Question for Dean - the Timeshare Guru

[OKWKirt]

I have a question for Dean, the timeshare guru, Doc, and others that are familiar with other timeshares. I think this will be interesting for others here to show how great they have it with the DVC flexibility. I have two other timeshares and I'm curious how others compare flexibility wise. We all know how DVC works and I'm not concerned with fixed week timeshares, if they are still being sold, all I care about is the points systems. I will describe what I know below and I would like to know how some of the others work, like Fairfield, Marriott, etc.

I have Big Cedar Wilderness Club with Bluegreen Vacation Club. I have a 12-11 month priority for the week and actual unit my points are associated with but I'm not sure yet if that applies for anything less than the full week. All Bluegreen resort owners have a 11-5 month window for reservations of five days or more and anything less than a five day reservation is within five months. I think the banked and borrowed points work the same as current year points. Banking is less complicated than DVC with 100% by 90 days prior to the end of the UY.

I also have Surrey Grand Crowne which is one of three parts of the Surrey Vacation Resort in Branson, MO. Reservations are a little more complicated. We ahve a 12-9 month window for a seven day stay in the type unit we own and a 9-6 month window for any seven day stay. There's a 6-2 month window for four to seven night stays and two or three night stays can only be reserved within 60 days of your stay. Banked points cannot be used more than nine months out and borrowed points cannot be used more than two months out. I wasn't informed of this much detail when I bought. Banking is 100% by four months prior to end of UY.

 

[MikeScott8]

Thanks for those descriptions on those two companies' workings of their points.

I am interested in knowing about the Mariott system as well, as I am going to Mariott's Manor Club at Ford's Colony in Williamsburg, VA in November for a few day getaway relief from the my wedding. Some would call it a honeymoon, but I don't, as the original honeymoon scheduled is the week in Jan at VWL. We got the presentation deal at Mariott Manor Club.

The only timeshare, I mean "Vacation Club", we have is the DVC. I am thinking of joining the Timeshare Users Group (www.tug2.net) to learn about the other timeshares systems. I will guess Dean will invite you over there to learn about other systems and more general timeshare discusssions.

Sorry I didn't help, but I am sure Dean will help answer your questions. I just wanted to express my interest in this subject as well.

Mike

 

[RobDoc]

We own a "floating" week at TreeTops Resort in Gatlinburg, TN. We can call 12 months ahead to reserve our week (we try to reserve a high demand week) and then convert the week to points in the Amber Vacation Club system, which has a small network of resorts (3 in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge and two more in FL (Kissimmee and Daytona).

We can then use the points at any of the networked resorts- 6 months in advance. Cash reservations are also allowed - weekend point requirements are double weekdays, but cash ressies for members are heavily discounted. Cash ressies can be made 60 days ahead (I think). Unused points automatically carry over for an extra year.

Thus, owners at each of the member resorts have a 6 month window at their home resort for reservations before other Club members may reserve. We can also keep our reserved float week and exchange it thru RCI or II (we belong to RCI) or use it ourselves. We have never stayed at our home resort since becoming owners.

I would also suggest checking out tug2.net for some good discussion about Timeshares in general and comments about specific resorts.

Enjoy!

 

[Lisa P.]

We have FairShare Plus (FSP) Points with Fairfield. There are regular (UDI) FSP Points, which may be used to book Advance (13-10 months ahead) full week reservations at one's home resort. Our points are converted from a fixed week, so we may only use ours for Advance (13-10 mo. ahead) reservations for our specific, original week (a prime red 2BR week). I've never been to our home resorts.

Fairfield has four seasons: Prime, High, Value, Quiet.

During Standard booking (open, all resorts, from 10 months ahead), all FSP points are treated the same. A Standard reservation for a full week may be made at any Fairfield property (long list of resorts).

Short stays may also be reserved for any High, Value or Quiet season stay at any resort during Standard time (10 months). Short stay reservations during Prime season may only be made at the resorts that are NOT the most popular (ex., July/Aug in Myrtle Beach).

Short stays for Prime season at those most popular resorts may only be booked during the Express time (3 months ahead or less), if available. This reduces or eliminates empty rooms when others want them the most.

