Grand Luxxe as a trader?

[heathpack]

I am hoping to get some advice/tips from anyone out there who owns & trades Grand Luxxe.

I recently learned that an older couple I know own Grand Luxxe 2BR- I have no other details other than the fact that when the husband turns 75 they will no longer pay MF.

These are very active folks, avid skiers, but also interested in NYC, Hawaii and I'm sure other places.

I have no idea how much they paid for their Grand Luxxe, I got the impression they previously owned Grand Mayan and upgraded.

They would like me to help them make some trades. I can obviously walk them through what they need to know in II and SFX and explain private trades. Any other tips/tricks. I know there are a lot in Starwood, Hyatt and Disney, the systems I own.

H

 

[drguy]

I am hoping to get some advice/tips from anyone out there who owns & trades Grand Luxxe.

I recently learned that an older couple I know own Grand Luxxe 2BR- I have no other details other than the fact that when the husband turns 75 they will no longer pay MF.

These are very active folks, avid skiers, but also interested in NYC, Hawaii and I'm sure other places.

I have no idea how much they paid for their Grand Luxxe, I got the impression they previously owned Grand Mayan and upgraded.

They would like me to help them make some trades. I can obviously walk them through what they need to know in II and SFX and explain private trades. Any other tips/tricks. I know there are a lot in Starwood, Hyatt and Disney, the systems I own.

H

Grand Luxxe is very easy to trade in to. I own 4 weeks, and recently traded a studio shoulder season unit at Monarch Grand Vacations for a 2 bedroom week in Nuevo Vallarta. The developer is dumping a lot of units in order to sell units.

 

[heathpack]

Grand Luxxe is very easy to trade in to. I own 4 weeks, and recently traded a studio shoulder season unit at Monarch Grand Vacations for a 2 bedroom week in Nuevo Vallarta. The developer is dumping a lot of units in order to sell units.

Thanks, but I am asking about someone who owns Grand Luxxe using their unit to trade out.

H

 

[drguy]

Thanks, but I am asking about someone who owns Grand Luxxe using their unit to trade out.

H

I was attempting to show how little trade power the units have with my example of trading in. I am also an owner there.
Guy

 

[pittle]

Tell them to check their Senior Certificate.

We do not own Grand Luxxe, but Mayan Palace and Grand Mayan and have Senior Certificates for a total of 5 weeks. My guess is that their Senior Certificate is similar as mine was a form that they filled out at Customer Services and wrote our Contract Numbers on. Ours specifically says that we must be there to get it for free.

It says that it is for our personal use only. "These do not apply in connection with an exchange or rental of Member's weeks. Member must be personally registered as a guest at a Grupo Mayan resort during the weeks and present a photo ID at check-in. If Member does not register in person as a guest, the normal annual Maintenance Fee must be paid."

They do not apple to Vacation Fair weeks either.

 

[heathpack]

I was attempting to show how little trade power the units have with my example of trading in. I am also an owner there.
Guy

Ok, great. I am asking for trading tips. If you asked me for Hyatt trading tips, I'd easily list 10 and probably keep another 10 to myself.

Have you ever tried to trade your Grand Luxxe for a Hawaii property say? What was your experience? How about NYC? Or a ski property?

H

 

[heathpack]

Tell them to check their Senior Certificate.

We do not own Grand Luxxe, but Mayan Palace and Grand Mayan and have Senior Certificates for a total of 5 weeks. My guess is that their Senior Certificate is similar as mine was a form that they filled out at Customer Services and wrote our Contract Numbers on. Ours specifically says that we must be there to get it for free.

It says that it is for our personal use only. "These do not apply in connection with an exchange or rental of Member's weeks. Member must be personally registered as a guest at a Grupo Mayan resort during the weeks and present a photo ID at check-in. If Member does not register in person as a guest, the normal annual Maintenance Fee must be paid."

They do not apple to Vacation Fair weeks either.

I do not understand what you are trying to say. Forget what I said about not paying MF over age 75. They are below age 75 now and now is when they are interested in trading.

H

 

[drguy]

Ok, great. I am asking for trading tips. If you asked me for Hyatt trading tips, I'd easily list 10 and probably keep another 10 to myself.

Have you ever tried to trade your Grand Luxxe for a Hawaii property say? What was your experience? How about NYC? Or a ski property?

