Help: Massanutten Floating Time

[Miss Marty]

We recently purchased a resale at
The Summit at Massanutten in McGaheysville, Virginia
The contract is for a: Summit Four (4) Bedroom Unit
with Floating Unit and Floating Time.
The 2006 fees have been paid.

On April 21, We received a letter from Massanutten acknowledging us the new owners.

Today, I called Massanutten Resort`s reservation department to see what was still available.

To my "Surprise"
The reservations agent told me that the resort was completely "FULL" from now until the end of the year
and that they did not have ANY weeks to offer me.

How does something like this happen?
If an owner pays his/her maintenance fees
Shouldn`t they be entitled to a unit?

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do
I am on my way to Massanutten resort soon
I plan to visit the Reservations Dept in person

 

[AwayWeGo]

Floating Timeshare Weeks Are Like Musical Chairs.

The reservations agent told me that the resort was completely "FULL" from now until the end of the year
and that they did not have ANY weeks to offer me.

How does something like this happen?
If an owner pays his/her maintenance fees
Shouldn`t they be entitled to a unit?

A nice advantage of the floating-weeks system is its flexibility, variability, & ability to keeping scheduling options open. The risky flipside, however, is the chance of possibly getting shut out entirely by waiting till too late in the year to request a reservation. If you buy into a floating-weeks timeshare well into the year, I suppose it's possible to be shut out as of Day 1 of ownership -- although that sure seems like a stretch.

The floating-weeks timeshare system is like a game of musical chairs. For purposes of illustration, say there are 1,000 owners of 1,000 floating timeshare weeks & as of January 1 all 1,000 weeks are available. Then for some odd reason nobody requests reservations for any weeks in January through June. Suddenly, starting July 1, the full mob of 1,000 owners are all scrambling to get reservations for the 500 remaining timeshare weeks that are left in the year. Sorry to say, half those paid-up owners are going to lose out.

It's a real shame to see paid-for timeshare weeks go to waste like that, but your experience shows that the risk is real -- it can happen now & then.

I'll tell you 1 thing -- The Chief Of Staff would be plenty steamed if it happened to her.

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

 

[wise one]

It is my impression that when this happens, that the owner that cannot make a reservation for the future is offered an RCI week that was banked by the resort from earlier in the year.

It does not help you in getting the use of the Summit unit for this year, but at least you do not lose the unit completely, it was just banked for you.

Of course, it may be possible to get a Summit unit for later in the year by trading that deposited RCI week, but that costs the trade fee.

 

[tedshare]

Marty,

That's really unfortunate.

We bought a 4br floating red week at the Summit this April too. The seller said we were going to get 2006 use and wanted to be reimbursed for the maintenance fees. Before agreeing to that I checked the calendar on the resort website and found that the only 2006 week left at that time available was a pretty worthless week 49.

I told the broker (Frank Febbo at Timeshare Resale Vacations) about this and said that we were unwilling to pay the MF unless the seller had already booked a desirable week. We ended up not paying the MF and our use will start in 2007.

FYI, Massanutten allows owners to pre-pay their MFs and reserve their weeks up to 2 years in advance. If you check next year's calendar for the Summit you'll see that weeks 26, 27, 28, 51, and 52 are already fully booked for 2007. So if you want a prime week for next year you might want to consider pre-paying and booking your '07 week pretty soon.

I've been told (FWIW) by one of the sales people at the resort that Massanutten does bulk space bank weeks to RCI, so hopefully you'll be able to get a banked week or weeks (they most likely split the 4br lockouts and bank them as two 2br's in which case you'd be entitled to two 2br weeks) per wise one's suggestion. If you don't mind, I'd like to hear how you make out.

Best of luck dealing with the resort.

Ted

 

[sfwilshire]

I've heard of this happening with a resort where I own floating weeks. Nobody reserves the January/February weeks, so naturally, those who wait until late in the year may find themselves with no options. I think they are usually booked up completely by late Spring.

I always reserve early, so have never had a problem. They don't bulk bank, so I suspect they would be able to offer little relief.

Sheila

 

[Miss Marty]

Update:

We were offered 2 RCI weeks that were banked by the resort
Massanutten is going to transfer them into our RCI account.

Turned out ok for us..
However, if you do not have an RCI account
It looks like you lose So always request early

 

[wise one]

Great!!

Just as I thought, bulk banking pays off for us procrastinators.

 

[tedshare]

Hi Marty,

Really glad to hear you got your weeks.

There's a couple more things you ought to know about about dealing with RCI as a Massanutten owner.

1) The RCI weeks exchange fee for Massanutten owners is only $124 rather than the $149 they normally charge. It's good to remind the VG about this every time you pay an exchange fee so they don't "forget" and charge you the full amount. We actually didn't learn about this until more than a month after we'd already made our first exchange at full price, but I called RCI and told a VG about the discount and he gave me a $25 refund on my Amex card.

2) RCI is supposed to give you a bonus week for every Massanutten week you deposit into your RCI Weeks account, but they'll "forget" to give it to you if you don't ask for it when you make your deposit. We found out about that policy at the same time we learned about the discounted exchange fees, which was three months after we'd deposited our '06 week, but with a few phone calls we were able to get the bonus week too.

