Sol Melia Vacation Club (or MVC) - Best Network For Tropical Areas Such As Caribbean?

[wyatt-wyatt]

My wife and I vacationed at a Melia resort in the Puerto Rico last year and since that time I have been wondering whether the Melia Vacation Club (and newer successor Sol Melia Vacation Club) is the best multi-destination points club for Caribbean and Mexico/Central America.

The club allows you to book in:

Cancun
Cozumel
Riviera Maya (only SMVC)
Puerto Vallarta
Cabo
Punta Cana (2 resorts)
Panama
Costa Rica
Ixtapa, Mexico
Puerto Rico (only SMVC)
Plus a variety of resorts in Spain, the Canary Islands, and other European hot spots (Only SMVC)

The maintenance costs appear to be around $600 to $800 per year for a 1 bedroom unit. The flexible reservation system appears to allow you to book at any time of year (other than Christmas/New Years). That's good for me, since I'm primarily interested in going in the winter, which I assume is high season.

Since I was not familiar with time share systems, I researched the major American vacation clubs (Marriott, Starwoods, Hilton, etc.) and was surprised to find that they had many fewer resorts in the Caribbean and Mexico/Central America. The Westin has a resort on St. John, which is nice, and the Wyndham has resorts on St. Thomas which appear to get mixed reviews, but over all, Melia seemed to have the best coverage. Of course, the down side is that Melia doesn't have any properties in the continental United States.

On the other hand, there are a number of Melia properties on the re-sale market for a very cheap price, which could be a bad sign. So the major questions in my mind are:

(1) Are there actually other vacation chains that have an equivalent or wider variety than Melia in tropical destinations? Maybe I'm just missing something.

(2) Are some of the Melia resorts not very nice? Especially compared to Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Westin, Wyndham, etc.

(3) Are there procedural problems with the Melia ownership system so that people have a hard time booking destinations, etc.?

(4) Are the maintenance costs higher than other systems? Or rising faster?

(5) Or are the re-sale prices low simply because Americans have never heard of Melia and thus there is not much demand (except from Europeans).

If the answer is simply #5, then buying a Melia timeshare (resale) for low $$$ would seem to be a great way to vacation in lots of different tropical destinations. But if there is a different reason that the Melia properties are so cheap on re-sale, then I'd love to know why. Alternatively, if there are other (famous or little-known) multi-destination timeshare groups that are even better options for tropical vacations, that would be very useful information.

Thanks so much for any thoughts - I'm just learning about timeshares, so Tug is a great resource!

Ben

 

[abdibile]

There seems to be a big difference between MVC and SMVC

MVC does not include the newest and nicest "Mega"-Resorts but still has great resorts.

MVC has an internal exchange system that lets you exchange to other MVC resorts for just $20, but some people have complained about the bad service of the company that is handling the reservations. But nevertheless people seem to get the internal exchanges they want if they do not shoot for impossible peak season trades.

MVC are going on ebay for really cheap. Some of the contracts charge a high transfer fee of > $1,000, other contracts at the same resort do not, so look carefully.

SMVC includes the European properties, Rivierea Maya and Paradisus Palma Real. As SMVC only exists for a few years, I do not see much activity on eBay, mainly people asking very high prices compared to MVC.

Unfortunately not a lot of people seem to know about Melia, so not much info is available on TUG.

I went to a presentation at SMVC Gran melia palacio de Isora on Tenerife, Spain which is a great property!. But they are asking very high prices like $50.000 for a 2 BR week. Have not seen any offered resale, so perhaps SMVC owners are satisfied.

If you are fine with the MVC resorts in the caribbean, they seem to be a great bargain.

 

[scrapngen]

My concern would be the fact that you would be locked into a contract with annual MF's in locations that REQUIRE airfare. In the current economy, airfare has been consistently running high. The idea that you can drive to at least one or a few locations gives you a little more safety/flexibility. And trading will be just as hard if everyone is impacted just like you are. Right now there are lots of HI TS's selling for very little on ebay for this very reason.

 

[sullco]

Mandatory A-I?

I would be most worried about being locked into mandatory All-Inclusive at many of the Sol Melia properties. Check that out diligently.

 

[wyatt-wyatt]

Melia Resorts

Thanks to everyone who replied. Just to be clear, are their any other resort networks (with floating weeks and using points or transfers between in-network resorts) which have a similar number of good resorts in the Caribbean? I've been looking for these but so far nothing seems to compare with Melia, which is interesting since very few people in the USA seem to have heard of Melia.