wanted to buy into DVC eventually and the economics made sense for us, so we decided to forgo a lot of luxuries for one summer and just buy into DVC ourselves, instead of “throwing away” the money we’d be spending on a rental that could’ve been going towards the actual purchase.
I’ve come very close to renting points in the past but have not done it yet. It’s a great alternative to buying into DVC, and makes a lot more sense financially for us at the moment in comparison.
The real trick with DVC is to know where and when you are going to stay 11 months ahead of time. Otherwise you are stuck with old key west and saratoga springs which don’t really excite me too much. Most of the time we have no idea if our work schedules or our lives will be prepared for a DVC rental 11 months out.
Also, cancellation can be tricky when renting DVC points. I’d be nervous laying out $2,000 to rent DVC points and then have an unexpected life event transpire a month before the trip. If I am going to cancel or change plans, I’d rather deal with Disney directly than through a third party.
Another good site is mouseowners (dot com). They have excellent forums and often people will list pre-booked DVC stays which is a nice way to shop for a deal.
We have only ever booked our DVC stays 11 months in advance twice, and we have NEVER been stuck at Saratoga or Old Key West. I hear this a lot online, but I just don’t think it’s true.
Here are some of the other places we were able to score inside 7 months:
-Wilderness Lodge at Christmas (5 months in advance after being waitlisted)
-BoardWalk during Flower & Garden (6 months in advance)
-Animal Kingdom Lodge at Christmas (4 months in advance after being waitlisted)
You’re right about the cancellation issues, but I think the common sentiment about being stuck at OKW or SSR is really overblown online. You definitely won’t always get the resort you want (we’ve tried to get BLT and BCV a few times and have struck out), but most of the time you won’t be stuck at OKW or SSR unless you wait until the last minute, go during an especially popular time of year, or need a particularly in-demand type of room (Grand Villas).
I looked for mid April for 7 nights of this year back in November and was limited to SSR and OKW- but I only was interested in a studio. Perhaps others have better luck getting beach club, boardwalk, or bay lake which are mainly the DVC that appeal to us.
Thank you for this article! We are considering buying into DVC. However, I have always heard that timeshares are a bad financial investment. I follow Dave Ramsey & he repeatedly says this. Also, I do not know if the “magic” will wear off & I will regret buying into DVC. I am considering going to Disney in October for Photo Magic. Renting DVC points & testing the waters seems like it will be a good option.
From the perspective of an “investment,” timeshares (DVC isn’t a traditional timeshare so much as it is a prepaid vacation plan, but same idea) are horrible buys. We have a small allotment of points, and the amount we save each year on Annual Passes and other things as a result of DVC membership really tips the scale in our favor, but it’s still not a good investment.
Most people have other reasons for buying into DVC.
We have been renting DVC points for the last couple of years and have tons of money. We will never go back to booking through Disney. We work with Paul at the DVC Rental Store. Your assessment is spot-on…their customer service rivals Disney’s! I really appreciate that we can make a down payment with them and sned the balance 45 days out. Thanks for the great article and all the wonderful photos! Tom!
Great post Tom! More and more people are giving point rental a try and wishing they had done it sooner.
Thanks for recommending David’s Vacation Club Rentals. We have a lot of information on our website and are happy to answer any questions anyone has regarding point rentals.
Oh, and congratulations on becoming DVC members. Knowing how often you go to the Disney parks though, I’m guessing it’s just a matter of time before you need to rent points yourself.
~ Barrie, Social Media Director
for David’s Vacation Club Rentals
With so many people trying point rental, my only concern is that Disney will eventually take action to restrict it. Hopefully that doesn’t happen anytime soon.
We’ve been DVC members since 2009. We don’t have nearly enough points to do every stay at a DVC resort, though. That’s fine by me, because we have to test other hotels pretty regularly. (On our next trip, we’re spending one night at Pop Century, one night at Art of Animation Lion King, and one night at Art of Animation Cars! Always on the move!)
