On January 22, 2014, Disney Vacation Club reported on its Facebook page that Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas is "now officially sold out."
In 2006, Disney Vacation Development began converting hotel rooms on the 5th and 6th floors of the Animal Kingdom Lodge's Jambo House to Disney Vacation Club villas. Sales for the DVC resort began almost seven years ago in February 2007, and the Jambo House villas opened on July 2, 2007. In May 2009, the villas at Kidani Village opened, more than tripling the size Animal Kingdom Villas. With 458 vacation homes, Animal Kingdom Villas is the third largest DVC resort at Walt Disney World.
Sales for Animal Kingdom Villas have fluctuated over the years. Since July 2010, sales have ranged from a high of 197,087 points in May 2012 to a low of only 7,985 points in November 2010.
These fluctuations in monthly point sales were aided by Disney Vacation Development focusing more of its marketing efforts on other resorts. Since Animal Kingdom Villas' opening in 2007, DVD commenced sales for four other brand new resorts — Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort, Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, Aulani, Disney Vacation Club Villas, and the Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. It also reopened sales for Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa by adding the Treehouse Villas to that resort in 2009. Additionally, in 2010 DVD heavily marketed Disney's Old Key West Resort as a low cost alternative to the other more expensive resorts. With these other resorts seemingly taking precedence in DVD's marketing strategy, Animal Kingdom Villas sales seldom appeared to have top priority.
Although Animal Kingdom Villas is considered to be officially "sold out", Disney Vacation Development has points it can sell to the general public. As of January 14, 2014, DVD has sold 94.2% of the resort's 7.4 million points. DVD is required by the State of Florida to retain at least 2% of the points, leaving it with about 278,000 points DVD could sell to the general public if it so desired. Since DVD owns these points, it could choose to use them to fund cash reservations or for other corporate purposes instead of selling them.
