Floating Week with Restricted Booking? [Divi Little Bay, in St. Maarten]

I'm looking at purchasing a resale for a 1br 1.5 bath in Divi Little Bay, in St. Maarten (Dutch side), and am trying to figure out if this is a good deal or not.

Parents-in-law have a Belair (next door to Divi) for weeks 11 and 12 and we love the area, and we want to travel with them, but haven't found a unit during those weeks at either resort. We would prefer Divi, and this floating is available from weeks 11-50.

BUT - there is apparently a limitation on how early this unit can be booked, and it is a maximum of 180 days. The maintenance fee is discounted as a result. Weeks 11 & 12 are red, but there were plenty of vacancies when we were there last; still concerned about availability.

Is there some concern or problem I need to be aware of if we can't book a unit a year or more out? Have any of you seen something similar?

Our home resort has a similar policy. They have Prime (summer & Christmas) or Preferred (rest of the year) seasons. We own a preferred floating week. Each year on (or after) July 1st we can (in writing only) reserve the week & unit we would like for the following use year (Jan > Dec). So if we should want a January week then that's only 6 months in advance. Not good when we want to space-bank our week.

~Diane

Weeks 11 and 12 would be pretty high usage weeks in SXM, depending a bit when Easter falls and the spring breaks that are often linked to the Easter date. We've gone various weeks in March for many years and have been there when the resort was full. I don't know how much you are paying, but I guess you'd have to weigh the reduced maintenance fee against the risk of not having the week you can use. The other consideration for SXM is that airfares are high and you wouldn't want to have to wait until such a short time out to book a flight to get a decent price.

We own a week in that's considered red but in a much less poplar time. At exactly 6 months before the week we want, we can call and do an internal trade at Divi. In about 15 years, we've always been able to trade. There is a fee for internal trading, but we don't have to have an RCI membership. And our original week was reasonable, so we've felt that fee was worth it. Of course we've paying the regular maintenance fee.

There is a Divi owners yahoo group, and the manager of it keeps a list of timeshares for sale..and occasionally there will be a few give aways on there. Many more members own in Aruba, but there are SXM participants. You could check out what's available on that list to compare prices, etc., and could also ask to see if anyone goes weeks 11 or 12 every year and has a better sense of the resort's booking level. Here's the link to apply to join:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Divitimeshareowners/info

stmartinfan said:

I don't know how much you are paying, but I guess you'd have to weigh the reduced maintenance fee against the risk of not having the week you can use. The other consideration for SXM is that airfares are high and you wouldn't want to have to wait until such a short time out to book a flight to get a decent price.

Click to expand...

Airfare is a significant consideration, since for our last trip we booked ours about 7-8 months to get the best deal. I'm calling Divi tomorrow to see if there's a way to pay a higher maintenance fee to book earlier. And if not, perhaps worse case we stay with the in-laws and use that as an excuse to go to another island with our Divi TS that year, but in general we both want to invite friends and family so want another unit for most years.

On another note, is it acceptable to post a price here and ask if it's reasonable?

stmartinfan said:

We own a week in that's considered red but in a much less poplar time. At exactly 6 months before the week we want, we can call and do an internal trade at Divi. In about 15 years, we've always been able to trade. There is a fee for internal trading, but we don't have to have an RCI membership. And our original week was reasonable, so we've felt that fee was worth it. Of course we've paying the regular maintenance fee.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input! Part of the appeal is the ability to do internal trades, since we like to dive and want to check out Bonaire and some of their other resorts. Glad to know it's cheaper than RCI.

stmartinfan said:

There is a Divi owners yahoo group...

Click to expand...

Thanks! I just joined and posted a thread to ask them as well.

I just wanted to follow up and say I misread your original post, and didn't realize that your booking limit was 180 days...somehow I'd read it as a much shorter time. So my prior post was more negative than the reality. Given our experience, I would say you are very likely to get the week you want if you are diligent about calling Divi exactly on the first day you can trade.

stmartinfan said:

I just wanted to follow up and say I misread your original post, and didn't realize that your booking limit was 180 days...somehow I'd read it as a much shorter time. So my prior post was more negative than the reality. Given our experience, I would say you are very likely to get the week you want if you are diligent about calling Divi exactly on the first day you can trade.

