American Resorts International / ARI / Alpenland Sportshotel in St Johann in Austria

[BillieJean]

Can someone provide some up to date information on what is happening with this company / this timeshare resort? We understand that there are legal challenges (several?) going through the courts.

We live in the UK, bought into this company / resort in 2000, purchased 99 weeks, and are fully paid up. For 15 years we regularly used the resort for our annual skiing trip. We last visited in 2015 and each visit we paid our annual maintenance fee. Due to accidents and illnesses we have been unable to visit for 10 years, so we have not paid our maintenance fee for 10 years.

In those 10 years we have not had any communications at all from ARI - no postal correspondence, no emails, even though our details have not changed. They have not chased us for our annual maintenance, hence us wondering if they are still in business.

We have considered making contact with them, but would like to know exactly what is going on before doing that. Some questions that spring to mind:-
- are they still in business (and if so, why have they not made contact with us?)
- are there lawsuits? what is the basis of the lawsuits?
- what is their current annual maintenance fee for Alpenland?
- are they likely to demand 10 years of maintenance fees?
- legally, would they be justified in that demand?
- if we never make contact with them, are they ever likely to chase us for the maintenance fees?
- how likely are they to be successful?

We really liked the resort for skiing, and had planned to also visit them in summer, but they seem so incredibly unprofessional. Maybe we should cut our losses?

Any information anyone can provide would be really useful.

Many thanks.

 

[aroundtheworld76]

How odd. I email them annually to book or trade my weeks. They always reply within a day. I pay my MF monthly ($900 /year for a floating week) through their website. I absolutely love my week with them. I know nothing of any current lawsuits. I've owned a membership since 2015.

ETA: They sold off the Maria Alm Property a few years back. It's just St. Johann now.

 

[BillieJean]

How odd. I email them annually to book or trade my weeks. They always reply within a day. I pay my MF monthly ($900 /year for a floating week) through their website. I absolutely love my week with them. I know nothing of any current lawsuits. I've owned a membership since 2015.

ETA: They sold off the Maria Alm Property a few years back. It's just St. Johann now.

Thanks for the reply and update. When we bought in 2000 they had St Johann, Maria Alm, St Maarten in the Carribean (which we visited) and another in the Carribean. Shame they are just down to St Johann.

We also love St Johann, and have had many great skiing weeks, so absolutely no complaints there. Just seems very odd that they have not contacted us in the last 10 years when we were clearly in arrears. That's why we did some research and found out about the lawsuits. We didn't want to contact them (and potentially have to back pay quite a lot of money) if they were on the verge of going under.

Thanks for updating us on the annual fee - $900. Our last visit was in 2015 and the fee was $400 so by my calculations that is about a 9% increase each year for the last 10 years - seems excessive.

Do you know if Robert Schimak is still there?

 

[aroundtheworld76]

Thanks for the reply and update. When we bought in 2000 they had St Johann, Maria Alm, St Maarten in the Carribean (which we visited) and another in the Carribean. Shame they are just down to St Johann.

We also love St Johann, and have had many great skiing weeks, so absolutely no complaints there. Just seems very odd that they have not contacted us in the last 10 years when we were clearly in arrears. That's why we did some research and found out about the lawsuits. We didn't want to contact them (and potentially have to back pay quite a lot of money) if they were on the verge of going under.

Thanks for updating us on the annual fee - $900. Our last visit was in 2015 and the fee was $400 so by my calculations that is about a 9% increase each year for the last 10 years - seems excessive.

Do you know if Robert Schimak is still there?

Don't know of a Robert. It's a mix of folks who answer my emails. Mostly Janet.

When I got it in 2015 (free via Tug!) my MF was $680. My week is floating, only New Years excluded. It stayed fairly steady til Covid, then a couple of bigger jumps, but not too bad. I just checked the price for the week we are planning on for next year if booked via the Alpenland website and it's about 1600 euro, so the value is still there.

Honestly, if they haven't gone after you for MF, I wouldn't upset that situation. Maybe consider keeping your eye on Interval AC weeks or RCI extra or Last Call Weeks. They do have some winter availability periodically for rates well below the hotel website.

I have gone in the fall before too and it's equally amazing. The Liechtensteinklamm gorge is beautiful. Gondola served Alpine hiking, a city day in Salzburg. It's just awesome.

 

[BillieJean]

Don't know of a Robert. It's a mix of folks who answer my emails. Mostly Janet.

When I got it in 2015 (free via Tug!) my MF was $680. My week is floating, only New Years excluded. It stayed fairly steady til Covid, then a couple of bigger jumps, but not too bad. I just checked the price for the week we are planning on for next year if booked via the Alpenland website and it's about 1600 euro, so the value is still there.

Honestly, if they haven't gone after you for MF, I wouldn't upset that situation. Maybe consider keeping your eye on Interval AC weeks or RCI extra or Last Call Weeks. They do have some winter availability periodically for rates well below the hotel website.

I have gone in the fall before too and it's equally amazing. The Liechtensteinklamm gorge is beautiful. Gondola served Alpine hiking, a city day in Salzburg. It's just awesome.

Brilliant info, thanks for reply. Not yet been in summer, but have done Salzburg. Planning on doing the gorge, and the Eagles Nest.