Smugglers' Notch North Hill Community

[hdmass]

Hi, we are weighing a purchase at Smuggler's Notch in the North Hill section of the resort. This would be an equishare that we would use 5-7 weeks a year and rent,donate or deposit for points the remaining weeks. We and our kids (4 and 7) really love it there but I am wondering what the negatives might be. If anyone is willing to share their experiences, good or bad, it will be greatly appreciated.

Another note, we have looked into Destination Clubs and they are not as interesting to us because most of the homes would require us to fly.

Thank you in advance.

 

[SamH]

Hi hdmass.

We are familyshare owners at Smuggs (at Falcons) and High Country Club (HCC) members.

We have owned at Smuggs for about ten years (we owned at Aspens before Falcons was built). We spend 4-6 weeks at Smuggs each year with a long winter and summer visit. We love going during the winter and summer. We have had good luck trading back into Smuggs with our float weeks for extra units for family reunions and trading our float weeks to other destinations. We have rarely included our float weeks in the rental pool because they do not rent very often. Given that we use our weeks so much, we consider ourselves lucky when our rental income on the unused fixed weeks (usually 4 weeks, sometimes more or less) come close to covering the annual maintenance fees. We have had good and bad rental years.

We joined HCC last year with a 1/1/2008 start date. We like HCC because of the ease to book ski vacations out west and the larger size of most of the homes. HCC is growing and adding destinations on the east coast.

I am sure that we will enjoy our HCC vacations. We are going to Copper Mountain in February and New York City in June. We will try to go to Italy in 2009. That being said, Smuggs is a very special place for families, especially younger (but not too young) children. We see many of the same people every year and our kids keep in touch with friends they've made. We would not trade our Smuggs experience for any other vacation ownership.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sam

PS - I would not buy a family or equishare as an investment. I would only buy because of the desire to spend time at Smuggs. If you are looking for a positive return on your money, either buy less time and invest the rest or buy a full ownership home for the potential real estate appreciation. I have seen no evidence that the family share homes appreciate in any way similar to a fully owned vacation home.

 

[charford]

I've been a Familyshare owner for 2 years. I own on the North Hill. We've been going to Smuggs for about 10 years now. I bought my unit as a resale. Make sure before you jump in that you check the resales on Smuggs.com. Smuggs doesn't list it's club weeks on its site, but it does list the wintershare, familyshare, equishare and full ownership resales available.


The familyshare units - Falcons, Trailside Highlands and Kestrels will cost less money upfront than an equishare. Actually, week for week, they will be less money too. The newer units have more amenities and space than the older units, which are still very nice. For example, my Kestrels unit has a screened in porch which the older Falcons doesn't have. But Owls has an extra half bath, a four season sunroom and granite counters. I looked at the equishares, but didn't need that much time, so I went with a Familyshare. As Sam said, don't expect a share condo to appreciate like a full ownership condo.

Advantages to North Hill are the North Hill Aquatics Center. The newest Owls buildings will also have special amenities which I'm not that familiar with. Disadvantages to North Hill are that it is not ski-in, ski-out like Falcons on the West Hill.

Like Sam, I have had very little luck in rentals of the off-season weeks. I have recently converted just the off-season weeks to points and plan to use them for airfares. The fixed weeks I kept as weeks so that I don't need to "reserve" my weeks with RCI every year.

I just called RCI a couple of days ago to investigate my first points transaction. Instead of giving a straight ticket for points transaction, they now give a certain discount for certain levels of points. For example, for 35000 points, I can get a $300 discount off a plane ticket. So, for a plane ticket that might cost $375, I would pay 35000 points, $75 ($375 minus the $300 discount) plus a $49 transaction fee, so a total of 35000 points plus $119. While many on TUG would not care for this deal for week that might yield them a discount on plane tickets less than the maintenance fees for their unit, I find that it is a good use of my weeks which weren't getting me anything before.

