AKV - Kidani Village Units Declared*UPDATED 1/26 - Post#130*

[dizfan]

I believe another declaration showed up for Kidani yesterday on the OCC.

Phases 107 (four units), 119 (2 units), and 120 (3 units)

Fitting that it showed up on Earth Day, which is also the Anniversary of Animal Kingdom Theme Park's opening (April 22, 1998).

 

[DenLo]

I believe another declaration showed up for Kidani yesterday on the OCC.

Phases 107 (four units), 119 (2 units), and 120 (3 units)

Fitting that it showed up on Earth Day, which is also the Anniversary of Animal Kingdom Theme Park's opening (April 22, 1998).

More villas available for the holidays! If they haven't already been booked by cash reservations. Those pesky cash guests can book villas early in the year too and in January (until April 15th) Disney still owned these units.

Some to help any Kidani wait lists come through for other members.

 

[wdrl]

As first noted by dizfan, DVD has declared more AKV Units for the DVC membership. The 20th Declaration contains 9 Units and each Unit contains 1 two-bedroom villa. Five of the villas are lock offs, and four are dedicated.

This new Declaration brings another 146,610 points into the DVC membership. DVD has now declared approximately 66.82% of the AKV resort for the DVC membership.

December is still the most common UY at AKV. However, for the past several months DVD has been selling a lot of contracts with February, March, and April UYs. DVD has used those UYs because it was offering 2009 points to buyers with those UYs. Now that we are in April, I'm seeing more contracts with a June UY.

I'll defer to TSMIII to track the number of villas still to be declared. But my estimates suggest that DVD still has 133 two-bedroom villas and 8 grand villas that have not yet been declared for the DVC membership.

 

[wdrl]

AKV sales have slowed a bit over the last few weeks. After DVD raised BLT's cost per point to $120 in October 2009, AKV's sales were on par with those of BLT. Although DVD continues to offer a 100-point minimum buy-in at AKV, as well as "double" points (2009 points and 2010 points for some UYs), AKV sales are now trailing BLT sales by about a 2-for-1 margin. Since my last posting on 4/22/2010, AKV has sold about 56,000 points. By comparison, BLT had about 110,000 points sold in just the calendar month of May alone.

Since DVD is currently offering "double" points, the majority of contracts recently recorded with the Orange County Comptroller have been for the April, June, and August UYs. Now that we are into June, we'll see more contracts for the August, September, and October UYs.

 

[wdrl]

June 2010 was a relatively slow month for sales at AKV. From May 29, 2010, to June 30, 2010, deeds recorded by Disney with the Orange County Comptroller show that 36,656 points were sold at AKV.

Based on the data I have collected, about two-thirds (66.82%) of AKV has been declared for the DVC membership. The last declaration was made on April 15, 2010, but Disney still has over 600,000 points that it has declared but has not sold. If the current rate of sales remains constant, it might take 16 months before the previously declared points are all sold. However, maybe just because I'm a big fan of AKV, I can't help but think that AKV sales will pick up in the months to come.

 

[wdrl]

Sales of AKV have really slowed over the past few weeks. In August 2010, only 128 AKV deeds totaling 18,076 points were recorded with the Orange County Comptroller. Since a two-bedroom villa at AKV has 16,290 points allotted to it, DVD sold slightly more than the equivalent of a single villa during the month. By comparison, DVD sold over 168,000 points at BLT and over 31,000 points at SSR.

As the chart above shows, about two-thirds of AKV has been declared for the DVC membership and almost 60% of AKV has been sold. The last declaration of Units at AKV was done on April 15, 2010, and DVD still has slightly less that 557,000 points that have been declared but still unsold. If the current pace of sales does not improve, it might be a very long time before DVD has to make another declaration at AKV.

As a big fan of AKV, I am amazed that sales are not better. I wonder if the Guides are not emphasizing AKV during the tours to prospective buyers.

 

[Donald is #1]

As a big fan of AKV, I am amazed that sales are not better. I wonder if the Guides are not emphasizing AKV during the tours to prospective buyers.

Interesting thought! I wonder if they are emphasizing BLT & Hawaii over AKV these days.

 

[jdg345]

Sales of AKV have really slowed over the past few weeks. In August 2010, only 128 AKV deeds totaling 18,076 points were recorded with the Orange County Comptroller. Since a two-bedroom villa at AKV has 16,290 points allotted to it, DVD sold slightly more than the equivalent of a single villa during the month. By comparison, DVD sold over 168,000 points at BLT and over 31,000 points at SSR.

Wow ... so SSR is selling at 2x the rate of AKV? Something just doesn't seem right there. And sales for BLT a whopping 9-10x, even at a higher point cost? What's the draw?

As a big fan of AKV, I am amazed that sales are not better. I wonder if the Guides are not emphasizing AKV during the tours to prospective buyers.

Perhaps their commission schedule is different per resort? As mentioned in the other thread, I'm hopeful sales pick up so we can get some more declared units.

 

[JimC]

...As a big fan of AKV, I am amazed that sales are not better. I wonder if the Guides are not emphasizing AKV during the tours to prospective buyers.

Two thoughts:

1. Possibly a combination of pricing incentives and dues are driving sales.

2. AKL supposedly suffered because of its location. Personally I don't have any problem with its location. Seems right where it should be -- adjacent to the AK theme park. But maybe that also affects sales for the villas here.

 

[AKV707]

Sure AKV dues are higher than BLT and SSR, but they are not the highest on property.

In terms of location, it only feels far away. It is actually not far from Epcot or AK. DHS is a little further and MK is a whopping 18 minute bus ride and is the longest trek.

The slow sales could be a commission scale issue, or simply a lack of focus on AKV. It is my home, so I am biased. We love the place!

