Big change$ in Vidanta RCI Resort Fee

[WatsonC2]

Saw this under Fee/Other Info tonight for an exchange vacation Dec 2019 at Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta. Previous info had a limit of 1 week during peak (now gone) and a $11 pp/pd fee (ages 12 and up). The fee now replaced by a $30 pp/pd adult and $15 pp/pd for kids (ages 2-12).

• Resort applies a US$30 Resort Fee per adult, per night, and a US$15 Resort Fee per children per night (2 to 12 years old). Fee includes: One-way transportation Airport to Hotel, transportation throughout the Resort, local phone calls, basic Internet for 1 device, Gym Access, Press summary, a Welcome drink, Daily Housekeeping service, cover to the "Santuario" and 25% resort credits.
• A Guest Certificate is required for multiple and consecutive reservations starting from the second confirmation, with different names for each reservation. Reservations are checked by ID and name. Reservations with the same name will be cancelled. Resort credits are calculated on the final total of the mandatory resort fee
• Resort offers one-way transportation from the Airport to the Hotel. To request this service, please access the following link with your confirmation letter in hand: https://shuttleservices.vidanta.com Please enter your RCI weeks ID plus the relation number confirmed, and follow directions in the website to book transportation.
• If booking for a guest, subscriber's RCI weeks ID plus relation number must be provided along with the guest's last name on the reservation. Transportation must be requested at least 48 hrs prior the check in date. To receive the service, you must provide the confirmation received upon arrival. **Close date confirmations made 48 hrs prior to arrival will not be accepted.**

 

[Eric B]

Interesting. Thanks for pointing out. Did they still list the limits on number of stays in a year?

 

[pianoetudes]

You can use this fee as bargaining power to attend presentation. Ask to eliminate or discount the fee in exchange of attending presentation.

 

[WatsonC2]

Interesting. Thanks for pointing out. Did they still list the limits on number of stays in a year?

That appears to be gone.

 

[WatsonC2]

You can use this fee as bargaining power to attend presentation. Ask to eliminate or discount the fee in exchange of attending presentation.

Maybe a Tugger will see how much they waive. We just got back from a trip in December and only paid the $75/week as the resevation was very old. This fee amount really makes it "meh" for me. At that price (with the maintenance I pay, RCI exchange fee, etc...) I can find other choices. Although not sure what the 25% resort credits implies. We usually spend about $1200 for a family of 4 for a week so that if that a discount then it would help.

 

[WatsonC2]

It doesn't appear to have hit Interval yet as their fees are still the $11pp/pd and no mention of peak week limits:
REQUIRED RESORT CHARGES
REQUIRED SURCHARGES (energy, accommodations/occupancy tax, bed tax, fees or other miscellaneous) ARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE OCCUPANT AND ARE PAYABLE DIRECTLY TO THE RESORT. Surcharges are subject to change without notice. Resort fee: USD 11 per person per day collected at check in. Not applicable for children under the age of 12. To schedule airport transfer to the resort, please enter to: https://shuttleservices.vidanta.com/ The following information must be provided within five days before check-in: confirmation number, name of the resort,and flight information. Valet parking: MXN390 weekly, per car.

