How Our 3BR Lock-Off Works
Basically, ours is a 3BR-3BA suite with lockable adjoining doors so that the 1BR & 2BR components can literally be locked off from each other.
When they're locked off like that, each is a stand-alone timeshare condo.
The 1BR suite has a big bedroom with queen bed, a screened terrace, a nice jacuzzi in the bathroom, plus 2 bathroom lavatory sinks & a separate shower. The toilet is behind a door in a separate alcove in the bathroom, so there's plenty of privacy.
Both suites -- the 1BR & the 2BR -- in addition to having lockable inside connecting doors also have their own outside doors, with key-card locks.
The entrance to the 1BR suite goes into a combination living room & kitchen. It has a queen-size sleep sofa, small dining table with chairs, plus full kitchen complete with everything except dishwasher.
The 2BR condo has a large master suite with king bed & large adjoining bathroom with jacuzzi. The 2nd bedroom has 2 twin beds. Next to the 2nd bedroom is a complete bathroom with convntional tub-shower arrangement. The 2BR condo has a large living room with big-screen TV, easy chairs, & queen-size sleep sofa. There is a full-size dining table with straight chairs, also a fully equipped large kitchen.
The 2BR suite has its own inside washer & dryer. The 1BR suite has access to outside washers & dryers. Or, if you're using the 2 suites together as a humongous 3BR condo (as we did over Thanksgiving 2003), occupants of both suites can use the washer-dryer in the 2BR suite.
Every year we are billed for maintenance fees on a 3BR unit. All units at the resort are floating, so potentially any week can be reserved but there are no guarantees -- the reservations are all first-come, first-served. The sooner we know what week(s) we want & put in our reservation request(s) the better our chances for getting our 1st choice(s).
If we divide the 3BR into separate 2BR & 1BR units, we don't have to put in both reservations requests at the same time. This year, for instance, we made a 1BR March reservation in January, letting the 2BR unit continue to float. Then in February, we made a May reservation.
With our 3BR lock-off unit all paid for, we get to decide whether to use it or deposit it as a complete 3BR condo. Or, we can split it into its 1BR & 2BR components & decide how to use those (make reservations, rent them out, deposit either or both for exchange). Because the weeks are floating, we have to pin them down via specific reservations before we can deposit either or both for exchange. Ditto if we use the whole 3BR unit as a single large 3BR condo.
Also because the weeks are all floating, we have to take care not to wait so late in the year that nothing's left to reserve. If that happens, we're just plain out of luck -- we get nothing even though we paid everything that was owed when it was due. (We just got in under the wire in 2005, snagging a Week 52 reservation for December 31 check-in. Then, as luck would have it, plans changed & we ended up renting out the unit.)
We have to use or rent out or deposit our 2006 week(s) in 2006. As far as the resort is concerned, nothing carries over. But if we bank our time, as weeks
or as points, with an outside timeshare exchange organization, then we can carry over our 2006 week(s) for later exchange, within the limits of the timeshare exchange organization's rules.
This year, we won't be going to our 3BR lock-off timeshare at all. Last month we made a reservation for our 1BR lock-off & did
Points For Deposit with our reserved 1BR week. Then we advertised our 2BR week for rent on
Craig's List & got a renter right away -- meaning (I think) that we rented it way too cheap. (Live & learn, eh?) Anyhow, that's the 1st time we've ever deposited our time at that resort for exchange. Up to now, we've always planned to go there ourselves or use it within the family; twice, though, we rented out 1BR weeks we had reserved for our own use when plans changed & we couldn't use our reserved time.
-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.