Select amenities fees removed for DVC

[YorkshireT]

Originally Posted by Br'er Bear

FQA is a great idea YorkshireT, shame it wasn't implemented years ago.

Going back to when we last stayed on a cash booking, while it might have since changed I'm sure the bed linen was changed every day along with all the amenities left, whether or not we needed them.

When we next visited using points we felt like we were missing out and as members we were actually receiving a lower service than a cash guest, maybe it's time cash guest received the same service as members.

But until that happens then hopefully those extra amenities and labour cost is somewhere accounted for as otherwise aren't members subsidising Disney's cash bookings?

A room on cash bookings for a year equals 365-full housekeeping services, whereas a DVC room on points for say 52 x 7-day booking would require just 52-full housekeeping and 52 trash & towel services.

For members to request a full housekeeping service in a studio I think it would cost $30 and $15 for a Trash & Towel service, so if we used those amounts as a rough guide on cost in the above senorios we have:

On Cash: 365-full housekeeping services = $10,950
On Points: 52-full housekeeping and 52 Trash & Towel services = $1,560 + $780 = $2,348

That's an extra $8,602 for servicing a cash studio room over a points booking for a year.

Okay, rooms on points will be booked for 1, 2 or more reservation nights so those will result in more full housekeeping.

Not sure what's the true percenatage of cash bookings but it did seem like Disney UK were selling a lot of rooms at SSR and OKW with the free dining offer between 2011 and 2016.

With around 432 studio rooms at SSR, if around 100 of those were assigned to cash bookings, that's an additional cost to housekeeping of $860,200 pa.

Many Brit's were booking 1 and 2-beds on the free dining offer, which for members a full Housekeeping service for a 1-bed would cost $45 and for 2-beds $60 a day.

So my point is while charges for some in-room consumables are being removed and that might encourage some members to request more, that might be a small cost to our dues in comparison to those guest staying on cash, especially if it's not fully accounted for by Disney.

Hopefully someone might know the answer but if not, when I'm at the Moonlight Magic event I will ask this question to any attending DVC executives, that's if i find one!

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Yes I certainly hope I’m correct and they say they are paying the additional costs and they are not being charged to members at the commercial rate- that would be outrageous.

I have never seen anyone say they’ve asked this question and been given a definitive answer- maybe someone has but I have never seen it. Given the only accounts filed are abridged basic accounts that will give no help. I do know when people have asked difficult questions before and asked for proof, they have sometimes been told to go to the offices in Kissimmee and look at the documents.

It would certainly be a good question to ask the execs and I for one will be very interested in what response you get.

I’d struggle to believe though they are charging all this to members in dues and not picking it up themselves. The contracts, POS etc I do not think mentions anything about this. The cash rooms come from retained rooms (minimum 2% but said to be higher), trade outs to cruises etc and breakage. The last one in particular is the potential money spinner for them as you know, so I’d be very unhappy if they were charging daily housekeeping back to members on any cash booking, but I doubt they are.

Another question is given these two resorts are exclusively DVC- what safeguards are in place to ensure that DVC dues money is not being used to pay wages for housekeeping for cash guests. If they were having the same as DVC owners that would not be an issue as the points all have the same dues paid, even the DVD owned ones, but what safeguard is there that the housekeeper isn’t doing some of that daily cleaning whilst being paid by us? I suspect the answer will be because the daily cleaning is billed from one division to another, but it’s a good question to ask also.

[Guest]

I would be very surprised if Disney didn’t have cash stays as a separate itemised section on their P&L. They will want to know the profits involved to be able to set rates and determine what promotions they can offer. They might use an estimated figure to split out cash vs points costs (eg service costs per night/stay), but it’s accounting 101 to understand your full cash flow.

I don’t know if offering these items for free is good for DVC as a whole. Some people will take advantage, but they probably already do in other ways. There was a huge post on Facebook the other day about whether it’s acceptable to fill up travel bottles from the wall mounted toiletries and an alarming number of people said yes.

[Br'er Bear]

The above got me thinking about the annual budget for SSR where there are 888 Vacation Homes with housekeeping costing $19,154,064 in 2020.

If we look at a 2-bed as one of those vacation homes then over the year that breaks down to $21,569 for housekeeping.

And that 2-bed could be booked on cash or on points for 365 separate 1-night reservations over the year and that breaks down at $59.09 per night.

Possibly just a coincidence but that figure is very close to the $60 that a member would pay when requesting a full clean for a 2-bed?

But that 2-bed could also be booked by members for just 52 times over the year with each being a 7-night rental; that breaks down at a housekeeping cost of $414.78 per week and that's just for one full clean and one trash and towels.

That seems a lot when looking at a 7-night reservation but right when 2-beds are cleaned each day; not sure what else that actually tells us, any thoughts?