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[2012] Anyone else denied use of their week?

T_R_Oglodyte

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Exactly! All I have ever owned or ever bought are fixed week. No gambles. No calling in at 12:01 am or 8:01am New Year's Day to try to pin down something for Halloween (I don't even know at New Year's if I'm going to be in the US at Halloween!). [snip]

Huh? I have never had to call in for a reservation on New Years Day. Every resort that I own allows reservations at the 12 month window and some, at 13 months. When reserving a home resort week to use, they don't even require payment of the MF until it's due. If I want to reserve 12 months in advance and deposit that week for exchange, most will require an advance deposit against that years MF. It's a simple thing to do and I've never had to call by a certain time to acomplish what I need.

Floating weeks do take a little more planning but they're not the hassle you seem to believe them to be.
Doug is exactly correct. Every floating time resort that I'm aware of opens reservations on a rolling basis, usually 12 months before check-in date. Some require payment of annual fees when a reservation is made; some simply require that fees be paid as normal, though almost all will require that the account be current before allowing checkin.

The situations when one does need to be on the phone right away are when trying to reserve a particularly popular week, such as 4th of July at a beach resort. That's because on the day reservations open for that week more owners will submit requests than there are units available.

But that's just the nature of life with a floating reservation system. And we've certainly appreciated not being tied down to a specific check-in date for our floating resorts.
 

laura1957

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In a well-run bulk banking system the resort has some ability to anticipate when weeks are going to go unused, and the resort then banks those weeks with the exchange company. Later in the year, when the reservation crunch occurs, the resort can make one of the bulk banked weeks available to the owners who are unable to reserve.

It has worked this way for us as well. One time when we purchased a unit at a float time resort, by the time the sale closed there was no available time left to reserve. The resort however transferred a bulk banked week to our account so were able to get usage of our unit via an exchange.

*****

The same thing happened to us with our first timeshare - a floating week at Massanutten. There was nothing left that we could/wanted to use when we tried to reserve - they gave us a "pre-banked" week, and at least we had a week we could exchange. Not sure really HOW it works - but it did:)
 

Beefnot

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There were a decent number of FantasyWorld weeks in II. I wonder if they were all owner deposits or some bulk-banked weeks in there. If so, maybe work that angle with the resort?
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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The same thing happened to us with our first timeshare - a floating week at Massanutten. There was nothing left that we could/wanted to use when we tried to reserve - they gave us a "pre-banked" week, and at least we had a week we could exchange. Not sure really HOW it works - but it did:)

Another advantage of a bulk banking system is that if you have to make a late cancellation, you can "turn in" the week that you reserved and receive a bulk banked week instead of depositing your reserved week. Then instead of having a week that almost no trade power because it was deposited late, you receive a week that has it's full trade power.
 

dougp26364

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Many developers realize the issues of owners having difficulty reserving the very high demand weeks like NYE, Presidents week with ski resorts, 4th of July or other popular weeks at any given resort (popular varies by location). They've even learned how to turn a buck on those weeks and make life "easier" on owners by selling them as premium weeks. If you want that ever popular week, they'll sell it to you as a fixed week........for a price.

Some developers tend to oversell a season. Marriott does this by extending high demand seasons a few weeks past the true high demand time. Ask Newport Coast owners how they feel about Platinum season extending before/after the high demand summer months. Marriott's greed actually creates issues for families who must travel during the June/July/August timeframe by extending Platinum season outside of those months and that does create the call-at-the-moment reservations open crisis.

You just have to learn the systems and how they're managed. Some are good, others aren't as good and some are just plain rotten.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Many developers realize the issues of owners having difficulty reserving the very high demand weeks like NYE, Presidents week with ski resorts, 4th of July or other popular weeks at any given resort (popular varies by location). They've even learned how to turn a buck on those weeks and make life "easier" on owners by selling them as premium weeks. If you want that ever popular week, they'll sell it to you as a fixed week........for a price.

Some developers tend to oversell a season. Marriott does this by extending high demand seasons a few weeks past the true high demand time. Ask Newport Coast owners how they feel about Platinum season extending before/after the high demand summer months. Marriott's greed actually creates issues for families who must travel during the June/July/August timeframe by extending Platinum season outside of those months and that does create the call-at-the-moment reservations open crisis.

You just have to learn the systems and how they're managed. Some are good, others aren't as good and some are just plain rotten.

I know of one owner-controlled coastal resort that had two floating seasons - essentially summer and non-summer - but abolished them to create one big floating pool. They did that because the number of units foreclosed or in default was climbing, and most of those weeks were in the off-season pool. by giving all owners possible access to summer reservations they were able to increase the value of the offseason weeks sufficiently to get them remarketed. The summer pool owners apparently accepted the change as a necessary pill to swallow to keep the resort afloat. Of course it's now even more of a mad rush to make summer season reservations.
 

