Summer Bay Vegas name change?

[roadtriper]

Doug, I cant imagine Summer Bay or Orange Lake leaving someone hanging either, especialy after they called the resort and were told everything was ok. KD didn't come back and tell us what the outcome was??? so at this point we just don't know. something just doesn't add up? hopefully it was just a communication issue or the reservation folks didn't look it up correctly and KD and company are all settled in and enjoying their stay! RT

 

[timeos2]

I don't know but it looks like owners may have taken the bullet straight to the heart. Significant financial investment is typically developer code talk for significant increase in MF's. I can't imagine either Westgate or DRI leaving current owners without a reservation for a promo tour booked by the previous company.

Doug - I agree. I cannot imagine this being a good thing for owners. Time will tell.

 

[roadtriper]

No word from KD21770 so we still don't know, I still say something about this is shaky?
as for the "Significant Investment" that has been in the plan right along. the 138 units in "Stage II" of the redelvelopment are to be refurbished and brought up to the "Owners Unit" standard as the developer sells them. totaly at the developers expense. at which time the HOA will be paid what its owed for the excess units, which will be a windfall of sorts for the HOA, the developer will have made their profit, and we will have new HOA Members who will be paying maint fees on their newly refurbished unit. maint fees have monies built in for repair/replacement and reserve acct. in theory those newly refurbished units shouldn't need too much for the first couple years? = Money in the bank
The "developer" at the Desert Clubs only large impact on the Maint fees is the cost of the Mgmt Contract. they have no direct control of the Maint fees. I'm sure the Maint fees will increase, everything has gone up. and the cost of running a resort goes up with it. @ $550 yr for a 2 bedroom "Gold Crown" or "Silver Crown" resort in Las Vegas some units having RCI point values upwards of 60K I think( no stats to prove it) we're among the lowest MF's right now? and hey, If I'm wrong I'll buy everyone a round at the Polo Club's Owners Lounge RT

 

[IndyJoe]

Im calling tomorrow to check out my reservation. I hope they honored her reservation.

Anyone heard if new pool and tiki bar open yet? I think the Grand Opening is coming soon, but haven't heard when???

 

[roadtriper]

Im calling tomorrow to check out my reservation. I hope they honored her reservation.

Anyone heard if new pool and tiki bar open yet? I think the Grand Opening is coming soon, but haven't heard when???

Joe, the "Official" grand opening and dedication of the new clubhouse is scheduled for Oct 2nd. when we were there in June the pool looked ready and all the pool furnishings were in place. the Clubhouse wasnt furnished or equiped at that time. folks have said since that the clubhouse is open. no word on the Tiki bar, Deli, or C-store as yet? when you call ask them lots of questions! RT

 

[dougp26364]

No word from KD21770 so we still don't know, I still say something about this is shaky?
as for the "Significant Investment" that has been in the plan right along. the 138 units in "Stage II" of the redelvelopment are to be refurbished and brought up to the "Owners Unit" standard as the developer sells them. totaly at the developers expense. at which time the HOA will be paid what its owed for the excess units, which will be a windfall of sorts for the HOA, the developer will have made their profit, and we will have new HOA Members who will be paying maint fees on their newly refurbished unit. maint fees have monies built in for repair/replacement and reserve acct. in theory those newly refurbished units shouldn't need too much for the first couple years? = Money in the bank
The "developer" at the Desert Clubs only large impact on the Maint fees is the cost of the Mgmt Contract. they have no direct control of the Maint fees. I'm sure the Maint fees will increase, everything has gone up. and the cost of running a resort goes up with it. @ $550 yr for a 2 bedroom "Gold Crown" or "Silver Crown" resort in Las Vegas some units having RCI point values upwards of 60K I think( no stats to prove it) we're among the lowest MF's right now? and hey, If I'm wrong I'll buy everyone a round at the Polo Club's Owners Lounge RT

I hope you're right but, new developer/management company often means they'll claim that wasn't their agreement. Time will tell but it would make me uneasy and, right now makes me feel better about not jumping on the cheap resale units prior to the move.

 

[timeos2]

I hope you're right but, new developer/management company often means they'll claim that wasn't their agreement. Time will tell but it would make me uneasy and, right now makes me feel better about not jumping on the cheap resale units prior to the move.

