Sky Auction Tutorial

[riu girl]

spiceycat:
For the first time ever I looked at home and away and was very excited about what I saw.
Can you please confirm,
For the auction cost (ex. $250) you get a 7 night skyauction week (booked through getawayweeks.com once you get the certificate) PLUS $100 skyauction credit that can be used on ANY skyauction auction?

And there are NO admin fees (like there are in RSG)??

If so , this would be a great auction for way off season dates.

Any info. would be greatly appreciated spiceycat.

 

[spiceycat]

yes it was...

no fees...

but I can guaranteed that is still true.

if anything you might be charged their fee of $20. but I wasn't last year.

I know you won't be charged their $195 fee.

You should be able to find one (Home & away) for under $200...just kept looking and waiting (if you can) - then remember you might not find anything available for it immediately.

as I say I won back in Oct - but only in March did I find something that worked for me for this May..... Okay I was difficult - I only wanted one resort (Spicey can only stay at CWR) and there were certain times I couldn't go (work).... Hopefully others can and do have better reports of this one working for them.

 

[riu girl]

Thank you Spiceycat for the info.

 

[jessiesue]

I won 2 seperate Home & Away in March and was charged $20 both times. It such a great deal.

 

[lawgs]

riu

the getawayweeks are seemingly last minute inventory although there are some for december in orlando....but the resorts are not in the league of OLCC and Vistana


and unlike RSG you cannot ....pre book the week you want, you have to wait for the certificate information ( which someone said they were sending out via snail mail ... which is not as good as having it emailed )

thus, when you call the number, they may not have any inventory available

these are good for people who can be very very flexible

the current "established value" for these auctions seem to be 200+....thus cost approximately 230$ or so on the high end ....when you tack on the 20$ processing fee

 

[riu girl]

lawgs,
thanks for the info.

Every spring we do a week long holiday in Ontario. We already have one booked for this spring (www.sherkston.com), but I think I might consider one of the home and away auctions for next spring. Based on their spring 2006 inventory, there are a few places that would be suitable for us.

Do you have any idea when skyauction will make available their Home and Away inventory for 2007? Does a years worth of inventory come out all at once or how does that work?

Thanks again for all the info. You really know your stuff.

 

[lawgs]

riu

since this is all RCI "excess inventory", a lot of it might be "developer weeks"

as such, that is constantly changing, since as they sell out more and more units, there are less developer weeks to add to the mix....

that being said though, Orlando is overbuilt and seems to have a goodly amount of timeshares ....and as you know the extra vacations from RCI have changed "upward $$ wise" as the year progressed and will probably cost more once they figure out how to add "local taxes" to the "base rental price"

from our perusal of the "getawayweeks.com" website, their inventory is constantly in flux also and our personal opinion is that they do not offer as many good weeks as they used to....but it is a place you have to check frequently....the only drawback is that what you see when you bid and what is there once you win your bid might be quite different

similar things have happened on the government site getravelop, where the better weeks have been placed in the "high demand" category leaving the lesser resorts for the 299$ 7 night rentals

we still enjoy the "hunt" and have gotten some good "extra vacations" ( hoping to get one of them for OLCC for early december ) along with skyauction supplementals to round out our timeshare portfolio.....lucklily for us we can travel in the off seasons and do not need the " prime times"

 

[riu girl]

Lawgs, Thanks for all the info. Good luck on your search for OLCC for early December.

 

[dj2]

I won 2 seperate Home & Away in March and was charged $20 both times. It such a great deal.

so you have $200 in certificates, right? when you win your next auction, can you use them both at the same time?

-dj

 

[jessiesue]

I used the first $100 GC on the second Home & Away Auction I won. So now I have one left. I booked both of my 7 week rentals too. I am in need of another 7 day stay so I'm watching closely to see what's coming available. I will use my second $100 GC on that week. Not sure if it will be a Land and Seafood, Ready Set Go or a regular auction that I will try for. It just depends on what's available for my week.
I don't know if you can use both of the GC at the same time. The way I am doing it is working out for me.

 

[spiceycat]

sue you did great!!!!

I have never even seem one for that price....

 

[lawgs]

sue

did you get 2 bedroom stays with your "getawayweeks"?

what resorts were you able to snag?

 

[jessiesue]

It might be confusing what I did, so let me explain. Won the first home auction for $224. This includes 7 night stay, $20 pocessing fee and $100 gc. Used the $100 gc for my second home auction that I won for $222. This also includes a 7 night stay, $20 processing fee, and $100 gc. I applied the first $100 gc to the second auction, so I paid a total of $122. So all total, I paid $346 dollars for 2 weeks and I still have a $100 gc for my next week.
My weeks are at VV@Pkwy in the larger 1 bedroom.

 

[lawgs]

sue

thanks for your reply

at least they did not pull VV out from under you like they did with us in late march....we won an auction for a two bedroom ( straight auction ) but they could not confirm it with RCI/Resort ....their come back was to offer the one bedroom partial kitchen at VV

 

[riu girl]

Does anyone know if RSG and Home & Away inventory are identical? I have checked inventory for both for a few different weeks/locations and it looks identical.

It looks like Home and away is less $, but I like the idea of RSG better (since you hold your week before you bid). With home and away , you always risk the chance of winning the auction and then not getting your week since you have to wait for your certificate before you can contact getaway weeks and confirm a vacation.

 

[lawgs]

riu

they certainly seem to use the same search engine and returne similar properties ( although right now for the time frame we are searching on RSG seems to return more options.....that is more at some resorts than getawayweeks )

and they were both down at the same time on the weekend when RCI was doing the semi anuual maintenance on their computer system

your observations about the two are valid

home and away would suit a person who is flexible as far as resorts and travel time frames

 

[riu girl]

Thanks for the info. Lawgs.

We are pretty set with our dates due to work/school schds so I think we should stick with RSG.

This is what we are considering for December 2007
Sat Dec 15: one week RSG auction: Orlando area
Sat Dec 22: one week RSG auction: somewhere else in Florida (south of Orlando)
Sat Dec 29: one week private rental in Siesta Key, FL through vrbo

I think I may have a problem finding any RSG availability though for Sat Dec 22 since this is week 51. If worse came to worse I could book an RCI extra vacation for this week although I bet availability would be only in the Daytona area.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[lawgs]

riu girl

they are not very speedy on getting the "certificate" number out on the H & A auctions ( three days and counting here )

yes there was a long weekend, but they promised when we called today it would be out by the afternoon....as of 8:30 monday NADA.....

just hope there is still inventory when we need to book

just a side note....

they do have inventory for florida ( almost nothing for orlando though ) in december 2006 at least four pages of resorts on "getawayweeks"....and some of them for week 51 ...guess it all depends what the skyauction "business model" will be next year as to what will be available and what kinds of auction incentives they offer

 

[riu girl]

Just wondering if anyone had any idea when SkyAuction will release their 2007 (I am looking for Florida December 2007) RSG/H&A inventory weeks?

I have our December 2006 trip completely planned (except airfare) and want to start planning for 2007.

Any information would be appreciated.
Thank you

 

[lawgs]

riu

most years they do not start to release RSG for the following year until january of that year

sometimes the rSG only goes until June of the year when they first release

you might have to .....put your "planning" hat away for a while

and who knows if they will continue to "contract" with RCI for inventory...hopefully they will....

smilawgs