# VRI/MROP... Stay Away!!!!!



## rkconnor (Mar 2, 2008)

This ride started on January 1st. when I purchased two MROP weeks from a dear friend who had terminal cancer. I don't regret the purchase only because his family couldn't afford to keep it. That aside, I was 1st hit with a $500. assessment for, of all things, a property in Utah (Do people actually vacation in Utah?) and if that wasn't bad enough the VRI website dissseappeared a month later with no warning and no erxplanation. I hold MROP responsible for the website fiasco since they apparently contract with VRI and should have some control over how they are represented by VRI. How do you search the data base for properties without a website. I have decided that I'm not going to. I am depositing all my weeks into other exchanges that have web sites and lookling for away to get out of this exchange at the earliest possible opportunity. I strongly reccommend that if you are considering buying into an exchange company that you stay far away from MROP/VRI Ron Connor


----------



## rickandcindy23 (Mar 2, 2008)

Assessments happen.  We have had several in our 27 years of timeshare ownership.  There are something I have come to expect as a matter of course.  VRI is not to blame.  Decisions are not made by management companies, they are made by owners on an HOA board of directors, usually in response to a drop in exchange power or a genuine need to update a resort that is looking bedraggled.  

People are so quick to blame a management company for decisions that owners MUST make to improve a property.  I would rather have an assessment than an ugly, worn out property.  Preferably, there should be a built-in reserve in maintenance fees that covers repair and replacements as needed. 

I am paying an assessment for Fairfield Kingsgate today, as a matter of fact.  I wish the company wouldn't handle things that way, but I would warn people against Wyndham/ Fairfield for that reason. 

I hope Fairfield Bay in Arkansas doesn't have any assessments, because if they do, we are going to be paying a lot.  I think we own the equivalent of 8 weeks there now.


----------



## ausman (Mar 2, 2008)

There is a general SA for all MROP owners in effect now not specific to a Utah resort.

The loss of the website so far would be minimal since all MROP owners would have participated in the annual scheduling process in 2007 for 2008 reservations/weeks.

Generally weeks still available via the web site would be the lesser demanded ones anyway.

While I also did not like the SA or reason  for imposing or the handling thereof I think you are overreacting somewhat and that your MROP ownership is worth keeping.


----------



## Rose Pink (Mar 2, 2008)

Park City, Snowbird, Alta, Zion's NP, Bryce Canyon, Moab, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, the Grand Staircase National Monument, Lake Powell and on and on.  Yeah, Ron, people do vacation in Utah.


----------



## Karen G (Mar 2, 2008)

rkconnor said:


> (Do people actually vacation in Utah?)


Utah is an incredibly beautiful state that you need to check out. We've been to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park and have an exchange booked in July to Snowbird. Amazing scenery.

Also, look at this TUG thread  for more info on the special assessment.  Oops! Sorry, rkconnor. I see that you posted on that thread so you already are aware of it. But, maybe others might be interested if they haven't seen it.


----------



## brg850 (Mar 3, 2008)

*MROP Weeks*

Ron,

It's very tricky without the original web site to check the available weeks and bonus times. The agents at the VRI call center are not that familiar with the usages of these MROP locations. The summer weeks are pretty much gone. There might still be some reasonable weeks from 6 months out from now. 

In case the original owner did not have the weeks scheduled yet, or the account still has unused weeks from the previous years. If these weeks are not expiring soon. You may consider banking them to the following year when the new VRI enhanced exchange system will be available (I hope). I believe you can still call the Utah office to ask questions regarding ownership entitlements and have someone explain the usages of your week intervals.

If you are interested in these Utah condo intervals after they are ready next month. You can make a reservation once MROP makes them available. Else they were planning on letting people (insiders) using them first-come-first-serve between April to June, or using them for marketing tours....


----------



## rkconnor (Mar 3, 2008)

*Thanks BRG*

You are always the voice of reason. Ron


----------



## gravityrules (Mar 10, 2008)

See my post in other MROP thread, there's still some summer 2007 availability.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=482134&postcount=90

Even though I don't like:

1. the $250 SA and the reasons for it
2. the way it was handled by the MROP board
3. taking away MROP on-line functionality before having a replacement
4. rolling out the new VRI*ety internal exchange system as an 'off-line' system

 I expect with a little time these issues will be resolved and  MROP will even be a better value.  Now is more likely the time to buy than to sell.


