Error leads to 33% fee increase for Disney’s Aulani time shares

By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel7:51 p.m. EDT, September 22, 2011

The Walt Disney Co. has been given permission to raise its fees by 33 percent for those who buy time shares at its new, $850 million resort in Hawaii, as the company attempts to fix a financial error that cost three Central Florida executives their jobs.

The approval, granted Thursday by Hawaiian state regulators, clears the way for Disney to resume time-share sales at Aulani, a massive hotel and time share that opened Aug. 29 west of Honolulu on the island of Oahu.

“We have resumed closing sales for Aulani in Hawaii and hope to follow suit in our other sales locations shortly,” said Rena Langley, a spokeswoman for Disney Vacation Club, the company’s Celebration-based time-share arm.

Disney must now submit updated consumer-disclosure materials to regulators and other states. The company will begin with Florida, California, New York and Illinois, its most-important sales markets.