Eric B
TUG Member
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2017
- Messages
- 5,910
- Reaction score
- 5,487
- Points
- 499
- Resorts Owned
- Vacation Village, Wyndham, WorldMark, Vistana, Vidanta, Flora Farms, HGVC Max, and some independents
Just sat through an owners update at Ft Lauderdale Beach Resort. We own a couple of weeks here as resales that we bought years ago - never actually expected there to be owners updates here as the resort hasn't been in active sales for years, the HOA having shifted the sales of resort owned weeks to a Florida real estate agency (NetRealty, IIRC). The existence of the updates is due to Capital Vacations having bought out VRI and taken over management of the resort.
The pitch was to convert our week ownerships to points in Capital Vacations Club by buying additional points with the option to add Aspire points based on our other ownerships. We could have achieved their Platinum VIP status at a cost of only about $20K by trading in our fixed week/unit ownerships here, purchasing another 175,000 points and enrolling 300,000 points worth of external ownerships. Net result of that would have been doubling the annual maintenance fee cost of the points we converted our currently owned weeks into plus having to pay for the maintenance fees on the additional points and an additional $60/100K in the Aspire points, which are the equivalent to PIC Plus in Wyndham or Exchange Plus in WorldMark. Converting the external ownership to points would be a possibility on a year-by-year basis for an additional cost.
We declined the various offers made. The closing offer was a 10-year term contract for conversion of one of the weeks for ~$9K which would have had the benefit of offloading a lower value week with an exit plan because it would entail deeding the week over to them as part of the transaction. We didn't really feel that the option had sufficient value as the cost up front is equal to about 12 years of maintenance fees on the week and would obligate us to maintenance fees for the points that would have been a bit over double the maintenance fees on the week. Bottom line, it will be cheaper to continue owning the week for the next twenty years than it would be to convert it, though they held out the possibility of renting out the points.
One amusing part of the sales pitch was the use of the old Wyndham cancel and rebook sales incentive that would be inherent in the VIP benefits without noting that those VIP benefits are subject to change. The idea being that you could call in at the 14 day point and have them cancel your reservation then book a smaller unit and give you the same one at the reduced cost through the upgrade - they also omitted discussion of the cancellation penalty of all of your points for that timeframe unless you purchase the points protection plan when you make the reservation at a cost of $150.
I've added a picture of the VIP benefits from the 2022 directory. I have a copy of it if anyone has any further questions on the program. It has many elements that I've seen in other programs though the details vary, of course. Overall impression is that it isn't an entirely bad program but the costs for what you get give me the impression that it's a champagne budget for Bud light. If this results in the overall quality for the underlying resorts coming up to meet those cost levels it will be a major win for legacy owners at the resorts as a lot of the costs appear to be going towards the internal and external exchange capabilities. No doubt some of the higher costs are going to Apollo, too. Happy to answer any questions.
The pitch was to convert our week ownerships to points in Capital Vacations Club by buying additional points with the option to add Aspire points based on our other ownerships. We could have achieved their Platinum VIP status at a cost of only about $20K by trading in our fixed week/unit ownerships here, purchasing another 175,000 points and enrolling 300,000 points worth of external ownerships. Net result of that would have been doubling the annual maintenance fee cost of the points we converted our currently owned weeks into plus having to pay for the maintenance fees on the additional points and an additional $60/100K in the Aspire points, which are the equivalent to PIC Plus in Wyndham or Exchange Plus in WorldMark. Converting the external ownership to points would be a possibility on a year-by-year basis for an additional cost.
We declined the various offers made. The closing offer was a 10-year term contract for conversion of one of the weeks for ~$9K which would have had the benefit of offloading a lower value week with an exit plan because it would entail deeding the week over to them as part of the transaction. We didn't really feel that the option had sufficient value as the cost up front is equal to about 12 years of maintenance fees on the week and would obligate us to maintenance fees for the points that would have been a bit over double the maintenance fees on the week. Bottom line, it will be cheaper to continue owning the week for the next twenty years than it would be to convert it, though they held out the possibility of renting out the points.
One amusing part of the sales pitch was the use of the old Wyndham cancel and rebook sales incentive that would be inherent in the VIP benefits without noting that those VIP benefits are subject to change. The idea being that you could call in at the 14 day point and have them cancel your reservation then book a smaller unit and give you the same one at the reduced cost through the upgrade - they also omitted discussion of the cancellation penalty of all of your points for that timeframe unless you purchase the points protection plan when you make the reservation at a cost of $150.
I've added a picture of the VIP benefits from the 2022 directory. I have a copy of it if anyone has any further questions on the program. It has many elements that I've seen in other programs though the details vary, of course. Overall impression is that it isn't an entirely bad program but the costs for what you get give me the impression that it's a champagne budget for Bud light. If this results in the overall quality for the underlying resorts coming up to meet those cost levels it will be a major win for legacy owners at the resorts as a lot of the costs appear to be going towards the internal and external exchange capabilities. No doubt some of the higher costs are going to Apollo, too. Happy to answer any questions.
