Villa Group

[pidluk]

Hello everyone, new to this group. So here we are, wife and I were at Royal Decameron and didn’t like the resort there a short walk next door we ended up in http://www.villagroupresorts.com/resorts/villa-del-palmar-flamingos.
To make a long story short we ended up taking the tour to get some perks and spend some time there. We ended up purchasing the Studio with 1000 points and 1000 preference points with unlimited weeks with the exchange agency. Total price 13K plus 5% discount if paid in full.
We did like the resort and wife was convinced that we will be traveling to these resorts yearly, but after reading here I am not so sure. The 5 days have rescinded since we purchased this on July the 10th 2015. I noticed that my credit card has not been charged the $3k deposit yet. I am wondering did I make a right choice if I am going to be using the resorts.
A) I was wondering, and so far I have cancelled my card, was going for a different card anyways. What would happen if I don’t pay? I am in Vancouver, Canada and i only got the welcome call yesterday, so credit card not charged and haven’t paid anything can I walk away?
B) Can I justify to myself this is a good deal, I am not sure, reading this forum some like the villa group, some don’t .Did I make a mistake?

Thank you ahead for all the input.
Cheers.

 

[easyrider]

UVC resorts are my favorites. We have made it to all of the Villa Group resorts and do have our favorites. One reason I like this resort system is that you can go to five different destinations in Mexico by simply reserving. No exchanging required.

The only suggestion I have is to upgrade your points to a one bedroom. With your current ownership in the points system you can upgrade to a one bedroom, if there is a unit available. If you upgrade to a one bedroom you can split the one bedroom into two studios, if Im remembering right.

All of the resorts are beach front properties. To me this is a huge plus.

Bill

 

[DeniseM]

B) Can I justify to myself this is a good deal, I am not sure, reading this forum some like the villa group, some don’t .Did I make a mistake?

These are the hard cold facts:

•This ownership has zero resale value - in fact you'd have trouble giving it away.

•This ownership has negative rental value - you could not rent it for enough to cover your maintenance fees - in fact, you'd have trouble renting it at all.

It's unfortunate that you didn't rescind within the rescission period, but given that you are in Canada, I think you have a good chance of getting out of it.

If you want to visit this resort - rent there, with no ongoing obligation.

 

[beach.bar.bob]

A) I was wondering, and so far I have cancelled my card, was going for a different card anyways. What would happen if I don’t pay? I am in Vancouver, Canada and i only got the welcome call yesterday, so credit card not charged and haven’t paid anything can I walk away?

As their Vacation Club is based in San Diego in the US the contracts are legally enforceable past the rescission period. Since you are in Canada...and given that they haven't hit your card yet...I think you may be able to skate on this one.

B) Can I justify to myself this is a good deal, I am not sure, reading this forum some like the villa group, some don’t .Did I make a mistake?

I don't think you can justify it as a "good deal". I don't think being an owner there is a "mistake" ... it's just that there may be better options financially to achieve that goal.

Most of the negative comments about Villa Group relate to the timeshare sales process and buyers remorse such as you are expressing.

I think most people that visit the resorts enjoy them from a vacationers perspective. Whether that makes paying $13,000 for 1000 points a good financial decision is an entirely different issue. The resorts themselves are a great place to visit and enjoy.

FWIW

bbb

 

[beach.bar.bob]

These are the hard cold facts:

•This ownership has zero resale value - in fact you'd have trouble giving it away.

As it relates to Villa Group properties this is absolutely a true fact. All new Villa Group memberships are points-based memberships and the contracts specifically call out that the memberships revert back to an older style Villa Group membership that has no resale value.

•This ownership has negative rental value - you could not rent it for enough to cover your maintenance fees - in fact, you'd have trouble renting it at all.

Just for the record...as it relates to Villa Group properties this is not always a fact. Villa Group properties... in particular Villa del Arco routinely rent for two to three times annual maintenance fees during the Jan-March time-frame and even more during holiday periods. The rest of the year not so good.

That said - I am NOT advocating buying a membership for rental purposes. That would be silly. As I own five weeks I occasionally use the rental market as a way to soak up extra weeks that I carry over some years.

bbb

 

[DeniseM]

So you think a studio would rent for 2-3 times the MF? I thought only the larger units during high season had any real demand.

 

[beach.bar.bob]

So you think a studio would rent for 2-3 times the MF? I thought only the larger units during high season had any real demand.

I haven't ever rented a studio so I can't state factually that I know that one could specifically.

But, it's a point based membership. Worst case, what I would do is borrow two year's of points from the future and combine with the current year's points for a total of 3000 (maintenance fee cost = $1,290) - this why the points membership are desirable. Then I would reserve a March spring break two bedrooom unit at Villa del Arco for 2900 points and easily rent it for more than two times the maintenance fees ($2800-$3000). You could do this every three years. As maintenance fees are fixed at 43 cents (currently) per point regardless of number of points there is no difference financially to combine points into a larger unit.

Easy peasy. But, nonetheless...a silly reason to buy a developer unit at full value. I'm not advocating it...just keeping the facts straight.

bbb

 

[pidluk]

Well cancelling the credit card didn't help , the transaction still went through. I am a now a proud owner of Villa Group.
@easyrider , you mentioned to upgrade to a 1 bedroom , how and why?

