# HCC holidays



## lostinjapan14 (Feb 5, 2007)

The HCC site seems a little ambiguous about what a holiday is.  Can any of you set me straight?

I assume holidays are Christmas, New Year's and....?


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## travelguy (Feb 5, 2007)

From the High Country Club Rules and Regulations:

Holidays are:
New Year's Day
MLK Day
President's Day
Spring Break - 2007 = weeks of Mar 16, Mar 23, Mar 30, Apr 6
Memorial Day
July 4th
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas


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## Steamboat Bill (Feb 5, 2007)

HCC requires you to rotate your holiday useage on a 3 year cycle.

You can book any holiday week you want but then must wait 2 years before booking the same EXACT holiday week.

For example: If you love NYC:

2007 - book Christmas week in NYC
2008 - book July 4th week in NYC
2009 - book thanksgiving week in NYC
2010 - book Christmas week in NYC


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## travelguy (Feb 5, 2007)

*High Country Club - Spring Break each year?*



Steamboat Bill said:


> You can book any holiday week you want but then must wait 2 years before booking the same EXACT holiday week.



I wonder if that means that you can rotate Spring Break weeks 1 through 4 each year with the result of getting one Spring Break week each year with High Country Club?


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## Laura7811 (Feb 5, 2007)

Bill-
I wonder if my contract is different than yours? mine reads....A member cannot make a Long-term Holiday Reservation for the same holiday more often than every third year.

The way I undersdand that, is that I can only have Christmas once every 3rd year not every year at a different location. unless it's a Advance reservation and a holiday is available......I'm confused 

Laura


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## hipslo (Feb 5, 2007)

Is it really that easy to book those holiday weeks?   If so, that's great, but I am not sure I understand how it could be.  Let's say there are 6, or 7, or 8 members per property (I am not sure which is correct, but let's say its somewhere within that range).  Let's also say that maybe 25% of the members want to stay in one of the properties over christmas week (I suspect its a higher percentage over any particular holiday week, though I could be wrong about that).  There wouldnt be enough properties to accomodate all of those members ANYWHERE that week, let alone in the particular property that they might specifically desire.  Isnt that right?  Sure, odds are much better than getting that week in a Marriott TS where the week is platinum but not platinum plus, since the ratio of eligible owners to available spots would be much higher, but doesnt the same problem still exist? The more I look at these destination  clubs the more I keep coming back to this as a potential issue.  Perhaps this is something that folks could swallow at HCC where the buy in is modest (in a relative sense), but how about at the high end clubs where buyin cost is 200-400k or more?  If this is an issue at that price level, I would think that there would be losts of unhappy people out there.  I suppose I could be missing something - what is it, though?


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## Laura7811 (Feb 5, 2007)

I just booked spring break, at the property in HI 2 weeks ago. Had a change of plans and it was available...so it worked out for us this time not sure if it always will...but you can book holidays a year in advance. 

As to the more expensive clubs, I know that ER affiliate members,(the lowest level at 225, 000 now). they have no Holidays allowed in their membership..

Laura


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## Steamboat Bill (Feb 5, 2007)

Laura7811 said:


> Bill-
> I wonder if my contract is different than yours? mine reads....A member cannot make a Long-term Holiday Reservation for the same holiday more often than every third year.
> 
> The way I undersdand that, is that I can only have Christmas once every 3rd year not every year at a different location. unless it's a Advance reservation and a holiday is available......I'm confused
> ...



I made a typo :ignore: in my first post....I have edited it...thanks


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## Steamboat Bill (Feb 5, 2007)

hipslo said:


> Is it really that easy to book those holiday weeks?   If so, that's great, but I am not sure I understand how it could be.  Let's say there are 6, or 7, or 8 members per property (I am not sure which is correct, but let's say its somewhere within that range).  Let's also say that maybe 25% of the members want to stay in one of the properties over christmas week (I suspect its a higher percentage over any particular holiday week, though I could be wrong about that).  There wouldnt be enough properties to accomodate all of those members ANYWHERE that week, let alone in the particular property that they might specifically desire.  Isnt that right?  Sure, odds are much better than getting that week in a Marriott TS where the week is platinum but not platinum plus, since the ratio of eligible owners to available spots would be much higher, but doesnt the same problem still exist? The more I look at these destination  clubs the more I keep coming back to this as a potential issue.  Perhaps this is something that folks could swallow at HCC where the buy in is modest (in a relative sense), but how about at the high end clubs where buyin cost is 200-400k or more?  If this is an issue at that price level, I would think that there would be losts of unhappy people out there.  I suppose I could be missing something - what is it, though?