We rented through Dave’s for our last family vacation and will never go back to booking through Disney. They are so great to work with – wonderful customer service through out the entire process. And we are able to save soooo much money while staying at our favorite deluxe resort – the Animal Kingdom Lodge!
After this year’s visit, Disney life will be harder for my family with 3 children over 3 yrs. I think it’s ridiculous that we can’t have 5 people in a regular value room (especially when you’re talking small children where at least one of them will end up in mom and dad’s bed anyhow). So I’m pretty sure that renting points will be the only way we will be able to go in the future. But it was all very confusing when I started to look into it, so thank you for the information. I like the dining plan, so I was excited to hear that it was something that could be added on.
We considered renting points for our family’s first trip to WDW this fall. We are kinda risk averse, but what ultimately held us back was the idea that we probably shouldn’t start off our WDW experience with a deluxe resort.
Other than that, my main concern is related to potential problems with a room. It’s not a typical reservation, so what happens if you wind up with a ant infestation or the sofa bed won’t pull out?
In all likelihood, unless we end up with a great bounceback offer, we will likely try to rent some points for our next WDW stay.
If there’s a problem with the room, you call the front desk and they fix the situation just like they would in a normal hotel room. The only differences are the frequency of housekeeping and that the rooms have kitchenettes. You still get the same Disney service, etc.
We have rented DVC points multiple times and from different people. It is by far easier to have them transferred in, so that you can then deal with the reservations. However, we are currently in the process of renting through someone without transferring and it is going smoothly. The key is to trust the person you are dealing with and to communicate clearly. There isn’t any “turning back” once you start the process.
Totally agree with this. Renting is a great option no matter what, but transferring is the way to go if you have the option.
Tom,
Long-time reader, first-time poster. We’ve never rented ourselves, but now that we have a third child we may have to look at renting/buying DVC for our next visit. A couple of questions & comments:
1. Why do you recommend using only American Express cards to make credit card purchases?
2. I think that a fourth consideration to add to your list is to have a contract in place to protect both parties.
Thanks for all that you do, and I’m looking forward to the next ISO5571 podcast!
1. AmEx has the best protection buyer protection of any credit card, and often exceeds the protections required by Reg Z.
2. I see the unfortunate results of people “playing lawyer” on a daily basis, but having a contract, or at least reducing the material terms of the agreement to writing is definitely a good idea. Just make sure you DO NOT copy and paste some other contract thinking it sounds nice and “fancy,” because you may end up with terms you don’t understand and are harmful to one party (or both). I’ve seen folks accidentally include choice of law provisions for random states, among other things!
I have tried renting points through David however the problem that I run into is that I dont want enough points and I always seem to book my disney trips last minute.
We live in S. Florida, and take trips up to Disney ever couple to few months but only when I catch the Disney bug and it’s never really planned out. Also we only go up for two nights and I have found most people or at least through Davids require a minimum number of points that we just cant reach on a two night stay unless we want a 2 bedroom suite and well it’s just the two of us so it becomes unaffordable compared to booking the moderate or staying at one of the Hiltons. I have always wanted to stay but I just cant figure out how to make it work without planning it out way in advance and staying longer then our “Weekend”.
In your circumstances, I think it’ll be difficult to rent points unless you want to stay in Saratoga Springs or Old Key West. You might check with one of the other renters to see if they do two nights in a studio–I’m not sure.
I’ve had a super negative experience with David’s. I filled out the form – never heard back (they say they get back to you in 24 hours). A few days later, I called. There’s availability at a few places. I choose one, they email me to say that my #1 choice (Bay Lakes) is available but there have no points available. I call – they say that new points will come available in 6 days and then they will book it. Ok, so I’m waiting and waiting… so I called today. They never booked my reservation and now almost all of the resorts are booked for my dates. They gave me some excuse about “email troubles”. I can either go to Saratoga Springs or nothing. I know being upset doesn’t change the fact that the resorts are now sold out. But I feel so disapointed! The entire experience was negative and unprofessional.