Again I'm with you Doug. I'd want things to play out before dealing with what has already been historically a very unstable resort that now has hopefully been turned around. But it's too early and too many unknowns now to say that for sure. Could turn out to be great but no one knows for sure yet. Let the new management/developer get settled in and then take another look would be my approach. If you already own hope they live up to both past & new promises. Chances are good they will but I'd like to see it first.

 

[eschjw]

Received Desert Club Welcome Letter

I received mail today about the change. I will quote just a little of it:

"Your Association's Board of Directors has been hard at work over the last few months to transition the Desert Club Resort Management contract to Orange Lake Resorts. On Aug 26th OLLC became our new management company and assumed operations at the resort."

"Orange Lake Resorts has already purchased 138 units at the resort with plans to refurbish them. This brings significant income and refreshed units into the resort."

Also, OL assisted in hiring a new GM, will help recover inventory with unpaid fees, and will assist in long-range financial planning to ensure adequate ongoing resort upkeep to maintain our Gold Crown status.

Could turn out to be great but no one knows for sure yet. Let the new management/developer get settled in and then take another look would be my approach. If you already own hope they live up to both past & new promises. Chances are good they will but I'd like to see it first.

Thanks John for a moderator worthy post on this thread. Your apology for maybe sounding a "little negative" is accepted. I agree that the dust is going to have to settle and many questions answered before any final judgement is made.

Also, Doug thanks for your concern, but so far your "nail to the owner's heart" feels more like a little flu shot.

Because of the deed transfers and development rights documents that resulted from the Leisure Group bankruptcy and the Harrahs deal, any opinions resulting from past experiences with this timeshare prior to 2008 are really just about worthless.

 

[hajjah]

I also received my letter today from the president and CEO of Orange Lake. I was on the wrong TUG message board regarding my issue with not being able to access the weeks inventory via points. It's been two weeks now and there is still no link to search. I am not sure at this point if I am going to hold on to my timeshare. I will wait to hear from more of you Summer Bay LV owners.

 

[Larry]

Summer Bay Las Vegas

I have an RCI points account through Summer Bay Las Vegas so I'm thinking that as long as I renew my points account with RCI there will be no change since I only purchased this for the Points value and have little interest in the underlying week or resort????

 

[roadtriper]

All good points, and time will definatly tell! I for one am optimistic! IF Orange Lake HAS purchased the additional 138 units, that's a big first step in the right direction. and a serious influx of $$$ to the HOA Account. as Summer Bay had like a 7 year agreement to buy them as they needed.and if they(OL) activley get them renovated maybe we can get away fron the double standard of quality at the resort! that's also 7000+ intervals that OL will be paying Maint fees on untill they are sold. Downside to that is... that's 7000+ votes they have to cast during elections to the board it could take a couple of years but they could and most likely will try to stack the BOD in their favor. again time will tell. RT

 

[dougp26364]

I received mail today about the change. I will quote just a little of it:

"Your Association's Board of Directors has been hard at work over the last few months to transition the Desert Club Resort Management contract to Orange Lake Resorts. On Aug 26th OLLC became our new management company and assumed operations at the resort."

"Orange Lake Resorts has already purchased 138 units at the resort with plans to refurbish them. This brings significant income and refreshed units into the resort."

Also, OL assisted in hiring a new GM, will help recover inventory with unpaid fees, and will assist in long-range financial planning to ensure adequate ongoing resort upkeep to maintain our Gold Crown status.



Thanks John for a moderator worthy post on this thread. Your apology for maybe sounding a "little negative" is accepted. I agree that the dust is going to have to settle and many questions answered before any final judgement is made.

Also, Doug thanks for your concern, but so far your "nail to the owner's heart" feels more like a little flu shot. Because of the deed transfers and development rights documents that resulted from the Leisure Group bankruptcy and the Harrahs deal, any opinions resulting from past experiences with this timeshare prior to 2008 are really just about worthless.

And it may turn out that way. I'm just saying, over the years I've had all the sunshine blown up my tail that I can stand, only to find out when MF's came out a year later that it was owners who were providing the finances. Developers/management companies are in it to make money, not spend their own money. When it comes to refurbishments and upgrade, it's owners footing the bill, not the developer and/or management company. It's the HOA that should be telling the management company what will/won't be done but all to often it's the other way around. Right now, it sounds more like OLCC is in the drivers seat.