If there are 8 members per property and they can only book one particular holiday week once for every 3 year cycle...I don't see this as a problem for HCC.

I for one will never travel Thanksgiving or Christmas week or MLKand some people will never travel July 4. Thus, it will be pretty open as compared to Marriotts.

Exclusive Resorts has ZERO holiday weeks for their affiliate membership (225,000 but-in)....now that would really brun me up....


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## hipslo (Feb 5, 2007)

Steamboat Bill said:


> If there are 8 members per property and they can only book one particular holiday week once for every 3 year cycle...I don't see this as a problem for HCC.
> 
> I for one will never travel Thanksgiving or Christmas week and some people will never travel July 4. Thus, it will be pretty open as compared to Marriotts.
> 
> Exclusive Resorts has ZERO holiday weeks for their affiliate membership (225,000 but-in)....now that would really brun me up....



Thanks, that goes a long way to explaining it, I didnt realize that there was that "every third year" limitation on requesting a particular holiday.  So, if you can only reserve a particular holiday once every three years, and there are 8 members per property, then there would be only 2.67 eligible members for each holiday week every year.  Thus, so long as no more than about 37% of the eligible members actually request a particular holiday week (which seems kind of unlikely, I would agree), all eligible members who want it should get it somewhere.  And, as I think you said earlier, given the quality of the properties, any one of the "somehweres" ought to do the trick, more often than not.  That's certainly hugely better odds than in the TS world.

Hard to believe people would pony up 225k, with no potential upside (even in theory)  and not even have access to the properties during holidays!


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## Laura7811 (Feb 5, 2007)

Bill
The hoilday policy would make me mad also. The way my sis looks at is she doesn't like to travel on holidays and her children are almost grown. 
So they will be doing most of their travel in the off-season anyway.  It works well for them.  And when I first joined High Country they didn't have a Holiday plan for affiliates, I asked for 1 holiday a year as a condition of joining. I guess now they have added it. Right?


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## Steamboat Bill (Feb 5, 2007)

Laura7811 said:


> Bill
> The hoilday policy would make me mad also. The way my sis looks at is she doesn't like to travel on holidays and her children are almost grown.
> So they will be doing most of their travel in the off-season anyway.  It works well for them.  And when I first joined High Country they didn't have a Holiday plan for affiliates, I asked for 1 holiday a year as a condition of joining. I guess now they have added it. Right?



You are correct...the holiday was not part of the original HCC Affilliate Member plan. They now offer a 6 month holiday reservation window (vs 12 month for Private Member).

Just for fun: Here is the current property availability info available for HCC upcoming 2007 holidays

Presidents Week - NYC and Tuscany Italy

March - Hilton Head is available entire month, Stowe is available 2 weeks, Italy, Rosemary Beach, Deer vally mid-month, Mammoth end of March

April - 12 of the 25 properties have availability for at least one week in April and Hawaii and the PGA are available the last week of April

May - Almost 100% vacancy for the 14 Mountain properties as there is no skiing then. Some openings in NYC, Hilton Head, Florida, etc

May 28 Memorial Day - Rosemary Beach, La Quinta, and 90% of mountain homes are open

June - lots of availibility, the only ones sold out were the beach resorts

July 4 - Cabo is free, NYC is open, La Quinta, orlando, and 6 mountain properties are free

Labor Day - Of the 25 properties only 5 are booked and they are: Tuscany, La Costa, Breck, Stemaboat, Telluride...everything else is open

Thanksgiving - 9 properties are reserved and they are: Cabo, Playa del Carmen, Rosemary Beach, Hawaii, NYC, La Costa, Breck, Stowe...all else is open

Christmas - Hilton head, Rosemary Beach, NYC, La Quinta, Orlando, Copper, and Stowe are still available

As they say in Good Will Hunting..."How do you like those Apples?"


