Disney vacation club rentals is covered in depth in this post, a picture of Disney World's Polynesian resort is pictured.

If you’re looking to learn how to rent DVC points we’ll walk through that in-depth in this post.

If you’re not sure if renting DVC points is a good idea, or if you aren’t even sure what they are, you can jump ahead to the FAQ portion of the post where we’ll answer those questions as well.

How to Rent DVC Points

First off if you’re looking to rent DVC points there are two high-level options:

  • Renting from a Disney Vacation Club points rental site
  • Renting points directly from an owner

We’ll dive deeper into each of these options in this post, but there are a few quick pros and cons to consider as you decide the option that is right for you:

  • Reliability – Generally speaking the DVC rental sites are “businesses” – some have cancellation guarantees (though some don’t! Which we’ll get to later in the post) and most have real testimonials and reviews that you can see, representatives you can talk to, and while there are no real iron-clad guarantees with any business (even Disney!) you at least should have a higher level of confidence with these businesses that you won’t get “scammed.”
  • Price & Flexibility – Potential pros for renting points directly from an owner is that A) you may get a better price (particularly if a DVC owner is nearing “losing” their points due to a roll over window and is highly incentivized to sell their points) and B) if you’re looking for a particular resort in a particular date range a DVC rental business may not have that inventory (and it may be totally unavailable to book via the DVC site – in which case you’d have to hope to be able to get an entire booking transferred not just DVC points, which again we’ll get into further later in this post).

Logistically if you’re looking at using a rental site you can book right on their site (we’ll walk through different options there in the next section) while if you’re looking to rent from an owner (and you don’t know one personally) you can find different groups and marketplaces that will let you connect with an owner directly (again though: be careful – even your trip to the most magical place on earth can be subject to a scam if you aren’t careful).

Renting Disney Vacation Club Points from a DVC Rental Company

This is really your first points rental option. Personally if I were going to rent DVC points (I’m a member, so I don’t need to) I would go this route for two reasons:

  1. I am a pretty anal planner, primarily stay at Walt Disney World DVC resorts, and really like all of them to varying degrees. For that reason I wouldn’t likely need to grab a booked location on a specific date where there weren’t DVC inventory.
  2. I would really value the peace of mind of dealing with a business that had support staff and reviews versus trying to vet an individual owner and avoid a scam or just a negative experience if something came up (we live in the northeast and typically use DVC points for Disney World, so we’re at the mercy of weather and travel plans – if you live closer to your destination you may be more willing to fade possible headaches).

If you are looking to rent from a DVC rental site, the first thing you’ll want to determine is which DVC site or sites to check out. Let’s take a look at the major DVC rental sites.

The Best DVC Resale Site for You

In determining which site to rent from there are a few key questions you’ll want to answer:

  1. Can you rent straight points to apply to your stay?
  2. Can you rent a booked vacation stay?
  3. What is the cancellation policy?
  4. What does pricing & availability look like?
  5. How is the customer service?

You can learn more about the mechanics of how DVC rental sites actually work in our FAQ at the end of the post if that’s something that you’re interested in, but you want to understand that there are two ways to rent DVC points:

  1. Renting Points & Making Your Own Booking – This option let’s you pay a dollar amount per point, rent a block of points, then make a reservation at the resort and date of your choice (availability depending obviously). If you have a general sense of when and where you want to stay but have some flexibility this is likely a good option as you can compare the DVC resorts that are available, look at availability and cost (in points) for different times of year (more on how that breaks out in our DVC points chart overview).
  2. Renting a Pre-Booked Stay – This is when a DVC member has a vacation booked, but would transfer the entire stay to you (for instance if they’d booked 4 days at the Polynesian May 22nd-May 26th). This can be a good option if you really want to stay at a specific Disney resort in say the next few months – that may be impossible to book just using points, so getting a reservation a member made when that resort was available may be your only option.

OK well now that we know the right questions to ask about each DVC rental site, let’s look at the most popular options.

David’s Vacation Club Rentals

David’s is one of the two most popular DVC rental sites.

Let’s jump in and answer our key questions regarding David’s:

Renting Straight Points at David’s

The way the process works at David’s is you select a resort and time, and they apply points (which they’re holding) to that reservation. You don’t actually get the points directly, but you’re able to use points for a specific stay of your choice.