Like I said, I hope our right and everything turns out great for the owners. I have no investment in seeing it the other way around. But my optimism would be tempered by past experiences. Essentially that experience has always been that the owners pay for the management decisions and resort upgrades. Developers and management companies aren't charities that hand out upgrades or refurbishements just because they're nice guys.

One concern I'd have is the HOA statement

"Orange Lake Resorts has already purchased 138 units at the resort with plans to refurbish them. This brings significant income and refreshed units into the resort."

Also, OL assisted in hiring a new GM, will help recover inventory with unpaid fees, and will assist in long-range financial planning to ensure adequate ongoing resort upkeep to maintain our Gold Crown status

In the past, my experience leads me to believe this is code for "you're MF's will be increasing..........significantly."

I'll say it again, I hope I'm wrong, but it wouldn't be reassuring to me.

 

[roadtriper]

Bottom line is... Orange Lake isn't doing anything that Summer Bay wasn't already planning on doing. all of this was already in the master plan. Just a new company doing it. OL appears to be more agressive coming in, than SB was towards the end. it appears to me (nothing to back it up) that OL is in a better financial position to complete the project than SB was. again thats just my feelings. I have nothing but praise for Summer Bay, they stepped up to the plate big time when the Resort was in Peril. the economy hit Vegas and Timesharing pretty hard over the past few years! I suspect that had a big influence in SB's decision. Just my .02

If one looks back to the Liesure Industries Bankrupcy and them leaving with all the resort and HOA funds, then all the things that could have gone wrong over the past 7-8 years with the Bankrupcy, and the Purchase of the development rights, and HET basicaly changing hands, and the economy going into the dumpster, etc. the stars have been lined up pretty much in our favor to be where we are now compared to where we were then! Mostly due to a very Determined and dedicated HOA Board, Good Legal council, and Summer Bay. Orange lake would have to work overtime to take us backwards at this pioint! RT

 

[timeos2]

A tough job done extremely well

The Board at the former Summer Bay Las Vegas is to be congratulated and thanked big time by all owners. They successfully navigated an extremely hard transition and did great for the owners. Perfect? No - but what is? These are volunteers that put hundreds of hours of hard work into saving an extremely troubled resort for the Owners and doing it at a very reasonable cost to those owners.

This dramatic of a turnaround isn't the norm but these folks stepped up and got it done. I don't know if most owners can appreciate what was accomplished for them. There just aren't enough ways to thank them. I will throw my small congratulations to them and the owners that backed them up for a job very well done. I hope OL improves even more the excellent base they have established. Great job.

 

[silentg]

I own at Orange Lake in Orlando and am looking forward to seeing the resorts in Las Vegas and Marco Island that they have just aquired. Orange Lake has always been a nice place to stay and I am sure they would not put their name on a resort that falls short in quality.

 

[dwojo]

Holiday Inn (orange lake) is focused on their own internal points system now. They will very likely try to get people to convert to it and sell the inventory they bought in the points system.

 

[eschjw]

Holiday Inn (orange lake) is focused on their own internal points system now. They will very likely try to get people to convert to it and sell the inventory they bought in the points system.

Yes, I am sure that they will. I see that you are a member of the club. Care to share some of your experiences?

Since I live in Chattanooga, I did check out their Gatlinburg resort on Tripadvisor and was surprised to see that it was ranked number 1 out of 92.

Speaking of top ranked, Chattanooga just won the "Best Town Ever" contest as voted by readers of Outside magazine. The view from Point Park is on the cover of the October issue.

 

[mikejt]

Crown Club member at Summerbay Desert Club

I joined the Crown Club at Summerbay Desert Club back in 2009 because it seemed a good fit and was very beneficial and now do I feel foolish. This membership is now worthless at the end of the year and they want me to join Holidayinnclub. I am not happy about this. I have no problem with them or Orange lake resorts. Summerbay is the one I am upset with. Is anyone else upset about this . The crown club will still exist for other Summerbay properties but not in Las Vegas after Dec 31st.

 

[dwojo]

My wife and I are fairly new to Holiday Inn. We have been members for less than a year. The three resorts in their network we have been to are top notch. They are well maintained. I believe that their resorts are all Gold crown. So far the customer service has been very good. The four resorts in the network before the Summer Bay acquisition are in Vermont, Tennesee, Florida and South Carolina.

