Had a long conversation today with VI sales manager and he confirmed all these points but also affirmed that VI is committed to keep good inventory in Hawaii, which could be the case too, but no guarantee on paper.
The current units in Royal Kuhio and Fairway villas are owned privately by some entities and are leased from them by VI for 25-40 years. This type of ownership is common in Hawaii as lease hold. VI is in talks with these entities, as per the VI sales manager, to see if they can buy these units and put it in the club as permanent but nothing firm yet. These fee simple condos (not leased) go for over a 1,000,000 each for a 1BR/1BA 600 SF in Waikiki with no ocean view.
The units from the recently acquired RAVC came as permanent, as per his statement, but is not on paper yet as it is too early. So we have to wait and see what will come out of all of this after finalizing the RAVC acquisition.
I stated the lack of the ability to give back a membership, as you can do with Wyndham or Marriott, is a major issue for new buyers as if an owner can no longer travel or wants to get from under MF. I see VI memberships sell on eBay for reasonable price (like 20 per point for EY) so not sure why VI does not state a program like this. This way VI can resell the same points over and over instead of buying new condos.
Also I got some more docs for VI programs. One for exchanging with RCI and II but you have to buy from the developer to do such an exchange. The other is for points verification which shows how many points are owned by owners and how many are offered by the owned real-estate. There is about 200K overage which is about 2000 memberships as they average 100 points per membership. This is from July 2020 so before the RAVC deal.
As
@easyrider stated, I stayed in Fairway villas back in 2013 through Worldmark as WM had access to their inventory. The condition of the condo was not pleasant and there were big holes in the carpet. My wife refused to go back to it.
Also in 2013 on the same trip, we had a reservation in Valley Isle also through Worldmark, and during check in my wife and I decided not to go in as unit was not in good condition. I called Worldmark owner care and they canceled it for me with no penalty and moved me to Kihei.
VI sales manager assured me that VI is renovating the condos regularly. I stopped by the Royal Kuhio in Waikiki few days ago and they had about 20 new sofa beds waiting in the back room to be delivered to the units. The front desk person stated that they are soft renovating the units but the new units from RAVC are in a better overall condition. Maybe VI is not spending much on the current units as the lease will expire soon (few within this year already) and new inventory from RAVC is coming in a better shape. I would do the same to save money.
When I was at the Royal Kuhio, I asked if I could go into one of the units to check it out but front desk person stated that because of COVID, he cannot do so which I understand.
So my take in all of this for prospective owners is to look at the program and see if it fits your needs. It has some pros and cons
Pros:
A. Low maintenance fees that does not go up by 5% every year. It goes by 10 cent / point every few years. 10 years ago it was 80 cent less then today.
B. Customer service, in my view, is better then most Timeshare companies I dealt with.
C. The company has a local Northwest feel and all Owner care reps are here in the Seattle area.
Cons:
A. Condo maintenance is optimized to save on MF. Since VI in most cases owns individual condos, they are limited to what can be done to the exterior of the building as it requires the approval of the HOA of such building.
B. TS Program is kind of lose in terms of holding inventory as condo location can change (eg from Hawaii to Branson). Also if a condo becomes unusable, they will simply invalidate few memberships which is unheard of. Not sure about the logic to allocate which ownership to choose.
C. There are some minor fees like booking fees and waitlist fees.
D. Unless you bought from developer, you cannot trade with RCI or II which is unusual as well.
E. The more you buy from developer, the more benefits you get like up to 50% discounted stays, some fees are waived or discounted and earlier access to inventory. This can hurt other owners that bought resale or bought fewer points as MF cost is shared per point flat across all memberships.
This is my take on the VI program after going through it as I was considering buying into it.
