# HCC New Rules



## Steamboat Bill (Nov 19, 2007)

High Country Club - New Rules Effective December 3rd, 2007

The following reservation rules will be effective Noon, Eastern Time, December 3rd, 2007. These rules will apply to NEW reservations only. We will not make changes to existing reservations to accommodate new rules.

NEW BOOKING PERIODS:
We have restructured the current reservation policies to provide Members more flexibility in booking reservations.

Long Term Reservations – Any reservation booked 120 days to one year in advance and does not include a holiday. The new Check-in/out rules for Long Term Reservations are:

Long-term Reservations at Colorado properties, through October 11, 2008, may be made for:
• 7 nights checking in Friday, checking out Friday
• 3 nights checking in Friday, checking out Monday
• 4 nights checking in Monday, checking out Friday

Long-term Reservations at Colorado properties subsequent to October 11, 2008, may be made for:
• 7 nights checking in Saturday, checking out Saturday
• 3 nights checking in Saturday, checking out Tuesday
• 4 nights checking in Tuesday, checking out Saturday

Long-term Reservations at European properties may be made for:
• 14 nights checking in Saturday, checking out the following Saturday
• 7 nights checking in Saturday, checking out Saturday

Long-term Reservations at City properties may be made for:
• 7 nights checking in Friday, checking out Friday
• 3 nights checking in Friday, checking out Monday
• 4 nights checking in Monday, checking out Friday

Long-term Reservations at Beach, Golf or Mountain properties may be made for:
• 7 nights checking in Saturday, checking out Saturday
• 3 nights checking in Saturday, checking out Tuesday
• 4 nights checking in Tuesday, checking out Saturday

Long-term Reservations cannot include any nights in a Holiday Week.

Long Term Holiday Reservations – Any reservation booked 120 days to one year in advance and may include a holiday. Check-in/out rules are the same as Long Term Reservations (listed above).

The Holidays are:
• New Year’s Day
• President’s Day
• Four weeks of Spring Break, to be determined by the Club annually; for 2008 the weeks are
the weeks starting March 14, March 21, March 28, and April 4
• The 4th of July
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas

Advanced Reservations – Any reservation booked 90 to 119 days out. Days can include a holiday.

The holiday will not be counted against your allotted holidays. Check-in/out rules are the same as Long Term Reservations (listed above).

Space Available Reservations (Previously, Under 60 Day Advanced Reservations) – Any reservation booked under 90 days out. Days can include a holiday. The holiday will not be counted against your allotted holidays.

Reservations may be made for:
• A minimum of 4 nights, with any start date.

• 3 nights:
- Reservation for Colorado properties, through October 11, 2008, may be made for:
3 nights checking in Friday, checking out Monday
- Reservation for Colorado properties subsequent to October 11th, 2008, may be made for:
3 nights checking in Saturday, checking out Tuesday
- Reservation for City properties may be made for:
3 nights checking in Friday, checking out Monday
- Reservation for Beach, Golf or Mountain properties may be made for:
3 nights checking in Saturday, checking out Tuesday

Associate, Affiliate and Private Members can go over their allotted annual nights of use under 30 nights of the reservation start day by paying a $250 per night fee*.

* Members may not go over their nights if they upgrade to the family and friends package.

Last Minute Reservations – Any reservation booked within 7 nights of the reservation start day. Days can include a holiday. The holiday will not be counted against your allotted holidays. Check-in can begin any night of the week and may be for a minimum of 2 nights.

NEW CANCELLATION POLICIES

We have changed our cancellation policies to accommodate our new booking rules. The following rules will be in effect for all new reservations booked on or after December 3rd, 2007.

1. Unless a Member cancels a Long-term Reservation at least one-hundred and fifty (150) days in advance, the Reservation will count against the limit of the number of Long-term Reservations that the Member can make and the associated restrictions thereon.

2. If a Member cancels a Long-term Reservation at least one-hundred and fifty (150) days in advance, the Reservation will not count against the Member’s limit of 15 nights.

3. If a Member cancels a Long-term Reservation between ninety (90) and one-hundred and fifty (150) days in advance, the Reservation will count as three (3) nights against the Member’s total nights, even if cancelled.

4. If a Member cancels a Long-term Reservation less than ninety (90) days in advance, the Reservation will count as five (5) nights or the amount of nights booked, whichever is greater, against the Member’s total nights, even if cancelled.

