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Anybody booked 51/52 at Lagunamar?

DannyTS

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If Vistana made any 51/52 weeks available to regular platinum members (not event week owners), somebody managed to book them. Since the TUGgers are some of the more experienced and more knowledgeable owners (like knowing to try exactly at 12AM ET 12 months before) I assume that a Tugger might have gotten lucky.


1) Have you tried to book 51/52 in the last few years?

2) When is the last time you managed to book? Did you manage to book when the 12 months window opened or you noticed availability randomly?

3) What do you own? Regular platinum bought resale or retail or Westin Aventuras?

I personally did not try but reports that nothing has been available to regular platinum owners while Vistana has availability for those buying the Explorer package do intrigue me.
 
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DannyTS

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so I guess...nobody?
 

cubigbird

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I own Fixed Event Week 51 at WLR in the Platinum Plus season. In the past I have had great success changing it to week 52 at exactly 12 months out to go New Years instead of Christmas. That was back around 2014. In the last few years I have not been able to do it, or even move my check in day a few days back due to no inventory available even though I own that season, but there is nothing now 12 months out.
 

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Impossible to book, and I have tried every day since Dec 20. Its been this way for the last two years. Makes me think I will sell a few platinum weeks.

Markus.
 

DannyTS

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Impossible to book, and I have tried every day since Dec 20. Its been this way for the last two years. Makes me think I will sell a few platinum weeks.

Markus.

Maybe somebody could write a letter to Vistana asking for details. What is the actual number of 51-52 condos that regular platinum owners have access to? At 12 months, what number of condos was booked by:

-people who own 51-52?
-regular platinum plus owners?
-Westin Aventuras owners?
-Vistana?

What is the actual number of 51-52 condos that regular platinum owners should have access to?


What department/ person should the email/letter be addressed to?
If anyone goes to the annual meetings this topic should also be brought up.
 

controller1

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What is the actual number of 51-52 condos that regular platinum owners should have access to?

You might be able to get an answer to that question....




At 12 months, what number of condos was booked by:

-people who own 51-52?
-Westin Aventuras owners?
-Vistana?

I can almost guarantee you won't get answers to those questions as that would be proprietary/competitive information.
 

DannyTS

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You might be able to get an answer to that question....






I can almost guarantee you won't get answers to those questions as that would be proprietary/competitive information.
Proprietary or embarrassing and potentially damaging... i suspect the latter.

At the same time, we should not assume that they are not accountable for anything.
 

controller1

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Proprietary or embarrassing and potentially damaging... i suspect the latter.

At the same time, we should not assume that they are not accountable for anything.

Proprietary can also be embarrassing and potentially damaging. :thumbup:
 

echino

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There are ads on TUG marketplace for weeks 51/52 rental, which shows that some weeks were booked. Maybe they are fixed week owners though.
 

DannyTS

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i do not know why it would be proprietary to disclose the number of platinum plus owners that booked weeks 51-52 when the the 12 month window opened. It should match 50% of the phase 1 as per the Lagunamar governing documents page 24:

12.3. Vacation Ownership Interest types.
(a) The following Vacation Ownership Interests may be assigned to a
Membership:
Weekly designations may be Ultra Premium, Fixed, Float or Event. Currently the only Event
Weeks designated are Christmas Week and New Year’s Week. These weeks shall be designated
on the Vacation Calendar. For Phase One Vacation Units, no more than 50% of the Vacation
Ownership Interests in each Vacation Week shall be designated as Ultra Premium, Fixed,
or Event. For Phase Two, Three and Four Vacation Units, the Vacation Weeks including
Christmas and New Year’s Day will be sold exclusively as Event Weeks. No more than 50%
of the Vacation Ownership Interests in any other Vacation Week shall be designated as
Ultra Premium, Fixed or Event. In addition, no more than 50% of the Vacation Ownership
Interests in Phase One, Two, Three or Four will be sold with a Fixed Unit designation.
(A) Vacation Ownership Interests with a Floating Week
Designation shall be assigned to a Season. The Equity Membership Certificate for a Vacation
Ownership Interest that has a floating Vacation Period will designate the “Season” for which the
floating use rights apply. The Founding Member has reserved the right to designate other or
additional Seasons for additional Vacation Units. Currently, the seasons for the Vacation Units
are:
(I) Platinum Plus: Vacation Weeks: 5-17, 24-35, 44-47,
51 & 52.
(II) Gold Plus: Vacation Weeks: 1-4, 18-23, 36-43, 48-
50.
 

BLUE AYES

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These Mexican timeshares were offered for sale in the United States by an offering plan approved by the states attorney general. Since the offering plan for phase 1 was specific to phase 1 buyers, then legally I do not think that phase 2 or Aventuras buyers have a right to complain if they are closed out of week 51/52 reservations. That being said, I have owned phase 1 since pre-construction and I have been closed out for about the past four years.
 
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BLUE AYES

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There are approximately 100 weeks 51 and 100 weeks 52, 2 BD/LOs available for non -event week owners. There are are approximately 5800 owners competing for those 100 weeks. What I do not know is how many weeks are owned by management. I assume that management pulls their week 51 and week 52 reservations before they are open to the phase 1 buyers.
 
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BLUE AYES

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DannyTS

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There are approximately 100 weeks 51 and 100 weeks 52, 2 BD/LOs available for non -event week owners. There are are approximately 5800 owners competing for those 100 weeks. What I do not know is how many weeks are owned by management. I assume that management pulls their week 51 and week 52 reservations before they are open to the phase 1 buyers.

