Free Westgate - week 19

Resort Name: Westgate Vacation Villas
Location: Orlando, FL
Unit Size: 2BR, 2BA, sleeps 8
Week Owned: 19
Maintenance Fee (2013): $832, paid
Mortgage: None

I have multiple weeks banked in Westgate's internal system (I believe it's 3 now), which can be exchanged for a week at any Westgate location. In fact, if this isn't sold by July, I will probably use one at their Williamsburg, VA resort.

Buyer pays legal/transfer costs.

bargain?

someone calls that place wastegate

you need to pay me to take it

There are multiple Westgates in Orlando

Where do you own



Orlando, FL

• 
  [*]Westgate Blue Tree Resort
  [*]Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa
  [*]Westgate Leisure Resort
  [*]Westgate Palace
  [*]Westgate Towers
  [*]Westgate Town Center
  [*]
• Westgate Vacation Villas

Free Westgate

tug99999 said:

someone calls that place wastegate

you need to pay me to take it

Click to expand...

Hello, just because Westgate is not high on your list of timeshares, please be kind. Remember the saying " One man's junk is another man's treasure" and we all have turns being on both sides.

We stayed at the TownCenter over New Years and it was a very pleasant stay. No one bothered us on upgrading or buying. Took less than 30 mins to check in.

We were pleasantly surprised.

Hopefully this TS will find a new home.

Westgate resale

FFWD said:

Resort Name: Westgate Vacation Villas
Location: Orlando, FL
Unit Size: 2BR, 2BA, sleeps 8
Week Owned: 19
Maintenance Fee (2013): $832, paid
Mortgage: None

I have multiple weeks banked in Westgate's internal system (I believe it's 3 now), which can be exchanged for a week at any Westgate location. In fact, if this isn't sold by July, I will probably use one at their Williamsburg, VA resort.

Buyer pays legal/transfer costs.

Click to expand...

Hi, how does Westgate view people who buy resale? If you want to switch to another week at westgate, are you kinda of at the bottom of the heap, because you didn't buy from them? or if you want to trade into RCi or Ii do they treat you as an equal?

When trading a westgate unit the best way to do it in my opinion is using and exchange company like II or any of the others. You just deposit your week with II and you are free to pick what better suits you, including uptrades for any other resort regardless if its a westgate or not. By my experience if you try to exchange internally using westgate they will come with a list of ridiculous high fees making it absolutley not worth it using them,(exchange fee, season change fee, holiday week fee etc.etc.). Just stick with an exchange company and you will get far better value.

If you wanted to exchange this week 19 say for week 11 how much would you have to pay to Westgate to do this? Even if you wanted to stay at the same resort, just a different week? Would Westgate penalize you because this is a resale not bought from them, so would they treat you as inferior when you request a different week?? Very important to know?

I will let the Original poster answer the specific answers to your question since WG keep changing the rules and seasons at their different resorts. I owned at gatlinburg not Orlando. I know their exchange fee is 150 and if I am not wrong they recently add a policy to charge 500 to resale buyers for in house exchanges. If you want the most update info you can call their reservation dept. At 1-800-925-9999.

Once again if you want to exchange the best way to do it is using an exchange company like II. Depositing for an external trade company works the same for every owner. You can deposit the week 19 and trade it for week 11 or any other you like subject to availability. Plenty of weeks available in II for this and other WG Orlando resorts. I'm sure it will be cheaper than trading directly with westgate. Always verify and do whatever works better for you. This is my opinion and things work different for different people. Call them and get the facts right.

How does exchanging with II work? Would your week have to be accepted by another owner before you can claim the resort and week you want?

Trudyt623 said:

How does exchanging with II work? Would your week have to be accepted by another owner before you can claim the resort and week you want?

Click to expand...

NO ! Once you deposit your week you can request any week you want. But, its always subject to availability. Of course, you have to be II member. I have exchanged with II for the past 15 years and was very happy with most exchnages. You need to request well ahead of time and be flexible which resort you will take.

i have tried on 2 different days to call Westgate and both time they have given me the COMPLETE runaround re this. They have transferred my phone call from one department to another for a whole hour, with NOONE answering my question as to how to deposit a week. It's because they don't want to answer my question about depositing a resale week. I was trying to figure out if people who buy resale are treated differently, when it comes to depositing and trading weeks. So far, I think they are treated the same. So if a person has a floating week and wants to request a week, supposing they request early etc . are they treated the same as someone who bought from the resort?

kembjkk said:

i have tried on 2 different days to call Westgate and both time they have given me the COMPLETE runaround re this. They have transferred my phone call from one department to another for a whole hour, with NOONE answering my question as to how to deposit a week. It's because they don't want to answer my question about depositing a resale week. I was trying to figure out if people who buy resale are treated differently, when it comes to depositing and trading weeks. So far, I think they are treated the same. So if a person has a floating week and wants to request a week, supposing they request early etc . are they treated the same as someone who bought from the resort?

Click to expand...

"NOONE answering my question as to how to deposit a week. It's because they don't want to answer my question about depositing a resale week."

I have some difficulty with your statements. This has nothing to do with resale or not resale, but everything to do with your verifiable title to a speciifc week.

A) Are your obligations (Mortgage, taxes, etc) all current ?

B) do you own ANY Westgate week anywhere? If not, you are not on their records, plain and simple. If you do own, and paid your fees, there is a simple procedure, like 1,2,3.

C) were you trying to 'deposit' with WESTGATE Resorts ( with the view to trading into another Westgate week) OR 'deposit' into Interval, RCI or SFX or whatever ? That makes a major difference. Are you presently a member of ANY trading system, such as Interval or RCI ? If you are, you must have a number and you must let Westgate confirm to Interval or RCI that you have a VALID week to deposit.