Can you rent a booked vacation stay through David’s?

Yes. David’s also has a list of dedicated bookings (bookings that are already made, where you’ll take the reservation and the date “as-is”), which may give you a shot at a resort you want to stay at, or are sometimes cheaper (as low as $16 per point rather than $21 or $23, which would be 23-30% off if you can find a listing at that level).

What is the cancellation policy?

David’s collects a $105 holding fee while you select a resort and date. If you can’t find a match you can have that refunded, if you do find a booking that’s a fit once you book there are no refunds.  You can get travel insurance but that’s independent of your agreement with David’s.

What Does Pricing & Availability Look Like?

Availability will depend on where and when you book. David’s has a good breakdown of when to think about booking at which resort here:

https://dvcrequest.com/information/when-to-book

And in terms of pricing: you will pay $21.00 per point for stays booked within 7 months of arrival or at non premium resorts for arrivals beyond 7 months, and will pay $23.00 per point for arrivals beyond 7 months at premium resorts.

You can see what this converts to by using David’s cost calculator:

https://dvcrequest.com/dvc-guests/cost-calculator

We’ll compare pricing for the leading rental sites below.

How is David’s Vacation Club’s Customer Service?

Having not booked through David’s it’s obviously difficult to glean the quality of the customer service. Many of the reviews of the site generally are websites that are part of David’s affiliate program (this site makes money through affiliate programs as well) which are paid a fee when someone books through David’s and may have a financial incentive to leave a positive review.

That said you can still get a sense of some of the pros and cons through some of those reviews if they’re taken with a grain of salt.

Here are some comparisons of the overall experience for David’s versus DVC Rental Store:

Here is feedback from David’s site (which obviously skews positive):

https://dvcr.ventis.ca/information/guestbook?page=657

Here are some David’s reviews (again take these with a grain of salt):

DVC Rental Store

DVC Rental Store is the other of the two most popular sites. We’ll walk through answers to the above questions for them as well.

Can you rent straight points at DVC rental store?

As with David’s you don’t rent the points directly, but functionally you are renting someone’s points as you’re able to look at availability and then pick a specific booking for a price.

Can you rent a booked vacation stay through DVC Rental Store?

Yes! You can browse availability there as well: https://dvcrentalstore.com/guests/reservations/

What is the cancellation policy?

Depending on your priorities and when you’re booking, this has the potential to be a major benefit for DVC Rental Store. They offer different cancellation percentages up to 100% depending on how far out from your vacation date you cancel. From their website:

A snapshot of DVC Rental Store's cancellation policy.
What Does Pricing & Availability Look Like?

DVC Rental Store offers a number of tools to determine pricing and availability. The big one is their pricing and availability tool (shocking!):

https://dvcrentalstore.com/guests/availability/

Additionally they also offer advice about booking windows and when to book for various DVC resorts:

https://dvcrentalstore.com/guests/booking-windows/

How is DVC Rental Store’s Customer Service?

Again here I can’t speak from personal experience, so you have to do your due diligence on reviews. One note is that there are a couple of comments on the BBB profile for the company that mention issues with actually getting a full refund upon cancelling if you don’t buy a travel protection plan (which commenters call out as being very expensive). This could obviously be a major issue if that’s a key selling point for you in booking with them (many of those comments seem to be specific to COVID, so it’s possible those issues have been addressed).

David’s Vacation Club Rentals vs. DVC Rental Store

There is a lot of similarity between the two companies, but a couple of key differentiators you may want to keep in mind:

  • Each will have different inventory for reserved stays, so it’s worth checking both if you have a specific date in mind.
  • DVC Rental Store does have a friendlier cancellation policy (given David’s doesn’t offer refunds)
  • At David’s you pay a fee up front before you’ve secured a booking (meaning an owner has actually secured your rental for you) whereas DVC Rental Store doesn’t require payment until there is a “match” with your requested date and an owner.

Again it’s worth looking at these comparison threads:

Additional DVC Rental / Resale Options

Some other sites rent DVC points as well – since David’s and DVC Rental Store are the largest providers here we won’t dive as deeply into these options, but here are additional options:

Buying / Renting DVC Points Direct from DVC Owners

Renting from a DVC marketplace isn’t the only option for booking a stay via DVC. DVC owners can transfer their points directly, as well. Typically you’ll want to identify a group where DVC owners rent out points or share stays they have booked that they can sell (more on this in a minute).