Because the developer owns more than 100 weeks and because it controls the booking system it has the ability (not the right IMO) to keep ALL 51-52 weeks that should be available for regular platinum owners. This is the only explanation why those who try milliseconds after the 12 month window opens get nothing.

I agree that potentially many owners could try to book 51 and 52. However, I do not think in reality a lot of people are on the computer when the window opens for those weeks. By the end of December when the window opens for the next 51-52, a lot of owners have already planned and booked their week and flights for their next year vacation and they are not going to cancel their reservation just to try for those weeks. Also, retail owners I talked to are the furthest from the methods that some TUGgers use (like atomic clock timing). If no one on this site has gotten anything, i can only conclude that there was nothing there at all.
 

DannyTS

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These Mexican timeshares were offered for sale in the United States by an offering plan approved by the states attorney general. Since the offering plan for phase 1 was specific to phase 1 buyers, then legally I do not think that phase 2 or Aventuras buyers have a right to complain if they are closed out of week 51/52 reservations. That being said, I have owned phase 1 since pre-construction and I have been closed out for about the past four years.
All the weeks i own at Lagunamar are phase 1. By chance not by planning. Yet I think that in a floating system that does not give me any more rights that those that own any other phase.

My concern about Aventura owners is that they potentially have access a day earlier to those weeks and book anything that is left by the developer, if any. The regular owners can only book at 12 months Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So say for week 51 you had to try exactly 12 months before December 20th 2019. But the Aventuras owners checkin can start any day of the week so they could try the day before you for a Thu to Thu reservation so wiping all availability of the regular owners.
 

BLUE AYES

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I totally agree with you. Just to clarify, do you believe that management owns over 200 phase 1 platinum plus weeks ? Because that would be the only explanation for a complete shut out of phase 1 owners
 

BLUE AYES

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Honestly, I am not that familiar with how Aventuras works. I think it would be a violation of the phase 1 prospectus to offer our event weeks to phase 2 and Aventuras. We were induced to purchase with the legal promise of being able to “try“ to book week 51 and week 52. The prospectus for phase 2 specifically tells them that they are blocked from week 51 and week 52.
 

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I totally agree with you. Just to clarify, do you believe that management owns over 200 phase 1 platinum plus weeks ? Because that would be the only explanation for a complete shut out of phase 1 owners

If you read all the Lagunamar documents the occupancy rate is about 92%: about 60% owners and 32% rentals. I think that Vistana does own a lot of weeks. But they actually do not need a high % of ownership to block all remaining 51 and 52 weeks:

300 studios + 300 1 bdr X 31 platinum weeks = 18600 maximum Lagunamar contracts. The delinquency rate is about 1% That alone is 186 contracts that they can use however they please!
 

DannyTS

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The prospectus for phase 2 specifically tells them that they are blocked from week 51 and week 52.
this is very interesting. I did not realize that my phase 1 Lagunamar contracts may potentially have a better value. At the same time, the platinum plus season includes 51 and 52 for all phases so i am not sure they actually make in practice that distinction once you are a platinum plus owner regardless of the phase
 

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7 bldgs x 8 floors x 3 2bd/lo
2 bldgs x 6 floors x 3 “”””
 

BLUE AYES

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The very first year they opened, I had upgraded my phase one 1 bedroom to a 2 bedroom and at the closing they locked me in for Christmas. The second year they opened I had no problem booking week 51. By the third year, I was closed out. I spent about a week of phone calls with management in Orlando over the 50% issue, threatening to sue and they booked me a week 51 that year and then the following year. For the next year or two it was hit or miss. I’ve been closed out for at least the last three or four years.
 

DannyTS

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7 bldgs x 8 floors x 3 2bd/lo
2 bldgs x 6 floors x 3 “”””
just look at the lagunamar invoice for precise numbers. There are actually 290 2 bdr lockout units so i will amend my platinum total number of contracts:

(290 studios + 290 1 bdr) X 31 platinum weeks = 17980 maximum platinum plus Lagunamar contracts. Again, Vistana needs to own only a small percentage of that to keep all studios and 1 bdr condos. for 51 and 52 and leave nothing to owners.


upload_2019-1-12_9-32-57.png
 

DannyTS

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I spent about a week of phone calls with management in Orlando over the 50% issue, threatening to sue and they booked me a week 51 that year and then the following year. .

Ha, if they thought they were not doing anything wrong, why did they book you 51 when you threatened to sue? This is very interesting. I am not sure you read this in another thread, last week somebody at Lagunamar was offered to book week 52 of 2019 if she was going to buy the Explorer package. Those packages are not even expensive, it seems to me that Vistana does keep a lot of 51 -52 weeks for themselves!
 

BLUE AYES

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My issue with them back then was that the phone representatives were telling everybody that it was an event week and the lower level Orlando people thought that as well. I had to email them a copy of the prospectus for them to release week 51 and week 52 to everybody. The higher ups in Orlando actually claimed that they did not know that the phases were broken up that way. At that time, phase 2 prospectus was already in circulation.
 

DannyTS

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My issue with them back then was that the phone representatives were telling everybody that it was an event week and the lower level Orlando people thought that as well. I had to email them a copy of the prospectus for them to release week 51 and week 52 to everybody. The higher ups in Orlando actually claimed that they did not know that the phases were broken up that way. At that time, phase 2 prospectus was already in circulation.

At the owners update last year the low level sales person told me platinum members do not have access to 51-52. I corrected her and she seemed pretty embarrassed that she did not know. She was new and at the time I thought she just made a mistake. Now I realize that Vistana made it clear internally. Only us the owners foolishly think there is still a chance of booking those weeks.
 
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