IMPORTANT ADVISEMENTS
Purchase of Getaways to this property limited to not more than three getaway confirmations per concurrent or three consecutive week per membership. Confirmations not adhering to this restriction are subject to cancellation.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Please review the Confirmation Certificate provided for each completed transaction to verify that all resort and date information reflects the vacation arrangements requested. The host accommodations are for use by the individual named on the Certificate and accompanying guests, unless a Guest Certificate is obtained. The Certificate recipient must be over the age of 21. The host unit may vary from the one indicated. The Certificate does not indicate that a particular view or unit location will be provided at the destination resort. If confirmed to multiple weeks at the same resort, you may be required to move to another unit for each week confirmed. Security deposits may be required. The amount and form of payment varies by resort and/or season, e.g. Spring Break. You are responsible for imposed utility/energy surcharges, occupancy or similar taxes, service charges, telephone connection fees, long distance phone charges, personal charges, and applicable amenities usage, housekeeping or resort fees. Ordinarily, daily maid service will not be provided. At those resorts offering such a service, it is usually at an additional fee. For additional resort or area information, please contact the host resort. Resort parking is typically limited to one car per unit. A parking fee may be charged. Some resorts may have no on-site parking, requiring the use of an alternate off-site facility at an additional fee. Prior arrangements must be made for parking trailers,boats,motorcycles and/or any type of recreational vehicle (usually at an off-site location). Pets are not allowed on-site unless otherwise indicated. Although most travel is completed without incident, certain destinations and time periods may be of greater risk than others. We do not represent or warrant that travel to a particular location is either advisable or without risk, nor are we liable for damages or losses that may result from such travel. IF YOU ARE NOT A CITIZEN OF THE COUNTRY IN WHICH THE HOST RESORT IS LOCATED, YOU MAY WISH TO CONTACT THE APPROPRIATE AIRLINE, TOURIST OFFICE OR CONSULATE WITHIN YOUR COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE FOR ENTRY REQUIREMENTS AND/OR ADVISORIES. PLEASE BE AWARE OF IMPORTANT CHANGES TO REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR ENTRY INTO MANY COUNTRIES. Travel to the U.S.: To enter or re-enter the U.S. when crossing a U.S. border by air, sea, or land, a VALID PASSPORT or other secure, accepted document MUST BE CARRIED. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of all information and rates (subject to change without notice) provided. Directions posted on alternate websites and GPS navigational systems are often outdated or incorrect. It is advisable to follow directions submitted by the host resort, as they appear on the Confirmation Certificate. You may contact the resort for clarification.

 

[Eric B]

My best guess on the resort credit would be a credit towards things you charge to the room. We’ll see, though. Was the $75 fee for an SFX exchange or RCI? I know they charge differently for SFX.

Last time we were there, our fee was under the old $11 pppd regime and sales waived half of it.

The change makes some sense to me if they’re trying to balance income from the hotel side with sales and raise the potential incentives for going to sales presentations without adversely affecting the hotel side. Just my thoughts, of course. Seems to better balance the desirability of owners paying usage fees to exchanging in.

 

[WatsonC2]

My best guess on the resort credit would be a credit towards things you charge to the room. We’ll see, though. Was the $75 fee for an SFX exchange or RCI? I know they charge differently for SFX.

Last time we were there, our fee was under the old $11 pppd regime and sales waived half of it.

The change makes some sense to me if they’re trying to balance income from the hotel side with sales and raise the potential incentives for going to sales presentations without adversely affecting the hotel side. Just my thoughts, of course. Seems to better balance the desirability of owners paying usage fees to exchanging in.

The $75 we paid was RCI. It probably makes a lot of business sense, especially if they want to encourage higher spending on property by offering a sizeable credit. We got 2-2 bedroom units for around $800 apiece after maintenance, exhange fees, and resort fees on our last trip so I hate to see that cheap (and very nice) trip get more expensive...

 

[scootr5]

It was a big jump not to long ago from $75 per week to the $11 per day charge. I believe it took a while longer for it to change on II as well.

We are going next spring to Grand Luxxe in a 2 bedroom with two other adults and two teenagers. This would jump the total fee from $66 per day to $180 per day. There is no way I would book it at that rate (and I'm not sitting through any sales presentations on my vacation time).

 

[Eric B]

I believe a 2 BR GL usage fee is ~$2200 for a week. At $180 pppd, the resort fee alone would cover half of the usage fee for an exchange week, leaving not much room for the exchange fee and MF for the week you’re exchanging. Interesting how that shifts the incentives more towards actually using a week if you own there, even outside of the high season.

 

[rpennisi]

To me this says: Don't use your banked MP weeks in RCI for GM anymore. Instead, rotate using the other TSs in the RCI system, in particular the Pueblo Bonitos in Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.
Mayan World started with the escalating transfer rates, then the isolating wall building, now the escalating fee schedules.

 

[pittle]

To me this says: Don't use your banked MP weeks in RCI for GM anymore. Instead, rotate using the other TSs in the RCI system, in particular the Pueblo Bonitos in Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.
Mayan World started with the escalating transfer rates, then the isolating wall building, now the escalating fee schedules.

We use our PBEB for exchanges, but just for SFX as we get a 2-bedroom using our 1-bedroom week. The MF are $660, but then the exchange fee is $149, and then the $75 fee, so $884 currently for a 2-bedroom Grand Bliss, which is still a good deal. The GL weeks have a higher exchange fee.

If we were to use RCI with this new fee, it would be $1279 for the 2 of us plus $180 more if the "kids" joined us for 3 nights like they did last year. when we ere at Grand Mayan. That is a far cry from the II deal we had last year - it still had the $75 fee and we paid $359 for the extra vacation - so $434 for the week (even if we did get an awful location for the first few days!)