5. If a member makes an Advance Reservation between ninety (90) and one-hundred and twenty (120) days in advance and cancels the Reservation less than one-hundred and five (105) days in advance, the Reservation will count as three (3) nights against the Member’s total nights, even if cancelled.

6. If a Member makes a Space Available Reservation less than ninety (90) days in advance and cancels the reservation less than forty-four (44) days in advance, the Reservation will count as three (3) nights against the Member’s total nights, even if cancelled.

7. All Last-Minute Getaway Reservations will count against the Member’s total nights, even if cancelled.

DAYS MADE AVAILABLE CHANGES
For new reservations booked on or after December 3rd, 2007 a Member may only make available for other Club Member’s usage all nights (no partial Reservations) of a Long-Term or Advance Reservation booked more than ninety days in advance. If the nights made available are booked by another Club Member, the nights will not count against the total number of nights used by the initial booked Member. If the nights made available are not booked by another Member, the nights will count against the Members’ total nights of usage. All nights made available must be booked in their entirety by one Club Member.

Days Made Available will not be available for Space Available or Last Minute Reservations.

For existing reservations booked prior to December 3rd, 2007, the current Days Made Available rules will be in effect.

You will still be able to view all Days Made Available dates on-line. Just log into the reservation system, go to the Reserve tab, and select Days Made Available underneath the calendar legend.

To book or make available any Days Made Available, please contact the High Country Club call center.

LONG TERM, SAME LOCATION RULE DISCARDED
You will now be able to book Long Term or Long Term Holiday Reservations at the same property in a membership year.

CONCURRENT USE RULE DISCARDED
You will now be able to book multiple properties during the same week, subject to the rules associated with your Membership Agreement.

HOLIDAYS DISCARDED
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Labor Day & Memorial Day will no longer be counted as a holiday.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS UPGRADE NOW AVAILABLE
For an additional $10,000 + 20% increase in monthly dues, Associate, Affiliate, and Private members can add the Family and Friends upgrade which allows the Member to send unaccompanied guests to Club properties.

Note: Members may not go over their nights if they upgrade to the family and friends package.

AMERICAN EXPRESS WILL NOW BE ACCEPTED FOR YOUR MEMBERSHIP DUES PAYMENTS
We are now accepting American Express for your dues payments. Please contact your Member Services Representative if you would like to change your credit card number for monthly dues payments.


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## vineyarder (Nov 19, 2007)

> DAYS MADE AVAILABLE CHANGES
> For new reservations booked on or after December 3rd, 2007 a Member may only make available for other Club Member’s usage all nights (no partial Reservations) of a Long-Term or Advance Reservation booked more than ninety days in advance. If the nights made available are booked by another Club Member, the nights will not count against the total number of nights used by the initial booked Member. If the nights made available are not booked by another Member, the nights will count against the Members’ total nights of usage. All nights made available must be booked in their entirety by one Club Member.



Being relatively new to HCC, I'm not sure that I understand this part correctly; does this mean that one can no longer book a week at Cabo, then 'release' two of the days; they must either keep all seven days or give up all seven?  If so, I wonder what the reason behind this is... Other than an additional administrative burden, I'm not sure what the downside to the old policy was...

OTOH, the rest of the changes are very nice!


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## Tedpilot (Nov 19, 2007)

I think you are reading that correctly.  I like most of the changes too, especially the ability to book 120 days out w/o an LTR.  I do not know for sure why they changed certain items but I am sure it is to keep costs and admin to a minimum.


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## Laura7811 (Nov 19, 2007)

All I know is that after opening this e-mail tonight after 2 glasses of wine, I will have to wait until morning to re-read...

:whoopie:,
Laura


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## steve b (Nov 20, 2007)

I really like the new flexibility here and the ability to book shorter vacations.  It will be interesting to see how the new rules effect the overall availability of bookings.
steve b


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## PerryM (Nov 20, 2007)

*Something for the refrigerator would help....*

I am not a HCC member, but this seems overly complex to an outsider.  Is this complexity really needed or should you guys create your own simple rules and suggest HCC adopt them?

If I were to read these rules on their web site when evaluating this DC my eyes would glaze over and my mind would wonder onto another topic.  Sounds like HCC is violently reacting to some criticism and this could just exacerbate the problem.

Just a suggestion.  At the least they could print a magnetic decoder placard that you could put on your refrigerator for planning purposes.


