Rentals and transfers of DVC points are fairly common practices among DVC members. With rentals, a DVC member books a reservation on behalf of another travel party. With transfers, a DVC member can transfer points from their account to that of another DVC member. The recipient can then book a resort reservation using those transferred points.
Every so often, the question arises within DISboards or the DVC Fan Facebook Group: are DVC point rentals and transfers actually permitted by DVC? Let’s take a closer look at the DVC Multi-Site Public Offering Statement.
DVC Point Rentals
Throughout the public offering statement, there are several references to rentals. On page 14 of the public offering statement under DVD (Disney Vacation Development, Inc.) Disclosures, it states:
There are a couple of things to note here. First, point rentals are not expressly prohibited. DVC only warns that you should not expect to make a certain profit from renting or to receive any help from Disney in renting out points. This section also points out that members renting out points would be in direct competition with the hotels and DVD for renters. In other words, DVD itself engages in rentals: “DVD will also rent its Ownership Interests to the general public.” This is where cash bookings for DVC villas come from; they are essentially rentals too. In fact, notice that cash bookings for the Villas at Disneyland Hotel are referred to as “rental reservations.”
However, there are limits to rentals. As noted in the public offering statement, DVC does not permit the commercial use of DVC memberships though the term “commercial use” is not well defined. The 2007 amendment to the public offering statement said that within a 12-month period, “all reservations in excess of the first 20 reservations shall be presumed to be the use of Vacation Accommodations for commercial purposes in violation of the Declaration and the Member Agreement.” That language no longer appears in the current public offering statement, but it does provide some sense of what would constitute commercial use in the eyes of DVC.
DVC Point Transfers
Transfers are clearly permitted by DVC. In fact, the public offering statement has several clauses that dictate how transfers should be conducted and how transferred points may be used, starting on page 61. Also, many members with multiple memberships (e.g., contracts with multiple Use Years) use point transfers when they want to combine points from one membership to another.
However, it’s notable that DVC does not permit members to receive compensation for point transfers. On page 62 of the public offering statement under Transferring Home Resort Vacation Points Between Club Members, it states that “Club Members are expressly prohibited from receiving compensation for engaging in any Transfer activity.”
Moreover, another clause states that a “DVC Operator may prohibit a Transfer, not permit to be made (or cancel a reservation already made) with Transferred Home Resort Vacation Points, or suspend or terminate a Club Member’s right to Transfer if DVC Operator determines, in its discretion, that the Transfer activity is for commercial purposes.” So while transfers are permitted, they should not be done as a monetary transaction. Instead, Disney Vacation Club intends for members to use transfers to combine points or share points with family or friends.
The Bottom Line: Both DVC rentals and transfers are permitted. Rentals may be done as monetary transactions (as long as they are not for commercial purposes) while transfers may not be done as monetary transactions.
