On June 2, 2025, Disney Vacation Club introduced a new policy that could impact how Members make reservations — especially those who rent out their Vacation Points. A new required checkbox has been added to the final step of the online booking process, asking Members to confirm that their reservation is for personal use only.
While simple in execution, this new step is paired with updated Terms & Conditions that give DVC greater authority to define and enforce what it considers commercial rental activity.
Let’s break down what changed and what it means for Members — whether you’re using your points yourself or occasionally renting them out.
What’s New as of June 2, 2025?
When making a reservation through the DVC Member website, Members are now required to check a new box during the final step of the process that reads:
This is the only new step we’ve seen added to the online booking interface. We’ve heard from several Members that when booking reservations over the phone, DVC Member Services is now asking follow-up questions to confirm who the reservation is for—such as whether it’s for the Member, a friend or family member, or a rental Guest. While not yet part of the digital booking process, this could signal further procedural changes ahead.
Updated Terms & Conditions Clarify Personal Use vs. Commercial Use
Alongside the booking system update, DVC also issued revised Terms & Conditions. The updated language provides the clearest definition yet of how DVC interprets personal and commercial use of Membership:
“You agree that any reservations made under your membership are solely for personal use and not for commercial purposes, as required by governing documents for each DVC Resort, including but not limited to the Declaration of Condominium and Membership Agreement. DVCM reserves the right to interpret personal use and determine if reservations are booked for personal or commercial purposes in its sole discretion.
Personal use may include enjoying the benefits of a DVC Membership with family or allowing use of any reserved Vacation Home to friends and family on occasion. Additionally, personal use means that the member does not regularly or frequently rent/sell reservations booked using their membership.”
This addition gives DVC broad discretion in interpreting intent and frequency of use — empowering them to cancel or deny reservations they believe are made for commercial gain.
Why Is DVC Making These Changes?
For years, Members have voiced frustrations at Condo Association meetings about limited availability and perceived rental abuse — especially for hard-to-book resorts, specific views, and holiday travel windows.
At the December 2024 Condo Association Meeting, Shannon Sakaske, Vice President of Member Experiences & Club Management, stated:
“We are reviewing owners who seem to own large numbers of points just to make a profit… DVC is actively figuring out ways to go after that, and stop that to the best of our ability.”
This updated checkbox and revised terms appear to be the first concrete steps in that initiative.
Is Renting DVC Points Still Allowed?
Yes—renting is still allowed. Let’s be clear: the legal framework that governs DVC explicitly permits Members to rent out their Vacation Points.
In fact, DVC’s Membership documents and Multi-Site Public Offering Statement have long stated that:
“Members may rent their Vacation Points. However, the use of your Vacation Points for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.”
The key distinction is intent and frequency:
- Renting occasionally due to schedule changes, illness, or financial need = permitted
- Regular or repeated rentals solely to generate profit = potentially commercial, and now more clearly subject to enforcement
What Does “Commercial Renting” Look Like?
While DVC hasn’t defined an exact threshold for enforcement, “commercial renting” is generally understood to include:
- Owning multiple contracts with consistent rental activity
- Rarely (if ever) using points personally
- Posting blocks of high-demand rooms in online forums
- Making bookings solely with intent to resell
These practices go beyond what the average Member does and are likely the primary focus of these new policies.
Let’s Not Forget—DVC Rents Points Too
It’s worth remembering that DVC itself is the largest point renter. Through buybacks, foreclosures, withheld inventory, and Member exchanges (like cruises), DVC holds and rents out millions of points every year.
In fact, in DVC’s 2024 Year in Review on Instagram, it was reported that 3.5 million points were exchanged for Disney Cruises alone—points that DVC then monetized by renting rooms to cash-paying Guests.
The issue isn’t rental—it’s regulation and fairness for all Members.
What Should DVC Members Take Away From This?
These changes signal a targeted effort to address repeat rental abuse — not a crackdown on Members who rent occasionally and within the intent of the program.
As someone who works for DVC Rental Store (a disclaimer I feel necessary given the subject matter of this change), I view these updates as a positive move toward protecting the Membership for those who use it responsibly.
- If you rent a few points occasionally? You’re still within your rights.
- If you’ve turned your Membership into a for-profit rental business? It may be time to rethink your strategy.
The new checkbox is a small step — but it’s backed by updated legal language that gives DVC much more control over future enforcement.
We Want to Hear From You
What do you think about these changes?
Will this help improve booking access for Members?
Are you concerned about how DVC will define commercial activity?
Join the conversation in the comments below or visit us in the DVC Fan Facebook Community!
Sue
June 2, 2025FINALLY!!! Only time will tell if this will be effective but they need to start somewhere so the effort is appreciated!
Margaret
June 2, 2025As a rentor of points this makes me nervous. How would we know if the owner we rented from was potentially at risk here. Would hate to have our plans upended. Thanks for the info!
David
June 2, 2025Music to my ears!
SM McGee
June 2, 2025I would like to see the big concerns that market points be stopped. I think also making reservations that are intended to be sold is not fair and ties up inventory for owners using it themselves!
Patricia
June 2, 2025Glad to see Disney is taking action. Way too many people renting DVC points for profit, judging by some people who list 8-10 reservations at a time for rent at popular resorts for holiday season, etc.
YZFDonor
June 2, 2025VERY happy to be reading this!!!!! I have no issues with casual renting and unloading points YOU can’t use but let be honest here, we know EXACTLY “who” we are talking about here. Want to make me happy?? Prevent walking!! You shouldn’t need to modify a reservation DATE by more than one, maybe two times. If your plans change that much, it’s time to make a new one.
mlscpp
June 2, 2025Totally agree with this policy as we often cannot book at 11 months out. Not much left the closer you get and often see many of the same names listed for rental. Very frustrating! But doubtful that renters will be honest when answering the question.
