The newest entry into the Disney Vacation Club portfolio is Villas at Disneyland Hotel. VDH
went on sale to existing DVC members on May 2nd and to the general public, for any non-members,
on May 30th. You may be considering buying in, so today we are going to go over some pros and
cons of buying at Villas at Disneyland Hotel. Hey everyone, I'm Jacqueline for Pixie Dust PhD. If
you do find this information helpful, please be sure to like the video as well as subscribe to
the channel. You can then ring the bell icon to receive notifications whenever I upload
new videos. Before we go over pros and cons of ownership at Villas at Disneyland Hotel, let's go
over some of the facts we know about the resort. First, there are 344 total rooms. 38 of these are
Duo Studios, and 265 of these are Deluxe Studio Villas. Then there are 19 One-Bedroom Villas,
20 Two-Bedroom Villas, and two Grand Villa Three-Bedroom accommodations. Unlike most DVC
Resorts you may be more familiar with, it is worth noting that most of the Duo and Deluxe Studios
will not have a patio or balcony. As far as occupancy goes, Duo Studios will sleep up to two
and Deluxe Studios up to four. One-Bedrooms can accommodate up to five, Two-Bedrooms up to nine,
and Three-Bedroom Grand Villa is up to 12 guests. Villas at Disneyland Hotel contracts are set to
expire the end of January 2074. The price debuted at $230/point when buying directly through Disney
without considering any incentive offers. 2023 annual dues were set at about $9.06/point. And
for anyone staying at Villas at Disneyland Hotel on points, you will be assessed a transient
occupancy tax; this debuted at about $2.73/point. And you pay that at checkout. Contracts for Villas
at Disneyland Hotel do have resale restrictions that we saw first with Riviera Resort. These are
two main factors. One is that if you are currently a resale restricted owner--so you bought a resale
contract after certain restrictions were put into place--you cannot use your resale restricted
points to stay at Villas at Disneyland Hotel. If you are a resale member but we're grandfathered in
before these restrictions, you can use those points; and if you have other direct points,
you can use directly purchased points at Villas at Disneyland Hotel. But if you currently own
resale restricted points, or you're thinking about buying a resale contract in the future,
those points cannot be used to book stays at Villas at Disneyland Hotel. The second
restriction pertains to viability on the resale market. If you buy a Villas at Disneyland Hotel
contract through the resale market and not directly through Disney, then you can only
use those points at Villas at Disneyland Hotel. You will not be permitted to use those points at
any other Disney Vacation Club resort. This might affect the desirability of Villas at Disneyland
Hotel resale contracts down the line--only time will tell. But the points being restricted for
anyone who buys that contract on the resale market to one Resort is only something we've seen so far
for Riviera Resort and now Villas at Disneyland Hotel. Next, let's move on to highlighting primary
disadvantages to owning a Villas at Disneyland Hotel. The initial purchase price is fairly high;
though buying directly through Disney pretty much always is. It is likely this initial purchase
price will continue to go up. So even though it is high right now, if you are planning on buying
direct, it is probably the lowest it will be. It is still too soon to tell what these contracts
would go for on the resale market; though it's generally safe that buying a contract directly
through Disney will always cost more than buying that same Home Resort on the resale market. The
base rate for annual dues at $9.06/point is quite high. These may not get raised very much over the
next three to five years or so, but generally speaking annual dues do all always increase over
time. Typically it's around three to four percent per year; this absolutely can vary--can be as low
as less than one percent, we've seen as high as over eight percent in one year. But just keep that
annual dues rate in mind. You are paying those on a per point basis for the lifetime that you own
the contract. Annual dues definitely add up over time. Then there's also the transient occupancy
tax for when you stay at Villas at Disneyland Hotel on points. Transient occupancy taxes are not
entirely new; this is also assessed out at Aulani as well as Villas at Grand Californian. However,
the rate we're seeing for this tax at Villas at Disneyland Hotel is certainly higher than we've
seen previously for Disney Vacation Club resorts. Be sure to mentally factor in that tax cost for
stays at Villas at Disneyland Hotel on points. Depending on what size accommodations you'll
need for your travel party, there are not a lot of larger sized accommodations. In my opinion, there
are very few Two-Bedroom Villas. And of course, there's only a couple of Grand Villa Three-Bedroom
accommodations, but that is more standard across various Disney Vacation Club resorts. If you want
more flexibility in the type of accommodation you can book, especially for larger parties,
the breakdown of the inventory for Villas at Disneyland Hotel may not play to your favor.
