# Sunterra Sea Mountain - VI Points



## martinus_scriblerus (Apr 5, 2007)

I wasn't able to trade into this resort and I badly want to reserve it I can go to Volcanoes National Park so I BOUGHT some Vacation Internationale points. Closing is in progress. My question is how far out in time do you need to book in order to get the week you want? If you are first, at the extreme end of the booking window, are you guaranteed to get what you want? Or is there a preferential booking window for some other type of owner?

Incidentally I paid $565 for 105 every other year points. I have been trying to buy a good week at Greensprings or Powhatan and do a conversion to Sunterra points a la Spence, but have had no luck with that. And according to the posts here Sunterra has recently upped the ante to buy in. 

While the maintenance fee may be a bit higher ($632) than what would have been possible with a general Sunterra membership and ownership at Greensprings, the lower capital cost (and opportunity cost on the capital) will make up for it.

Thanks in advance.

Dave


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## Ron K (Apr 5, 2007)

*VI booking system*

Hi Dave,

The VI point system is probably the best for booking your vacations.  You can go online and see everything that's available for any given period of time up to 12 months ahead.  For the resort you're looking to trade into, I see a fair number of vacancies from July thru' next April, with far more available from 6 months out.  You can see the number of units of each size in the resort, the number vacant, the point charge, etc.  I think you'll like VI.

BTW, Sea Mountain is close to Volcano National Park, but fairly isolated from everything else on the big island.  It's great if you're a golfer because it's right on a golf course.  If you'd rather be closer to the main towns and other attractions, consider Sea Village.

Ron


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## Spence (Apr 6, 2007)

Sea Mountain is about the easiest to book of all VI Hawaii resorts.  Can't you get the seller to go ahead and book for you if you're within 12months of arrival?  That's the only 'window' there is for all owners.


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## Bill4728 (Apr 6, 2007)

RE Vacations Internationale and Sunterra

For a few years, VI had Sunterra manage their resorts and shared availability with Club Sunterra.  VI went so far as to change their name to Sunterra Pacific. ( they since changed the name back to VI) They still share some limited availability.

Sea Mountain is one of the VI resort and has limited Sunterra availablity.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Apr 6, 2007)

Bill4728 said:


> RE Vacations Internationale and Sunterra
> 
> For a few years, VI had Sunterra manage their resorts and shared availability with Club Sunterra.  VI went so far as to change their name to Sunterra Pacific. ( they since changed the name back to VI) They still share some limited availability.
> 
> Sea Mountain is one of the VI resort and has limited Sunterra availablity.



I've wondered about that remaining linkage between VI and Sunterra.  I suspect it exists because during the time when VI was hooked up with Sunterra, some VI (Sunterra Pacific) owners likely joined Club Sunterra.  In so doing, they would have assigned their usage rights to Club Sunterra while retaining a Home Resort Advantage to use VI; that's exactly the way that Sunterra does it at other resorts when an owner chooses to affiliate with Club Sunterra, but retains ownership of the underlying unit.

After the Sunterra/VI breakup, those usage rights would have still been assigned to Sunterra, so Sunterra and VI needed to come to some arrangement to work together despite the divorce.  So Sunterra and VI then  put together the agreement they currently have that defines how Club Sunterra accesses the VI inventory on behalf of those VI owners who are also part of Club Sunterra.  

My guess is that those affiliated VI owners at some point have to decide if they are going to use their ownership within VI (as home resort) or access the wider Club Sunterra inventory.  If they decide to use within VI, they would have access to all of the availability in VI, just like all other VI owners.  (But, since their usage right is assigned to Sunterra, I suspect that they can only reserve in vI by going through the Club Sunterra call center.)   

If the VI/Sunterra owner does elect to reserve outside the VI system, then Club Sunterra is allowed to obtain some units out of VI corresponding the number of SunOptions used by the VI owner in the Club Sunterra system.  Since Sunterra doesn't have on-line access to the VI inventory control system, I figure that Sunterra obtains some specific units and weeks from VI, then puts those units into their reservation system.

Club Sunterra owners then would see availability in the VI system only to the extent that Sunterra affiliated VI owners reserve a non-VI Club Sunterra unit or make a deposit to II through Club Sunterra.  Further, the VI units offered via Club Sunterra would be only those specific units/check-in days taken by Club Sunterra after they gain access to the VI members points.

****

That's all pure speculation - I don't have any direct info on how things are set up between the two outfits.  But it describes the approach that makes the most sense to me as to how and why the two remain linked, and it's consistent with the observation that I've never seen any VI inventory through the Club Sunterra website, even searching for less popular resorts in low demand periods at the 9- to 10-month prior to check-in time frame.


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