Mel

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Huh? I have never had to call in for a reservation on New Years Day. Every resort that I own allows reservations at the 12 month window and some, at 13 months. When reserving a home resort week to use, they don't even require payment of the MF until it's due. If I want to reserve 12 months in advance and deposit that week for exchange, most will require an advance deposit against that years MF. It's a simple thing to do and I've never had to call by a certain time to acomplish what I need.

Floating weeks do take a little more planning but they're not the hassle you seem to believe them to be.
You've obviously never tried to reserve an extremely high demand week at a floating week resort. I'm sure many here can attest to the need to call within minutes of reservations being available to get coveted July 4th weeks, or Christmas weeks at many resorts.

Perhaps the best solution is a form of bulk banking, where a reservation period exists that does not extend right up until the use week. Thus, they can reserve 12 months out (or whatever the resort chooses), or wait, but once it is 2 months out (or again, whatever the membership agrees to) any unreserved weeks will be deposited for exchange. If those January weeks in Orlando are not reserved, they end up banked, and when the OP calls in June to get a reservation in December, and finds that even the first week of December is reserved, there will still get an exchange week - and might even be able to exchange into the week they want, albeit including an exchange fee.

I recall several years back, someone complained about a similar issue - he wanted to reserve a particular week, something of high demand. His resort told him the week he wanted was not available through them, as they were all reserved by other owners. He got upset because he saw rentals of the week he wanted online, and the resort itself told him he could probably get an exchange back into the resort that week. He objected, and felt this wasn't fair because he wasn't an exchange company member, and this would cost not just an exchange fee, but membership fee as well. He insisted those weeks should be held for owner wanting to use them, rather than allowing other owners to trade them away or rent them out.

Needless to say, he got minimal sympathy here. If this was the first time your resort experienced this problem, but glad - and ask what they are doing to avoid the situation next year. Not only should they post a notice when the well is dry, but they should post a notice once a set number of weeks go unused, so members understand that they have reached a point of no return. Perhaps you could ask that the send reservation statistics with the annual maintenance bill. If that is mailed in November, and you can reserve a year ahead, people will have had the opportunity to reserve most weeks.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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I recall several years back, someone complained about a similar issue - he wanted to reserve a particular week, something of high demand. His resort told him the week he wanted was not available through them, as they were all reserved by other owners. He got upset because he saw rentals of the week he wanted online, and the resort itself told him he could probably get an exchange back into the resort that week. He objected, and felt this wasn't fair because he wasn't an exchange company member, and this would cost not just an exchange fee, but membership fee as well. He insisted those weeks should be held for owner wanting to use them, rather than allowing other owners to trade them away or rent them out.

Needless to say, he got minimal sympathy here. If this was the first time your resort experienced this problem, but glad - and ask what they are doing to avoid the situation next year. Not only should they post a notice when the well is dry, but they should post a notice once a set number of weeks go unused, so members understand that they have reached a point of no return. Perhaps you could ask that the send reservation statistics with the annual maintenance bill. If that is mailed in November, and you can reserve a year ahead, people will have had the opportunity to reserve most weeks.
And in my mind this is a perfectly valid reason for a resort to prohibit owners from selecting weeks for deposit with an affiliated exchange company. I have no problem at all with a resort that declares that the first and foremost operating objective is to accommodate as many owner usage requests as possible - for the use of owners and their guests.

I'm not saying that all bulk banking resorts need to operate that way. Unlike some other TUGgers, though, I believe that it's perfectly fine for some resorts to incorporate that into their usage rules.
 

Beefnot

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And in my mind this is a perfectly valid reason for a resort to prohibit owners from selecting weeks for deposit with an affiliated exchange company. I have no problem at all with a resort that declares that the first and foremost operating objective is to accommodate as many owner usage requests as possible - for the use of owners and their guests.

I'm not saying that all bulk banking resorts need to operate that way. Unlike some other TUGgers, though, I believe that it's perfectly fine for some resorts to incorporate that into their usage rules.

Eh, I don't like that idea. I would be supportive of the idea that specific weeks can be deposited with an exchange company only if they have been newly reserved (i.e., not just cancel and rebooked), say, 7 months or less prior to check-in date. Any weeks to be deposited earlier than the 7-month mark would be selected by the resort.

As a corollary, guest certs or substitution of the owner on the reservation can only be done, say, 60 days prior to check-in. This might help mitigate the proliferation of prime rentals since many renters may not feel so comfortable putting down earnest money while having to wait until 60 days out to verify that they will have the unit.
 
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T_R_Oglodyte

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[changed my mind - might respond more later]
 

gregb

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Not everyone is going to get a reservation. But if the resort has bulk banked those units that sat empty at the beginning of the season, the people who get squeezed out at the end can at least get an exchange week to use.

Steve, what I was missing was that the frozen out owners were getting an exchange week to replace their owned week. Now it all makes sense.

Thanks,
Greg
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Steve, what I was missing was that the frozen out owners were getting an exchange week to replace their owned week. Now it all makes sense.

Thanks,
Greg
Yeah - that's the idea. In fact, I can't imagine running a floating reservation system where the float pool is sold-out or near sold-out without operating a bulk banking system to provide something to owners who get squeezed out.
 

peakview

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Update!!