And of course, as we've already discussed, there are those resale restrictions. If you're
going to buy Villas at Disneyland Hotel directly through Disney, these won't apply to you while
you own. But knowing that if in 10 or 15 years you wanted to put your contract on the resale market,
the potential resale buyers would be affected by these may influence your decision. While that is
quite the list of cons, there definitely are also some advantages to owning at Villas at Disneyland
Hotel. Most of these revolve around the fact that that would be your Home Resort. Before
we get into that though, a slight pro about the transient taxes is that at least they are only
assessed at checkout. If you bought into Villas at Disneyland Hotel, you would have those DVC
Vacation Points and you certainly could use them at Villas at Disneyland Hotel, but you could also
use them anywhere else. When you did use them to stay at Villas at Disneyland Hotel, you would owe
transient occupancy taxes on a per point basis. But if you use those points for anything else,
like a stay at Walt Disney World, then you're not paying those taxes. So there is the small
pro that your transient occupancy taxes are not wrapped up into your annual dues--so you are only
paying them when you are staying at Villas at Disneyland Hotel. And additionally, I believe
anyone staying at Villas at Disneyland Hotel on points will pay this transient occupancy tax. It
is not only assessed to owners. But overall, as I said a Home Resort in Disneyland is probably
the biggest draw here. Prior to this tower being built at the Disneyland Hotel, the only DVC option
in Disneyland was the Villas at Grand Californian. And those are amazing, but the total inventory is
only a maximum of 71 rooms at any given time. There's very little overall inventory at VGC.
Inventory at VDH is much larger, which hopefully will mean booking will be less competitive. Also,
currently the initial purchase price for VDH buying directly through Disney is actually less
than pretty much every resale contract I've seen for VGC. Some of this has to do with taste and
personal preference. Maybe you would much prefer Villas at Grand Californian compared to Villas at
Disneyland Hotel. That's totally up to you, and I understand either way. But if your primary goal
is a Disneyland Home Resort and you just want to save money in trying to achieve that goal,
VDH may be the way to go. And of course, buying into Villas at Disneyland Hotel would give you
that 11 month booking advantage. They are also offering guaranteed weeks or “favorite weeks”,
if you're interested in securing the same week every year. Given the slim inventory of
Villas at Grand Californian and the high demand, it is pretty much impossible to
book that Resort if you don't own there. Only time will tell with Villas at Disneyland Hotel,
but it's just worth noting that there are only two DVC options at Disneyland. This is in strong
contrast Walt Disney World, where you can stay at a bunch of different great DVC Resorts. Therefore,
getting a Disneyland Home Resort contract may be the biggest factor to you. And in my opinion,
probably the greatest advantage of buying in. Everyone's situation is different when they're
considering buying into Disney Vacation Club. There are just so many factors to consider such
as: where you want your Home Resort; how big your travel party is; when you would normally travel,
so what travel period that would fall in; and therefore how many points you would need to
buy. With all Disney Vacation Club purchases too, you also definitely have to consider the finances.
And with Villas at Disneyland Hotel there are some extra factors there--and that the annual dues are
a bit high and you will be paying transient occupancy taxes when you stay. Of course,
only you can make that judgment about what is best for you and your travel party.
Let me know what your biggest deciding factors are in the comments down below,
and how that makes you feel about Villas at Disneyland Hotel! And if you have any questions,
leave those in the comments down below and I will do my best to help you out. Best of luck with this