H

My luck trading Grand Luxxe has been pathetic. I can get N. Idaho in the Fall (a studio for a 2 bedroom Grand Luxxe).
My trading tip would be to purchase something else to use as a trader.
They may have the Heritage Collection to use, so that may be an option. II trading is very poor.

 

[DeniseM]

Heathpack - the problem is that there is far more supply than demand for Mexican properties, so even the top properties have weak trading power. Also, the owner's amenities (golf, etc.) do not transfer to exchangers.

If Hawaii Timeshare Exchange will accept this resort, that would be a good way for them to get Hawaii trades. HTSE does not "weight" deposits, so they won't have the big trading power loss that they will with II or RCI. However, they need to be realistic - HTSE has a good inventory of mid-level Hawaii resorts, but they don't get deposits from the Hotel based systems.

This timeshare is not going to get them into a Marriotti, Westin, etc., and they won't have enough trading power for a ski week. They will get the most out of this ownership and the perks, by staying there.

You can log in as a guest and look at inventory and membership rules:
www.htse.net
HTSE
9999

 

[heathpack]

They may have the Heritage Collection to use, so that may be an option. II trading is very poor.

What is heritage collection? We were at a party and they did say something about what I thought was "registry collection". But maybe it was "heritage"

Have you ever tried to trade with SFX?

I would certainly do a private trade with them for a Hyatt or Starwood unit- I think. We will be at the Grand Luxxe in Nov and will see how we like it.

H

 

[DeniseM]

https://www.theregistrycollection.com/

I would certainly do a private trade with them for a Hyatt or Starwood unit- I think. We will be at the Grand Luxxe in Nov and will see how we like it.

You will be giving them a trade worth thousands of dollars, for one worth hundreds of dollars - not a good deal for you.

However, if they can guarantee that you will have access to the owner's amenities, and they are amenities that you will actually use, that gives their trade more value, but still not what your Starwoods or Hyatts are worth.

 

[pittle]

I do not understand what you are trying to say. Forget what I said about not paying MF over age 75. They are below age 75 now and now is when they are interested in trading.

H

I misunderstood your question since you said they were older folks and once he turns 75 they no longer pay MF, (actually, it is 1/2 MF for ages 75 & 76, then 77 for no MF). So, I assumed they were close to that age. We have a ways to go before our Senior Certificate kicks in too!

I would think that a Grand Luxxe would trade well, but, the key to timesharing is not to buy for trades, but to buy where you want to go! We finally learned that and sold all the timeshares that we just used for trades because we could not get what, when, and where we wanted to go. Now we do not have to worry about exchange fees in addition to MF. We only do exchanges when our grown children want to use one of our weeks in a location other than Mexico.

 

[heathpack]

https://www.theregistrycollection.com/



You will be giving them a trade worth thousands of dollars, for one worth hundreds of dollars - not a good deal for you.

However, if they can guarantee that you will have access to the owner's amenities, and they are amenities that you will actually use, that gives their trade more value, but still not what your Starwoods or Hyatts are worth.

Ha, ha, Denise, you are very funny. We own nothing that costs thousands of dollars for us to obtain. For me to use my Hyatt for example to obtain a 1BR Grand Luxxe unit thru II, "costs" me about $585 when you consider my MF plus exchange fee, if I do a plain vanilla trade, nothing tricky. It would "cost" me about $660 (in MF costs) to obtain for them a 1BR ski week directly through Hyatt. Hardly a deal-breaker amount of money if they could get me the exact week I want without me needing to monkey with II.

That registry collection looks very interesting- some sailing options (these are sailing friends of ours) which would be great. I will have to do a search on the registry collection. Absolutely if they are able to trade us a registry collection option we would send them skiing at a Hyatt for sure.

H

 

[DeniseM]

Ha, ha, Denise, you are very funny. We own nothing that costs thousands of dollars for us to obtain.

I'm not talking about cost - I'm talking about the value of the week: trade value and rental value. You may still want to do it, but this is a down-trade for you. Good luck!

 

[heathpack]

I misunderstood your question since you said they were older folks and once he turns 75 they no longer pay MF, (actually, it is 1/2 MF for ages 75 & 76, then 77 for no MF). So, I assumed they were close to that age. We have a ways to go before our Senior Certificate kicks in too!