----------



## Darlene (Mar 11, 2008)

Ron,
Maybe you heard of the 2002 Winter Olympics.  They were held in Utah!  Some of the best skiing in the world is right here.  With five national parks, Utah is America's national parks capital.  Zion National Park had over 2.6 million visitors last year.  There are also seven National Monuments.  So yes, people do vacation in Utah.  
Alot of resorts have special assessments.  We own at Marriott Monarch which has had several special assessments in the past 8 years.  Timeshares have to be updated and maintained.  Welcome to Timesharing!  Sit down and buckle up, because it's going to be a bumpy ride!  
Darlene


----------



## Carlsbadguy (Mar 12, 2008)

*MRop/VRI/RCI*

I was wondering if you have to be an RCI member to use the new VRIety exchange system


----------



## rkconnor (Mar 12, 2008)

*Sorry Darlene*

My comment about vacationing in Utah was meant to be "tongue in cheek". Im sorry if it came across as offensive or critical. Utah is a beautiful state.  Ron


----------



## timeos2 (Mar 12, 2008)

howard said:


> I was wondering if you have to be an RCI member to use the new VRIety exchange system



No. It is an independent system.


----------



## pcgirl54 (Mar 12, 2008)

*VRI*

VRI-Very good management company. I have owned a VRI Brewster Green Cape Cod week for over 13 years. I had a special assessment of $300 this year due to updating interior furniture and appliances. 


I think this is just a learning curve for you and unforunately you bought when there was a SA so I understand your post from that point.


----------



## bogey21 (Mar 13, 2008)

pcgirl54 said:


> VRI-Very good management company.



They may be a good management company but they sure screwed up MROP

GEORGE


----------



## ragtop (Mar 13, 2008)

bogey21 said:


> They may be a good management company but they sure screwed up MROP



I think that MROP was plenty screwed up and nearly broke when VRI bought the rights to manage it.  Before VRI, MROP allowed Wroman to enter sales contracts and the SA is to pay for inventory to fulfill those sales.  None of that is VRI's fault.


----------



## T_R_Oglodyte (Mar 14, 2008)

I've had the impression that one of the primary strengths VRI brings as a management is experience with reserve accounts.  They operate enough properties that they can review the accounts for a resort and provide a reliable opinion as to whether or not reserves are funded adequately.

I suspect that many resorts that end up deciding they need a new management company probably have underfunded reserves.  Consequently, after VRI takes over resort management and reviews reserves, increases in assessments are likely to follow.

If that is the case, owners need to realize that the fee increase may actually reflect better resort management.


----------



## chemteach (Mar 14, 2008)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> I've had the impression that one of the primary strengths VRI brings as a management is experience with reserve accounts.  They operate enough properties that they can review the accounts for a resort and provide a reliable opinion as to whether or not reserves are funded adequately.
> 
> I suspect that many resorts that end up deciding they need a new management company probably have underfunded reserves.  Consequently, after VRI takes over resort management and reviews reserves, increases in assessments are likely to follow.
> 
> If that is the case, owners need to realize that the fee increase may actually reflect better resort management.



MROP is in a different position.  Most of the units are not owned outright by MROP - rather, MROP buys weeks of timeshares at many different resorts and then pays the resort's maintenance fees to the resort directly.  There are a number of units directly owned by MROP, but the vast majority of weeks are not owned units.  So the reserves issue is dependent on the resorts where MROP owns weeks.  MROP is a very complicated system.


----------



## teepeeca (Mar 14, 2008)

*Chemteach*

I think you are incorrect.  MROP "DOES" own the weeks--- they do NOT "buy" weeks.  The weeks ARE owned by MROP !!!

Tony


----------



## ausman (Mar 14, 2008)

In this context MROP is best looked upon as a Club.

Owning weeks in many different resorts. MF and reserves are set by the individual resorts HOA's.

Which I think was chemteach's point.


