"Aruba Ocean Club Owners, Sign up for a letter to Marriott on Maintenance Fees"

[lovearuba]

Greetings to all Marriott Aruba Ocean Club Owners:

I am drafting a letter which I would like to get out by the end of the week. The purpose is to let Marriott know that we the owners of the Ocean club are upset with the staggering increases in maintenance fees on top of the significant special assessment fees that are being proposed beginning in 2009.

The goal of the letter will be to get a response from Marriott. We are hoping to find out that Marriott takes our concerns serious. We are concerned that our President was removed from his position and that no one has told us why? We are not sure that the current board is looking after our best interest and want to hear what their plan is to resolve our concerns. The letter will go to the board first because they are representing us. We will cc Marriott. If we do not get a satisfactory answer from them, we will move to replace them and work directly with Marriott.

We also want to understand why we are paying for some of the repair costs that may have been the result of a faulty building (leaking throughout the building). We want to reduce those expenses. We dont want to be paying for something that was not up to Marriott standards to start with. We dont believe our maintenace fees should be higher than the surf club especially since we are getting hit with those special assessments. We need to put together our heads and find creative ways to reduce the expenses.

If you have not already sent me your email and want your name on this letter please send me a private letter.

I will post here if we get a response to the letter and I will request the board to post the response to the ocean club website. Thanks to all who have responded. Marsue, I am hoping you will sign the letter.



Thanks

 

[marksue]

I am with you on this. There are many others I know who are intersted and I will forward their email addresses to you.

Lets keep things moving forward.

 

[marksue]

[Edited to delete comment regarding moderating, which is not permitted. Please take comments offline. Dave M, BBS Moderator]

 

[lovearuba]

Original Thread and Response to this one

Hi
I didnt close the original thread just opened a new one to keep this one simple, sorry if that offends anyone.

We have approximately 40 people that have already signed up, its a weekend so I expect the number to grow.

When the letter is drafted I will send an advance copy out to the names I have and if people no longer want to be included I will remove their names. This way people get to ensure they are being represented appropriately and that they feel the letter sets the right tone. Thanks all.

 

[marksue]

THat is great you have that many. I forwarded a few more emails to you this morning.

As i get them I wills end them

I am going to put togheter all the people onthe website who are renting units and get thier emails together 4 u

 

[Steel5Rings]

All fine and good, but why are you sending it to Marriott?......This is an issue that you need to take up with your Board of Directors, they set the annual budget for the resort.

 

[marksue]

If you knew what was going on at the OCean club you would understand. Go to this link and read through the posts.

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82564

 

[gmarine]

An FYI for those who expect a good outcome. Several years ago owners at the Renaissance Aruba had an issue with special assessments and a few other things. We gathered emails over several months and in total over 2,000 owners took part in letter to management. We also attended meetings, made phone calls,wrote individual letters/emails etc and it ended up doing nothing.

I wish you luck but I think your going to need several thousand owners to get involved to even have a shot at getting something out of this.

 

[timeos2]

Fight the good fight and be ready to hang in there

An FYI for those who expect a good outcome. Several years ago owners at the Renaissance Aruba had an issue with special assessments and a few other things. We gathered emails over several months and in total over 2,000 owners took part in letter to management. We also attended meetings, made phone calls,wrote individual letters/emails etc and it ended up doing nothing.

I wish you luck but I think your going to need several thousand owners to get involved to even have a shot at getting something out of this.

I applaud Marksue for the effort and wish that group luck in what is likely to be a heck of a battle should they actually carry through. The items they are complaining about are troublesome and it sounds all too familiar that a Board is under the thumb of management rather than representing the owners as they should.

The only area I see that is likely to fail or possibly end up costing money rather than saving is the issue with the roof(s). Since it is now 10 years old Marriott is most likely being quite fair in offering 44% (or whatever that number was) toward repairs/replacement. The opportunity to get 100% or even anything close would have been back when the resort was accepted and/or when the Board took over as the official managing entity with Marriott as their hired managers. As both of those occurred many years ago the time to claim unacceptable workmanship most likely passed many years ago as well. If that idea gets pressed too hard Marriott might withdraw all offers of payment and the owners would end up paying 100% of the cost. There are a number of examples of that occurring at resorts so I'd tread very carefully in making demands on the roof replacement issue. Other than that do to it & good luck!

 

[Bob B]

Agree, I just sent you a PM with our names to add.

 

[AwayWeGo]

The Roof Over Our Head.

