The Ever Growing Importance of Home Resort Priority
Members have always asked me, if Disney Vacation Club keeps selling and more people join the club will that eventually make it almost impossible to get a room at the Disney Vacation Club Villas? And the answer is “no”, the same proportion of members to points will keep that from happening. As the developer, Disney can only sell more as they build more. However, will the growth make it harder for you to book the resort you want to stay at? And that answer is “yes”, unless you have home resort priority at that resort.
By having home resort priority you can book that resort 11 months in advance and no matter how many new members join the club with the newer resorts only members of that resort can book with an 11 month priority. For example, if you owned Disney’s Beach Club Villas in 2004 after it was sold out by Disney and you own Disney’s Beach Club Villas today in 2014 you are still competing against the same number of members to book a room at the 11 month window. However, if you were trying to book the Beach Club Villas in 2004 inside the 7 month booking window (booking window if not your home resort) you were competing against less than 100,000 members whereas today you are competing against nearly 200,000 members and that is where the impact of growth can be felt.
A great example is with Aulani. It is perhaps the most amazing Disney resort ever built and if you have never been you should plan that trip right away. However, many of the members who own Aulani are likely not going to be using their points to stay at Aulani often. One of the main reasons for this is that a large portion of DVC’s member base is in the northeast, many of which have joined or added on with DVC with Aulani, but traveling to Hawaii on a regular basis with a family of 3-5 can be very costly when considering flights. For that reason many of those members will use those Aulani points to stay at Disney World, which is great as the membership was designed to be used at any of the Disney Vacation Clubs, however, when Aulani is sold out it will be one of the biggest DVC resorts ever sold with 706 rooms at one of the highest point charts in the Disney Vacation Club network. This will provide an opportunity for many new families to join DVC, and with points that will likely be used at Disney World much more often than at Aulani.
So how does Aulani impact you if you are a member trying to book a Disney Vacation Club at Disney World? Well, without using home resort priority at Disney World it will become more competitive and you will want to book as close to the 7 month window as you can. However, if you have home resort priority at a Disney World resort it will not impact your 7-11 home resort priority window as only members who own points at that resort can use that 7-11 window to book.
As more resorts are sold it will not impact being able to get a room it will just make getting the particular resort you want without home resort priority potentially much more difficult. In summary, if you are a network user and are flexible with where you are staying, no worries. But, if you are that member or potential new member that knows you want to stay a particular resort at a particular time of year you should not compromise, you should own at that resort.
Below is a chart showing the Disney Vacation Club resorts room capacity:
Disney Vacation Club Resort (largest to smallest) | Number of Rooms |
Saratoga Springs | 1,320 |
Old Key West | 761 |
Animal Kingdom | 709 |
Aulani | 706 |
Boardwalk | 532 |
Bay Lake Tower | 428 |
Beach Club | 282 |
Vero Beach | 211 |
Wilderness Lodge | 181 |
Grand Floridian | 147 |
Hilton Head | 123 |
Grand Californian | 71 |
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