# Powhatan Plantation



## Spence (Feb 8, 2006)

ARDA AWARDS 2005
http://www.arda.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Management_and_Administration_2005
RESORT GENERAL OR ASSISTANT MANAGER

Alex Vazquez
Powhatan Plantation Resort/Sunterra Corporation


How 'political' are these awards?
Maybe he's doing something right to get a mention.


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## baj (Feb 23, 2006)

*Powhatan owner looking for guidance*

Spence,

  You clearly have a lot of knowledge about Sunterra and its workings.  I own Powhatan Plantation weak 25 4 bedroom lockout, which I bought through resale (Williamsburg Resale).  I have owned for less than a year and have never used timeshare before.  As soon as I owned (Oct 2005) I paid 2006 and 2007 MF, as I learned off of TUG that was a good thing to do for depositing and trading.  I do not expect to use my time at Powhatan, so I will either rent it out every year and use the rent to pay for MF and to buy Last Call time through RCI; or I will deposit it and get two weeks of use time through RCI.

 With your infinite wisdom, do you know approximately how much I might be able to rent a 4 bd lock out (C/D) weak 25 for?  Is it better to rent it through Sunttera or is it better and cheaper to do it on my own through TUG, Redweek, etc.?

  If I trade it into RCI, will I be able to get pretty good trades?

  I see that you speak highly of Sunterra Club.  When I bought my timeshare, the salesman begged me to never turn it into points.  Of course it is mine now and it doesn’t matter what he thinks, but I assume he must have a better understanding than I do.  I would hate to make a bad decision by staying out of Sunttera Club just because of what he said.  Like wise I would hate to trade it in and then some how find out I lost some "power" that I would have had if it had kept it at a weak.  What is your opinion?  For some back ground, my wife, 7 yr old son, and I think we would prefer to have the choice of staying a weak or a day.  Like wise, we are kind of the spur of the moment kind of people when it comes to vacationing.  It would not be difficult for us to cash in (or save) by using last minute deals.

  I think that I want to use RCI for my trading company, as they have access to many locations nationwide.  It seems that I could save some money ($149) by using Sunterra Club, but it doesn’t seem that they have very many locations nationwide.  I am in the Army and will be transferring and traveling all over and can not be strapped down to one area as far as my timeshare choices go.

  Finally, with all of the given information, do you think I would be better off selling my Plantation ownership and just buying into Fairfield points?  I bought my timeshare for $2400 with closing costs for a total of about $2700.  It seems that Fairfield is Nationwide, I could buy right into points, and I wouldn’t have the $149 use fee that I do with RCI.

  I appreciate all of your time and knowledge.  I hope to become as familiar with timeshare as you seem to be.

  Thanks,

  Barton


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## Spence (Feb 23, 2006)

Hi Barton,
First, thank you for your service to our country, I am retired Navy.  

Week25 is the first week that you could expect to get reasonable trading power with a Williamsburg week as most schools are out by then and the degree of Redness has to do with demand that is driven by families with kids.  As to renting it out, I rent out a lot of my extra time with Sunterra in Williamsburg and I charge $950/wk for the 2BR (mods, this is not an ad). If you give it to Powhatan to rent for you (you can see what they charge at www.powhatanplantation.com)  you will get about $937 for the 'D' and $1060 for the 'C' after they subtract the 10% that goes to a travel agent that booked it or the person with the AAA or AARP discount and the 35% that is their fee, BUT my experience is that they never rent your whole week and will normally only rent 3 or 4 days which means you can expect half of the above.  I, and others, complained about the poor performance of Powhatan/Greensprings rentals  at the last Powhatan annual meeting and we were told that Sunterra/SRM management were going to step in and offer better exposure, only time will tell.  I'm not giving them my week to rent.

I've spoken to Mr Davis at Williamsburg Resales and have a copy of his missive on points.  While I think he is an honest and straightforward guy, I do not agree with his stance on points.  I like points and I love Club Sunterra.  You mention Fairfield, I don't have any experience with them but another TUGger *timeos2* John Chase does and he favors FF over CS.  You have a week that is worth 11,000 SunOptions, that's maintenance fees of 7.1cents/sunoption, that's not bad.  Club Sunterra gives you the option of trading throughout Sunterra multiple bookings, for just the annual fee of $149 or exchanging with the normal exchange fees through I.I.  The I.I. membership fee is paid for in your Club Fee, you don't memtion that you know of this option you have after joining the Club.  I'm growing to like I.I. after many years of just having access to RCI.  Please do a search on 'Sunterra' to find several threads that discuss options for conversion to the Club.