Our RCI expires next year, so it may not get renewed. We have had it since 1991. We have not found any great Extra Vacations with them for a while. We have other options and will not be needed to use PBEB for exchanges in a few years. We can just use SFX as long as they keep offering bonus weeks and the occasional free days. we were able to get 4 extra days at Buganvilias for free just by depositing a Mexico week before year end. We added to our November vacation. Once the "kids" leave, we will be happy to move to a 1-bedroom unit for 4 days at no cost!

 

[rpennisi]

.... We can just use SFX as long as they keep offering bonus weeks and the occasional free days. we were able to get 4 extra days at Buganvilias for free just by depositing a Mexico week before year end. We added to our November vacation. Once the "kids" leave, we will be happy to move to a 1-bedroom unit for 4 days at no cost!

Sounds like a good deal Phyllis, but it must be awfully hard to leave the Sky Suite! However, free is good.
Ron

 

[dioxide45]

At that rate, is is quickly approaching mandatory AI prices without any benefits of actual AI.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

I believe a 2 BR GL usage fee is ~$2200 for a week. At $180 pppd, the resort fee alone would cover half of the usage fee for an exchange week, leaving not much room for the exchange fee and MF for the week you’re exchanging. Interesting how that shifts the incentives more towards actually using a week if you own there, even outside of the high season.

Agree - my Vacation Fare Week makes sense again (bonus week - pay on use only - designed for use in non snowbird season)
The TPU cost / RCI deal price was below MF cost

FYI - Acapulco is now $ 10 pp/pd (up from $ 7)
MP PV - Marina is $ 20 pp/pd ( up from $ 7 )
Maz - still $ 0 / resort fee ( gym parking etc may be extra for exchangers)

That said : right now / for May 2018
the deal price in TPU's is 7 for 1 (& 2) bedroom Gran Mayans at NV ( & elsewhere )

my math / If you have a TPU raw cost of $ 20 per TPU

$ 100 -RCI annual ( multi yr deal )
$259 - RCI Exchange Fee
$ 140 - 1 bedroom at 7 TPU - GM -NV
$420 - new resort fee / 7 days / 2 people at NV

Total $ 919 - This is probable close to owner MF for the same .
obviously it will cost more if there additional people

 

[rpennisi]

At that rate, is is quickly approaching mandatory AI prices without any benefits of actual AI.

Excellent point!

 

[rpennisi]

Agree - my Vacation Fare Week makes sense again for use in non snowbird season
The TPU cost / RCI deal price was below MF cost

FYI - Acapulco is now $ 10 pp/pd (up from $ 7)
MP PV - Marina is $ 20 pp/pd ( up from $ 7 )
Maz - still $ 0 / resort fee ( gym parking etc may be extra for exchangers)

That said : right now / for May 2018
the deal price in TPU's is 7 for 1 (& 2) bedroom Gran Mayans at NV ( & elsewhere )

my math / If you have a TPU raw cost of $ 20 per TPU

$ 100 -RCI annual ( multi yr deal )
$259 - RCI Exchange Fee
$ 140 - 1 bedroom at 7 TPU - GM -NV
$420 - new resort fee / 7 days / 2 people at NV

Total $ 919 - This is probable close to owner MF for the same .
obviously it will cost more if there additional people

Tom,
That would be close to the MF MP cost for a 2 bedroom ($815. for my 2001 MP contract for 2018).
Ron

 

[cricket]

At that rate, is is quickly approaching mandatory AI prices without any benefits of actual AI.

That is exactly what I was thinking!

 

[whitewater]

when I use my registry collection (RCI) account and book with the registry collection logo next too unit. There is no fee what so ever. however they appear to have updated to the 30&15....

thats getting steep for me and will curb my use of vidanta properties

AI prices have really gone up as well.

For Reference:
we just stayed at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach and paid 92/pp per day.
Most other mexican resorts are 175+ pp per day... I just skip the other AI resorts in mexico for that reason. no sense in spending that kind of money.