The only area I see that is likely to fail or possibly end up costing money rather than saving is the issue with the roof(s). Since it is now 10 years old Marriott is most likely being quite fair in offering 44% (or whatever that number was) toward repairs/replacement. The opportunity to get 100% or even anything close would have been back when the resort was accepted and/or when the Board took over as the official managing entity with Marriott as their hired managers. As both of those occurred many years ago the time to claim unacceptable workmanship most likely passed many years ago as well. If that idea gets pressed too hard Marriott might withdraw all offers of payment and the owners would end up paying 100% of the cost. There are a number of examples of that occurring at resorts so I'd tread very carefully in making demands on the roof replacement issue. Other than that do to it & good luck!

What is it about roofs ?

Not just timeshare roofs, I mean, but regular suburban house roofs & museum-quality architectural landmark roofs & I don't know what-all kinds of roofs.

Hard-core TUG-BBS folks already know about the Cypress Pointe timeshare roof issues that timeos2 & his HOA-BOD colleagues were able to resolve via bank financing without triggering disastrous special assessments.

Architecture buffs are no doubt familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright's notoriously leaky roofs. Apparently his buildings just had to be, like, you know, architectural. They didn't have to be rainproof. I have heard (& I can believe it) that there is 1 construction company out there whose main professional speciality is repairing & re-doing the roofs on various Frank Lloyd Wright landmark buildings.

The main headquarters building of the U.S. Department Of The Interior, where I worked 1964-1998 in various civil service jobs, never did get the all roof leaks under control. I couldn't understand why roof leaks up top of a 7-floor institutional mausoleum-style stone edifice caused drippy ceilings in some of the 2nd floor offices -- had to do with bad flashing on some of the exterior balconies & overhangs, etc., I was told.

The main terminal building of Dulles International Airport was fraught with roof leaks for a long time. I won't swear to it, but they may finally have taken care of those, possibly as part of the big main terminal expansion project a few years back.

And even in this nice suburban house where The Chief Of Staff have lived since 1985 or so, the roof started letting the rainwater in way too soon. We got estimates from 3 large & 3 smallish roofing companies. All were roughly equivalent. We went with 1 of the small outfits for a complete roof replacement job a couple years back. All the job estimators -- every 1 -- said the same thing: You Have 2 Problems. No. 1, The Shingles Are About Worn Out. No. 2, The Original Roof Wasn't Done Right In The 1st Place.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[concernedowner]

What is it about roofs?

:annoyed: :annoyed:
The answer is poor workmansthip and lack of accountability. Who is in charge of this - the owners don't want to spend close to a million dollars to have similar problems.

 

[lovearuba]

Concerned Owner

The more owners that sign up the louder our message will be. We are also looking into how to officially get the names of all owners. Most of them are in for a really bad day when they get their maintenance bills.

Imagine already knowing you are going to get hit with a huge assessment fee and lo and behold you look at your bill and rather than a total bill of $1800 (1100 maintenance and 700 special assessment) you actually are getting a bill for $2300 (1600 maintenace and 700 special assessment). Marriotts phones will be ringing because most people will think its a mistake. Most people will also be in the midst of paying for Christmas gifts and unfortunately a lot of them may be out of work because of the poor economy. Some of these folks will already be trying to sell but the market is so bad, they will be having trouble. They are not going to understand the excuses we've heard on this one. They will wonder what the point is of having a board that is supposed to be representing them? They will wonder where Allan is? I still wonder!!

I dont think many will just write the check on this one. Marriott should just settle this before they lose their appeal to most of these owners. Approximately 9000 owners will be really pissed off. Word of mouth is going to hurt Marriott on this one. Its also going to prevent people that are buying resale to even consider it knowing what happened to the ocean club owners because we are going to keep reminding them. They will be reminded everytime these 9000 people go to Aruba and stay at the timeshare and see a new couple asking about the place. They are going to be reminded when they ask us if we regret buying a timeshare. People ask me that question all the time. I've taken my sister and friends to presentations. I referred my husband's boss and she bought two weeks (thank goodness not in Aruba)

This year is the first time I have a different answer for them. A very sad answer.

I dont know about you but I've lived in my house for 17 years and my original roof is still on. I live in the Northeast and did have to replace the ridgevent because of a huge rain storm. We have had significant rain here but my windows havent leaked and I didnt have to put buckets in the hallways to catch the rain. I saw that in Aruba. My insurance covered the expense. Aruba does not get much rain, lets face it, its one happy island. No beep of the angry horn. I bought my timeshare in 2002 and its only 6 years later. No excuse for this one.

By the way has anyone heard from the board. I would love to know what address to send the letter to. I want to know if they are still trying to negotiate a settlement on our behalf. We have a lot of questions for them and I am hoping they are preparing their answers.

Have a dry day.