I, personally, would not sell your week to move to Fairfield.  I might see how you like it just doing RCI weeks or I would see about getting into Club Sunterra.


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## baj (Feb 23, 2006)

Spence, 

Thank you for your quick and informative response. I did not know about the II option at no cost. That is a good savings. I also did not know that Club Sunterra was a once a year $149 with no extra fees for additional trades. That is also a nice savings. 

On an average how many points does it cost for a two bed for one week? In other words, on an average, how far will 10,000 points go? 

Does Club Sunterra have a last minute get away deals or do you just go through II for those? If Club Sunterra has them, what is the average cost? I am sure you have answered these questions 1000s of times and I apologize for asking you to regurgitate it again.

Am I able to break up the use of my points from one day up to a week?

I have read some of your previous postings and I see that it would benefit me to go to a sales pitch, transfer into Club Sunterra for the higher price, rescind the next morning, and then accept the lower offer. Do they always offer the lower price after you rescind? If they don’t offer and I stick to my decision to rescind, will that block me from trying it again in the future (will I be black balled)? Does the fact that I bought resale restrict my options of trading/buying into Club Sunterra?

Thanks again for your help and thank you for serving long enough to retire in the Navy. That is awesome and appreciated.

Barton


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## baj (Feb 23, 2006)

Will you please email me a copy of Mr Davis's missive on points? I am willing and able to lean towards what you have said since you are a user and he is a salesman, but I would like to read it for experience sake.

Thanks,

Barton


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## Spence (Feb 23, 2006)

*On an average how many points does it cost for a two bed for one week? In other words, on an average, how far will 10,000 points go?*
Well you'd get 11,000 points for your Wk25 4BR lockoff.  Points requirements vary, obviously a summer 2BR at Powhatan is 5,500. 
Summer 2BR in Branson 6000
Summer 2BR in Orlando 5500/6500/7500 depending on resort. 
Summer 2BR in Hilton Head 9000
Any season but holidays weeks in Kauai 2BR 8500-15500 depending on view
and so on.
*Does Club Sunterra have a last minute get away deals or do you just go through II for those? *
Points required for I.I. exchanges are set up on a generic grid based on season, quality, and size;  within the flexchange period the points required are halved
*If Club Sunterra has them, what is the average cost? *
CS has them at half the cost for weeks 60 days out, for nightly reservations 30 days out
*Am I able to break up the use of my points from one day up to a week?*
Yes, minimum 2 nights; weeknights .1xweekly;  Fri/Sat nights .3xweekly (very expensive)  So, a 5night stay Sun-Thu nights is only half the cost of a full week
*I have read some of your previous postings and I see that it would benefit me to go to a sales pitch, transfer into Club Sunterra for the higher price, rescind the next morning, and then accept the lower offer. Do they always offer the lower price after you rescind?*Everyone who has reported trying this has been successful
*If they don’t offer and I stick to my decision to rescind, will that block me from trying it again in the future (will I be black balled)?* 
No
*Does the fact that I bought resale restrict my options of trading/buying into Club Sunterra?*
No

Have you read SunGlances, you can download pdf at
https://secure.sunterra.com/US/pdf/SunGlances_Guide.pdf


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## Spence (Feb 23, 2006)

baj said:
			
		

> Will you please email me a copy of Mr Davis's missive on points? I am willing and able to lean towards what you have said since you are a user and he is a salesman, but I would like to read it for experience sake.  Thanks, Barton


I can scan it and email it to you but I need your email address, PM or email it to me through TUG.


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## karenvit (Feb 25, 2006)

CaN  you tell me the web address for Willamsburg resales?  Thanks

Karen


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## Spence (Feb 27, 2006)

karenvit said:
			
		

> CaN  you tell me the web address for Willamsburg resales?  Thanks, Karen


I think there is one, if I remember it was a very 'static' one pager, but if I had the address I can't find it now. *baj*, do you have it?


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## Spence (Feb 27, 2006)

*InfoFirst Newsletter from Sunterra*

In case a Club Sunterra member missed it and was interested.  All of April and May at Powhatan and Greensprings are discounted by 50% of the SunOptions required.  This includes weekly and nightly stays and includes the holidays around Easter (although the weekend of Easter and the week after are booked) and the week/weekend of Memorial Day.


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