There are a few considerations to keep in mind if you’re thinking about going direct to owners:

  • Firstly and most importantly: be careful not to get scammed. Obviously any time you have a financial exchange with a stranger on the internet you have to be leery of sharing any financial information, when you send payment, etc.  There are often a number of horror stories in point resale groups about unwitting renter / buyers getting ripped off, so proceed with caution and if you’re someone who isn’t confident in your ability to navigate this kind of online transaction, you may want to go to one of the marketplaces.
  • If you do go direct to an owner you may get a better price than a marketplace because you aren’t paying for their “cut” and overhead. An individual owner who has a stay booked that’s coming up and is desperate to move it may be incented to take less for a listing, as well.
  • Going direct to DVC points owners can be a double-edged sword when it comes to availability. Individual groups may have less overall inventory than David’s or DVC Rental Store, so you might have more options at one of those, but if you have a very specific request (eg for a specific date at a specific resort) you may only be able to find it direct from an owner.

So if you are interested in going direct with DVC owners, where might you be able to find some of these owners?

There are a number of different Facebook Groups and message boards where you can find listings – like this Facebook Group or this one, DVCA requires ID to post in their rental listings section on their site, and sites like Disboards have postings on message boards.

DVC Rental FAQs

How do DVC Rental Sites Work?

DVC rental sites allow you to use points the site has rented from DVC members to book a vacation, or they allow you to transfer a booked stay at a specific Disney resort to your account (in exchange for payment).

Is it legal to rent out DVC points?

Yes it is legal to rent points, and it also isn’t currently a violation of Disney’s terms. You are not, however, allowed to use your DVC points for “commercial use” which is a bit of a gray area and means if you’re planning to consistently rent out your points you may run into issues.

What is the going rate to rent DVC points?

It varies significantly based on where you’re trying to book and for how long (and depending on whether you go to a marketplace or direct to owners), but for the marketplaces $16-$23 per point is a standard range.

Can you rent from DVC members directly?

Yes! You can rent from DVC members directly, and they can transfer points to your Disney account. Just be careful not to fall victim to any scams if you decide to go this route!

Does DVC Rental Include Park Tickets?

No it does not. There are sometimes promotions and DVC discounts on annual passes, but you need to purchase park tickets separately.

How long does it take to rent DVC points?

Points need to be transferred and stays need to be booked – if you’re working closely with someone renting points this can move quickly, if you’re working with a marketplace there can be more of a turnaround. Either way make sure you’re leaving yourself enough time to book your stay (if you’re looking to book during a busy season you’ll want to ).

Do you get dining discounts when you rent DVC points?

No. You don’t get any of the dining discounts or additional benefits DVC owners get when you rent points.

Do you get access to extra magic hours when you rent DVC points?

No. You don’t get access to extra magic hours or other additional benefits DVC owners get when you rent points.

Can you get discounted DVC points?

In a way, yes. As a renter you can rent pre-booked stays or direct from a DVC owner which may allow you to pay less for a particular stay. As an owner you can often get a deal on DVC points by adding points to a resort Disney is promoting (for instance upon opening Aulani and Riviera, Disney ran discounts for stays at each resort).

Which resorts are available via DVC points?

The following resorts are available via DVC points:

  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas (Jambo Hose & Kidani Village)
  • Aulani Resort & Spa (Hawaii)
  • Disney’s Bay Lake Towers
  • Disney’s Beach Club Villas
  • Disney’s Boardwallk Villas
  • Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort (South Carolina)
  • Disney’s Old Key West Resort
  • Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
  • Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
  • Villa’s at Disney’s Grand Caifornian (California)
  • Villa’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian (Florida)
  • Disney’s Vero Beach Resort (Florida)
  • Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Villas & Cabins (Boulder Ridge & Copper Creek)

Tom, awesome post! Do you have any other DVC resources? Will you PLEASE drop them at the end of a post for us?

This is asked somewhat less frequently, I’ll admit, but I do have an answer here. We’ve got a post with some DVC facts and figures, a list of DVC resorts along with other helpful resort related info, we answer the question of whether DVC is worth it (spoiler alert: it depends), break down the real cost of Disney Vacation Club, walk you through how to check for DVC availability using tools and other sources, and we have a series of DVC points charts.