"Cost of DVC about to go up"?

[MJ6987]

Hi,
The presenter on a well known WDW Podcast said the other week that "the cost of DVC is about to go up", referring to Bay Lake Tower and rumored selling prices of £140+ per point. But, surely that will not affect sale prices of other resorts, which are likely to continue downwards due to the economy? If anything, the release of BLT should push prices down as supply will be increased?

Also, I don't get how people can be expected to pay £140 per point as it will only make sense for them to use their points to stay at their home resort, otherwise they will be paying much more than anyone else to pay at other resorts where their points are worth the same as someone paying, say, £96 per point at AKL? How will this be addressed?

Matthew

 

[moredisneyplease]

Well of course this is only a sales person talking which means its "hear say" and could be right or wrong. We'll know the price per point when its finally announced and goes on sale, simple as that.

As for the rumored high price per point, I personally think it will drive the price of resales up (economy issues aside) because most people aren't going to want to pay $140 a point and will start looking for resales......which they'll be able to get (at this point) for half of that price. As a result, demand for these lower per point contracts will probably go up which will most likely cause the per point value to rise.

Just my two bit........

 

[eliza61]

Hi,
The presenter on a well known WDW Podcast said the other week that "the cost of DVC is about to go up", referring to Bay Lake Tower and rumored selling prices of £140+ per point. But, surely that will not affect sale prices of other resorts, which are likely to continue downwards due to the economy? If anything, the release of BLT should push prices down as supply will be increased?

Also, I don't get how people can be expected to pay £140 per point as it will only make sense for them to use their points to stay at their home resort, otherwise they will be paying much more than anyone else to pay at other resorts where their points are worth the same as someone paying, say, £96 per point at AKL? How will this be addressed?

Matthew

Ok Matt,
Now I have to do math in the morning. No fair!! I think if I did it right 140 pounds is around $230 bucks per point. You're right that's a bunch of dough.
I think one thing that BLT has going for it that will keep the prices pretty high is that it is attached to the contemporary. There are (I think) quite a number of people who may have been interested in DVC but would really jump at the chance to own at a monorail resort.

The 2nd point could be some what said about every dvc resort. I mean I purchased at BCV's at a lot higher price than OKW. So whenever I stay at OKW I pretty much pay more than some one who brought there. If I'm understanding you correctly.

 

[CraftyMouse]

Hi,
The presenter on a well known WDW Podcast said the other week that "the cost of DVC is about to go up", referring to Bay Lake Tower and rumored selling prices of £140+ per point.

The rumor is that the price will be in the $140 per point range, not £140. That would be, roughly, $240 per point!

I agree with moredisneyplease. I think that if they do sell BLT for $140 per point you'll see the price of other resales go up. Many buyers will, IMO, decide that the $140 is just too much and look for contracts at other DVC properties. Those that only want BLT will still buy there, but others will look for a better value. With all of the renewed interest in other properties the price of their resale contracts will increase.

 

[Disney_Villain]

How will this be addressed? Matthew

Very simply put . . . DVC can charge what they want to and they will get it. Disney currently sells 2042 resorts in WDW for $101 or $104 per point, a lot more than what they sell for resale.

Also, every time a new DVC resort goes for sale the base price per point on all DVC resorts go up. Look at the historical data if you don't believe this. There are 2 DVC resorts scheduled to sell soon, which means this is going to happen again. Once BLT goes for sale, DVC will raise the price on AKV as well as all the other resorts. We have past evidence in the way DVC sells resorts to predict this.

Despite all these whinings about the economy (that really just encapsulate wishful thinking that Fairy Godmother is going to lower the cost/point one day), the type of crowd that buys DVC isn't going to be steered away by increased point costs. What's the alternative? Stay home? Pay cash hotel rates? In the end, they know we can afford to buy - they just have to make what they're selling really attractive.

 

[MJ6987]

Ok Matt,
Now I have to do math in the morning. No fair!! I think if I did it right 140 pounds is around $230 bucks per point. .

Sorry I meant $140 not £. I am from the UK!!

 

[Muushka]

Very simply put . . . DVC can charge what they want to and they will get it.

For real? I am a very stubborn sort, and frugal to boot. That statement is above my pay grade! Do you really think that people will pay whatever to get into BLT?

 

[vicki_c]

For real? I am a very stubborn sort, and frugal to boot. That statement is above my pay grade! Do you really think that people will pay whatever to get into BLT?

For people who want to be there, yes they will. There's probably no shortage of folks with enough disposable income to pay that price for being close to the MK. It may not sell as fast, since there might be a smaller pool of buyers with the money to spend on that, but it will still sell. But of course, it will be much smaller than some of the other resorts (SSR and OKW, for example), so only time will tell as to how fast it goes.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

I personally don't think the economy can take $140/pt right now...especially when people can buy a resale @ exisiting DVC properties for a lot less and just take their chances at 7 mos. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.

 

[lugnut33]

They will not raise the price to $140!! That would mean they'd have to raise the price on AKV to the same cost, and that would just kill sales. Also, it wouldn't be fair that I just bought into SSR at $80 per point and I could possible reserve a room at BLT.

What you have seen is the points per night are higher. And there will probably be no incentives, atleast for now.

 

[eliza61]

For real? I am a very stubborn sort, and frugal to boot. That statement is above my pay grade! Do you really think that people will pay whatever to get into BLT?