Well, good news. Our resort, Vacation Villas at Fantasy World, came through yesterday and offered us the week we originally requested. Situation resolved to our satisfaction. And now we know the consequences of not requesting or depositing early. Thanks everyone for your advice and comments.
 

shebagirl

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Denied a week for 2012 too

2012 was the first year I was denied too :mad: I've owned here since 1992.

I was sooo mad when it happened and I'm still not too happy. I requested the my week be deposited on August 2nd and they told me that they were sold out for the rest of the year and had over 200 people on the waiting list in case a week opened up. They also said that there was a letter on their website stating that as of June 4 they were sold out and that they only own 205 out of the 302 townhouses that exist on the site. What I would like to know is if they have over 10,660 members then they are sold out and that should be illegal since there is NO way all of the owners could get a week.

I explained to the person that I usally schedule or bank my week around this time and never have has an issue. They said since they renovated (which we had to pay and extra fee for) that people wanted to come to the resort. Uhhh wouldn't there be almost the same amount of owners in 2011 as there was this year??? I think they have oversold the resort.

I will probably never buy another floating Timeshare again. I like my week 17 in Mexico!!

Thanks for letting me vent~ Sherri Powers
 

bogey21

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If the hoa was really acting in the interest of all owners. Wouldnt it make more sense to require owners to pay their dues before the the year begins, and to reserve their week at the same time. In other words not accept a payment without a reservation request.

At one time I owned a MROP Week. MROP did something like this. Annually they had a day where everyone had the opportunity at the same time to submit their requests for the upcoming year. I think you could make and prioritize three choices. The inference was if you didn't participate, you could be left without a Week late in the year.

George
 

Tacoma

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I own a floating week at Fairmont resort (someone on TUG generously gave it away) in BC. I need a prime summer week so I call at exactly a year out. This year I didn't get through till 15 minutes after opening and could not get any top floor corner unit so I had to take the lower floor. As it turns out I will have to rent it as I will be in Mexico but last year I had a lor ot interest in a similar week so it should be easy to rent.

My friends who bought both of their timeshares from the developer (you can't help some people) tried to book too late and got nothing last year. His answer is to sue the resort.:shrug: His other resort is Royal Haciendas and now that they have gome all inclusive I'm sure he won't have a lot of luck trading it either. Although fixed weeks are easier sometimes floating allows more flexibility. ANy regular poster on TUG has probably learned what they need to do to secure a good week.

Joan
 

travelplus

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The least the resort should do for you is refund you your maintenance fees or allow you to book bonus weeks for the next year. Or the resort should give you bonus weeks with your exchange company and pay for any annual fee or exchange fee. Since you paid for your week and assessments you should be able to use it.

I agree it helps to have a Google Calendar setup with your family's engagements and to plan around it. However I would at least expect the resort to accomodate you in another of their family's resorts or give you other options.
 

Sandy VDH

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There are pros and cons for fixed vs floating weeks.

If the resort sat empty for the first half of the year, and all owners want to stay only in the end half of the year, will that just plain won't work.

Now it the resort was smart enough it would have deposited those unused weeks early enough and provide those who want to exchange via RCI (or II) a weeks from one of the deposited inventory unit.

If you plan well, floating gives the opportunity to allow anyone to obtain a holiday or event week. But is it first come first serve.

For fixed weeks, the good thing is, especially for those who are not good planners, is that it allows you to keep you week without having to plan and think about booking it. However with a fixed week you are stuck with that one week and have not flexibility.
 

vacationhopeful

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Floating weeks could work GREAT if every week in the resort is desireable AND everyone HAD to book their usage before Jan 1 of the upcoming year. That way, EVERYONE and every unit would be either occupied or placed into the exchange company (via a bulk depoist).

But, if no one books the month of January, all those units still have to be paid for - taxes, employees, electric, etc. Giving people the RIGHT to get their MFs refunded is like the medical insurance provider rebating you your premuims paid because you didn't use it. MFs pay for the resort's operating costs and future bills (like new furniture).

Some resorts have seasons for floating weeks - buy a summer season, book a summer week. But then you get everyone who want July 4th week and few people wanting the full Labor or Memorial Day weeks (kids still in school or sports). Or in Florida, everyone wanting Feb and March Weeks, but not January and April.

And that is WHY I own soome Fixed Week and some points systems, but I have NOT interest in owning a Float Week.
 

bogey21

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......However with a fixed week you are stuck with that one week and have not flexibility.

Not exactly true. At some of the HOA controlled Independent Resorts where I owned Fixed Weeks the Resort would facilitate swapping usage with other Owners.

George
 

swditz

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our ts is a fixed (week 52) and a fixed unit. nice to know it is always available. it also has the option to exchange in house as a flex week , at no cost except to another holiday week which would cost $139.
 

suzannesimon

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More and more, I'm opting to rent my fixed weeks if I'm not using them, then rent where I want to go. I've always come out ahead financially and it eliminates the real chance I won't get the trade I want.
 
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