" I was trying to figure out if people who buy resale are treated differently, when it comes to depositing and trading weeks."

You need to define what exactly you were trying to trade and with whom (Westgate, Interval, RCI, etc.) Keep in mind that Westgate has 20 resorts with hundreds of thousands of weeks of different values, - they must verify FACTS before accepting your deposit.

Hypothetical 'deposits' will not do with any resort developer or any resort management..

kembjkk said:

i have tried on 2 different days to call Westgate and both time they have given me the COMPLETE runaround re this. They have transferred my phone call from one department to another for a whole hour, with NOONE answering my question as to how to deposit a week. It's because they don't want to answer my question about depositing a resale week. I was trying to figure out if people who buy resale are treated differently, when it comes to depositing and trading weeks. So far, I think they are treated the same. So if a person has a floating week and wants to request a week, supposing they request early etc . are they treated the same as someone who bought from the resort?

Click to expand...

If you are thinking about taking this resort from FFWD you definitely need to do this kind of research before you take on an obligation like this.

Maybe you are not asking the right questions when you call the resort. That may explain being transfered from dept. to dept.

You might want to start a new thread in a different forum such as the one for trading and exchanging. You might get more info there as this forum is for people with great deals and if no one is interested in this resort they may not even read it.

Westgate

I got the exact same response when I called. I was looking to purchase a floating week at the Westgate Town Center on Ebay. I called with questions and no one was willing to give me a direct answer. The questions were as simple as could be. I eventually receive responses from a forum, purchased the week on Ebay and the resort ended up taking the week back. Something that had to do with right to own. It was very frustrating. I guess they did me a favor.

Melah859 said:

I got the exact same response when I called. I was looking to purchase a floating week at the Westgate Town Center on Ebay. I called with questions and no one was willing to give me a direct answer. The questions were as simple as could be. I eventually receive responses from a forum, purchased the week on Ebay and the resort ended up taking the week back. Something that had to do with right to own. It was very frustrating. I guess they did me a favor.

Click to expand...

Some resorts (incl. the Town Centre) have a provision known as 'the Right of First Refusal' whereby the resort can buy back a prime week offered at a heavily discounted price.
Apparently that's what happened to you.

For general information only I am quoting below deposit options available to all registered Westgate owners.

Quote from Westgate e-mail:

"Please take a moment now and select one of the options below to inform Westgate of your travel plans:

Confirm Your Reservation
http://westgateresorts.com/your-reservation/?r=6727290.54648

Deposit with Westgate Resorts
http://westgateresorts.com/your-reservation/deposit-with-westgate/?r=6727290.54648

Deposit with Exchange Company
http://westgateresorts.com/your-reservation/deposit-with-external/?r=6727290.54648

"If you need further assistance or would like to make changes to your reservation, simply visit http://westgateowners.com and log in to your account. If you prefer, you may contact one of our Vacation Specialists directly at 1-800-925-9999, option 3."

here is a link for westgate owner guide.

https://oam.westgateresorts.com/oam/pdfs/ownersguides/westgateOwnersGuide_en.pdf

Hi everyone, sorry for not following up on this post. Someone drove their car into the back of mine, and I've been recuperating and dealing with insurance since.

Generally, I can confirm that they did at some point introduce what I consider to be bogus surcharges over and above the exchange fee, but have not looked into whether legally they can do this based on the date I purchased my unit. From my recollection, they only apply if you are going from "value" season to "high" season or an "event" week (such as Christmas). Here is a definition of the seasons from another user's post:

According to the 2006 owner's guide this is the chart for FIXED week season designation:

ALL (high) season weeks 5, 8-13, 22-25, 27-34, 47

Value season: 1-4,16-21, 35-46, 48-50

Fixed events weeks for Florida: 6,7,14,15,26, 51 and 52

If anyone is serious about taking this week and wants to know the actual costs to exchange internally within Westgate's family of resorts, PM me an example and I will call and ask them for the current rates for you. Otherwise, like others have suggested, use II or RCI. We used to have both II and RCI, and cancelled them because we never used them (we always traded into the Town Center because it was newer, and a different week).

I actually purchased this week as a resale, and can say that I have never felt like we were treated any differently from any other owner, and have full access to all amenities. After checking in, they will ask you to schedule your "free" breakfast - this is a sales opportunity for them to upsell you on a new unit. Either decline the breakfast, or attend and tell them up front you are not interested in buying anything, and be firm - they will pressure you...

Bumping this up. Still available, and now 2014 fees have been paid as of today. Sorry for my late response to inquiries, I have been having a difficult time recuperating from my accident.

Not sure if this helps but we were gifted a week, late 2012. We used a banked week in Las Vegas last spring. We didn't pay any "upcharge" as we booked within 30 days of going. (This was a late decision). The exchange fee was $150.

Our week is a "value" week and if I had done some more research we might not have taken this one.

We are in the process of trying to get another week from here that is recorded as a float, every year, "event week". The current owners are having difficultly getting the necessary documents from Westgate.

I have been following the "westgate" comments in the forums and thought I would try and see if they would treat us different since we have a "resale" week.

I called a week ago and asked about using a banked week for another "value" week this spring. I was quoted the fee was $150 for the exchange. It appears we are not being treated as resale owners, (yet).

We are currently looking into II, RCI and DAE for exchanges as it may have some benefits.

Good luck with giving your week away(not being sarcastic). We have stayed at Westgate 5-6 times and have enjoyed it.

Bump for the new year (obviously, I haven't been putting too much effort into giving this away).

As of now, 2015 is paid, and I have my 2013 and 2014 weeks internally banked. My 2012 week is also still banked, but I will likely be using it for spring break. If I don't, then it will also be included.

Spring break is coming up! If the transfer fees are the issues, then I pay for those as well. So no cost at all to the new owner.