Booking Club Cordial / Club Intrawest / Concierge Collection

[Anal Annie]

Since trading out thru II, now RCI seems to be SUCH a horrible drawn out thing with spotty quality resorts I was just wondering if it's worth the extra points to book thru some of these other options?? Is it as difficult to get what you want if you book fairly early??

Just curious. Say if we decided that we wanted to book a ski vacation to Keystone, CO at 9 or 10 months out. Anybody know what the odds are of getting that? The points required for a studio are the same for a weekend as a weekday although they do list a spread which I don't understand. (EX: it lists a spread of 25-31 points for a studio in "peak" season and a spread of 25-59 points for a one-bedroom. How is that figured? Luck of the draw? Earlier bookings?)

The last planning guide really doesn't give a lot of details about the properties (i.e. does a studio at Club Intrawest Zihuatanejo sleep 2, 3 or 4)? How about the 1 bedroom in Gavorrano, Italy? How many can sleep in that? What's the best way to research these resorts and plan a trip thru one of these venues? The fine print says "resorts may require minimum stays and may impose blockout dates". OK, well, so why don't they PUBLISH this information (resort specific) in the planners? Wouldn't that save a ton of phone calls and frustration? Do I need to call MS and go thru each option one by one to find out specifics like blackout dates, unit sleeping sizes and point spreads and write it in my planner? I could be on the phone for hours! But in the end, would it be less stressful and more of a success than trying to go thru RCI for something if I wanted to go somewhere besides WDW and not have to play the waiting game to see if I get what I want????

One other thing...since it says these things can be booked 11 months out....but they only provide points for 1 year at a time, like if I wanted to go somewhere in March of 2010 and I call in April of 2009 do they base it on the 2009 information????

 

[lvloopingbag]

Good question! I am sure I am not the only one who would like to see the responses......

 

[Anal Annie]

Humm...thought surely somebody would have somethin' to say.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Ok Ms. Annie....I'll comment! The only thing that comes to mind is last year a poster named Kapeman ressied the Destin resorts thru Club Intrawest. He was really happy with the place, points requirements, etc. He had no problem trading out from what I can remember. Does this help?

 

[WebmasterDoc]

...
One other thing...since it says these things can be booked 11 months out....but they only provide points for 1 year at a time, like if I wanted to go somewhere in March of 2010 and I call in April of 2009 do they base it on the 2009 information????

The points obviously have not yet been negotiated yet for 2010. While you will still be able to reserve those options 11 months ahead, DVC won't guarantee the points needed until a later date. They will tentatively base the reservation on the 2009 chart but will not guarantee those points for 2010.

 

[Dean]

Club Cordial and Club Intrawest are better in some ways. Availability varies and I don't think we can answer that. Normally it's a direct reservation subject to the rules of each which vary somewhat. But you can potentially make a direct reservation though it may take them a few days. IMO, CC is a very expensive choice and a poor one from a $$ standpoints.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks all...sounds like there's still no easy way to research what place / unit size sleeps what or anything 'eh? Guess it looks like if we go this route to avoid the RCI mess I'll have to spend a lot of time on Trip Advisor and on the phone with MS to get all that info. figured out.

Dean - regarding the Concierge Collection I think the points for the Grand Wailea are positively absurd, followed by the Resort at Squaw Creek and then the Lowes Regency in NY (NY is NOT on my short list). I wish there were more options (locations) available in Club Cordial & Intrawest. I mean, do they really need 7 choices in Austria? Could they not mix that up a little bit?!

OK, whatever. I was just hoping there was an easier way to figure out what was what without having to spend 2 hours on the phone with MS.

 

[Dean]

Thanks all...sounds like there's still no easy way to research what place / unit size sleeps what or anything 'eh? Guess it looks like if we go this route to avoid the RCI mess I'll have to spend a lot of time on Trip Advisor and on the phone with MS to get all that info. figured out.

Dean - regarding the Concierge Collection I think the points for the Grand Wailea are positively absurd, followed by the Resort at Squaw Creek and then the Lowes Regency in NY (NY is NOT on my short list). I wish there were more options (locations) available in Club Cordial & Intrawest. I mean, do they really need 7 choices in Austria? Could they not mix that up a little bit?!

OK, whatever. I was just hoping there was an easier way to figure out what was what without having to spend 2 hours on the phone with MS.

For those resorts in II or RCI, it's easy to get a general idea of what they have including sleeping capacity and private sleeping capacity. Still, there are variables. There might be different size and types of units, no kitchen vs partial or complete kitchen, etc. What I do when researching is look at RCI or II first to see what info is listed. I then look on TUG (Timeshare Users Groups) at the reviews and ratings. I also try to see if the resort or system has a website. Those are my main issues. Once I start to narrow down, I look at redweeks, tripadvisors and Timesharing today and I do several internet searches. I also may post on TUG for any info or if there are BBS dedicated, use them as well. I'm looking for things like variability of unit sizes and amenities, quality of the resort, food options (availability and price), method of unit assignments, location (is it beach front or near the beach) and the like. For example, we have an exchange for the fall to Summer Bay in LV. They have 2 different unit sizes for 1 BR and I was able to determine that we were getting the larger 1 BR for our exchange and so I took that over a 2 BR for the same cost since we didn't need the extra bedroom.

IMO, all the options on the CC list are far overpriced. I know I can take them or leave them so I leave them but it is somewhat insulting for DVC/DVD to offer something in such an overpriced manner. I do understan the process that gets them to that price and I feel they have the opportunity to offer better values at the same or similar resorts if they so chose to put in the effort.

I've said many times that that one of the best things DVC could do in this area was beef up the BVTC. Hilton was a member when DVC was with II before, maybe they'll be added back now. I know there were others, I'm thinking both Shell and VRI were an option at one point. For example, the 600 pt Registry exchanges will take like two 2BR units for a week for each and every exchange. That's a lot of member inventory not available to other members.

 

[Tine731]

http://www.clubintrawest.com/

 

[Anal Annie]

http://www.clubintrawest.com/

Thanks for the link! I see DVC doesn't contract for quite all of the Intrawest resorts... I could tell from taking the Virtual Tours on most of them tho that the units sleep fewer people than our DVC units. Well, the studios anyway only sleep 2 so that a family HAS to bump up to a one-bedroom. Palm Desert, CA looks nice as does Zihuatanejo, MX and Whistler, BC. It's a shame that a family HAS to bump up from studios tho. We purchased our DVC points based on being able to use studios so that puts a lot of these trades out of our reach for the time periods that we can travel. MIGHT be able to do Palm Desert for a few nights over spring break...IF one could get in. Guess now I have to research the best TIMES to visit these places! We had pretty crappy weather on the Mexican Riviera cruise we did in the summer of 2005...not so sure I would try Zihuatanejo in the summer and can't afford the points any other time. It is always something. Oh well. I was hoping I'd found a way around the RCI crap...