Before I owned a familyshare, we owned weeks at Smuggs. I have traded to Orange Lake in Orlando, Sheraton Vistana in Orlando, Hawaii a couple of times and Smuggs many times. Most of these transactions were with the Smuggs float weeks.

In general, any fixed weeks that you don't plan to use, I would rent out. Any float weeks that you don't plan to use or trade, I would convert to points.

 

[hdmass]

Thank you both for the replies. This is great information!

I have not heard the RCI pitch from the sales people yet and have been learning about it here. I don't know if we would do any exchanging for the first few years, but airfare sounds good. We are looking at this as an alternative to a second home so we are hoping for some flexiblity (ie a long weekend here and there). It has been mentioned that we would have to select our weeks at the beginning of the year, if we wanted to head up on short notice can we just call and see if our unit is available? We are a bit constrained by school vacations! Also, have you ever traveled to Montreal from Smuggs? Is it a feasible day trip?

hd

 

[SamH]

I have not heard the RCI pitch from the sales people yet and have been learning about it here. I don't know if we would do any exchanging for the first few years, but airfare sounds good. We are looking at this as an alternative to a second home so we are hoping for some flexiblity (ie a long weekend here and there). It has been mentioned that we would have to select our weeks at the beginning of the year, if we wanted to head up on short notice can we just call and see if our unit is available? We are a bit constrained by school vacations! Also, have you ever traveled to Montreal from Smuggs? Is it a feasible day trip?
hd

I second Charford's approach of converting float weeks to points and keeping fixed weeks as weeks.

With regard to the "week" weeks, every six months, you will let Smuggs know which weeks (or days) you plan to use, which are available for rental and which have been deposited with an exchange company. Smuggs will send you a form that you return that provides this information.

For time available for rental, you can call reservations to see whether the week or portion thereof has been rented. If the time has not been rented, you can use it. If the time has been rented, you can decide wether to keep the rental or use the property (in which case the renter would be moved). Montreal is not that far away (under three hours I think) so that last minute trips for a few days or a weekend should be feasable.

Points are a little different in that you need to decide in advance (13 months?) which weeks you will keep and use or put in the rental pool and which weeks will be converted to points. I think (but am not sure) changes can be made up to 90 days of check in.

Familyshare and equishareare nice alternatives to a second home in that you pay the maintenance fees and Smuggs maintains the unit as a five star unit (which means that it can be rented out). The maintence that you pay will be roughly the same as the cost of maintaining a second home but you get fewer weeks and less headaches.

Sam

 

[IreneLF]

Also, have you ever traveled to Montreal from Smuggs? Is it a feasible day trip?

YES - just this past summer and we were parked in a garage in exactly 2 hours from Smugglers.
(BUT, we've done it before, knew exactly where we wanted to go ).
Left early and had a nice long day there.

(Can't address your other issues as we are clubowners but would certainly second what the others have said, especially -- look for resales! )

 

[WinniWoman]

I second Charford's approach of converting float weeks to points and keeping fixed weeks as weeks.

With regard to the "week" weeks, every six months, you will let Smuggs know which weeks (or days) you plan to use, which are available for rental and which have been deposited with an exchange company. Smuggs will send you a form that you return that provides this information.

For time available for rental, you can call reservations to see whether the week or portion thereof has been rented. If the time has not been rented, you can use it. If the time has been rented, you can decide wether to keep the rental or use the property (in which case the renter would be moved). Montreal is not that far away (under three hours I think) so that last minute trips for a few days or a weekend should be feasable.

Points are a little different in that you need to decide in advance (13 months?) which weeks you will keep and use or put in the rental pool and which weeks will be converted to points. I think (but am not sure) changes can be made up to 90 days of check in.

Familyshare and equishareare nice alternatives to a second home in that you pay the maintenance fees and Smuggs maintains the unit as a five star unit (which means that it can be rented out). The maintence that you pay will be roughly the same as the cost of maintaining a second home but you get fewer weeks and less headaches.

Sam

I know this is an old thread but out of curiosity what are the maintenance fees per week in a Family Share ownership?