Renting Out Your DVC Points: Pros and Cons

DVC Market Team  |  February 12, 2026  |  651 views

You Can't Go This Year. Now What?

It happens to every DVC owner eventually. Life gets in the way. A new baby, a job change, an unexpected expense, or you just can't get the time off. You're sitting on 150 or 200 points that need to be used, and you're not going to Disney this year. So what do you do?

You have a few options. Banking points is the obvious first choice if your deadline hasn't passed. Understanding your use year calendar is key to knowing those deadlines. But if banking isn't available, or if you have banked points that are about to expire, renting is the practical answer. You book a DVC resort stay using your points, then rent that reservation to someone else for cash. It's legal, it works, and it can cover most or all of your annual dues.

But renting isn't as simple as listing something on Craigslist. There are real risks, real logistics, and some things Disney would prefer you didn't do. Let me walk you through the whole picture.

How Renting Actually Works

The basic mechanic is straightforward. You use your DVC points to book a resort stay. Then you rent that reservation to a non-DVC member, who pays you cash. They get a Disney deluxe resort stay at below rack rates. You get cash to offset your annual dues. Everybody wins.

There are two ways to do it: through a rental broker or directly on your own.

Rental brokers like David's DVC Rentals and DVC Rental Store handle everything. You tell them what points you have and when they expire. They find a renter, collect payment, handle all communications, and pay you a fixed rate per point. Current broker rates are typically $19-21 per point retail (what the renter pays), and the broker keeps a 10-15% commission. So you'd receive roughly $16-19 per point as the member.

The broker handles the headache. You just make the reservation, confirm the details, and collect your check. For most people, this is the easiest route. David's is the biggest player in this space. They've been around for years and have a solid reputation. The DVC Rental Store is another good option. There are smaller brokers too, but stick with established names.

Direct rental is the other path. You post on DIS Boards, Facebook DVC groups, or other communities, find your own renter, negotiate the price, and handle the transaction yourself. You keep the full rental amount with no broker commission. Rates for direct rentals range from $18-22 per point, sometimes higher for peak-season bookings at popular resorts.

The tradeoff is effort and risk. You're doing all the communication, handling money collection (Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, etc.), making the reservation, and dealing with any problems. If the renter cancels or has a complaint, that's on you. With a broker, all of that gets handled for you. Most casual renters go the broker route. Members who rent frequently sometimes do direct rentals because the extra $2-4 per point adds up.

The Money: Does It Actually Cover Dues?

Let me run the numbers on a real example so you can see how this plays out.

If you rent all 200 points through a broker at $17 per point, you get $3,400. Your annual dues are about $1,700. That's $1,700 in profit, which basically means DVC paid you to own it this year. Not a bad deal.

More realistically, most owners rent some points and use some. Say you use 100 points for a long weekend and rent the other 100. Your rental income ($1,700) covers your full annual dues bill, and you took a free Disney trip. That's the scenario that makes most owners feel good about years when they can't take their full vacation.

During peak season, rental rates can hit $20-25 per point, especially for popular resorts like Beach Club or Bay Lake Tower during Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you can book a popular room during a high-demand week, direct renters will pay a premium. I've heard of members getting $25 per point for a one-bedroom at Beach Club during Food and Wine Festival. That's $5,000 for 200 points.

The Risks You Need to Know About

Renting isn't risk-free, and I want to be upfront about the downsides.

Disney's position on rentals is complicated. Their official policy discourages renting DVC points for commercial purposes. In practice, they don't actively police casual renters. If you rent once or twice a year because you can't travel, nobody is going to bother you. But members who run de facto rental businesses, renting every single year, renting points they bought specifically to rent, that's different. Disney has the theoretical right to terminate memberships for repeated commercial rental activity. It's rarely exercised, but the risk exists.

Renter cancellations are a real headache. If you book a resort stay, rent it to someone, collect their money, and then they cancel, you're stuck with a reservation and points that now need to be used quickly. If you rented through a broker, the broker handles this with their own cancellation policy. If you rented directly, you're managing the refund and trying to find a new renter on short notice. This is the biggest practical risk of direct rentals.

Finding renters isn't guaranteed, especially for off-peak dates or less popular resorts. A January week at Old Key West? That might sit for weeks without interest. A Christmas week at Beach Club? You'll have renters lining up within hours of posting. Demand is seasonal, and if your points expire during a slow rental period, you might not find a renter in time.

Tax Implications

This is the part nobody wants to talk about, but here it is: rental income is taxable. If you rent DVC points and receive $3,400, that's income the IRS expects you to report. You can deduct related expenses (annual dues, broker commissions), but the net income is still taxable.