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## lostinjapan14 (Feb 6, 2007)

Very informative thread.  Thank you.  I am glad Valentine's Day isn't a "holiday" because I would really like to book that in the future (and it's my birthday)


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## caribbeansun (Feb 6, 2007)

HCC designates which of those 4 weeks is Spring Break each year since I gather the week itself changes and I suspect whatever week is designated as the holiday is the one you couldn't book more often.  Of course if your local Spring Break doesn't fall on the designated week each year then you're home free since it's not technically a holiday week anymore - for a real life example consider some Canadian that might be typing this looking at the scheduling and thinking that reserving the Canadian Thanksgiving week every year would be pretty darn simple - no?  Our Spring Break is different than yours and we don't do President's Day.



travelguy said:


> I wonder if that means that you can rotate Spring Break weeks 1 through 4 each year with the result of getting one Spring Break week each year with High Country Club?


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## travelguy (Feb 6, 2007)

*High Country Club Spring Break!*

Availability at High Country Club during Holidays does not seem to be a problem.  I JUST booked a Spring Break week @ Copper Mountain (this March) and had my choice from several other properties including a very nice house in Steamboat!  I chose the Copper Mountain property because the main lift (American Eagle/Flyer) is about as far from the HCC front door as my newspaper is from my front door a home.:whoopie: 

I find the High Country Club reservation policy to be very fair.  I know it's fair because it's a little restrictive for us Tuggers who know how to manipulate the system.


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## Laura7811 (Feb 6, 2007)

Talking spring break....next year our spring break will be earlier. 3rd week of March...... I'm wondering If most of the Ski resorts will still be open? Does anyone know where I can get that Information.....

Laura


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## Steamboat Bill (Feb 6, 2007)

Laura7811 said:


> Talking spring break....next year our spring break will be earlier. 3rd week of March...... I'm wondering If most of the Ski resorts will still be open? Does anyone know where I can get that Information.....
> 
> Laura



Most Colorado ski resorts stay open to early April, Breckenridge is usually open mid to late April.

Mammoth is also open late..

Mid to late March is always a good warm week.


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## lostinjapan14 (Feb 18, 2007)

I'm guessing we can assume that as High Country Club gains popularity there will soon be about a 0% chance of an affiliate reserving NYC for New Year's week (6 months out).  So the private/group memberships are probably the way to go if you want THAT week or the las vegas New Year's week.

Did anyone here get a private membership as opposed to an affiliate one?  With the unlimited last minute reservations, it seems like you might be able to move from one colorado property to the other in succession, essentially living at them for extended periods of time.  If only I lived in Colorado or at least Stateside


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## travelguy (Feb 19, 2007)

*Holiday Booking Availability*



lostinjapan14 said:


> I'm guessing we can assume that as High Country Club gains popularity there will soon be about a 0% chance of an affiliate reserving NYC for New Year's week (6 months out). So the private/group memberships are probably the way to go if you want THAT week or the las vegas New Year's week.
> 
> Did anyone here get a private membership as opposed to an affiliate one? With the unlimited last minute reservations, it seems like you might be able to move from one colorado property to the other in succession, essentially living at them for extended periods of time. If only I lived in Colorado or at least Stateside


 

You are correct that the main advantage of High Country Club Private Membership is the ability to book Holidays a year in advance instead of 6 months in advance for Affiliate Memberships. However, this is better than most other Destination Clubs lower cost memberships which usually exclude Holiday weeks altogether.

The High Country Club Affiliate Memberships may have limited access to the super-prime Holiday properties like NYC for New Years and the Breckenridge Lodge for Christmas but I was able to book a Spring Break March 2007 Copper Mountain property just 3 weeks ago! I also have consecutive ski weeks booked together in Colorado for next year (non-Holiday) as you describe. :whoopie: 

I checked out Holiday availability as of today and here it is:

_Holidays within 6 month Affiliate Membership booking window:_

Spring Break = 16% availability (including East and West coast ski!)

