DVC changes points structure for 2010
The internet is alive this morning with news from the Disney Vacation Club. It seems the club is re-allocating its points structure so as to make a weekend stay more affordable for guests. Jason Garcia’s blog on the Orlando Sentinel has the story.
Disney Vacation Club, which sells real-estate interests expressed as “points” that guests redeem for nights in its time-share resorts, last month overhauled its point structure to lower the cost of weekend nights and raise the price of weekday nights.
Disney said it is trying to spread the demand more evenly throughout the week. The company had previously required close to twice as many points for Friday and Saturday nights as it had for Sunday through Thursday nights, which had prompted particularly heavy weeknight reservations.
Weekend nights will still be more expensive than weekday nights, but the disparity won’t be as wide.
With all due respect to the Sentinel, and all of the other popular sites that are running this story now, they are all somewhat behind the curve on this. The fantastic website DVCNews.com had this story weeks ago. If you are a DVC Member, and I would imagine many of you are, you should make DVCNews.com a regular stop on your internet tour of Disney sites.
DVCNews.com clarified the specifics of this change with this example…
Beach Club Villas / One Bedroom / Choice Season
2009: 24 points per weekday, 47 poins per weekend
2010: 27 points per weekday, 38 points per weekendA Sunday to Thursday stay in the above accommodation will cost 15 more points in 2010 than it did in 2009–an increase of 12.5%.
Personally, I am not a big fan of this. In an attempt to keep my costs down, and to maximize the value of my membership, I often used the discounted weekday prices to my advantage. I have never gone down for just a weekend, but I have gone down for just a few days during the week, like a Sunday through Thursday trip. I usually find cheaper airfare that way and smaller crowds. This change is not going to impact my travel habits, because the DVC is not making it so that weekends are now a good value. But it is going to limit how many trips I can take.
But I do understand the point here. I would imagine my travel habits are a bit unusual, as most people travel on weekends. For that reason, I support this decision, even though it hurts me. It is the right thing to do for the majority of members.