Spinnaker Resorts

[eellerman]

Are there any benefits in purchasing Spinnaker Resorts Palace View Resort from the developer that you do not get buying resale? If I purchased Palace View Resort in Branson, have you been successful trading to other Spinnaker Resorts such as Hilton Head? How successful have you been in exchanging via Interval International?

 

[dioxide45]

@dougp26364 <- May know something as I beleive he owns a Spinnaker property in Branson.

 

[dougp26364]

There are no real benefits to purchasing from Spinnaker vs resale. They do have an internal exchange feature of some sort now, but it’s nit worth the retail price. We’ve been to a couple of owner updates with them. Their sales staff ranks high in the half truth telling department. Our last update was a few months ago and they tried to sell us on a “deed back program” were we could eventually just give our deed back to them. (Spinnaker weeks are worthless on the resale market). The numbers he used where MF’s would inflate at 13% per year from this point forward. He lauded to MF’s historically rising at that rate. That’s the point he got mad at me, because I pointed out we’d owned with spinnaker for >10 years plus we’d been members of II since 1998 and we’ve never exchanged our spinnaker owned week (he included the cost of II membership and yearly exchange fees).

All his numbers were based on bad math and lies. I know of no timeshare that has historically increased their MF’s that high and, if that’s Spinnakers plans, I’ll just stop paying our MF’s and they can repossess the week. I could have proven to him II hasn’t increased membership fees 13% per year historically nor had they increased the cost to exchange that much. Essentially he was asking us to pay around $8,000 PLUS keep our week another 10 years, just for the right to give it back.

My advice is run, don’t walk, away from ANY Spinnaker week, resale or otherwise. If you want a nice resort in Branson that trade well, is properly maintained and trade well, stick with a resale week at the Marriott or Big Cedar Lodge. Both are quality resorts. Both trade well (Big Cedar is associated with RCI) Both have higher MF’s but are well maintained resorts. Best of all, both have residual value if you ever want to get rid of them.

As to Hilton Head. Hilton Head can be difficult to exchange into fro summer weeks, even on an internal exchange program. If you want to stay in Hilton Head on a regular basis, especially during the summer, my opinion is it’s best to own there. If you only want to go there occasionally, then trading is is fine. You just can’t be to picky about the week you want. If they’re trying to sell you a cheap Branson week with the promise you can easily trade into Hilton Head, that’s just downright untruthful.

This video is of French Quarter in Branson, which is a Spinnaker managed resort. It gives you an idea of the quality. We keep the week because it’s inexpensive, is an EOY week, is well located to the Branson strip and it’s nearly impossible to dispose of (we’ve tried).

 

[pedro47]

Dougp26364 thanks for sharing your video of the unit and the resort.

 

[eellerman]

@dougp26364 Thank you for sharing your experience and recommendation on Spinnaker Resorts. After the presentation, I do have a few questions that I am curious to know if you (or anyone) have any experience with:

1. If you own Spinnaker Hilton Head and deposit to Interval, do you receive 3 weeks for each 1 week deposited?
2. Can you purchase unlimited "bonus time", essentially unlimited rental nights at significantly reduced rates? I think the example given was $125/night for Hilton Head condo.

We toured the Spinnaker Blue Water Resort, but I noticed that is considered a "Premier" resort and you must own "Premier" membership to use it. I was not in the sales presentation long enough to know what that means, but I am staying at Spinnaker Waterside and it is more outdated than Blue Water. The grounds at Blue Water also appeared to be better maintained.

 

[tschwa2]

I went to a bluewater presentation once too. I believe the 3 weeks for each week deposited means they give you 2 AC (accommodation certificates). The certificates trade into excess inventory and do not have the same trading power and availability as a regular exchange. You also can't deposit a summer week into II. I believe late May or September would be as close as you could get but they would still trade well. You would not get the AC's with resale but I know for the way I currently travel that I wouldn't be able to use them but might find a slightly better week for my relatives who use the random AC's you get from II anyway.

I do not believe you get the bonus time with resale but I am not sure how good the availability is and if your options are spending even say $14,000-50,000 from the developer vs $2500 or less resale for a bluewater week you could will have a lot of left over money to rent out off season and shoulder weeks from other owners (the times when there probably is availability from the resort) for not that much more than $875 plus tax from the resort.

I have been toying with the idea of an EOY bluewater 2-3 BR for the last 10 years but instead I just exchange in every 3-4 years and am happy with that.

 

[dougp26364]

Here’s a link to another thread about some of the shenanigans Spinnaker pulls. They’re just not an owner friendly company.

Spinnaker Refusal to allow weeks to be deposited into Interval International

Spinnaker Bluewater Resort in Hilton Head is a member of Interval International. I have Sheraton and Marriott units and have them in my Interval International account in case I want to trade one of them. I have three Bluewater units that I bought aftermarket. I have had these units for three...

tugbbs.com