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Purchased at Aruba Surf Club (7 day angst period)

aibc

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Hi,

My wife and I purchased a 2BR GV Gold at the Aruba Surf Club for $25,400 this Saturday after attending our first ever TS presentation. This is our 5th time to Aruba, and we do expect to spend at least one week here every year.

After the purchase, of course, we found this tugbbs board full of very knowledgable people and learned about options and considerations that our salesperson did not share with us. Also, specific to the Surf Club, we're now aware of the overcrowding issue.

Since we're in our 7-day cancellation period, we're hoping for some guidance as to whether or not we made a reasonable or imprudent decision.

Among the questions we're wondering about are:
Is the exchange and rental potential of the efficiency unit really as good as we're lead to believe by the salesperson?
With the state of the US economy, airfare costs, etc, might demand go down to the extent that it affects usage value, or perhaps results in a cheaper purchase for the same item in the future?
Should we look into a resale instead? (We don't ever expect to exchange for MR points, but being new to TS, perhaps the ease of purchase, Vacation Ownership Advisor, and ability for Marriott to handle a rental for us is worth the cost difference?)

As you might imagine, we have a ton of questions, but I think this covers the main ones, which ultimately lead to: Should we stay with our new purchase or cancel? Also, are there other things that we should be thinking about?

Thanks in advance for any responses,
New nervous TS owners
 

MOXJO7282

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I would say cancel. You can pick up what you just bought resale for 50% of what you paid through Marriott.. There was a time long ago, when the reward points value offered, greatly or totally offset the delta between direct vs. resale, but that is no longer the case, hasn't been for some time. All the things you mentioned, do not add up too much in terms of value.

Rescind now and check ebay for distress sales or check redweek.com and you'll see alot out there. Have some patience and you'll save yourself alot of money, with almost no downside, except the points issue and possibly the ease and safety of dealing with Marriott directly.


Good luck..

Regards.
Joe
 

LUVourMarriotts

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Among the questions we're wondering about are:
Is the exchange and rental potential of the efficiency unit really as good as we're lead to believe by the salesperson?
With the state of the US economy, airfare costs, etc, might demand go down to the extent that it affects usage value, or perhaps results in a cheaper purchase for the same item in the future?
Should we look into a resale instead? (We don't ever expect to exchange for MR points, but being new to TS, perhaps the ease of purchase, Vacation Ownership Advisor, and ability for Marriott to handle a rental for us is worth the cost difference?)

I would say cancel too. If we found TUG a month earlier, we would have saved a couple thousand on our Surf Club purchase.

  • What did the salesperson say your efficiency unit would rent for? I'd guess they gave you a very high number. We rented our efficiency last year (Gold GV) for $1000. I had it at $1500 before that and got no bites.
  • I was thinking the same thing. Airfare is killer right now. We paid way more for our November trip this year than we did last year. And the current prices are astronomical. Renting may get tougher if it stays this way. We'll have to see how things go.
  • I would suggest resale instead. Once you get the hang of things, you will probably never use your VOA. Marriott's rental program is not worth it anymore anyway. I would have received ~$500 for my Gold GV 2BR unit from Marriott. And I believe you could still use them for rental even if you bought resale. Someone more familiar with resale can answer that. But I though the ONLY difference was points.

Check the ROFR database to see what Surf Club has been performing like on resale. http://dioxide45.tripod.com/rofr.html
 

potchak

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Since you won't use the rewards point option, I would say cancel and buy resale. You will also have more time to find the right resort for you if you have any question about Aruba.
 

dioxide45

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The good thing is if you cancel now, you can always buy the same thing later from Marriott if you choose to. If you don't cancel now, you can't change your mind later... Well you can, but when you resell it, you will lose about half your purchase price.
 

tmoscola

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I was going to say the same thing as dioxide45. If you cancel now, you can always buy it again from Marriott. Or you can purchase a resale and save quite a few grand. I saved a ton of money buy purchasing resale. There are a few well known brokers on this site that can guide you in the right direction. The process will be just as easy as buying from Marriott directly.

Cancel now, become a TUG member and do a few months of research on Marriott, the Aruba property, resale vs purchasing directly etc. Buying a timeshare is a big purchase - be sure to do your homework first.
 

sernow

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If you were shopping for a new car and found that one dealer was selling it for $25,400 with an incentive you wouldn't use, and another dealer selling the identical car for $14,000 (but without the incentive you wouldn't use), which one would you pick?

