Does anyone think there should be "home resort" member benefits?

Roughians_satchel

Mouseketeer
Joined
Sep 8, 2015
I always wondered why DVC didn't make a bigger deal about expanding members benefits at their home resort. For instance, it seems that you should ALWAYS be able to pool hop at your home resort regardless of where you're staying on property. It's your "home", and you're paying for that pool in dues! Or, if you're a member at BLT, you get access to a TOTWL first for special nights (like the 4th), even if you're not staying there. There's lots of exclusive things they could come up with for "home" members. They could even add your "homes" to your member card in the form of initials on the front or back (which I think would be cool in and of itself.)
 
I always wondered why DVC didn't make a bigger deal about expanding members benefits at their home resort. For instance, it seems that you should ALWAYS be able to pool hop at your home resort regardless of where you're staying on property. It's your "home", and you're paying for that pool in dues! Or, if you're a member at BLT, you get access to a TOTWL first for special nights (like the 4th), even if you're not staying there. There's lots of exclusive things they could come up with for "home" members. They could even add your "homes" to your member card in the form of initials on the front or back (which I think would be cool in and of itself.)

absolutely not. Pools will be crowded by locals that are dvc members. Yes there Iare a lot of locals that are dvc members. Same things with the other things.
 
All of the restrictions are designed to keep services and amenities from exceeding capacity. Yes, if you're a Beach Club owner, your dues are paying for Stormalong Bay. But if you're a guest at Saratoga Springs, you have access to a pool someone else's dues are paying for. Why should you get both the SSR pools and Stormalong Bay?

Owners have the 4-month advance booking rights at their Home. If they choose to not take advantage of that window to secure a room, I don't think it's fair to allow them to arbitrarily use recreation and activity resources, diminishing the experience of those who did book the resort.
 
My only thought to add is that while owners do pay for things at their home resort, they don’t at the places they trade into for stays.

So, if you let owners have first crack at pools, then those not paying for the pools, even staying there, would be left out,

I think it works fine the way it is. You get to use resort things when you are using your membership at whatever resort you are at!
 


Your usage rights are explicitly linked to the times/dates on which you are using your points. At which time the usage rights are for where the points are booked.

This is also why you don't just get to park at your home resort any time you want. It's linked to points use. Owning 100 points doesn't mean you get usage rights 365 days a year.
 
Guests staying at the resort should OBVIOUSLY have priority over those hopping. BUT, there are home resorts that don't allow for any hopping whatsoever, even during slow times when no one is at the pools. I don't think its a huge amount of people that hop in the first place. It would be an easy benefit for them to open up certain times of year/days during the week when they know it's dead. And in terms of points use - if I'm staying in another DVC, then my 100 points gives me a right to use the pools when I'm staying on my points, NOT 365 days a year.
 
I think its been brought up but points from different resorts can actually be made to trade in and out to other resorts at a reduce or increased rate.

I could see this before home resort benefits. Another thing I could see is further restricting resale so that resale members don't get access to things at a resort (no community hall access unless home resort or "full" dvc owner).
 


Guests staying at the resort should OBVIOUSLY have priority over those hopping. BUT, there are home resorts that don't allow for any hopping whatsoever, even during slow times when no one is at the pools. I don't think its a huge amount of people that hop in the first place. It would be an easy benefit for them to open up certain times of year/days during the week when they know it's dead. And in terms of points use - if I'm staying in another DVC, then my 100 points gives me a right to use the pools when I'm staying on my points, NOT 365 days a year.

Pool hopping is a perk and not tied to ownership so that is why they have decided to not include all pools as part of the program,

Again, being able to trade into other resorts allows you the ability to use pools that are not included in hopping.

To be honest, I would be surprised to see it come back, even after this situation is over.
 
I think its been brought up but points from different resorts can actually be made to trade in and out to other resorts at a reduce or increased rate.

I could see this before home resort benefits. Another thing I could see is further restricting resale so that resale members don't get access to things at a resort (no community hall access unless home resort or "full" dvc owner).
And that wouldn't be a home resort "benefit." It would really be a non-home resort detriment (i.e., charge more points to book at a different resort). I see no possibility that home resort point charts would be discounted. Only the possibility that point charts for non-home resorts would be raised.
 
I always wondered why DVC didn't make a bigger deal about expanding members benefits at their home resort. For instance, it seems that you should ALWAYS be able to pool hop at your home resort regardless of where you're staying on property. It's your "home", and you're paying for that pool in dues! Or, if you're a member at BLT, you get access to a TOTWL first for special nights (like the 4th), even if you're not staying there. There's lots of exclusive things they could come up with for "home" members. They could even add your "homes" to your member card in the form of initials on the front or back (which I think would be cool in and of itself.)

As others have pointed out, maybe the pool example isn't the best as there's capacity issues to consider. But it would certainly be interesting to apply that concept as a brainstorm. Maybe in terms of promoting volume or even a sense of pride in the home resort.

- % discount on meals at your home resort.
- % of money spent on your stay donated to animal preservation charities if your home is AKL
- % of money spent on your stay donated to struggling yacht owners if you stayed at...never mind.
 
Isn't TOWL restricted for New Years Parties and such? Or is that open to anyone as long as they pay?

Good reminder though sort of forgot that piece.
All can book those events. It is not restricted to only BLT owners.
 
TOTW may not be dues supposed as I read budgets. But if they made it blue card only it wouldn't be self supporting.
 
Guests staying at the resort should OBVIOUSLY have priority over those hopping. BUT, there are home resorts that don't allow for any hopping whatsoever, even during slow times when no one is at the pools. I don't think its a huge amount of people that hop in the first place. It would be an easy benefit for them to open up certain times of year/days during the week when they know it's dead.

I'm not sure when these universal slow times are at Disney pools. Especially DVC resorts where room occupancy is always near 100%. Do you think Disney has data to show that Stormalong Bay can afford to open up to hopping on Tuesdays in July? Or that BLT's pool would be OK to open up during the winter months?

There probably are seasonal patterns. But as soon as you run into a spurt of 80 degree days in February, people will come flocking to the pools. You can't really issue emergency proclamations that hopping is rescinded on the fly. And the winter months are also when Disney routinely closes pools for maintenance, meaning they're often opened up to guests from multiple resorts (e.g. Poly's pool is closed and guests given permission to use Grand Floridian.)

Is there some specific set of circumstances you have in mind? Where and when do you think you should be allowed to hop, being confident that it won't negatively impact someone else's visit?
 
I do think one owner benefit that should be instituted is owner priority on room requests at their home resort. It was pretty disappointing to be staying at Aulani for the first time and be given a first floor pool view room when I requested a high floor! How many in that resort were Aulani owners...very few I'm sure.

In my Westin timeshare, rooms are allocated based on when you made the reservation -- so an owner making a reservation in an owner priority period would get a better room. But it is the resorts own standards that are applied, not the wishes of the guest.

Can DVC not do something like this!??
 
I do think one owner benefit that should be instituted is owner priority on room requests at their home resort. It was pretty disappointing to be staying at Aulani for the first time and be given a first floor pool view room when I requested a high floor! How many in that resort were Aulani owners...very few I'm sure.

In my Westin timeshare, rooms are allocated based on when you made the reservation -- so an owner making a reservation in an owner priority period would get a better room. But it is the resorts own standards that are applied, not the wishes of the guest.

Can DVC not do something like this!??

Those are week long though right?

Issue is DVC has to work with what rooms come up for availability. They could do some stack ranking though but you might be surprised how many are home resort members.
 

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