----------



## chemteach (Mar 15, 2008)

teepeeca said:


> I think you are incorrect.  MROP "DOES" own the weeks--- they do NOT "buy" weeks.  The weeks ARE owned by MROP !!!
> 
> Tony



I should have defined what I meant with "unit."  MROP owns a lot of weeks.  However, they do not own many complete units (meaning a full condo, all 52 weeks) at resorts.  An exception is the Jackson Hole timeshare, where I believe they own 12 complete condos (units) (I think this is actually the entire resort).  There are some others.  But for a vast majority of the MROP weeks, MROP just pays maintenance fees for the weeks they own directly to the resorts.  The management company for MROP does manage the condos MROP owns outright.  When MROP sends out a maintenance fee bill, it's an average of all the maintenance fees they pay to all the resorts they own and the actual cost for the condos owned by MROP outright, and a management fee on top of all those fees to VRI for managing the MROP system.  (this creates an interesting point - for the MROP-owned weeks that are in resorts managed by VRI, VRI gets their management fee for the resort and a management fee for the MROP week - I'm sure VRI would love for MROP to purchase more weeks for the club in VRI-owned properties - but that's a different topic.)

In the end, the reserves only pertain to the entire units (condos) owned outright by MROP, which is a small fraction of all the weeks owned by the club.  Hope that clarifies it...


----------



## theo (Mar 19, 2008)

*Forgive my ignorance, but what is "MROP"?*

I'm quite familiar with VRI, as it is the management company for weeks I own at various "eastern" facilities. However, even after reading through all of the posts in this thread (as well as links referenced therein) I have no idea what on earth "*MROP*" stands for. Would someone enlighten me as to the identity lurking behind this particular four letter acronym?


----------



## eal (Mar 19, 2008)

Check it out

http://www.mrop.net/


----------



## theo (Mar 19, 2008)

*Thanks*



eal said:


> Check it out
> 
> http://www.mrop.net/



The "cheerleader" site referenced above doesn't reveal much of any real substance, still leaving me wondering why VRI has evidently chosen to associate itself with this particular "program". It wouldn't seem (to me, anyhow) that VRI would need or want the additional headaches of such a program, but maybe it was a financial situation in which VRI acquired this "program" for pennies on the dollar?


----------



## gravityrules (Mar 19, 2008)

theo said:


> The "cheerleader" site referenced above doesn't reveal much of any real substance, still leaving me wondering why VRI has evidently chosen to associate itself with this particular "program". It wouldn't seem (to me, anyhow) that VRI would need or want the additional headaches of such a program, but maybe it was a financial situation in which VRI acquired this "program" for pennies on the dollar?



VRI doesn't 'own' MROP.  MROP is a non-profit with its own Board of Directors that hired VRI to manage the plan.  MROP previously hired ORE (Owners Resort and Exchange) for this function; VRI acquired ORE and MROP signed an agreement with VRI for management services.  Managing is what VRI is all about.

It appears to me that MROP inventory has 'primed the pump' for the VRI*ety internal exchange system.


----------



## w879jr1 (Mar 20, 2008)

gravityrules said:


> It appears to me that MROP inventory has 'primed the pump' for the VRI*ety internal exchange system.



gravityrules is right. VRI bought ORE, which was contracted to manage MROP owned resorts. At the time of the purchase VRI stated that the ORE system would be developed. They have added some of their resorts to the old inventory and supplied a new name for this 'internal' exchange system.

My understanding is that VRI have handed management of the exchange system to RCI. (VRI is a resort management company, not an exchange company). It is rumoured that this will result in the demise of the MROP/ORE annual scheduling process. Although I wait to hear about what will replace it. I am concerned that they are fixing something which wasn't broken.

Does MROP retain any ability to withdraw its resorts from VRI if members do not like the new system? VRI owners were able to vote whether to join VRI*ety, but MROP owners seem to have had little say in developments.


----------



## theo (Mar 20, 2008)

*Got it --- I think.....*

Thanks for the clarifications, which help clear up my confusion.  As stated initially, I'm quite familiar with exactly what VRI is (and does), having dealt with VRI directly for years as the management company of several different resorts at which I own / have previously owned weeks. I also knew of VRI having acquired ORE, but didn't grasp just how  / why "MROP" had somehow entered into VRI's picture along the way. I guess I now (I hope correctly) understand that this affiliation was simply "inherited" as a result of VRI acquiring ORE, which evidently formerly managed "MROP".


----------



## RIMike (Mar 20, 2008)

*Blasted*

I figured you would get blasted for the "do people vacation in UT" statement. I have actually gone myself to UT every year now for several years.  As was mentioned earlier the skiing is great, but the National Parks are also wonderful.

But I know you were really just frustrated about the website problem... and I would be too.  The post from the person who has been timesharing 27 years, probably said it best...if you do this long enough, anyone will experience something similar.  Luck had it, you got this experience right off the bat.

Good Luck!


----------

