Vacation Internationale or VI Resorts Information needed

[gkmccool]

I was Looking to find a Timeshare Resort in Newport OR, and I came across The Embarcadero Resort. When I looked to see who it was aligned with I found it belonged to VI Resorts which is also Vacation Internationale? I am now very interested to know more about the how they operate and what the point values are? Is DRI or Diamond Internationsl also a owner of some of the resorts or co owner? I live in Washington and I am a Worldmark owner. Worldmark Resorts are just not cutting it for us anymore. Its so hard to get reservations with all of the mega renters and the Wyndham management. I love our resorts but from what I can see is the VI Resorts are all in the right locations for us being on the West Coast and all. What I like even better is that it seems that the owners actually seem to run the Board of Directors. We are curious to hear what the actual availability is and is it worth buying resale? Thanks in advance for any information you can provide. Most Respectfully, Greg

 

[easyrider]

Hi Greg. We have both WM and VI. With VI we have 182 points a year. We were using VI mostly for Hawaii but have used our points in other locations. We use VI bonus time. We also use the VI owner exchange and have deposited many of our timeshare weeks for VI points. Availability is pretty good at 12 months out at most resorts.

The VI resorts are older. Many buildings share inventory with other groups. We bought a resale RTU that will expire in about two years. Its hard to say if we will buy another. The locations are good for us as we live in Washington. Same goes for WM.

VI and WM are not opulent resorts, imo. I like the locations is the main thing with VI and WM.

I agree that WM is getting tougher to use. It still works for us at 13 months out most of the time , lol.

Bill

 

[sue1947]

I'm also a WM and VI owner. VI is a good independent timeshare operated with owner's interests at the forefront vs sales. It is a smaller operation and you won't have the variety of options to choose from, but you also won't be hounded by the sales staff when you check in. They treat owners with courtesy and respect vs WM"s treatment of owners as cash cows to be milked as much as possible.
Some things to keep in mind:
As with any lodging option, there are some with more demand than availability and you will have a tough time getting into some of those. Booking is at 12 months, but you can pay a hefty fee and get moved to the front of the line. So you have competition from those willing to pay more, vs those running a rental operation which is the source of a lot of the problems at WM. I think this is the exception rather than the rule. However, getting into the 2 BR cabin at Sunriver in the spring or fall is very difficult (the example I've run up against).

Some of the VI resorts are shared so VI doesn't have year round availability. They only bought some weeks so availability is hit and miss. An example is Stoneridge in N ID where most of the weeks that VI purchased were winter/spring weeks with only a few summer ones. I was hoping to use it as a stopover on the way to the Canadian Rockies in May but there are only a couple of units available that month. Elkhorn is another example with only 14 units (or so) spread between the 2 different phases of a much larger complex.

Embarcadero is a shared resort but VI has a lot of units there; 44 in a variety of sizes. Others are in the MROP system (another smaller/independent timeshare) or are privately owned (and I think there is another timeshare outfit there as well; not sure how many units Diamond has). So it's a bit of a mixed bag with a robust rental market especially from the private owners.

VI tends to be a little more expensive in MF per usage than WM. The units are nicely kept up and I've been very satisfied. However, as with all things timeshare, it pays to be flexible.

Sue

 

[JohnPaul]

Hi,

We own both VI and WM as well as a number of other timeshares. We spend a large part of the year traveling and largely stay in timeshares. We own 451 permanent VI points and 25,000 WM credits.

I may or may not be a good reference for you, as I do not find myself troubled by Worldmark or it's Wyndham management. Yes the sales people are very pushy, but I have obtained a lot of one time WM credits, cash and Wyndham Rewards points that I have made excellent use of from their sales presentations. I have not bought anything from Worldmark since my initial purchase of 7000 credits in 2001.

Unlike WM, VI is controlled by the owners through the VI Trust and a board of owner/directors. In recent years, VI has placed a big emphasis on upgrading their properties. They have also pursued a successful strategy of merging in other small timeshare companies. This expands the owner base and thus more people to cover costs and has added some inventory.

You should be aware of what the history of VI means to current ownership. For a long time, VI sold 25 year and 40 year contracts. As part of that process, they sold "remainder interests" in many of their owned units. That meant that while there will never be more points in the program than properties to satisfy the usage, it isn't guaranteed that all existing properties will always be in the program. They are working through this process and have converted a lot of things to permanent ownership - but not everything. This is an issue with the Hawaii properties more than most others. You can obtain a chart showing what things are permanent and what things have potential end dates. In fact, acknowledging that information is required of any purchase.

You expressed interest specifically in The Emarcadero in Newport, OR. At this time, all of the units there have potential end dates between 2032 and 2038. My personal belief is that they are unlikely to leave the system but it is possible. It appears to me that they are working on the items with the nearest end dates first.

Like every system, some units are more difficult to get. This would include the 3 cabins at The Pines in Sunriver, OR, the penthouse units in a few properties, Marina Inn in Oceanside, CA and some dates in Hawaii.

I am a planner and a timeshare geek. I have no complaints whatsoever about booking what I want the vast majority of the time. I am also totally happy with the units that we use. They are always very clean and well furnished. As noted, at some locations VI does not manage the property nor own all of the units. However, VI does manage the reservation process for all locations and has a good working relationship with the properties they do not manage.

VI was our first timeshare purchase over 30 years ago and starting with 81 every other year points. We have continued to buy more over the years. I am actually looking to find a contract with 8 to 12 years left to add some points during our major travel years ahead.

Continue to do your research and see what you think. Do be aware, that units at The Embarcadero do tend to involve a fair number of stairs.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

A couple of comments.

1. Be careful of the terminology. The entity you are referring to you have correctly identified as Vacation Internationale (VI). There is another entity called Vacation Resorts International (VRI). They are separate operations, but in the past I have seen people get confused because of the similarity in names.

2. There is a bit of a connection to Diamond Resorts (DRI). Here's the story. For a period of time, a company called Sunterra was retained by VI to manage the VI resorts. Sunterra was both a property manager and timeshare developer/sales outfit, and Sunterra operated a points-based timeshare program called Club Sunterra. While Sunterra was managing the VI properties, Sunterra ran a sales program targeted to getting VI owners to move their VI ownership into Club Sunterra in exchange for Club Sunterra points.

VI owners ultimately ejected Sunterra from management activities, but that left behind a pocket of VI ownerships that had been joined with Club Sunterra. So part of the VI/Sunterra divorce involved provisions for giving Club Sunterra access to VI resorts in relation to the VI ownership interests that were now part of Club Sunterra.

Ultimately DRI acquired Sunterra, and DRI converted Club Sunterra to the Diamond Club. So now the connection between VI and Club Sunterra became a connection between VI and DRI. We are DRI owners, and we have made use of the VI inventory in DRI. From our experience, the VI inventory in DRI has mostly been partial weeks, which has worked well for us. We have stayed at Sea Mountain on the Big Island for a three or four nights while we have explored Volcanoes. A couple of times I've used Clock Tower in Whistler for two or three days of skiing. We did grab a full week one time at one of the VI resorts in west Maui.

 

[JohnPaul]

Vacation Internationale has been rebranding as VI Resorts.

 

[gkmccool]

Easyrider, Sue, JohnPaul, and T_R_, Thank you all so very very much for your taking the time to answer my questions. Its a good thing that I asked you TUG owners for information. I did not know that there was so much co ownership and there are some 25 and 40 year contracts! Could anyone recommend a good price range for buying resale permanent points? I have some time to do some more research and what I like the best just like Worldmark is that the resorts are on the West Coast!