Disney Vacation Club Rental Demand Soaring for the Summer Season.

I recently had a conversation over lunch with Shauna Zielinski, a licensed real estate associate with the Progressive Real Estate Agency who specializes in Disney Vacation Club resorts. The topic of conversation was the consistent high demand for Disney Vacation Club condo rentals and resales.

"Disney is one of the world's most recognizable brands." Stated Shauna. "As such, the Disney Vacation Club timeshare system is able to easily overcome the common negative stereotype of timeshare vacation ownership and therefore maintains consistent demand year after year!".

"The biggest change this year" she continued "is that as the economy has begun to improve more owners have decided to use their points themselves. This has lowered the rental supply and increased consumer demand, helping to push prices to more than double the timeshare owners maintenance fees and taxes. Timeshares should never be sold as a financial investment, but I do tell my resale buyers that Disney Vacation Club reservations (DVC) have consistently rented at a profit for years!"

Disney Vacation Club does restrict the commercial renting of its timeshare points program, but often this is misunderstood by owners. The restriction does not stop owners from renting their unused points to guests, as long as the primary intention of ownership and usage is for the DVC owner's personal usage and enjoyment. DVC members can either rent their points through a by-owner advertising venue such as http://myresortnetwork.com, or can use the services of a respected rental brokerage to ensure they have a safe and secure transaction.

Regardless of how the reservation is rented, both the DVC member and the tenant should always insist on an independent third party escrow company to hold the rental payment until after check in. Costs for rental escrow have continued to decrease as more competition has come into the industry including local timeshare closing companies such as PCS Title and even online services such as DepositGuard.

When I asked Shauna about rental pricing she gave the following advice:

"I normally recommend DVC owners set their asking price based on the actual points used for the reservation. $13. to $14. per DVC point is a reasonable expectation, and after a broker's rental commission of $2. per DVC point- the net rental proceeds to an owner is normally more than double the annual per point assessments at most resorts."