Thank you DVC for the start to enforcing this policy!
Watt-man
June 2, 2025Hmmm, this might mean we’ll see an increase of contracts for sale from those people who see that their ‘game’ might be coming to an end?
Ellis Barnes
June 2, 2025Great article. I was worried originally. We have 300 points across two contracts and rent out occasionally as from the UK.
Maybe I missed it in the article but what I gather is we are fine doing what we do. However do we tick the box then if we have rented out?
Lisa
June 2, 2025What about DVC Rental Store? Doesn’t this impact your “business”? Or not?
Mike
June 2, 2025Oof. This worries me a little, due to the fact that all of our bookings over the last five years have been rented out. This is because we had our first kid, and since then have racked up a total of three. We finally have a Disney trip booked next February.
I hope they will reach out to any members they are planning to “ding,” unless it’s abundantly clear that the owner is not a user (i.e. owner name never showing up on a reservation on the check in date). I would hope we could explain ourselves before they take action against us.
Mouseowner75
June 2, 2025This whole thing could really backfire on Disney. Over the years I have accumulated multiple contracts via purchase, inheritance, a some “in the right place at the right time” deals on the resale market. I currently own 1600 points. I use them frequently for myself and family/friends when they come to visit since I live near WDW. There is no way I can even cover the dues on all those points without renting some of them out. I don’t hoard high-demand dates. I don’t advertise confirmed listings except for once or twice a year. Most of my rentals go to the same people repeatedly, or their friends etc. I’d like to think that I’m a responsible owner who is utilizing the system DVC has put in place without abusing that system. If contract values drop out of fear of this change, I won’t be selling….i’ll be renting MORE because selling won’t be as viable financially. The 2042 contracts I own that may have gotten sold in the next few years will become point banks that I will burn all the way until contract expiration for rentals (to “friends and family” of course) because that will be the only financially viable course of action to take in an environment where the bottom falls out of the resale market. I won’t get tagged as commercial because I use the contracts very often myself (6-7 times a year easily). I see where DVC is trying to go, but it’s just not going to work.
Paul N Wanless
June 2, 2025If there’s one thing I learned in my years of corporate work experience, it’s that no system can ever be perfect. People are ALWAYS going to find creative ways to “work around” the system rules and find loopholes to use to their advantage, even if it is just for their own convenience. I can already see some of the high point holders trying to outright sell contracts to their own associates at reduced costs (at least initially) to spread their rentals thinner, in exchange for a cut of the sales of whatever the associates sell. Likely this already happens on some level.
Lin
June 2, 2025As a Renter of DVC rental store for years, I never really worried about renting.. until now. Especially when a DVC member that I had fulfill our request before popped up as the one filling it a second time- and I only go every couple years. I just want to rent some points and now I worry about being affected negatively by something based on someone else that I have nothing to do with.
Grietjiegirl
June 2, 2025After moving much further away from WDW (real life Kilimanjaro safari land) and especially now that travel to the US has become less pleasant, I will be renting for the next few years just to cover my dues.
As someone said, I hope they will at least reach out for an explanation if they need it.
Greg Beal
June 2, 2025Is the DVC Rental Store as naive as it sounds or they just playing us all the fool? I just read the article covering this story, and it’s baffeling.
1) You play it all off as if DVC Rental Store is nothing but a benevolent “facilitator” or “intermediary” of the “occasional” owner rental. In fact DVC Rental Store also “facilitates” mass rental of points owned by DVC Resale Market (which they control from their contract “instant sales”).
2) DVC Rental Store are not just an “intermediary” as they completely control the pricing, ensuring a big skim of profit for themselves.
3) They attempt to look completely “neutral” about this guidance is a joke as they take great pains to point out all the other people commercially renting (directly on FB and other platforms) with the aim of reducing the competition for their platform that results in great profits for their group.
4) They continue to defend this action and assure owners that “occasional” rentals because of emergencies or other examples are completely appropriate, while at the same time promoting all the “alternative” ways you can use your points with them (via booking cruises, going to other resorts…etc) – guess what they do with the points you turn over to them in such cases…they RENT them via their giant commercial platform.
I am glad to see these changes from DVC and I hope they start to target some of these companies that are facilitating mass rental of points and reservations. To me, their mere involvement by these companies makes the activity “commercial” – “personal use” with occasional rental to me means you facilitate it yourself. As soon as you start allowing use of these intermediaries, everyone just becomes a cog in the giant commercial enterprise of renting.
Sharon R
June 2, 2025Happy to hear about these changes. Will wait to see if the intent is successful. Been a DVC member since 1993. On of the reasons we purchased DVC was because of the flexibility and ability to book last minute stays because I owned a business and it was difficult to schedule vacations well in advance. We could book a reservation on short notice based on the business’s unpredictable slow periods. It has become nearly impossible to do that anymore. With airfare and car rental fees, it isn’t financially feasible to only book stays for 2 or 3 days. It has also happened where a fluent, consecutive 5 to 7 day reservation isn’t possible because there are one or two days in the middle that aren’t available even with a split stay. We have rented out points in the past a couple of times due to unforeseeable cancelation or to family members for special occasions, or to keep points from expiring because they were already banked.
I hope availability will improve with this new regulation.
Julie
June 2, 2025I have been a DVC member since 2003 and have found it nearly impossible to book any of our home resorts (I have added on multiple times on cruises acquiring 730 points at 5 resorts). I have never rented any of my points but enjoy offering them to family and friends when we aren’t able to travel. I sincerely hope this allows us to get back into our home resorts again and not just what is available!