Aren't the maintenance fees for CWA USUSALLY higher than Bonnet Creek? I thought a few things that someone more experienced can validate:
1) CWA Fees were usually the avg of the CWA RESORTS. This is was what I thought made the fees higher. So even if a Bonnet creeks fees go up, it would seem that the CWA Fees would also since it uses an avg.
2) It was also my understanding that there were only a few CWAs rooms available for booking at the resorts for ARP?
- As an EXAMPLE: if there were 10 rooms in the resort: 8 rooms would be for the owners that own at Bonnet Creek and there would be 2 for the CWA owners to book during ARP. It was my understanding that this was the case at all CWA resorts. I have never seen a listing if how many rooms are actually CWA BEFORE BY RESORT BUT WOULD BE NICE TO KNOW BEFORE PURCHASING. **During the normal reservation period the access to use points were the same.
I have always liked the concept of using CWA POINTS TO HAVE ARP at multiple resorts vs one. But thought that fees could be higher and wasn't sure that I would have the same ARP ACCESS to the rooms to book at the resort.
Please someone validate or advise correct info.
There has been a lot of discussion about how CWA ARP actually works. While the predominant working theory is that CWA ARP should only grant access to the specific CWA inventory at a resort, in practice it isn't clear whether the VC is actually looking at two different sets of inventory when booking your ARP reservation.
Regarding maintenance fees; yes, CWA is a portfolio of resorts (and I believe there is a small management fee on top; others can correct me if I'm wrong on this). However, it has been noted that a lot of the newer, higher points cost resorts are being added to CWA. When we look at the lowest MF cost resorts, they tend to be the newer, high points cost resorts such as Canterbury, National Harbor, etc. We are hearing that Park City and Beaver Creek are also CWA and they are both high points cost resorts as well. Over time this may drive the CWA average down, especially when compared against legacy resorts.
Finally, the volatility of changes should be lower with CWA as it is a portfolio rather than a single resort that could be subject to Special Assessments or larger increases in maintenance fees. From a market perspective, the desirability of CWA for these reasons may eventually work its way into resale pricing and CWA may end up costing more than all but the lowest MF resorts. With that in mind, and with Bonnet Creek pricing at a premium to other resorts at the same MF rate, I think CWA is the smarter buy now.
Disclosure: I own CWA and don't own Bonnet Creek. I have stayed at Bonnet Creek, however.