Did I do the right thing with my Vidanta TS?

[DazedTSpeeps]

Hi All. Just joined TUG today

We bought a Vidanta membership (Mayan) back about 20 years ago. Used it sparingly. Mainly because we couldn't find the time to travel, or life took us to other places.
Now we are at an age that we can start to travel more regularly. Of course, over the years, the MFs rose to almost $800 (from $ 495)
Anyway in 2016 We went to Los Cabos, and were convinced (those pesky sales types can be so convincing) to upgrade our membership to GM, create two TS's out of one, and go with a no maintenance fee (MF) contract. Further, the new contracts give us with some access privileges to the new Cirque du Soleil Theme Park in PV (which was supposed to be completed right around the corner - still waiting)
Bottom line we ended up paying some $$ and got the following:
1.Two memberships instead of one - the original Mayan became a Grand Mayan (GM) and a new 1BDRM GM each with 2 weeks (plus some lifestyle weeks?). Usage fee on GM studio is $800. Usage fee on the GM 1 bdrm is $1000.
2. both contracts are now no MF (only a usage fee is payable). That in itself was the main attraction for upgrading...but...
3. The theory at the time was that we could then sell one. (The salesperson promoted that idea, even referred us to TS sales sites.) However the catch, that I recently became aware of, after talking with Vidanta HO, is that the "no MF" option is not transferable to any new owner of my TS, with Vidanta). And of course they never buy them back.

So here we are with two no-MF GM Timeshares, but only really need one.

We have never tried to sell one. Scams seem to abound. How do we get an honest opinion of what they are worth?

Is it even realistic to be able to sell one in order to recoup some costs? Getting all sorts of mixed messages on that alone.

Why don't we just keep both? We may travel to a Vidanta Resort once or twice a year, but more than that is unlikely. Not sure if it simply makes sense to bank the extra weeks derived from two properties and generally go through SFX or something similar to visit other locales?
Or is it realistic to rent out the extra weeks we don't need using the TUG site? or another site? Can we realistically get more than our MF in renting?

Any thoughts/suggestions would be most appreciated. Or If I am posting this in the wrong forum, please let us know. Just need a starting point and or a more informed TS type to help us.

DazedTSpeeps.

 

[echino]

Others who are more knowledgeable will reply, but consensus here seems to be that the resale value of Vidanta contracts is approximately zero, because of devaluation of the contract being transferred and/or high transfer fees.

You may try reserving a week and rent it out, but for GM level, you are unlikely to get much, if anything, above the fees, so this is also not a good way to recoup the money.

Value of Vidanta contracts is primarily in personal use for vacations.

 

[Eric B]

Read your contracts thoroughly in order to fully understand them. If they are structured like most Vida contracts, one of them is good for ten years and is a registered week every other year plus an alternate year week in the off years that is given similar reservation rights to the registered weeks by addenda to the contract. That contract terminates in 10 years.

The other contract is called a certificate by its terms and allows you to use two weeks per year with Vidanta. This one is renewable every ten years for 100 years and has different transfer limitations than the other. Essentially you can sell the first one while it is still good, but the addenda might not transfer; the second one can be transferred to family or heirs.

Lots of posts on the Vidanta Resort system in the Mexico timesharing forum lower down on the TUG homepage. Some folks bank weeks with RCI or SFX. You might also investigate Registry Collection. IMHO, Vidanta has fairly high MFs, so as echino said, the value in your ownership is in using it. I own Vidanta and some other TSs, the other ones are typically more efficient to use for exchanges with TS on a par with GM or GB. There are some higher tier TSs I would consider using a Vidanta week for, but I own at a higher tier than GM.

You can do well with SFX for exchanging into Mexico and the West coast, but there are other posters on TUG that have had difficulty getting the resorts they want with them. Results vary, but then again so do expectations.

T-dot Traveller is a knowledgeable Vidanta owner at the MP level. Pittle is as well, though she is a GL owner. There are a few others worth reading, but not as prolific as posters.

Oh, the lifestyle weeks are with Vida Lifestyle, a third party operation run by ICE (International Cruise and Excursions, or something like that). You probably got a year membership in that with the purchase. Those weeks are only good in the off season. Might be okay, but you'll be treated like an exchanger. They have a travel store that you can use for other resorts similar to RCI extra vacations and a few other things. Again, results and expectations vary.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Eric covered a lot .

1) What is your booking window / and is it the same for both weeks in each contract ?

Your Mayan Palace likely had a 6 month ARP / booking window . (ie) Aug 1 you could book any Feb week including the President’s Week holiday week . Your Mayan Palace contract also had a bonus week named Vacation Fare that had 45 day ARP ( Advanced Reservation Period) for Feb & March ( 6 months other times).

Does the language in your new contracts replicate this and / how does it differ . Most likely they are written in the format Eric described . As he said read it carefully and let us know .

********
Thoughts-
1) Prime winter / snowbird weeks are the most rentable .(President’s Week is likely the best) This plan would require making and paying for the reservation .
Vidanta allows you to cancel 30 days before if you had no renter & preferred to use the week yourself for another time period .

2) The Vidanta resort fee (per unit) for exchanges via RCI & II may allow some added profit in rentals.

3) When the NV Celebrate / Cirque Theme Park opens - there could be an increased rental demand ,including summer rental usage by the Mexican Nationals ; especially after the Guadalajara to PV toll road opens and cuts drive time to the 3 hour range .

4) The Grand Mayan Los Cabos may have some increased rent demand due to the 2018 opening of the (on property) Omnia Club run by Hakkasan Group .
The age target market of this club is likely under 35 west-coast based - so I am not sure where you would advertise or what is considered a "prime" week by that demographic . A recent ( Jan 1 2019) New York Times travel section article - Los Cabos .... , included details about Omnia Club at Vidanta Los Cabos.
(article was posted to Mexican Forum - Jan 7 2019 by RN Collins / it was also linked earlier in a different thread about Grand Mayan Cabo location )

5) Your one bedroom will likely rent better than the studio .

6) Up to you to decide how much effort you want to put into renting
something that does not require a mandatory MF payment .

*****
Vidanta is a week system and can be deposited into RCI weeks system for TPU’s
You will likely get in the 20-ish range = about $ 40 per TPU . Since you are not required to pay MF - I would skip this option . Instead use the week for Vidanta resort visits .

If you wish to occasionally exchange outside Vidanta - I would instead explore your Vida -SFX -Lifestyle weeks and how they work .( you may have bonus lifestyle weeks to use at Vidanta & Vida - SFX weeks for non Vidanta usage .) Again - read your contract .

If you want to do a lot of exchanges - I would look at the TUG bargain / free forum OR ebay for a decent trader . Spend some time reading TUG to better understand this strategy .

TUG is a great place to learn how to best use what you own .

 

[richontug]

I also bought Maya Palace about 10 years. Never used except RCI exchange.

I now use SFX with Wyndham deposits for Grand Luxxe each year but nothing for 2020 yet.