Click to expand...

Thanks heaps for the follow up, makes me feel much better. Still going to call Divi and see if there are any unexpected issues, like this unit not having full amenity access, and see if there is a longer time. I also misread your post and just realized you are also booking at exactly 6 months out, so apparently the timeframe isn't uncommon.

I would check this ownership as it sounds more like the Divi vacation club to me with the limit of booking no more than 6 months out. Owners have to pay their MF prior to six month out. Then any units that are left over can be booked by the vacation club owners, as I understand it. Since weeks 11 and 12are very popular unless you call the day it opens there might not be anything available. There still might not be anything available if all owners have paid their MF for those weeks. I have done internal exchanges with Divi and sometimes it is less than six months when you can book depending upon how their work load is going at the time. May be 5 1/2 months out or less if someone does an internal exchange making the week available.

I would suggest calling the resort directly and see what they have for sale as a resale. They may have units available that they have taken back for one reason or another. Can't hurt to see what they have and the pricing of the resale. I have been offered resale by Divi in Aruba for as low as $6000 for a one bedroom.

You could always post on the Divi yahoo groups that you are looking for these weeks to buy and see what pops.

Have you checked the resale office at Belair Beach?

Shar

shar said:

I would check this ownership as it sounds more like the Divi vacation club to me with the limit of booking no more than 6 months out. Owners have to pay their MF prior to six month out. Then any units that are left over can be booked by the vacation club owners, as I understand it. Since weeks 11 and 12are very popular unless you call the day it opens there might not be anything available. There still might not be anything available if all owners have paid their MF for those weeks. I have done internal exchanges with Divi and sometimes it is less than six months when you can book depending upon how their work load is going at the time. May be 5 1/2 months out or less if someone does an internal exchange making the week available.

I would suggest calling the resort directly and see what they have for sale as a resale. They may have units available that they have taken back for one reason or another. Can't hurt to see what they have and the pricing of the resale. I have been offered resale by Divi in Aruba for as low as $6000 for a one bedroom.

You could always post on the Divi yahoo groups that you are looking for these weeks to buy and see what pops.

Have you checked the resale office at Belair Beach?

Shar

Click to expand...

Thanks Shar! I called Divi and it seems to be one of the older contracts that only had a maintenance fee if you booked, that then was transferred into a floating unit with a lower fee every year, thus the 6 month limit. Nothing coming up for weeks 11 and 12, but the floating seemed like it might work occasionally and also give us flexibility to go to other islands.

However, I didn't ask if they had any resales, so will try that, thanks.

Also checked the yahoo group, and nothing weeks 11 or 12, but will keep looking. Also checked Belair and they have some pretty pricey resales for those weeks, but their maintenance fees are higher and since family owns at Belair, we all thought owning next door would give the family a couple options.

How's your experience been with Divi? We've only stayed at Belair thus far, but walked through Divi quite a bit and it looks nice enough. Have you stayed at any other Divi resorts/islands?

Sorry to have taken so long to respond back. Our experience with Divi has been just fine. We have stayed at the Divi St Martin's, but it was years ago. They have remodeled since then as they were building another building at the time. My son and his wife had their honeymoon at Divi St Martin's and really enjoyed it. We own two weeks at Divi Aruba Phoenix and love it. Go there most years, but have been able to do internal trades for Phoenix other weeks and also St Martin's and St Croix. Our unit trades well with RCI when we do deposit it. St Croix has a lot of steps, but the view is gorgeous and is on a remote part of the island. Glad to have been there, but probably will not go back.

We like the fact that we can trade for other weeks when we can't use the weeks we own. Best time to call is right at six months out of time you want. Winter is probably harder as we travel usually in the spring and the summer.

Enjoy!

Shar