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Grand Luxxe timeshare issues

gracez123

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[Post text removed at request of poster, as part of settlement with resort.]
 
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saywhat

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Hi Grace,

The part I believe you are referring to are the residence weeks, those weeks have a different/separate agreement for lodging rights. Those weeks do not have a registration number. In 10 yrs you'll have the residence weeks nothing more. And as you say it indicates you paid nothing for them.

I stuck with the 25 yr renewal (VF wks). The 10yr pitch makes it sound like you'll save on m/f's and that may be so......but I don't trust the Mayan. I absolutely love going there but IMHO I think the 10yr renewals are trouble, the Mayan can severely restrict the use on those and you have a contract that says you didn't pay for them. You are paying for the registered week and that goes away in 10 yrs.. If you read the reservation guarantee your at their mercy.
I'm pretty sure this is accurate, there are a lot more knowledgable Mayan owners then I on this forum....I'm sure they'll chime in.
 

travs2

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Grand Luxxe

This is for Tuggers out there who may be able to answer this question..........

What is the "difference" between REGISTERED weeks and RESIDENCE weeks with regards to Vida contracts????
 

Asl18940

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Registered weeks are renewable contract rights for weekly use; residence weeks are an inducement in which you get a 10 year non-renewable week. You can generally get those renewed if you upgrade. I believe there is a customer service representative that participates in this forum, and it seems if you private message him or her problems tend to get resolved.
 

pittle

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Registered weeks are like the original RTU Registered weeks with MP & GM but are for 10 years now and then they become Residence weeks. The Residence weeks are renewable every 10 years by paying a MF or portion thereof, depending on what is written in your contract. I liken these to the old Vacation Fair weeks because when you first buy you have a Registered week plus some Residence weeks. The VF weeks always had some restrictions and so do the Residence weeks. Therefore these generally cannot be used in January-March which is the peak season.

We have are in the Registered stage and in 8 years, will be in the Residence stage and understand the restrictions, but since we are retired and live in AZ, we tend to travel in November or April/May so it works for us.

The renewals must be paid every 10 years or the contract ends. We figure that we might have one renewal to pay and then we will be done. Our "kids" are not interested in timeshares whatsoever, so they will not have to worry about paying for it and when the renewal is not paid, it is gone.
 

saywhat

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Registered weeks are like the original RTU Registered weeks with MP & GM but are for 10 years now and then they become Residence weeks. The Residence weeks are renewable every 10 years by paying a MF or portion thereof, depending on what is written in your contract. I liken these to the old Vacation Fair weeks because when you first buy you have a Registered week plus some Residence weeks. The VF weeks always had some restrictions and so do the Residence weeks. Therefore these generally cannot be used in January-March which is the peak season.

We have are in the Registered stage and in 8 years, will be in the Residence stage and understand the restrictions, but since we are retired and live in AZ, we tend to travel in November or April/May so it works for us.

The renewals must be paid every 10 years or the contract ends. We figure that we might have one renewal to pay and then we will be done. Our "kids" are not interested in timeshares whatsoever, so they will not have to worry about paying for it and when the renewal is not paid, it is gone.

Phyllis,

As someone who seems to have a ton of Mayan knowledge do you think that those residence weeks are going to a problem for members not as flexible as you? I just don't get the sense that many people know how restricted it "could" be. As the OP mentioned there is no consideration given that's what scared me, not having a registration number.

I'm in the cheap seats (MP) but I've met a bunch of people with over 100k into it and in 5, 6 years they'll have a bunch of what we refer to as VF weeks.
But I guess if they keep em upgrading, that day will never come:ponder:
 

pittle

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Phyllis,

As someone who seems to have a ton of Mayan knowledge do you think that those residence weeks are going to a problem for members not as flexible as you? I just don't get the sense that many people know how restricted it "could" be. As the OP mentioned there is no consideration given that's what scared me, not having a registration number.

I'm in the cheap seats (MP) but I've met a bunch of people with over 100k into it and in 5, 6 years they'll have a bunch of what we refer to as VF weeks.
But I guess if they keep em upgrading, that day will never come:ponder:

I don't know. Last year when we upgraded, I did not think too much about it because our Senior Certificates and other benefits went with the Residence weeks. I did not catch it right away myself because when we were upgrading, the guy kept saying they were just like our regular weeks, we just lost some weeks after 10 years. Since we have 2 Registered weeks and 8 Residence weeks (4 per Registered), we still had the same number of weeks available as we did before when you count VF weeks in both scenarios. I did not think about it at the time. At 10 years, we have just 4 Residence weeks and our Sr. Certs only apply to 2 weeks. (Like Registered & VF - the Senior Certs did not apply to VF weeks.) I also read that the Residence weeks are not transferable to anyone but heirs (like VF weeks in our GM contracts.) BTW - I just checked on the My Reservations site and my Residence weeks are listed as Vacation Fair Weeks!