These bonus weeks just last a year and can only be used for exchanges 0-45 days before check-in, but with the $124 exchange fee they'll save you $95 on a 2br vs renting from last call inventory. They also give you a cheap way to book a week up to 45 days before check-in without using one of your regular weeks during the times (like now) when RCI only has check-in dates up to two weeks out in their last call inventory.

If you want to try to get your bonus weeks do the following: Call RCI, talk to a VG and complain that you didn't get the bonus weeks you were owed with the Massanutten weeks you deposited. The VG will tell you to call the resort back and ask for some kind of verification code (I don't remember exactly what it was called but the VG will tell you). Call the Summit (540-289-4911), get the code, then call RCI back with the code and you should get your bonus weeks

We learned about these policies when we visited the resort this past March from a fellow we met in the "Owners Department" named Mike Towe (540-289-9441 x5161). Mike is pretty low pressure for a sales type and was very helpful even after we told him we'd bought resale and knew how cheap weeks are on the second market. If the above doesn't work, you might want to give him a call to see if he has some other suggestions.

Hope you do as well with this as you did getting the banked weeks.

Ted

 

[Miss Marty]

2) RCI is supposed to give you a bonus week for every Massanutten week you deposit into your RCI Weeks account, but they'll "forget" to give it to you if you don't ask for it when you make your deposit. We found out about that policy at the same time we learned about the discounted exchange fees, which was three months after we'd deposited our '06 week, but with a few phone calls we were able to get the bonus week too.

These bonus weeks just last a year and can only be used for exchanges 0-45 days before check-in, but with the $124 exchange fee they'll save you $95 on a 2br vs renting from last call inventory. They also give you a cheap way to book a week up to 45 days before check-in without using one of your regular weeks during the times (like now) when RCI only has check-in dates up to two weeks out in their last call inventory.

If you want to try to get your bonus weeks do the following: Call RCI, talk to a VG and complain that you didn't get the bonus weeks you were owed with the Massanutten weeks you deposited. The VG will tell you to call the resort back and ask for some kind of verification code (I don't remember exactly what it was called but the VG will tell you). Call the Summit (540-289-4911), get the code, then call RCI back with the code and you should get your bonus weeks


Ted

I was able to get a BW code from Massanutten Resorts
and then deposited the Bonus Week(s) into my account

This morning, when I seen a really good exchange online for later this month
I called RCI and told them that I was interested in using my Bonus Week(s) to book a 2 bedroom unit for July at a resort I seen online for St. Augustine.

The RCI rep said, "Because the week was prime time" (less than 45 days)
I could make an exchange - but I could not pick it up with my Bonus week.

It would have been nice to get using the BW
but I did not want to use one of my deposits

I am not sure if the RCI rep was correct but
It appears Bonus Weeks are not worth having!


Has anyone had any luck using a Massanutten Bonus Week?

 

[jesuis1837]

I dont understand.... Bonus week are suppose to be used WITHIN the 45 days window, not before!!! Why has he told you could not take it?

 

[TimeshareTraveller]

Bonus weeks are...well...if you're caught in the woods without toilet paper....

Actually, I'm probably being very harsh there. But RCI has made it harder and harder to use bonus time. We own at Massnutten. We bought from the developer at outrageous prices. And we got a package that included a certificate from RCI good for 1 bonus week for every week that we deposited with them. When we used that bonus week, it cost $99 for the exchange, but the exchange had to be within 45 days. And it had to be on the fall/winter/early spring season for beach and summer resorts, or fall/summer/spring for winter skiing resorts.

That certificate read that it was good for 7 years from the date of purchase. We purchased in 1999. Two years ago, RCI told us that the rules had changed. We no longer had to deposit to get the bonus week, but the fee for exchange was now the going exchange rate. And the other rules of time applied to the exchange.

(Interesting note on the $124 exchange fee. RCI has always charged us the full amount. I'll have to start bamming them on that.)

Now, the change seems benign on the surface of the bonus week switch, but think about it. You no longer have to deposit to get the bonus week. I don't think we're the only resort to get this "deal". So, fewer weeks going into the system, but more going out on the bonus end. True, they are not prime weeks, obviously, but occasionally there is a decent one or two in the lot. Though I will tell you that we used to use every bonus week every year. We haven't used one since the change. Never anything we'd want in the system.

The reason why they denied your 45 day out exchange is that it is Florida in summer (prime season). They still believe that someone will take that unit with an exchange. I ran into the same thing 5 years ago with a Summer Bay unit back when RCI was still staffed on its phone lines with RCI employees and not just Irish or Bangalore helpdesk outsourcing folk. They will allow that exchange for a bonus week when it is 15 days out. That timeframe may have shortened or disappeared altogether, mind you.

--TimeshareTraveller

 

[jesuis1837]

Very good point timeshare traveller, i did get those bonus weeks certificate from my resort and every 3 years i have to request another one that will be good for another 3 years and so on forever but i havent yet used them as there is NOTHING that comes interesting for my family within that 45 days window... I am losing those "bonus week" because of the lack of choices wich makes me wonder what kind of "gift" those are really...

 

[Redterpos3]

I was just on www.getawayweeks.com and found all kinds of availability each week of September at Massanutten. Why would they tell you that they have no weeks to give you when there are weeks on this site? It sounds like they are trying to make people pay the RCI fees?

 

[Redterpos3]

I just did a search and found availability each week from Sept-December 15th.