 

[Eric B]

Agree - my Vacation Fare Week makes sense again (bonus week - pay on use only - designed for use in non snowbird season)
The TPU cost / RCI deal price was below MF cost

FYI - Acapulco is now $ 10 pp/pd (up from $ 7)
MP PV - Marina is $ 20 pp/pd ( up from $ 7 )
Maz - still $ 0 / resort fee ( gym parking etc may be extra for exchangers)

That said : right now / for May 2018
the deal price in TPU's is 7 for 1 (& 2) bedroom Gran Mayans at NV ( & elsewhere )

my math / If you have a TPU raw cost of $ 20 per TPU

$ 100 -RCI annual ( multi yr deal )
$259 - RCI Exchange Fee
$ 140 - 1 bedroom at 7 TPU - GM -NV
$420 - new resort fee / 7 days / 2 people at NV

Total $ 919 - This is probable close to owner MF for the same .
obviously it will cost more if there additional people

I don't have a great comprehensive usage fee listing for Vidanta and it probably varies based on when the contract was written, but the Vida Lifestyle site has a listing of 2017 fees. It was $900 for a 1 BR GM, $1000 for a 1 BR GL, so that's generally in line with your math. The only other stuff I'd take into account is spreading out the RCI membership cost over the number of weeks you're staying anywhere in the year and variations in the exchange fees for points v.weeks. for me, there's also a 10% discount on exchange fees for platinum RCI, but that additional cost would also need to be spread out.

On the plus side, one of my TS gives me an extra week worth around 8 TPUs if I pay the MF early, its only good for a month or two, but you can stretch it out by combining weeks. That gave me 16 TPUs good for two years for the combination fee, which makes it still worth trading in when it's the two of us.

I don't play golf, so I won't take those contract addenda into account, but we do get the 2 for 1 massages. Seems like they've been giving decent discounts for those when I've exchanged in anyway, though. Seems like using an actual week will be best for me if I've got a bigger group; wonder if they'll change it for SFX and the Registry Collection, too.

 

[Eric B]

Tom,
That would be close to the MF MP cost for a 2 bedroom ($815. for my 2001 MP contract for 2018).
Ron

For reference, the VL listing for a 2 BR MP in 2017 is $1,000.

 

[Eric B]

At that rate, is is quickly approaching mandatory AI prices without any benefits of actual AI.

Don't forget the 25% resort credit. It's not much, but will cover part of the money I spend at the resort bars/restaurants. For NV, that would be $7.50 pppd, or $105 for the two of us for a week. I agree with the sentiment; it is a big jump from $11 pppd to $22.50 after taking the credit into account, but I'm not sure I've seen any AI fees that low. It does seem to cost less to me based on our total bills for a Vidanta stay in the past, even with the higher fees than the $92 pppd listed above. I haven't been to Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach, so can't make a judgement on the difference between the two, but I don't think I've been spending that much on food and drink done a la carte instead of AI; we do usually wind up skipping a few meals ordinarily and taking advantage of the happy hours, though. Good to have the different options in my opinion....

 

[Eric B]

Out of curiosity, I checked the fees section for the Grand Luxxe options listed in RCI; they've updated a few to say that Vidanta owners cannot book into that resort through RCI. There are still a few listings that don't list much of anything in the fee section. We'll see what it's got the next time one pops up.

That gives me the impression that they may have realized that the lower cost of exchanging into Vidanta through RCI sets up a disincentive for people buying in and paying the usage fees. Overall it seems like a rational response, particularly the raising the resort fees for exchanges, although it's not clear why they haven't raised them for II as well yet. What strikes me as being particularly self-defeating is the idea of forbidding Vidanta owners from exchanging into Grand Luxxe. That would set up a major red flag against buying in for anyone, I would think - there's no way I would buy in if it meant that I could not exchange in after seeing the spotty reviews of their TS "trade in" process. Of course, on the other hand, they upgraded us from an exchange into Grand Mayan to the Jungle Luxxe in RM last month without making it contingent on attending a sales presentation. Gotta say I love their product, but it's close to a full time job trying to figure out how to optimize our trips down there....

 

[Eric B]

They just posted some availability; it’s limited to none Vidanta owners & has no resort fees listed. Great opportunity if you don’t own any Vidanta resorts; if you use one of these weeks do those of us that own there a favor and attend a sales presentation and tell them you will never buy from them because it would make you ineligible to trade in.

 

[pianoetudes]

Of course, on the other hand, they upgraded us from an exchange into Grand Mayan to the Jungle Luxxe in RM last month without making it contingent on attending a sales presentation.

Was the reason of upgrade they overbooked GM? Would they upgrade if many GM units are available?