Rental seems to really be drying up

I just mean that the payment from at least one broker is less for BLT than for say VFG, but it is still more than SSR.


Maybe it is because it needs a refurb or something...so many of the others don't have those horrid sleeper sofas and have the murphys instead.  

Going back to the discussion about the rental market I have my own thoughts on this, mainly based on posts that I’ve read asking about renting points (ie: those from total newcomers to the idea of renting DVC points) but also from a few who have recently decided not to.

With the kind of discounts Disney have been offering, either to the public or via bounce-back offers, the typical savings from renting have been reduced. Especially given the rise in the rental price per point that happened after Covid by the main brokers.

Those that followed the rental market saw the rental price on broker sites go up whilst the differential between that and how much owners were paid for those points increased. Added to that, blogs that followed the rental market also focussed on the huge mark-up that confirmed reservations were being advertised at by the brokers. $30 per point wasn’t out of the ordinary for some of those reservations. One of the main brokers actively encourage owners to book reservations rather than rent the “old-fashioned” way because the broker can make more money. I think all that combined to put people off the brokers to a significant degree. And many owners grumbled about it publicly too and vowed to rent privately instead, leading to a perception that there was a dearth of points available via the brokers anyway.

With the realisation of potentially losing money if they had to cancel (which was brought into focus because of Covid despite the actual risk not having changed), renters also became more wary of renting privately, when for a bit more they could book direct with Disney and know they could change their plans without losing out. A potential saving of $300-$400 was seen as not enough to outweigh the risks.

Even more experienced renters are going to prefer to rent from people they “know”, that they see as “safe”. When I had 2-3 years worth of points to rent out because of Covid, I did so to people who had seen me on the Touring Plans forum for several years. The first person simply messaged me to ask if I’d rent the points to her, after reading my sad post after having to cancel our trip. She then posted a trip report including the planning process, with all the uncertainty around Covid (she was from Canada and this was in October 2020), in which I booked BWV and waitlisted BCV for her. That effectively acted as my testimonial! After that I only had to say I have some extra points and I got inundated with requests to rent them. And I still get asked. Now if those people can’t find someone they feel they can trust to rent from, they won’t rent. They would rather pay more to Disney.

So I think the rental market has changed. And to a large extent the brokers are reaping what they started. The more they mess about with owners, the harder it will be for them to get the points to satisfy their potential renters. And the more they inflate the prices of the confirmed reservations, the more it moves to being a kind of last minute dot com type of market, where people snap up confirmed reservations within a few weeks of their stay as the price drops. Neither of which is conducive to attracting new renters, which is still where most people start off renting points.

I didn't realize that some rentals are up to $25/p - that's high.