I would think that a Grand Luxxe would trade well, but, the key to timesharing is not to buy for trades, but to buy where you want to go! We finally learned that and sold all the timeshares that we just used for trades because we could not get what, when, and where we wanted to go. Now we do not have to worry about exchange fees in addition to MF. We only do exchanges when our grown children want to use one of our weeks in a location other than Mexico.

They are in their mid-sixties but very fit and active. As in "running the stadium steps" type of fit.

I hear what you are saying about buying where you want to go. I happen to personally disagree with you, I trade all the time and have only ever been to one of the resorts I own, however I know this is one of the TUG "wisdoms" that many espouse.

These folks DO want to go to the Grand Luxxe, they have owned in Mexico for years (I think at Grand Mayan) and have travelled to Mexico for years. They just also want to do "some" trades.

We will figure it out I'm sure. I don't have all the details as to what they own because we were at a loud party and could not really hear each other. We'll sit down together soon and take it from there.

H

 

[mikenk]

Realistically, IMHO, owning the Grand Luxxe for exchanges will not work out; the developer frequently dumps the units for exchanges (for sales fodder) which make them easy to trade into. I complain about this every time I go - a major aggravation. No way it can be a strong trader with that going on.

There is another consideration. If you own there, it really makes no sense to exchange out as all the amenities (e.g. free golf, massages) I get there will be lost; so I will never get equal value elsewhere. This works for me because I love the luxury, location, and ambience of the resorts and we always want to spend some time there every year.

Renting the units out however and private exchanges are another matter as all the amenities transfer. The key is finding renters or direct exchanges who like free golf and free massages. The Grand Luxxe resorts are primarily luxurious golf resorts. Finding golf renters is actually quite straightforward; finding individuals that own at other high end resorts that will be willing to make private exchanges would seem to be doable. Regardless of the exchange values, there are few resorts that the Grand Luxxe won't compare strongly with regard to luxury, amenities, and service - but you will have to work outside the exchange companies.

Heathpack, you seem to be in a good position to broker some nice private deals with the places you own.

Mike

 

[heathpack]

I'm not talking about cost - I'm talking about the value of the week: trade value and rental value. You may still want to do it, but this is a down-trade for you. Good luck!

Well, I am never going to rent out a Starwood II exchange but I might discretely trade one with friends like this. So there is zero rental value to me, there is only trade value. All I care about when I trade is what my bottom line cost is for the week I'm giving up. So trade value=my cost to for the week, which is not high for most of what I own.

I could admittedly rent the Hyatt and pocket the cash. But I've so far had no luck renting the Hyatt (good ski weeks) and I've spent $ trying to do so; I have some ideas about what I've been doing wrong but so far I've lost $ on rental attempts, whereas I've had great luck exchanging.

All trades values are in the eye of the beholder. There is no way that I would consider the Grand Luxxe to be a downtrade if I can get the trade for under $100/night.

H

 

[heathpack]

Realistically, IMHO, owning the Grand Luxxe for exchanges will not work out; the developer frequently dumps the units for exchanges (for sales fodder) which make them easy to trade into. I complain about this every time I go - a major aggravation. No way it can be a strong trader with that going on.

There is another consideration. If you own there, it really makes no sense to exchange out as all the amenities (e.g. free golf, massages) I get there will be lost; so I will never get equal value elsewhere. This works for me because I love the luxury, location, and ambience of the resorts and we always want to spend some time there every year.

Renting the units out however and private exchanges are another matter as all the amenities transfer. The key is finding renters or direct exchanges who like free golf and free massages. The Grand Luxxe resorts are primarily luxurious golf resorts. Finding golf renters is actually quite straightforward; finding individuals that own at other high end resorts that will be willing to make private exchanges would seem to be doable. Regardless of the exchange values, there are few resorts that the Grand Luxxe won't compare strongly with regard to luxury, amenities, and service - but you will have to work outside the exchange companies.

Heathpack, you seem to be in a good position to broker some nice private deals with the places you own.

Mike

We are not interested on golfing, Mr. H is not into massages but I am. I will have to ask them if they have some sort of free golf/massage thing negotiated.

These are not super fussy folks. They ski in Mammoth Lakes out of an old ski condo they've been renting from the same guy for years. I suppose the real question boils down to what they are paying for MF and if they would be better off renting out their unit, taking the cash and then using the proceeds to rent something else or if their best value comes from paying their MF and trading the unit.

