When booking a Disney Vacation Club villa with their points, members must now acknowledge a new disclaimer certifying that the reservation is being made for personal use only.
The Public Offering Statement and other governing documents have long stated that Disney Vacation Club ownership is for personal use only, and that owners should not engage in any commercial acvitiy related to their holdings. However, the exact nature of this "commercial activity" has always been open to interpretation. Those same documents confirm that renting of points to non-owners is permitted, but does not explictly say what defines a pattern of commercial use.
About a decade ago, DVC claimed that any member who made more than 20 reservations per year in the name of someone other than him/herself would come under scrutiny for potentially violating the prohibition against commercial renting. Since then, stories of members being sanctioned or reservations canceled are few and far between. Individuals looking to sidestep the commercial renting rules could potentially do so by creating a variety of shell corporations and other legal entities to serve as the "owner" of smaller blocks of points.
Effective June 1, 2025, Disney Vacation Club updated the Terms and Conditions associated with making reservations using DVC points. Under the heading of "General Terms and Conditions and Responsiblity", members are asked to confirm that reservations "made under your membership are solely for personal use and not for commercial purposes."
The passage goes on to state that Disney Vacation Club holds the right to "interpret personal use and determine if reservations are booked for personal or commercial purposes in its sole discretion." It clarifies reservations may be made for friends and family "on occasion", but that activity is only defined as personal use if "the member does not regularly or frequently rent/sell reservations booked using their membership,"
Additionally, DVC states that if any portion of the current policy is found to be illegal or unenforcable, other portions of the Terms and Conditions will still be upheld to the fullest extent possible.
The complete passages current read as follows:
You agree that any reservations made under your membership are solely for personal use and not for commercial purposes, as required by governing documents for each DVC Resort, including but not limited to the Declaration of Condominium and Membership Agreement. DVCM reserves the right to interpret personal use and determine if reservations are booked for personal or commercial purposes in its sole discretion. Personal use may include enjoying the benefits of a DVC Membership with family or allowing use of any reserved Vacation Home to friends and family on occasion. Additionally, personal use means that the member does not regularly or frequently rent/sell reservations booked using their membership.
If any provision or provisions of these Terms and Conditions shall be held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, such provision shall be enforced to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law and the validity, legality and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not be affected thereby.
The full document is available for review here.
When completing a points reservation on the DVC members-only website, owners must mark a check box and attest to the following statement: "I agree to the Disney Vacation Club Terms and Conditions, and I attest that this reservation is for personal use only." (See above)
In recent years, owners have become more and more outspoken regarding the perceived impact of rental reservations on resort availability. Some third party rental brokers maintain lists of hundreds of confirmed room reservations available to purchase by non-owners. While these reservations are booked using DVC points, the reservations often appear to be targeted at maximizing profit potential rather than the result of an owner renting a room or points they suddenly cannot use.
The topic was frequently raised by owners during the numerous Condo Association Meetings in the fall of 2024. During one session, Shannon Sakaske, Vice President, Member Experiences & Club Management stated that DVC knows some members occasionally rent points they cannot use, and they are not interested in harming those members. However, he had this to say regarding a class of owners who are not regularly using points for personal use:
"They own a lot of points and it’s a frequent occurrence. We are actively figuring out ways to go after that, and stop that to the best of our ability. Hopefully this is not a conversation we will be having in future years. We’re going to go after that and try to remedy it as best we can."
It remains to be seen how aggressively DVC chooses to attack this alleged commercial renting activity.
