No Harborside Availability Till Late Aug?

[DanCali]

The reservation tool shows no availability till late August even though 8 months out puts us in late June. This has never been the case in past years - I've always been able to get something at 8 months out. It may have been 2-5 weeks removed from the actual week that was my first choice and it may have been in a smallish 1BR but there was always something. I wonder what is going on?

 

[dsmrp]

Sorry...I too noticed nothing coming up on Harborside for June dates. I was just running searches for grins, and was surprised not to see anything.
My conjecture is maybe with economy up:
a) more Harborside units were resold and their new owners are using their units. Or more owners period are using their units
b) fuel prices are lower, and air fare has dropped (finally)

 

[tomandrobin]

Sorry...I too noticed nothing coming up on Harborside for June dates. I was just running searches for grins, and was surprised not to see anything.
My conjecture is maybe with economy up:
a) more Harborside units were resold and their new owners are using their units. Or more owners period are using their units
b) fuel prices are lower, and air fare has dropped (finally)

Airfare is just been stupid the past 2 years, especially the past year.

Something is up at HRA.....

 

[DanCali]

Airfare is just been stupid the past 2 years, especially the past year.

Something is up at HRA.....

I agree. It's normal to see availability at 8.5 - 10 months out (and even 8 months + 1 day) but then not book it fast enough at 8 months out. But seeing nothing until late August (not even a stand-alone night) smells very fishy...

 

[midwest39]

And it's disappointing we can find no takers to buy our Week 24 true summer 2-bedroom lockout.

 

[LobsterHunter]

After reading this article

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ng-vistana-timeshare-unit-to-interval-leisure

The last paragraph caught my attention & I'm curious if they had worked out some deal that gave ILG all the HRA prime summer availability??

The deal will give Interval Leisure rights to use the Sheraton and Westin brands in vacation ownership, while allowing existing timeshare owners in those resorts to continue using the to the Starwood Preferred Guest program.

 

[okwiater]

After reading this article

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ng-vistana-timeshare-unit-to-interval-leisure

The last paragraph caught my attention & I'm curious if they had worked out some deal that gave ILG all the HRA prime summer availability??

The deal will give Interval Leisure rights to use the Sheraton and Westin brands in vacation ownership, while allowing existing timeshare owners in those resorts to continue using the to the Starwood Preferred Guest program.

No, that's not what that paragraph means. It's simply referring to the deal wherein Vistana / Interval Leisure has something like a 100-year exclusive ability to use the Westin and Sheraton brands for their timeshares, and wherein owners will continue to have access to SPG (at least, as long as SPG continues to exist!)

 

[jw0]

I do speculate that ilg's purchase of starwood's timeshare business may have be related to what you're seeing with harbor side availability.

Perhaps in years past Starwood would take the weeks it controls and put it in the star option exchange pool. (I know hra is sold out but maybe there are delinquent owners, whose units Starwood controls). But maybe this year ILG plans to put those units into the Interval pool instead, so they are no longer available for star option exchange

That's a lot of ifs And maybes but it seems plausible to me

-J

 

[okwiater]

I do speculate that ilg's purchase of starwood's timeshare business may have be related to what you're seeing with harbor side availability.

Perhaps in years past Starwood would take the weeks it controls and put it in the star option exchange pool. (I know hra is sold out but maybe there are delinquent owners, whose units Starwood controls). But maybe this year ILG plans to put those units into the Interval pool instead, so they are no longer available for star option exchange

That's a lot of ifs And maybes but it seems plausible to me

Although there is an agreement for ILG to purchase SVO/VSE, the deal is nowhere near complete. It is highly, highly unlikely that decisions regarding inventory allocation of individual timeshare units are being implemented when there are still numerous regulatory and organizational hurdles to overcome.

 

[DeniseM]

The lack of inventory has been going on for months - I don't think it's related to the sale.

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[SandyPGravel]

The lack of inventory has been going on for months - I don't think it's related to the sale.

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I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but...

Don't you think it is possible that since they knew they wanted to sell, that they might have started restricting availability months ago? If they just started squirreling away inventory now it would look suspicious, but if this started months ago it would make them look more lucrative. Wasn't it around February when they announced the split-off of the TS division?

 

[suzannesimon]

Have you checked out how many rentals are on Redweek? The maintenance fees there are crazy-high. Unless you have money to burn, no one is going to trade a $3,500/year maintenance fee for a $1,500/year-fee unit.

 

[DanCali]

Had a call with Owner Services about some issue so I also asked about this. Allegedly they are renovating from January till September so many units will be unavailable because of that. Sound credible?

 

[herillc]

Had a call with Owner Services about some issue so I also asked about this. Allegedly they are renovating from January till September so many units will be unavailable because of that. Sound credible?

No. Summer season is the most popular time, I don't think the resort is doing renovation during that peak season. Most of the resorts do renovation during shoulder season when occupancy rate is very low.

 

[DeniseM]

I don't believe it...

 

[Helios]

I don't believe it...

Agree. It doesn't make sense. Refurbishments are completed during the low season (September to mid November).

As an owner there, I did not get any notice of this work...

 

[Helios]

BTW - The owner's newsletter did not mention any major work...