For occasional renters, this usually falls under "other income" on your tax return. It's not a huge deal if you're renting one time because you can't travel this year. But if you're consistently renting every year and making thousands of dollars, you're essentially running a small business and should talk to a tax professional about proper reporting. I'm not a CPA and I'm not going to pretend to be one. Just know that the income doesn't disappear because it came from DVC points instead of a paycheck.

Should You Buy DVC as a Rental Investment?

I get this question more than you'd think, and the answer is no. Buying DVC specifically to rent out the points year after year is a bad investment strategy. Here's why.

On a 200-point Saratoga Springs contract at $110 per point, your purchase price is $22,000. Check current dues rates for exact numbers, but annual dues are roughly $1,700. If you rent all points every year at $17/point through a broker, you gross $3,400. Net after dues: $1,700 per year. At that rate, it takes 13 years to break even on your initial purchase, not counting the time value of money, closing costs, or the risk that rental rates might drop.

Compare that to pretty much any other investment. An index fund averaging 7% annually would turn that $22,000 into $44,000 in 10 years. The DVC "investment" returns about $1,700 per year with no appreciation on the principal (resale values might go up or down). As a pure investment, DVC loses to a savings account.

DVC makes financial sense as a vacation tool, not an investment vehicle. If you're going to Disney anyway and you'd be spending $4,000-6,000 per year on resort rooms, DVC saves you real money. Renting in the years you can't travel is a smart way to avoid wasting points. But buying DVC with the primary goal of rental income? There are much better places for that money.

Alternatives to Renting

Before you go through the rental process, make sure you've considered the simpler options.

Bank your points. If you're within the banking window, push those points to next year and plan a bigger trip. This is always the easiest and best option if the deadline hasn't passed.

Gift a stay. You can book a DVC resort reservation for anyone, not just yourself. Your parents, your siblings, your best friend. Use the points to give someone a vacation they wouldn't have taken otherwise. No money changes hands, no tax implications, and someone you care about gets a week at Disney. I've had clients book stays for their kids' teachers, their neighbors, even their pastor. DVC doesn't care who stays in the room as long as someone checks in.

Borrow from next year. If you're within the borrowing window, pull some of next year's points forward for a last-minute trip. Maybe you can't do a full week, but a long weekend using 80-100 points is better than letting 200 points expire.

Renting should be your last option, not your first plan. If you find yourself renting every single year, that's a sign that you either bought too many points or your vacation patterns have changed. In that case, it might be time to read our guide about selling your contract and right-size your ownership. There's no shame in selling 50-75 points if you're consistently not using them. You'll get most of your purchase price back on the DVC resale market, and your annual dues go down immediately.

Point rental is a useful safety net for DVC owners who occasionally can't travel. It turns unused points into cash, covers your dues, and keeps your ownership from feeling like a waste in off years. Just don't build your DVC strategy around it. Buy DVC to go to Disney. Rent when life gets in the way. That's the right order of priorities.

How to Maximize Your Rental Income

If you do decide to rent, a few things affect how much you'll get and how fast you'll find a renter. Peak season reservations at popular resorts command the highest rates. A Beach Club reservation during Food and Wine Festival or a Bay Lake Tower booking over Christmas week will rent faster and for more money than an Old Key West reservation in September.

Timing also matters on the listing side. Post your rental availability early. Renters start looking for peak-season Disney trips 6-9 months in advance. If you list a Christmas week reservation in June, you'll have lots of interested renters to choose from. List it in October and you're competing with other last-minute rentals, which drives the price down.

For broker rentals, submit your points as early as possible. Brokers match renters with available points on a first-come basis. If you wait until your points are about to expire, the broker has less time to find a match, and you might end up with a less desirable booking that takes longer to rent. Give yourself and the broker at least 3-4 months of runway before your points expire.

One more thing. If you're renting through a broker, you typically get paid after the reservation check-in date, not when the booking is made. So there's a cash flow gap between when you commit your points and when you actually receive money. If you're counting on rental income to pay your dues bill that's due in January, make sure the reservation check-in is before January, or plan to float the dues payment until the rental income arrives. It's not a big deal, but it catches some people off guard the first time.

The DVC rental market is healthy and active. As long as Disney resorts remain popular vacation destinations (and there's no sign of that changing anytime soon), there'll be demand from non-DVC families who want the resort experience at below-rack-rate prices. Your unused points have real value. Just make sure renting is a backup plan for the occasional off year, not your primary reason for owning DVC.