I am just imagining the guy jumping up and down and yelling... We haven't raised our rates in 20 years and don't plan on doing anything now just because someone "Claims" that this isn't stable.
Delayed maintenance is such an issue with legacy resorts. The owners want the fees to stay low, and they really don't understand where all of the money goes.
When the underlying value of the real estate is worthy of paying a $35K SA, owners don't complain too much. The timeshare weeks are worth literally $0 per week, but the underlying real estate for Orofino is probably $400K or so per unit. The $35K will add to the value of the wholly-owned units.
You see so many owners at various legacy resorts just giving their weeks away on TUG because fees are going up, but they can never top the hotel chains' fees, and those very timeshares trade into the hotel chains, so color me stupid for owning many weeks at legacy resorts.
One of the most common legacy resorts in the Bargain Deals forum on TUG is Foxrun in NC. The fees were about $480 6-7 years ago, and now we are paying over $700 per week. People want a cheap trader, and when the fees go up, people gripe about it, or they stop paying their fees.
At our annual meeting yesterday for Val Chatelle, a few owners did show up, which is rare, and one guy said his week wasn't worth keeping at this point. I told him what I believe but didn't finish what I wanted to say, "Our timeshare has great trading power, and I would match our trading power with anything in the area, yet the new timeshares are going for tens of thousands of dollars, ski weeks for about $120K."
What I should have mentioned:
1. Our timeshare units are worth about $500-600K if sold as a townhouse because they are in Summit County and real estate is very pricey (we are in a really beautiful residential area amongst million-dollar homes). That value alone should attract people to our resort for resale weeks.
2. French Ridge is paying $800 per year for their weeks all year long, and their units are smaller and don't have hot tubs on each deck.
3. The value of a timeshare is in using it. Don't let it sit vacant and trade it, every year, if you must. I understand not wanting to vacation in the same place every year. If you stay in a hotel in Vegas, for example, you should try trading your week for a condo in Vegas. Very nice places, and you could go twice per year for your fees.