H

 

[DeniseM]

I hate to sound like a broken record, but because there is far more supply than demand, they will have trouble renting their Mexico resort, unless than can reserve something in prime season like Christmas week or New Year's week - there are just far too many very cheap Mexico rentals out there. Right here on TUG - there are some Mexico rentals for free - you just pay for the All-Inclusive.

I really think that HTSE might be their best bet, although it sounds like a private trade might work for both of you - good luck!

 

[mikenk]

We are not interested on golfing, Mr. H is not into massages but I am. I will have to ask them if they have some sort of free golf/massage thing negotiated.

These are not super fussy folks. They ski in Mammoth Lakes out of an old ski condo they've been renting from the same guy for years. I suppose the real question boils down to what they are paying for MF and if they would be better off renting out their unit, taking the cash and then using the proceeds to rent something else or if their best value comes from paying their MF and trading the unit.

H

You need to find out what amenities they have and what level of Grand Luxxe (Suite or Villa). I would expect they have free golf/ massages and no MF unless they use. If they have the free golf, I think their best bet would be to direct rent to the golfing community (not the timeshare community); free golf at Nicklaus courses and luxury to boot, and then use rental money to go elsewhere.

Mike

 

[heathpack]

You need to find out what amenities they have and what level of Grand Luxxe (Suite or Villa). I would expect they have free golf/ massages and no MF unless they use. If they have the free golf, I think their best bet would be to direct rent to the golfing community (not the timeshare community); free golf at Nicklaus courses and luxury to boot, and then use rental money to go elsewhere.

Mike

What is the difference between a suite and a villa? I know they have a 2BR, but also that there are some 2BR corner units and some 2BR non-corner units. Is one called a suite & the other a villa?

What is the venue by which one would direct-rent to the golf market?

H

 

[mikenk]

What is the difference between a suite and a villa? I know they have a 2BR, but also that there are some 2BR corner units and some 2BR non-corner units. Is one called a suite & the other a villa?

What is the venue by which one would direct-rent to the golf market?

H

Yes, the corner units are the villa; there is an extra room which becomes a third bedroom. It is nice for three couples and gives more flexibility when locking off and splitting.

For direct renting to golfers, the easy venue for active golfers would be the clubs and courses they play at through the golf pros. Almost all clubs have senior groups and couple groups that have money and like to travel together and play golf. As Luxxe owners, we can also split the units and get additional Grand Mayan rooms, so lots of flexibility and the Grand Mayan offers enough luxury to attract golfers. Getting the golf pro to help is key.

For folks that are not golfers and don't have the access, they can either just go to a club and talk to the pro or find a friend that is as a go between. I also assume there are also places to advertise in local golf magazines. They can go to a local golf shop and pick up one of the free publications to get the contacts. I have not needed to do that.

At Nuevo, with a Nicklaus course in play, a Greg Norman course in development, and a Nicklaus golf academy just opened, this is a top tier golf resort already and will just get better.

Mike

 

[mikenk]

A question to Denise or any moderator that might be following this thread.

I recognize that we Luxxe owners can't get fair trade value with exchange companies, (particularly when we lose our amenities when we trade). However, we have a lot to trade when you consider the Luxxe luxury and the amenities.

The question: Are we breaking any TUG rules if we peruse the other (non Mexico) forums to find owners at resorts we might like to go to, then contact them via PM or email and arrange private exchanges?

Mike

 

[Tropical lady]

a plus not being all inclusive....

Interesting comment that "there are a lot of very cheap Mexico rentals out there....just pay for the all inclusive". Has anyone checked the all inclusive charges?
Point is that yes, there is more supply than demand. However when there are sell offs and you look at the list....they are mostly all inclusive! The others are not available....gone...rented.
So there is a slight edge for trading or renting if you don't have that all inclusive hurdle. It will be interesting to see the trading power of the Royals with the new all inclusive program.

 

[hurnik]

My luck trading Grand Luxxe has been pathetic. I can get N. Idaho in the Fall (a studio for a 2 bedroom Grand Luxxe).
My trading tip would be to purchase something else to use as a trader.
They may have the Heritage Collection to use, so that may be an option. II trading is very poor.

Have you tried SFX? My experience is that any Grand luxxe units with SFX go VERY quickly, so I'd think they have a lot of demand (at least the ones in Riviera Maya).