Eric B
TUG Member
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2017
- Messages
- 5,862
- Reaction score
- 5,440
- Points
- 499
- Resorts Owned
- Vacation Village, Wyndham, WorldMark, Vistana, Vidanta, Flora Farms, HGVC Max, and some independents
As some have noted, the answer really depends on what you get for the fee. There are some resorts where the amenities and service outside of the room are worth it. I’m partial to the Vidanta resorts even with the high fees they have started charging exchangers. I own there, so have the option to compare costs of using my own week or exchanging back in with a different TS and paying the resort and exchange fees; that often winds up less expensive even taking into account my other TS MF.
As far as whether the underlying MF should cover the costs goes, that only works if it is a week deposited by an owner. If it is a week that is available as part of a bulk deposit by the developer or operator of the resort, they don’t really get any cash flow from it, so resort fees make up some of what would otherwise be a shortfall. They no doubt get other non-cash benefits (e.g., sales prospects, some credit with the exchange companies to allow them to provide freebies to their owners, etc.), but there is still the matter of covering their costs. It would be nice if they separated out owner deposited weeks in a separate resort id and didn’t charge the fees for those, but I don’t see that happening because there really isn’t a good way to incentivize that for them.
You might be able to work around the fees at places that only charge exchangers by doing direct exchanges via TUG or by other means. There are pluses and minuses to that though, particularly for resorts like Vidanta where the owner fees are high and not mandatory.
As far as whether the underlying MF should cover the costs goes, that only works if it is a week deposited by an owner. If it is a week that is available as part of a bulk deposit by the developer or operator of the resort, they don’t really get any cash flow from it, so resort fees make up some of what would otherwise be a shortfall. They no doubt get other non-cash benefits (e.g., sales prospects, some credit with the exchange companies to allow them to provide freebies to their owners, etc.), but there is still the matter of covering their costs. It would be nice if they separated out owner deposited weeks in a separate resort id and didn’t charge the fees for those, but I don’t see that happening because there really isn’t a good way to incentivize that for them.
You might be able to work around the fees at places that only charge exchangers by doing direct exchanges via TUG or by other means. There are pluses and minuses to that though, particularly for resorts like Vidanta where the owner fees are high and not mandatory.