Memorial Day - 58% availability

July 4th - 41% availability

Labor Day = 83% availability

_Holidays beyond 6 month Affiliate Membership booking window:_

Thanksgiving = 58% availability

Christmas = 25% availability

New Years = 0% availability

MLK Day = 75% availability


Keep in mind that availability will actually INCREASE as High Country Club adds more properties. For example, if they increase their property portfolio by 20 properties over the next year (their projection) this will almost DOUBLE availability!! Compare this to RCI and II!


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## m61376 (Feb 19, 2007)

Bill- How did you book New Years week '07 a year in advance- am I misunderstanding something? I thought holidays could only be booked 6 months in advance for affiliate memberships.


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## lostinjapan14 (Feb 19, 2007)

*confused*



travelguy said:


> Keep in mind that availability will actually INCREASE as High Country Club adds more properties. For example, if they increase their property portfolio by 20 properties over the next year (their projection) this will almost DOUBLE availability!! Compare this to RCI and II!



It's really late over here and so I might not be thinking clearly...but how can availability double if the portfolio doubles?  Doesn't the number of members also double thereby making the availability about...equal.....??

Please be gentle.  It's been a long day. -_-

I am SO sad that I can't find anyone who also wants to be an affiliate member so that we could both put the same money in and come out with a group membership.  ;_;

I wonder if upgrades in membership are still allowed within 3 years.  I don't need private but group membership is amazing.  If only they offered it with half the weeks.  -_-


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## Bourne (Feb 19, 2007)

m61376 said:


> Bill- How did you book New Years week '07 a year in advance- am I misunderstanding something? I thought holidays could only be booked 6 months in advance for affiliate memberships.



It was time before someone would catch on. 

Bill signed up before the rule went into force.


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## Bourne (Feb 19, 2007)

Duplicate post


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## lostinjapan14 (Feb 19, 2007)

Bourne said:


> It was time before someone would catch on.
> 
> Bill signed up before the rule went into force.



Does that mean that Bill can always reserve his holiday a year out?


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## Laura7811 (Feb 19, 2007)

I also signed on as an affiliate,  I can book a year in advance and no they won't change my contract.:whoopie: 

Also as far as I know, If you join they are still offering the upgrade to higher membership at todays cost....


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## PerryM (Feb 19, 2007)

*Pro #1: Holiday usage*

I do tip my hat to HCC and others for handling the holiday usage problem – Marriott would do well to learn from the DCs.  I am posting this as Pro #1 (Will renumber later)

Even though I’m not a HCC member I want to make sure I understand their holiday usage:

A list of holidays is posted 1 year ahead of time for each condo/house, then:

•	If your membership allows for long term holiday reservations you can select any of the holidays for next year
•	Then that one holiday week at the one condo/house is blocked from your usage for the next two years
•	Next year the member can select from any other holiday at the same resort or ANY holiday at any other condo/house

Is this correct?

Is the reservation first come-first served?  Is it looking at my atomic clock again and calling 8 AM to the second to place my reservation?

If a person owns 2 memberships, is each separate or are both looked at as 1 for holiday usage?

Any actual input is appreciated.

How do other DCs handle holiday usage?


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## Laura7811 (Feb 19, 2007)

Perry-

This is the wording in my contract

Long-term and long- term Holiday reservations can be made up to one year prior to the first nights of the reservtion, on a first-come, first-served basis.  

A member cannot make a Long-term reservation for the same holiday more often than every thrid year.

Advance reservations (90) days out, can include nights in a Holiday week, if available.....

Laura


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## Steamboat Bill (Feb 19, 2007)

I have one of my weeks assigned to a long term holiday week (vs 6 months).

HCC is currently set up for MST and are in the process of changing to EST (at my suggestion...thanks HCC!).

Thus, the reservations are made at Midnight EST(hopefully) or MST (Currently) 365 days in advance of check-in. All reservations are made online.

Now if I can write some computer code to make my reservations automatically like a sniping program on eBay...I will really be set.

The ideal set-up would be to buy 3 Affiliate Memberships and then you could book NYC for New Year Eve or Deer Vally for Christmas forever!!!


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## PerryM (Feb 19, 2007)

Laura7811 said:


> Perry-
> 
> This is the wording in my contract
> 
> ...