Someone mentioned the Residence weeks on TUG some time ago and I started trying to figure it out and it sort of clicked. We did do the update last month and the guy told me about the Residence weeks generally not being available for January - March. Our contract does say that we have Red time and can use them in Red time, including January - March, but cannot make reservations as far out as we can with Registered weeks.

So, to answer your question, I think owners will be able to get a week in Prime January - March Time, but it will be similar to the call the first day of the month that is allowed and take your chances. Our family has taken vacation together at Thanksgiving since 1998 and most of those have been at a Mayan Palace or Grand Mayan. We now have Sheraton Buganvilias locked in for week 47 which is usually Thanksgiving, so we can use the Grand Luxxe just before or after so that we have more than one week in PV.

The big push now is to get people to upgrade to more units so that they can be "guaranteed the prime rooms". The more you have invested, the better unit you get. We did not want to upgrade to 3 bedroom Spa units that would be in buildings 4-5-6-7. We do not need a unit that large and loved the location of building 2. We also did not want to spend that much more money! We had a great unit and the guy said that we might not always get 7th floor ocean view. We are OK with that. While we loved our unit on the 7th floor, but would have preferred one on the 5th or 6th because those had the rollup door so that both balconies connected into one extra large one. The unit we had had one really nice large one and the a large square one, but you had to go inside and walk around to the other one if you wanted to visit. We are generally easy going and happy with what we get. All of the units are nice.
 
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mikenk

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Actually, part of the fun of owning in the GV system is trying to figure it all out and leveraging the best you can. I will add my 2 cents.

Phyllis gave a good description of the contractual differences between the registered and residence weeks. In general, unless you have addenda that say otherwise, some of the amenities (e.g. Sr certificate, and the ability to book early for Feb/Mar) only applies to the Registered week. Other amenities (e.g. free or low cost golf) apply equally to both contracts.

The big potential issue is whether Residence week owners might get shut out in the future when trying to book high demand weeks. While it is certainly a risk and the contract gives no recourse, I personally agree with Phyllis that it probably will not be that big a problem but might require a little more upfront planning than today.

An interesting question is why they have the contracts set up this way; understanding this I think is important. Here is my conjecture. As everyone reading this knows, Grupo Vidanta is a selling machine to generate cash flow. That cash flow builds more units to house the people that bought. The wording on the contracts I believe is to legally cover the company when units sold is out of balance with units available. It is a risk for us owners as new buildings must match the demand. The fact that available cash is the basis for new construction helps, but an interesting question is whether that business model is truly sustainable over the long haul. Time will tell, but I must admit (as an owner), I am enjoying the journey as the resorts continue to improve and our family enjoys great vacations along the way

Mike
 
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gracez123

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[Post text removed at request of poster as part of settlement with resort.]
 
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mikenk

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Well thanks for the feedback because I didn't know if I was the only one thinking the same thing. This is not right then in my opinion. My salespersons or anyone in customer service really hasn't been honest with me all this time. Customer service is telling me that the company will not have a problem with reservation, but from my experience I was never able to get the reservation I wanted so I had to change my vacation plans.We also own at the Moon Palace and for less than the amount of money we paid them I received 12 free weeks for two adults all inclusive. I have paid Grand Luxxe too much money for this membership.

No doubt the sales person deceived you and yes you probably paid too much - as did anyone who paid retail at any timeshare. However, you have a great resort to go to; the Grand Luxxe is top flight. I would suggest using it and enjoying it as much as possible; in that way you win. In a few years, you will forget what you paid but remember the great vacations.

Realistically, we have always been able to get the dates we basically want; we always give ourselves leeway a bit on both sides - no big deal. I would also suggest reading your contact carefully to see other amenities you might be able to advantage of (e.g. equivalency).

I have seen way too many people on this forum continue to brood on the sales process such they never enjoy (or even use) the product. In my opinion, life's too short for that. I hope you learn to enjoy it.

Mike
 
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saywhat

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Well Grace, please don't take this to harshly but you've been a member there for 10 yrs, it's not like you didn't know the sales teams at ALL the Mayans are as slimey as they get. If it makes you feel better when you go back to the resorts don't be afraid to politely share your opinion with others.

On the bright side as Mike says the GL is about as good as timeshare gets. You may want to investigate if they will convert it to a 25 yr renewable, as long as you keep the same inventory it might work. They probably try and get some sort of fee out of you. Just tell them you will be an unhappy owner who likes to talk. The Mayan has been know to oil the squeeky wheels. Good Luck
 

gracez123

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Customer service has contacted me and kindly taken the time to explain and resolve my concerns.
 
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