 

[mikejt]

The Board at the former Summer Bay Las Vegas is to be congratulated and thanked big time by all owners. They successfully navigated an extremely hard transition and did great for the owners. Perfect? No - but what is? These are volunteers that put hundreds of hours of hard work into saving an extremely troubled resort for the Owners and doing it at a very reasonable cost to those owners.

This dramatic of a turnaround isn't the norm but these folks stepped up and got it done. I don't know if most owners can appreciate what was accomplished for them. There just aren't enough ways to thank them. I will throw my small congratulations to them and the owners that backed them up for a job very well done. I hope OL improves even more the excellent base they have established. Great job.

I am not upset with HOA of the Desert Club. I am upset about the way Summerbay Resorts treated the Crown Club members like myself there. They basically took our money about 6K and gave us nothing in return...

 

[dwojo]

That was a horrible thing to do, but most companies care about the bottom line not the customer. I hope your dealings with Holiday Inn are not as disappointing or frustrating for you. So far they have been reasonably good to deal with. A bit slow sometimes but always courteous and accurate in what they have told us. Even the two presentations we have gone to were not as high pressure as most other companies.

 

[roadtriper]

I am not upset with HOA of the Desert Club. I am upset about the way Summerbay Resorts treated the Crown Club members like myself there. They basically took our money about 6K and gave us nothing in return...

For the 6K did you JUST get the club membership, or was there an additional Weeks interval included? either way its too much $$$, but if it was just for the Crown Club membership I'd be looking for some recourse! not sure what that would be??? I personaly never saw the value, but I don't trade much. they wanted me to purchase another 1 bdrm under the Crown Club points and they would automaticaly convert my existing weeks units (4) into the crown club points system as well. pricing was all over the board. started around 10K and got down to the $2500 range.
what I'm hearing, it's not going to cost all that much to join the Holiday Inn Vacations club??? I'm not sure what the answer is for those who bought into the "Crown Club". But they were selling the hell out of that for quite a while, so you're not alone, Keep asking Questions! there were some older posts here with discussions about crown club over the past couple years, look back. RT

 

[mikejt]

For the 6K did you JUST get the club membership, or was there an additional Weeks interval included? either way its too much $$$, but if it was just for the Crown Club membership I'd be looking for some recourse! not sure what that would be??? I personaly never saw the value, but I don't trade much. they wanted me to purchase another 1 bdrm under the Crown Club points and they would automaticaly convert my existing weeks units (4) into the crown club points system as well. pricing was all over the board. started around 10K and got down to the $2500 range.
what I'm hearing, it's not going to cost all that much to join the Holiday Inn Vacations club??? I'm not sure what the answer is for those who bought into the "Crown Club". But they were selling the hell out of that for quite a while, so you're not alone, Keep asking Questions! there were some older posts here with discussions about crown club over the past couple years, look back. RT

Thanks for the suggestions . There was no additional weeks. I am going to look over the documentation that I got when I converted to Crown Club. I may talk to my cousins who are lawyers and see what I can do, As far as Holiday inn club, I heard the same thing. I will likely join it. What choice do I have. I am very unhappy with Summerbay and I would recommend that people stay away from buying with them . They may have financial issues as they sold two of the resorts . One in the top timeshare destination (Las Vegas)

 

[silentg]

Orange Lake also has a resort in Wisconsin.

 

[Sandy]

Just off the phone with Holiday Inn club

Very helpful link. Link states the resorts are being renamed to Holiday Inn Club Vacations Sunset Cove (fall 2011) and Holiday Inn Club Vacations at Desert Club Resort (spring 2012). As an owner at these locations, you also have the option of becoming a member of Holiday Inn Club® for a nominal administrative fee plus annual Club dues.

Anyone know what the nominal admin fee or what Club dues costs? Looks like it provides access to all of Orange Lake Resorts.

I talked to them and found out the following:
Currently they are offering the HIC only for Crowne Club members. I have a week at SB and RCI points at SB, and I am not affected now. My deed stays at SB and my points can stay at RCI.

The enrollment cost for Crown point club members is $204, with an annual fee of $104.

Everyone else will be approached in the spring of 2012 and she thought that the fee structure would be the same.

Hope this helps.