Does the bold type above mean that the holiday is universal, e.g. Christmas week is gone for 2 more years or is it just Christmas week at the condo you booked for next year?  I'm not clear on this.


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## PerryM (Feb 19, 2007)

*I don't like FIFO; I like free markets better*

The Gold Standard, in my opinion, for handling holidays is as follows (I can’t remember where I mooched this idea – I did pass it on to HCC when I first talked to them):

Each year on a specific date like July 15, or whatever, each owner gets 100 *Holiday Points* that are used for bidding on upcoming holidays.  Say the next holiday is Christmas week and New Years week.

Each owner decides how many Holiday Points to bid for a week and at a resort.  I might want to bid all 100 points on Christmas in Whistler, or 50 at Whistler and 50 at Maui both for Christmas week.

This bidding goes on for 30 days and at the end of the time the computer sorts the bids and tie bids are decided by the computer randomly picking a winner.

The winner’s Holiday Points are taken and if you don’t win you keep them in your account – they never expire.  So for Spring Break you can bid again.  If you cancel your won holiday week you DO NOT get your points back.

Next July 15 each owner gets 100 more Holiday Points and the bidding continues.  This time I might bid 200 points on Christmas at Whistler.

The holiday points can be sold from one owner to other owner for whatever the two of you decide is a fair price.  You could accumulate hundreds of points from folks who don’t really travel during the holidays and they get some spending money.

As new members join, thru the year, they get pro-rated points.  E.g. half way thru the holiday year you get 50 holiday points.

The free market, even one like this, is much better than “FIFO”.


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## m61376 (Feb 19, 2007)

If I understand this all correctly (admittedly a big "IF"  ), then new Affiliate members will really be at the bottom of the food chain wrt Holiday weeks, since the original Affiliate membership and the other membership categories allow for booking holiday weeks at 12 months out, and the new Affiliate membership allows booking of holiday weeks only at 6 months out. As the membership grows, it is likely that getting holiday reservations will become more difficult under these rules.


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## Laura7811 (Feb 19, 2007)

Perry

It means you can't book christmas week again. unless of course it's available at the 90 day mark.....

I don't get hung up on the Holiday thing much, we like to be home for the Holidays. so having 1 holiday a year works for us......


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## lostinjapan14 (Feb 19, 2007)

Steamboat Bill said:


> The ideal set-up would be to buy 3 Affiliate Memberships and then you could book NYC for New Year Eve or Deer Vally for Christmas forever!!!



You mean if I bought the affiliate membership in the past, correct?    There is no way to get around the 6 month thing anymore, is there?


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## Laura7811 (Feb 19, 2007)

As far as I know that is the rule now....sorry... but rememeber, sometimes there is availability.I Just booked a week in HI for sping break...that doesn't count for my Holiday.....as a matter of fact I don't even think i'm using my Holiday week this Year....


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## travelguy (Feb 20, 2007)

*High Country Club Holidays within 6 Months*

Holidays are readily available at about 50% of High Country Club properties within the 6 month booking window right now.  As I've said in previous posts, I just booked Spring Break Colorado ski-in/ski-out about 2 months prior to the travel date and I had plenty of choices!

I believe the only potential availability problems for Holidays may be New Years and Christmas.  However, remember that everyone that booked those Holidays this year will not be able to book those Holidays again for two years.

It's also important to remember that while High Country Club Private Members can book one Holiday week a year out, they do not have access to a Holiday week again at 6 months like Affiliate Members have.  Private Members have to wait until the 90 day mark to book any additional Holidays as a regular week, just as Affiliate Members do.

So the order of access to High Country Club Holidays is:

1 year - Private Members & "grandfathered" Affiliate Members
6 months - Affiliate Members
90 days - All members (not counted against Holiday week usage)

Also, there are 30% more Holiday Weeks available than there are High Country Club members.  In addition, members like Laura and I don't like to travel during the Holiday periods.  These two factors should assure that everyone gets a Holiday week (but not necessarily what they exactly want).  In fact, I believe I could use all 6 1/2 weeks of my membership for Holiday travel if I wanted!  

That said, I agree with Steamboat Bill's previous statements that Tuggers should have no problem getting the reservations that they want due to our pedigree for planning and the great High Country Club availability!


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