 

[luvmypt]

We own a 1 bedroom and a 2 bedroom and I can tell you right now we are not happy campers. We were aware of the assessments for 2009 and 2010 but not about the huge increase in maintenance fees. According to the figures, we have to now come up with an additional $756 by January. At what point in time was Marriott going to officially let us know about the increase and, with this economic meltdown, how did they expect some of us to pay it?

 

[judys19058]

I am a little late on this thread. I know about the problems and the special accessments, but I am not aware that the President was removed from the Board. Are you refering to Al Cohen? I have always thought he was doing a great job.

 

[lovearuba]

Owners meeting

Hi
I was not in Aruba for the owners meeting but others were and it was obvious that Allan is no longer president but no one has officially told us why. His name is no longer on the ocean club website as president but it does show him as a board member. What I've heard is that the meeting was pretty awful and owners were outraged. I also heard, although again I wasnt there but I heard that the person that represents us for Finance would not allow owners to speak. This is very disturbing since that board is representing us and we are entitled to any information they have. The board has been silent, other than posting a note on this website and on the ocean claiming that a lawsuit was a rumor.

We are hoping to get them to answer our questions via this letter and if they dont we may have to seek other avenues to get issues addressed. We also feel strongly that they need to work for us and get some concessions from Marriott. I hope this helps.

 

[marksue]

Judy,

I was at the owners meeting and it was not a positive meeting. At the beginning Allan announced that he was no longer going to be president. Supposedly it was a planned event, but I believe the board and Marriott forced him out as president. It was also announced the Frank Knox was taking over as president but of course, “he had to leave”. I believe he did not want to face the owners, and his lack of any announcement proves my belief.

The meeting started out with a review of the issues we are facing, the defective roof that has to be replaced, and the upcoming renovations. We were also told about the new maintenance fee and assessment. Discussion on these were put off until Melissa the finance person would speak.
When the meeting was turned over to Melissa everything really started going down hill. Melissa started talking about what Marriott has done for the other TS she is president. All she could do was rave about Marriott. She was not an owner proponent. When she was questioned on items she would not answer the questions and would then defer to Dirk, from Marriott. Dirk was the most arrogant of all the speakers. When someone complained about the costs and the fact that the roof was below par, his comment was maybe you should just sell. What a looser he is.

Marriott is giving some money, but no where near the amount they should for the $$$ we the owners have spent over the years to repair the place after all the leaks and floods.

For more information go to the Marriott ripping off Ocean club owners. There is a lot of info posted their.

 

[lovearuba]

why would I have to pay for this

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85086

This link shows how low people are paying to use our timeshares, peanuts. I would assume Marriott gave these to interval or they somehow had extra inventory for these periods. I am sorry if you cant see the link but it shows some our our surf and ocean club units being sold as getaways for next to nothing.

Marriott's Aruba Ocean Club: November 21st through November 28th, 1 bedroom for $349.00: a two bedroom for the same week is $439.00


Although as Dave Points out if you are not a member of tug you would not see this under distressed but anyone who has an interval account can get it as a getaway. I for one think this stinks. I paid $1100 for maintenance last year and these units are being given away.

 

[Dave M]

Your post will not make any sense for those (such as marksue) who are designated as a "Guest" rather than as a "Tug Member". Guests will not be able to access your linked thread, as it's from a members-only forum.

 

[marksue]

Dave,

I joined over the weekend but for some reason I can not get to the site. I got a reciept from Tug on my membership.

Ok i got it to work

 

[thinze3]

I don't see anything worth talking about on that list. November and Decmber are lows seasons throughout the timeshare industry. Add that to very high air fares and I would expect there to be a few getaways or extra weeks during these times.

One June studio?? Big deal. Neither Marriott, nor II nor the HOA has done anything wrong here IMO.

Terry

 

[oiram56]

I have valuable information and extensive well documented proof regarding the existence of very toxic extremely poluted environment and many undesclosed information in connection with construction fraud at the Marriott Aruba Ocean Club.If you are interested let me know and I will give you my e mail address and telephone number.

 

[Dave M]

It's possible, based on info in the profile for the poster of the immediately above post, that is commercial in nature. Thus, any contact info should be communicated behind the scene and should not be posted here.

 

[lovearuba]

thinze

Hi
I appreciate your thought on this but I dont think we should ever allow these units to rent for this low. I would prefer to see Marriott allow people to use rewards point for those. I am thinking the new marriott exchange process might help with this type of situation. Thats my opinion.

 

[JimC]

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85086

This link shows how low people are paying to use our timeshares, peanuts. I would assume Marriott gave these to interval or they somehow had extra inventory for these periods. I am sorry if you cant see the link but it shows some our our surf and ocean club units being sold as getaways for next to nothing.

That is why I sold. The market determines the price -- its simple supply vs demand for each season. It is possible for the market at AOC to change more in favor of the owner in the future.