As for ease of renting, there are 298 rental postings for the Aruba Surf Club on redweek right now, so there's a little competition.
 
Last edited:

griffer331

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Just to give you an idea of the bargains we own 2 weeks at he Ocean Club in Aruba. We bought our first week in 2001, 1 bedroom oceanview gold season from Marriott. Last year we bought another week on the secondary market, 1 bedroom gold season oceanview and paid 54% of what we paid Marriott 6 years ago.

I'd say cancel and look at resale.
 

Zac495

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Cancel!
The only reason to buy developer is for points IF you're going to travel first class to europe or Hawaii and those miles are practically impossible to get anyway. You are too new to t/s to spend 25,000! Trust me. Cancel right away.

Be careful to follow the directions of the contract carefully so you cancel correctly or you will be stuck. Personally, if I were still there, I'd go to the sales office and cancel personally (and following the directions of the contract). the saleman is going to offer you a different unit for less, more reasons we're all crazy and wrong, maybe more points. He's going to tell you that you can't use resale as well as developer - that Marriott doesn't like resale people. Blah, blah, blah. All false. Remember, he wants the sale. Remember, he earned a few bucks - you lost thousands.

Cancel.
And join Tug and enjoy!
 

aibc

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Thank you all so very much for the responses (which certainly were quite unanimous)!

I'll go back to the sales office today to cancel and brace myself for the barrage. I assume that things aren't SO shady that I would leave there with them telling me everything is cancelled, and somehow it isn't. If this is something to worry about, what confirmation would I need specifically? Also, my wife would rather not go back to the office if she can help it, so I hope it's not a problem for me to do it alone, even though we both signed.

In answer to the question about how much the salesperson said our efficiency unit would rent for, I have the paper with his written calculations right in front of me. He said that Marriott would rent the unit for $469 per night X 7 nights = $3283, but that Marriott takes a big cut, so we should rent it out ourselves, but if we did it with Marriott, we would get around $1996. Hmm.

There is one upside to all of this. This experience has now got us interested in timesharing, so we will join Tug and do all of the research that we can, and someday soon we can once again be new nervous TS owners, but the right way.

Thanks again to everyone!
 

Michigan Czar

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aibc,

You made the correct choice, I hope it is not too painful when you cancel.

Jim
 

falmouth3

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Going to the sales office may not be the appropriate course of action. Look at your paperwork and follow the instructions for rescinding VERY carefully.

Best of luck to you!

Sue
 

Zac495

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Yes! Good choice! By the way, I bought Ocean club (prefer it to Surf) resale from Seth Nock. He's one of the best resale broker out there (ask other Tuggers). When you're ready to buy - IF you want Marriott or Hilton - he knows his stuff. Hilton is far less expensive to get into than Marriott, but doesn't have as many locations. Marriotts are also nicer. But there are other options as well. You should putz around on the different boards here at TUG and learn about various options.

Timesharing is great. It really "forces" you to vacation. Also, planning is fun.

I don't think your wife has to go, but you'll find out. Let us know about your experience with your cancellation. Hopefully it won't be too bad. Just remember - you learned something - something great - from them, so the slight pain of going back will be worth it. :whoopie:
 

aibc

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So, going to the sales office to cancel yesterday went fine. Of course, they tried to convince me not to cancel, but it was all very professional. I wrote the cancellation letter as specified in the contract and they signed it as being received and gave me a photocopy, which seems solid to me, but I suppose I can mail it as well, which would fully comply with the contract instructions.

The final attempts to dissuade me from cancelling were to offer 14 days to cancel instead of 7, and to offer the other purchase incentive of a 1 week 2 BR villa certificate on top of the 100,000 MR points that we had selected.

All in all, the incentive offers from purchasing through MVC for $25,400 would have amounted to:
- 115,000 MR points awarded
- 1 week 2 BR villa certificate
- 127,000 MR points for putting the entire purchase on my MR Premier Visa
- The Marriott services vs resale

I roughly valued this at 1.25 cents per point, $2000 for the certificate, and generously $1500 for the services/convenience, which add up to $6525 (admittedly a stretch), making me consider this as equivalent to a resale of $18875. Assuming there are cheaper resales available, then that would be the way to go.

Any help in improving my valuations would be appreciated. Of course, as I left the office, they informed me that the contract could still be reinstated if we change our mind.

Thanks!
 
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