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## travelguy (Nov 20, 2007)

*High Country Club Reservations System vs. the rest*



PerryM said:


> I am not a HCC member, but this seems overly complex to an outsider.  Is this complexity really needed or should you guys create your own simple rules and suggest HCC adopt them?
> 
> If I were to read these rules on their web site when evaluating this DC my eyes would glaze over and my mind would wonder onto another topic.  Sounds like HCC is violently reacting to some criticism and this could just exacerbate the problem.



Fully understanding the new High Country Club reservation system = _10 minutes_

Fully understanding the HGVC or Marriott deposit/exchange/reservation system = _1 to 2 hours_

Fully understanding the Worldmark purchase/points rental/deposit/exchange/reservation system (without Perry's super secret insider report) = _Forever_

Being able to reserve any High Country Club property I want at 12 months out without understanding anything but point-n-click on the web site = _PRICELESS! _


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## PerryM (Nov 20, 2007)

*Make the HCC Reservation System Simple Contest...*



travelguy said:


> Fully understanding the new High Country Club reservation system = _10 minutes_
> 
> Fully understanding the HGVC or Marriott deposit/exchange/reservation system = _1 to 2 hours_
> 
> ...




It's just a suggestion - make it a contest, each contestant contribute $5 and see who can make the new rules even simpler to use and then suggest a simpler way to do it.  Throw in some graphics to add in a visual component.

I know the Marriott rules are much simpler than the above to make a reservation, DCs need to be more complex?

Maybe someone knows why HCC is cloaking their reservation system with complex rules - is this a sign of something?  Hmmmm

Suggest to HCC that they should also do this - offer a snow globe of Stowe as the top price or something like that.

Always thinking of you guys....

P.S.
Let me be the first to suggest that a Point system might make reservations simpler - like WMs.  Each type of membership is given so many Points and Holiday Points and in the case of ties bids are then solicited to determine the highest Point bid and winner.  We've been thru this long ago but maybe now it has more urgency.

I keep telling you guys WM is THE ultimate in systems, be it a timeshare or DC.  It's simple and easy to understand.  The bidding component I mentioned is my bright idea though.


P.P.S.
As an outsider and not that knowledgeable of HCC the above rules seem to deal with rationing and that's always a bad sign of a system.  Too much demand chasing too few things...  Rationing is usually the governments way to deal with things (Hello FREE Universal Health Care for all), corporations should revert to free-market solutions which boils down to paying a bit more to get what you want.


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## pwrshift (Nov 24, 2007)

For 7 night stays, I don't understand why some areas have a Friday check in and other areas have a Saturday check in ... seems to make it more complex than it need be.  I can understand the complexities of 3 and 4 night bookings can create, but if the calendar says the days you want are available why can't you just book them rather than having a specific check in date?


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## Steamboat Bill (Nov 24, 2007)

When I spoke to HCC, they started the club with Colorado properties and early members liked the Friday night check-in option. They are now phasing that out (hooray) to Saturday night check-in.

They decided to change the city properties to Friday night check-in to better accommodate the short stays and keep the others at Saturday check-in.

They also eliminated short stays for European stays.

At first glance, this seems confusing and by Oct 2008, some of the rules will expire. 

I actually like the changes as it gives us MORE flexibility to book 3 or 4 night stays, where before most properties required 7 nights.

The new system is more like a points based timeshare system rather than the rigid weeks based system (Marriott).


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## Tedpilot (Nov 24, 2007)

Bill hit it on the head.  We all know that HCC basically started as a regional DC and thus the preponderance of the properties were at ski resorts w/ people coming out of the Denver metro area.  Friday night starts at ski areas is king as you can drive right up after work, have a few beverages, settle in and beat the Saturday morning rush-hour to the slopes. 

Ted


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## pwrshift (Nov 24, 2007)

I guess I like the option at Marriott where you can choose a Friday, Saturday or Sunday check in ... but I would actually prefer to be able to pick any available check in day that was available for the duration of the intended stay, even if it was a Monday.

It's too bad they look at Europe as a 7 or 14 night stay only. I'd go nuts having to stay 7 nights in a remote area of Tuscany when all the action is elsewhere...and in some cases (Venice, Milan, Lake Como, Rome and even Florence) a full day trip or more away. 2-3 nights in Tuscany would be great - but 2 weeks? I wasn't aware the 3 & 4 night stays couldn't be used there...and I guess that's the same for Paris (the next to be opened?) and any others they open. Too bad IMO.


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