Happy Saturday Muushka,

I gotta go with Villian on this one. Remember though we hang out at the budget board some times. I think there are a bunch of folks who are salivating at the thought of getting into BLT. Disney will make it attractive, finance wise. I know a lot of us may not finance but remember most of the country pretty much exsist on good ole' credit. I think they'll get what they ask for.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Yeah...but don't forget it will be a double-whammy -- higher price to buy in and probably higher point requirements to stay there. So not only will you be paying a lot more per point, but you'll need to purchase more of them!

 

[tjkraz]

Economic theory isn't my strong suit. However, here is what I do know to be true: When you raise sales prices and there is no change in manufacturing cost, you don't need to sell as many units to maintain the same level of profitability.

If DVC goes from $95 per point to $140, they could experience a 30-40% drop in sales and still earn similar revenues.

They could do it with all resorts, or just for BLT. If they did it for all resorts, I suspect that resale prices would slowly follow suit. As a seller, why wouldn't you ask more rather than let people get such a relative bargain?

That approach WOULD make DVC a lot more expensive when compared with other timeshares, so I'm not sure how that would impact sales.

The other thing they could do is simply charge more for BLT and position it as the elite DVC. The result would be most people buying BLT to stay at BLT, and there would be very little 7 month availability. That would deal a harsh blow to the "buy elsewhere and book at 7 months" mentality. Sure it will happen at times, but not with any consistency.

It appears the dues will be lower than norm on BLT so that could also be used as justification for paying more up-front. (The lower dues would actually be driven by higher point charts, but I doubt any salesperson would go into that little detail.)

I'm among those who felt the OKW extension was severely overpriced at $15 per point (not to mention $25), so it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see them "reach" with BLT pricing, too. Worst-case it doesn't sell they way they wish and they start rolling-out extra incentives. When you start selling at the beginning of a fiscal year, you've got a LOT of time to adjust and still meet projections.

 

[Mouse511]

The other thing they could do is simply charge more for BLT and position it as the elite DVC. The result would be most people buying BLT to stay at BLT, and there would be very little 7 month availability. That would deal a harsh blow to the "buy elsewhere and book at 7 months" mentality. Sure it will happen at times, but not with any consistency.

I am going to continue with this theory and say - If they call this an "Elite DVC" resort - why couldn't they change the advance reservation for 'non elite' DVC members to 5 month or 4 months ???

This would almost guarentee that the 'non elite' members like me who only paid 74/point for SSR could almost never stay there unless by some strange twist of fate like winning the lottery ???

Just a thought ??

 

[kim532]

My thought as a potential BLT buyer and being an avid lurker on these boards, is there are some die hard BLT fans here who are buying specifically to stay there. They wouldn't need to establish an elite category of DVC. The elite is established because the price per point that would be paid.

My fear is that people who would really rather stay at BLT but don't want to pay a premium will buy into another resort and then be greatly dissappointed that they will never get a reservation at the 7 month window. I haven't went throught a DVC sales pitch in almost 10 years, how upfront are the sales people about the possibility of not gettting another resort at the 7 month window (like beach club).

The past month has been a hard decision month for DH and I. We thought the AKV incentives were great, but decided to pass until Feb 2009 to purchase. ANd now with all the BLT talk, I think that would be my resort of choice. Looks like waiting will be to my advantage.

Kim

 

[tjkraz]

I am going to continue with this theory and say - If they call this an "Elite DVC" resort - why couldn't they change the advance reservation for 'non elite' DVC members to 5 month or 4 months ???

They could do that, but the documents filed so far do not suggest it will happen. They still show the 4 month home resort priority period for BLT.

I think it's a given that getting a MK view room would be almost impossible for non owners--particularly if there isn't much point differential between MK and non-MK view. Then it's a no-brainer for owners to book the MK view.

I do think it will be possible to book for non-owners during other times of the year, but just not with any consistency. BLT looks to be about 50% larger than BCV, and we still hear of non-owners getting BCV bookings.

It would take BLT owners booking the entire resort to full capacity during the 4 month priority window to block out non owners. The booking levels in those first 4 months may be greater than at other resorts, but it won't be 100%.

 

[DebbieB]

They will not raise the price to $140!! That would mean they'd have to raise the price on AKV to the same cost, and that would just kill sales. Also, it wouldn't be fair that I just bought into SSR at $80 per point and I could possible reserve a room at BLT.

What you have seen is the points per night are higher. And there will probably be no incentives, atleast for now.

Why would they have to raise AKV? DVC (or actually DVD) can do whatever they want. In the past they have kept them the same but that doesn't mean they have to this time. I personally think $140 is way too high, especially in this economy. You would be paying 40% more just for location next to MK vs being at AKL and seeing animals from your balcony.

You could also say it's not fair that someone can buy VB or HH in the $65 range (resale) and reserve at AKV where people are paying $100.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I am a huge fan of the monrail resorts. I have been very excited at the prospect of BLT. That is until the rumored $140+ point price. I am willing to pay a premium but, not that much. It just doesn't rate that high....compared to EPCOT resorts. IMHO Elite or not.

 

[StayFLA]

I think they'll push it to $110 - $115/ point. They won't go ungodly high with the price per point. The point chart will hurt. OKW is big and cheap and they learned the lesson. They want to sell points, but they want the buyers and the bookings.

Ralph

 

[Laneychris]

I wouldn't buy for that amount of money.