Borrowed points from future years may be used for a reservation when booking in the Express (3 mo.) window. VIPs (regular, Gold, Platinum - those owners with many points, at different levels) are granted room size upgrades and good points discounts on reservations made during varying times in the Express window as well.

FSP points may be (up to) 100% pooled, if it's done very early - by 10 months prior to the beginning of the use year. You may pool points years ahead if you wanted. VIP Gold & VIP Platinum owners are permitted to pool as late as 6 months into the use year.

Pooled points don't expire for 3 years after they were pooled and they're combined with all other use years pooled - good for big trips. Points with the earliest expiration dates are used first. Pooled points may not be used for Advance (13-10 mo.)ressies, only for Standard (10 mo. or less) and Express (3 mo. or less) ressies and for alternatives, like cruises or RCI full week exchanges. Pooling allows points to be combined from up to 5 use years - 2 past, current & 2 future.

There are additional fees, like $20 for pooling. Only so many reservations per year may be made without an added housekeeping fee (varies) or a transaction fee ($25) - these are often waived when one owns a lot of points - VIP, VIP Gold or VIP Platinum levels, along with several other, nice, extra perks. With a minimum of planning, I've rarely paid any of these fees, even without VIP. People who like to make a lot of changes to their plans tend to pay them. We're hoping to eliminate housekeeping fees when we convert our second week to FSP soon and become VIP regular.

We really enjoy the Fairfield resorts and their great locations - especially the newer ones. HTH!

 

[Dean]

You got me. What I know the most about is fixed and floating weeks, not points outside DVC. To top that, the ones I am familiar with somewhat are BG and FF. A couple of notes on BG, you can let them rent your time for you, you can buy one time use points and you can use bonus time at their resorts. The weekend/weekday difference is much greater than DVC, about 5:1 or about double that of DVC. Lisa is a FF expert so I won't add to that.

As to Marriott, it's not a true points program. It's simply a FF mile program where you can trade your unit for points. I don't think it should be considered with the points based programs. A quick list of other points systems include Sunterra, Starwood, Shell, Club Intrawest, Hyatt, Hilton, VRI, Hampimag, RCI, Worldmark, etc. There are also a couple of resorts that work on points themselves. I own at one, Paradise Village in MX which is on the DVC exchange list.

 

[chris1gill]

Hi Dean,

I have a question for you... As you recall, I liked one of the Shell resorts on Kauai... anyways, I joined tug, and I see the resort gets good press, but the Shell program doesn't? So do you know anything about why the club itself doesn't get good press? If not, I guess I'll find out when we're there

 

[Dean]

I have the feeling that Shell is similar to Bluegreen, Worldmark and FF. A pretty nice system with some nice resorts and others that aren't quite as nice. Like any system, it depends on where you own. The list of resorts has some decent choices, likely spearheaded by Kona Coast. Their website is http://www.shellvacationsonline.com/svcweb/SilverStream/Pages/pgHome.html. Many points systems, especially those built on a weeks system, allow you first crack at YOUR unit. This can be good if you own the right unit. Most are also pretty expensive. Consider BG where there is a fee, forget the amount but it's over $100 and this is in addition to the underlying maint fees for the resort. Also, with most, if you own a fixed week and convert it to points, there is a conversion fee frequently as high as $2995. That fee is as much as the week is worth in most cases.

The one advantage that most, but not all, of the points systems is the ability to trade with RCI or II directly and in many cases for a substantually discounted rate.

 

[OKWKirt]

Thanks, Dean, and all others for your input. I did not go into all of the minor details of these point systems I have, like both of mine will "rent" my points for me (for a percentage), they have paid membership, one with II the other with RCI, one has the use of buying extra points to complete the last day of your trip if you are short of points, etc. Bluegreen does charge a fee ($122 for mine) in addition to the $614 for Big Cedar maintenance fees. My other two are true owned timeshares, like the rest probably, in lieu of the DVC right to use until 2042.

 

[dizneeluvr]

OKWKIRT,

Sent you a private message if you haven't checked...

Your big cedar pal

laura

 

[OKWKirt]

Laura, I have not rectived an email from you, are you sure it went through? Did you send it to kirt.grahl@noaa.gov ?

 

[dizneeluvr]

No, it's a private message via the dis board. Click on your "user CP" and it will take you there.

Laura