Quite frankly, with the difference between resale and direct prices, I am shocked that DVD is selling as many contracts directly as they are.

 

[wdrl]

Two thoughts:

1. Possibly a combination of pricing incentives and dues are driving sales.

2. AKL supposedly suffered because of its location. Personally I don't have any problem with its location. Seems right where it should be -- adjacent to the AK theme park. But maybe that also affects sales for the villas here.

Regarding your thought #2:

AKV has always had the same location. If its sales had always been poor, then I could see that AKV's location is a factor in its marketability. But there have been times that AKV's sales have been very good. Keep in mind that AKV has sold about 4,389,000 points to date, and there have been many months in which AKV sales have exceeded 50,000 points. For example, in a 10 week period from 12/31/2009 and 3/11/2010, AKV sold 220,019 points. That averages 22,001.9 points a week. Now, AKV sales can't generate in a month what they were doing on a weekly basis just a few months ago?

I just wonder if the Guides are purposefully downplaying AKV to prospective buyers. Perhaps DVD has decided it really wants or needs to sell SSR points, and it markets SSR far more heavily than AKV.

 

[JimC]

Agree. But could the brisk AKV sales have been driven by it being the newest resort, relative economic factors or pricing incentives in play at that time?

DVD controls the pricing and discounts -- so I suspect it plays a significant role in this.

It is an interesting question. But it would take a bit of analysis to get to some conclusions.

 

[jdg345]

Sure AKV dues are higher than BLT and SSR, but they are not the highest on property.

In terms of location, it only feels far away. It is actually not far from Epcot or AK. DHS is a little further and MK is a whopping 18 minute bus ride and is the longest trek.

The slow sales could be a commission scale issue, or simply a lack of focus on AKV. It is my home, so I am biased. We love the place!

Quite frankly, with the difference between resale and direct prices, I am shocked that DVD is selling as many contracts directly as they are.

ITA!

And on the dues, it's not that big a deal imo. I know it's been a big selling point for BLT and seems to be a major part of the pitch, but at the cost of entry, I just don't understand how it becomes a deal breaker.

 

[jdg345]

Agree. But could the brisk AKV sales have been driven by it being the newest resort, relative economic factors or pricing incentives in play at that time?

DVD controls the pricing and discounts -- so I suspect it plays a significant role in this.

It is an interesting question. But it would take a bit of analysis to get to some conclusions.

Do we know if the guides are commissioned differently based on resort? Could there be some sort of spiff involved?

 

[dizfan]

DVD controls the pricing and discounts -- so I suspect it plays a significant role in this.

Completely agree.

Correct me if I'm wrong, AKV sales were brisk earlier this year. I believe incentives put it at $96/point.
In June, they started offering OKW and SSR at $90/point.

July 1, AKV was raised to a base price of $120/point. Incentives brought it to around $112-115/point? Many people rushed to purchased AKV points before the increase. Those contracts take a few weeks to show up on the OCC, so OCC numbers should have been reasonable into late July.

July 1, SSR was raised to $95/point. While a higher price than the $90/point, but compared to the other non-"sold out" properties, that was a significant price difference.

As wdrl has pointed out, SSR sales are much stronger since they reduced the SSR pricing making it the lowest priced non-"sold out" resort.

For another reference of the impact of incentives/pricing...
Around Oct 2009, they raised BLT from $112 to $120 and increased the AKV incentive bringing the AKV price below $100/point. AKV sales increased, BLT sales decreased.

I'm sure AKV demand is increasing, but many people are likely waiting.
A 16% price increase from a just over 2 months ago, tends to keep buyers away.

 

[gkrykewy]

For another reference of the impact of incentives/pricing... Around Oct 2009, they raised BLT from $112 to $120 and increased the AKV incentive bringing the AKV price below $100/point. AKV sales increased, BLT sales decreased.

I'm sure AKV demand is increasing, but many people are likely waiting.
A 16% price increase from a just over 2 months ago, tends to keep buyers away.

This is correct IMO. wdrl referenced a time this past winter/spring when AKV was outselling BLT. IIRC, this lasted about until DVD raised AKV to 120 with (essentially) price parity with BLT after incentives. Given the dues difference and longer BLT contract, this is a tough sell.

AKV sales can pick up whenever DVD chooses to have them pick up -- I could be interested in an add-on if they get aggressive with the incentives.

 

[jdg345]

There is a rumor of a price increasing coming soon; perhaps they are trying to see if they can get folks who are undecided to jump off the fence?

Has anything else been declared? it's been 9 months since the last point release, no?

 

[wdrl]

October 2010 was an extremely slow month for sales at AKV, about the slowest month since I have been watching AKV sales in the last 18 months. Only 69 new deeds and 9,434 points were recorded in October with the Orange County Comptroller. It wasn't that many months ago that AKV would have generated in one or two days the number of sales that were recorded for the entire month of October. SSR and OKW both sold more points than AKV; in fact, SSR (27,551 points) outsold AKV by about a 3-to-1 margin.

I believe that DVD is doing something on purpose to stymie sales at AKV. Perhaps it wants to sell some of its inventory at AKW and SSR, or it wants to finish off sales at BLT as quickly as possible. As an AKV fan, I have a hard time thinking that DVC buyers have no interest in AKV. Perhaps sales will pick up once BLT's base price increases to $130 and SSR's base price jumps from $95 to $120.

DVD has not declared any new Units at AKV since April 15, 2010. Since DVD has over 530,000 points in its declared-but-unsold inventory, I doubt that we will see a new declaration at AKV any time soon. To date, about two-thirds of AKV has been declared for the DVC membership.

 

[dizfan]

wdrl thank you for the update.

 

[shortypots]

Grr... I was hoping they would declare some so I could get the two days in AKV savannah view that I am waitlisted for Thanksgiving. Rats!!!