How To Rent Disney Vacation Club Points [2024]

If you’re not ready to commit to a Disney Vacation Club membership or simply want to stay in a Disney Vacation Club villa for cheaper than usual, renting Disney Vacation Club points from a current owner can save you a lot of money.

Depending on various logistics, renting points from an owner can be a bit complicated, so it’s important to know the rules to rent points with the least hassle possible.

What Is Disney Vacation Club?

Disney Vacation Club, or DVC for short, is a timeshare program that allows owners (members) to stay in select Disney-owned and operated resorts using a fixed amount of points awarded yearly. Unlike a traditional timeshare where you need to visit the same property during the same dates year after year, Disney Vacation Club gives members a specific number of points each year that they’re then free to use on any stay, whether that’s 1 night or multiple nights over whatever days they’d like to visit.

The general premise behind DVC is that you purchase contracts of various point amounts for the property you think you will stay in the most. Doing this gives you a “home team advantage” to book at that resort prior to other guests who don’t own at that resort. As it gets closer to your stay, bookings become available for any DVC resort. However, the most popular DVC resorts (hopefully the one you have as your home resort) tend to be already booked up, especially over the busiest of dates.

DVC is a timeshare with the goal of prepaying for years of your vacation. Contracts expire in different years, though most go past 2050, depending on the resort. The goal is to “lock in” current pricing, though the amount of points it takes to stay in a particular room may go up over time, as will the annual maintenance dues. This is all to say that it’s better to purchase a DVC contract now than wait several years when the price will likely go up.

Disney Vacation Club Resorts

Why An Owner Would Rent Out Their Points

Many people wonder why a DVC owner would rent out their points. There are a few reasons for this:

• Some owners purchase DVC contracts as an investment opportunity, looking to either resell those contracts or rent out the points to make up the money.
• Some owners rent out a specific amount of points each year to cover the annual dues on their other contracts. Each contract incurs an annual dues fee, which covers property maintenance and taxes, so as long as they can rent out a few points to cover whatever these annual dues are, the owner breaks even on usage.
• Many owners have a large stash of points but aren’t able to use those points fully before expiration. Rather than letting them go to waste, the owner will look to rent them out, bringing in cash and avoiding expiration.

Why You Would Want To Rent DVC Points

There are 3 ways you can stay at a DVC resort:

• You can book a villa on Disney’s website, though this will be the most expensive option. Each resort tends to have a specific allotment of rooms available for public sale, and Disney sells this public allotment via its traditional sales channels.
• You can become a Disney Vacation Club member and receive a contracted number of points annually. You use those points to stay where you want, when you want, so long as you have enough points. Members get full access to “Member Extras” and all perks associated with being a DVC member.
• You can rent DVC points from a current owner. Owners who don’t think they’ll use up all their points during a contract year may rent those points out to friends and family who can purchase a stay using those points, usually for much less than what Disney will sell the stay for.

To further elaborate, purchasing a Disney Vacation Club contract is an expenditure of several thousand dollars. If you’re looking at a small resale contract, that can be as low as just a few thousand dollars, and direct contracts from Disney can easily cost more than $20,000. This is a lot of money to invest without first experiencing the Disney Vacation Club product, so many people choose to rent points at first to get the hang of the system and properties.

The other major benefit to renting points is the significant savings over purchasing directly through Disney. If you purchase through Disney, you’re paying a retail rate for the room, but because DVC members prepurchase those rooms at a discount, you can expect considerable savings when renting.

How To Rent DVC Points

Renting points means that you are paying for Disney Vacation Club points from an owner who is electing not to use those points for themselves. That owner may place those points up for rent on a resale or brokerage website or choose to rent them on their own. A guest would then rent those points through a 1-time payment and utilize the points, but wouldn’t be tied to any longer-term deal (such as a full contract).

An owner can either choose to rent points (where you would say you want a reservation on a specific date at a particular resort, and the owner makes that reservation) or may choose to rent points via an already booked reservation (an owner booked a popular week on points, but then rents the entire reservation out as fixed dates).

One major thing you need to remember about renting points is that the cost largely depends on the timing of the potential reservation and the property. All DVC points are not created equal. Points at a more popular resort, such as The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, are more expensive than points at a cheaper resort, such as Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. Owners have a “home team” advantage when booking resorts, so if they own at a particular property, they’ll be able to book starting at 11 months out from the reservation date, all the way to 7 months out. From that point, all owners can book any resort.

This is especially important when you have a trendy property, such as Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort at New Year’s, where an owner can book that reservation at the 11-month mark. So, because they have access to that reservation earlier than other members, that owner would likely charge more to rent those points out. Because of this, there’s no fixed value per point. That said, Disney Vacation Club sells one-time-use points for $22 per point to current owners, so this can be used as a potential ballpark for the cost of a point.

Sample Costs

There are a ton of websites that help owners rent their DVC points. For this example, we’ll use DVC Rentals (David’s Vacation Club Rentals), though you can use pretty much any resale site (DVC Rental Store is another popular option) and come up with a similar cost since points typically rent for about the same price.

DVC Request charges 2 different prices for rented points:

• $21 per point for any DVC resort booked within 7 months of arrival or any “non-premium” resort where you arrive beyond 7 months
• $23 per point for any premium resort where you arrive beyond 7 months

As mentioned before, purchasing a resort within the 7 to 11 month window means you have an advantage over people who can’t book during that window, so this comes at a premium when renting points. DVC Request, however, charges this premium only for the most popular Disney resorts, such as The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, or Disney’s Riviera Resort. For example, you don’t need to pay the premium if you’re staying at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa or Disney’s Old Key West Resort.

September is traditionally the cheapest time of year to visit Disney, and DVC charges the least number of points for September bookings, so this is the month we’ll use for this example.

Example 1: Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

We’ve selected September 4, 2024, as the date for this example, which is a Wednesday, one of the cheapest nights of the week to visit (weekends incur an additional points premium). In a Studio room (no view), Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, located next to Magic Kingdom, costs 13 points to book, which, if you purchase at $23 a point, would be $299. That same room booked directly through Disney at a cash rate is $597, excluding taxes and fees.

As you can see, this is almost a $300 savings by renting DVC points instead of purchasing the reservation directly from Disney.

Example 2: Disney’s Old Key West Resort

Let’s try another example, this time with Disney’s Old Key West Resort. This property is the original DVC resort, home to the largest rooms on the Walt Disney World property. It’s also one of the cheapest resorts. If you want a 1-bedroom room here, you’ll pay 20 points for the September 4 night, coming in at a cost of $420 (20 points x $21 per point).

You’ll pay a whopping $579 if you book through Disney, which is about $150 more than what it would cost if you rent points. Interestingly, Disney is selling a Deluxe Studio room, the cheapest room at this resort, for $424, which is almost the exact cost you’d pay if you rent points and pay for a 1-bedroom room (the 1-bedroom rooms are enormous).

Final Thoughts

Renting DVC points is a fantastic way to experience Disney Vacation Club without committing to an expensive long-term contract. Even if you only visit once, renting points can help you experience a larger room for a fraction of the price that Disney will sell it to you. While there are plenty of places you can rent points from, most options will always be far cheaper than booking the room on your own.