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Having Problems at Shadow Ridge

dioxide45

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Sheraton Vistana Villages
Club Wyndham CWA
My experience at hotels tells me that if I check-in on a Sunday there are less people checking in that day than Monday when all the business travelers (i.e. other Platinums) arrive around the same time at 4pm.

Given that the availability of rooms fluctuates from a day to day basis, I have a better chance statistically of getting the best room available on a day where there is less checkins.

I know that because I have gotten more upgraded rooms on Sundays, Wed., and Thursdays than any other day of the week.

That tells me there is less competition on those days for the best rooms and since I am a Platinum Premier, I am usually close to the top of the upgrade list.

So I definitely think the day of the week checkin does have some influence in your success at getting the best available room with view.

You really can't compare hotel to timeshare because they have completely different usage patterns. Sure there are less people checking in on a Mon through Wed at a timeshare, but that doesn't mean that many of the units are sitting empty, they are all occupied by weeks based stays. Occupancy is down at hotels that cater to business travel on weekends. This is far different from timeshares where a room is booked for an entire week Occupancy at timeshares is much more level than hotels where you have peak days and non peak days.
 

FractionalTraveler

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You really can't compare hotel to timeshare because they have completely different usage patterns. Sure there are less people checking in on a Mon through Wed at a timeshare, but that doesn't mean that many of the units are sitting empty, they are all occupied by weeks based stays. Occupancy is down at hotels that cater to business travel on weekends. This is far different from timeshares where a room is booked for an entire week Occupancy at timeshares is much more level than hotels where you have peak days and non peak days.

I would say that for most hotels Mondays are the most active and for timshares its Saturdays. This is very predictable.

Apparently, some units are sitting empty if I can just snag a reservation in the middle of the week.

As we move further past June 2010 when the DC was introduced, the traditional usage patttern of legacy week owners will collide with DC club owners checking in any day of the week.

We are headed towards the hotel usage model slowly but surely. That train left the station 2 years ago.

I think you will find empirical usage data from marriott supporting the business case for owners traveling less than a full week. This is a trend that has been confirmed from numerous sources in leisure travel.

That was the focalpoint of the introduction of the DC. Sell the dream now one day at a time not 1 week at a time.

I believe the DC is also attracting a much younger customer base than the traditional legacy weeks owner.

The generation X'ers and more so the generation Y customers will ensure that the DC is successful. Thats my prediction anyways. These people can afford to buy 2-3 days of points and build on top of that as time and resources allow. That was not possible in the old weeks program.

How many 30 somethings were going to spend thousands on a 1 week timeshare. Not many. They would rather blow that cash at bars and swanky Miami Beach hotels and clubs.

No dobut, the old usage model of legacy weeks will remain for a good long while, but thats not the present day or the future!
 

tiel

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Many moons ago we attended a "class" on villa assignments at one of our home resorts (can't remember which one). We students were given a bunch of villa requests, the status of the requester (owner/exchanger/renter, with how many weeks owned and if using home resort week and the view owned, how many weeks the requester was staying, etc.), and current villa availability. We were then asked to assign villas based on the resort's villa assignment priority policy.

Wow! That was hard, even for the limited villa assignments we were trying to make. But what it did was give everyone a clear idea of just how difficult the process is, and how it is virtually impossible to make everyone happy, especially when requests for certain locations far exceed availability.

We often make respectful requests, and more often than not, we get what we wanted...including when we exchange, and regardless of whether we had an early or late checkin. But when we haven't, we've just made the best of it. It's never been so bad we couldn't live with it.
 

dioxide45

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Club Wyndham CWA
Many moons ago we attended a "class" on villa assignments at one of our home resorts (can't remember which one).

It was probably Ocean Pointe (if you own there), they do have a villa assignment activity session. Haven't been able to attend one yet, but hope to in the future if they continue to offer it.
 

Luckybee

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Found this policy for Aruba:

http://arubaoceanclub.com/owner-services_check-in.html

Villas Assignments
Aruba Marriott Ocean Club enjoys one of the highest Homeowner occupancy rates of all Marriott Vacation Club resorts. As is true at every property, we place our Owners at the very top of the priority list in terms of requests for villa locations and preferences. Because of the high number of Owners that we welcome each week, we are often challenged with villa location requests that we are unable to always grant. Nonetheless, we strive to ensure that every Owner and Guest have a wonderful vacation experience!

Villas are assigned in advance and are based on the category you own and are prioritized in the following order:

1.Ocean Club Homeowners using their owner week
2.Ocean Club Homeowners exchanging into their home resort
3.Other MVCI Owners exchanging into Ocean Club
4.Any other reservations which includes other non-Marriott Exchangers, Preview Guests and Rentals

Assignments are made on the assumption that owners prefer high to low floors and pool view to outside views. When there are more owners than there are “preferred” villa views or locations, the Room’s Controller looks at each owner’s previous villa assignments to ensure fairness in the rotation from year to year. Specific villa/floor requests are considered within the general principles noted above.

We are unable to guarantee villa preference requests but will do our best to honor your requests based on availability and utilizing the established Villa Request Blocking Priority outlined above.


Maybe all resorts should have such a policy.

Not always being a staunch mvci supporter I have to say that at the OC they've always been pretty terrific about fulfilling requests at least at the time of the year when we usually go(and we've been going every year since opening save and except two years). There may be perhaps a couple of reasons for that. First of all very few units are undesireable ie ground floor no view/corner lockoffs. When the property was being sold, all units were sold as either ocean front or ocean view. After the first year or two once the buildup was completed there were some problems in that it became apparent that those low floor units wouldnt all have an ocean view and as a result after ironing out the wrinkles we've havent heard of an owner ending up on the ground floor unless by request(ie : children).
The resort does seem to try very hard to follow the protocol listed, and since there are always traders and renters I think most owners get treated pretty fairly (well...at least on room assignments ;) )
 

KathyPet

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Both recent experiences at GO and St. Kitts I have been there 1 hour after check in time begins. I am not asking the impossible. I always give at least two and sometimes 3 choices of buildings and ask for a higher floor. Not the top floor just a higher floor. I am tired of the excuses and the one where they tell me "we have lots of guests staying on their own weeks this week" just absolutely frosts me. As I said before I'm one of those guests and I am sick and tired of not receiving any of my requests.
 

BocaBoy

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Every resort is different. For example, Maui Ocean Club assigns rooms a week or so ahead and will tell you the building and floor you have if you call ahead. The late check-in would not be a problem. As an aside, Maui assigns units within each view and size category based on the date the reservation was made, with the exception that II trades come below owner weeks.
 
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