I think after looking at all the resorts by Villa group i might enjoy them after all. I did enjoy the days at the flamingo.

 

[Passepartout]

Well cancelling the credit card didn't help , the transaction still went through. I am a now a proud owner of Villa Group.
@easyrider , you mentioned to upgrade to a 1 bedroom , how and why?

I think after looking at all the resorts by Villa group i might enjoy them after all. I did enjoy the days at the flamingo.

Good attitude. We recently polled TUGgers about their first TSs. Almost exactly half had bought the first one- and some even subsequent ones from the developer. And most were happy with their purchase and considered it a 'learning' experience.

Welcome to TUG.

Jim

 

[Zib]

We bought from the developer because we didn't know any better but it was years ago and we have upgraded a couple times and then got smarter and bought a 2 bedroom at Flamingos on the resale market for 1/4 what the developer was selling for. This was all before they went to points and we never converted which might have been a mistake but we LOVE what we have and go there every year. We are so happy that we got PRESSURED into that first buy 25 years ago. We think that was our "best buy" of all time. I'd say learn to use points and enjoy what you have and then look at the resale market if you want more. I don't know how to do points but have many friends who only have points and they think they are best but we LOVE the Villa Group! Hope you can enjoy it!

 

[Zib]

We have also been able to rent our extra weeks when we have them. We have 5 weeks in all. I just finished making our reservations for Feb and have just rented three extra weeks and covered all the maintenance fees for the 5 weeks, so ours are basically free to use then. And we came out with just a little extra. I think the key to rentals is not to ask way high prices. I rent for maintenance fees plus a couple hundred. Why be greedy if I can't use them.
So I've basically had free weeks all these years, because I can cover all the mt. fees with what I rent. Works for me!

 

[MuranoJo]

Zib, So good to hear you seem to love your resorts and going to MX.
Re. renting, do you 'do it yourself' or let the resort(s) handle it for a cut?

 

[Zib]

I only advertise here on the Tug Board but because I've had my weeks for so many years that a few of my renters are repeat renters. I can usually get at least one a year off tug board tho. I think the key is not to charge too much. I just charge to cover the mt. fee plus a couple hundred. If you're among the lowest asking price you'll usually get a renter. It's a win for both of us, I think.
You have be careful of who you find online. I usually end up talking to them on the phone too. You can get a feel for the situation that way too, I think. I just got a new renter these past few days from my Tug ad. We talked on the phone. Made both of us feel more easy. Her rental all set for Cabo in Feb. We'll be going to Puerto Vallarta in Feb. I have two repeat renters that originally came from Tug. I usually have only one or sometimes two weeks to rent a year tho. So I don't do that many. This year I had three tho.
The resort takes too big a cut and sometimes can't get them rented so I do it myself.

 

[easyrider]

Well cancelling the credit card didn't help , the transaction still went through. I am a now a proud owner of Villa Group.
@easyrider , you mentioned to upgrade to a 1 bedroom , how and why?

I think after looking at all the resorts by Villa group i might enjoy them after all. I did enjoy the days at the flamingo.

If you plan to use this every year you could upgrade your points for a one bedroom. Owning this many points allows you to split that one bedroom week into two weeks of studio every year.

You can also bank points that you do not use in any given year or accelerate point usage by paying the mf, is what I think. Bob would know how this works as he is a points member. This gives you the ability to actually grab a penthouse if you wanted.

You could probably call UVC to add points to your contract if you wanted to.

As far as this resort system goes, it is likely the best resort system in Mexico and these resorts do attract celebrities and atlhetes. I met (Hide , from the 70's show) Danny Masterson, Nic Lachey, Vanessa Minnillo and a few dozen pro athletes at the Arco.

Matt Leinart and Jose Loren vacationed at the VDP Loreto. Lisa Rinna vacationed at the VDP Cancun.

These six Villa Group resorts, with the exception of the first two which are older (VDP PV and VDP Cabo), are as opulent and likely more opulent than most Marriotts, Starwoods and Hiltons.

Bill

 

[easyrider]

Here is the latest UVCI ( Villa Group ) newsletter.

https://myuvciblog.wordpress.com/page/2/


Bill

 

[pidluk]

Bob would know how this works as he is a points member. This gives you the ability to actually grab a penthouse if you wanted.
Bill

Bob,
Can you advise please?

 

[easyrider]

Many of your questions can be answered in the faq section of myuvc.com

http://www.myuvc.com/default.aspx?p=DynamicModule&pageid=241800&ssid=96514&vnf=1

My membership is premiere and I can bank three years. This means I would pay $70 to take a week out of the following years or save a week for upcoming years, with a three year limit. I own four contracts so I could pay twelve mf's and banking fees and stay for twelve weeks if I wanted to. My units are not easy to upgrade not I have managed to get penthouses.

With access points you are saving points or borrowing points with no cost to bank. This means you could possibly save enough points, and possibly borrow points, to have enough points to grab a penthouse.

You can search on the blue tab to find the threads about UVC. Go advanced search and use beach,bar.bob to find his info. Its really good stuff.

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135904&highlight=villa+palmar

Bill

 

[beach.bar.bob]

Bob,
Can you advise please?

As Bill says...I've posted most of this stuff here in the past. Search on my screen name and you'll find plenty.

From a points usage viewpoint you should have received your welcome package plus the stuff they gave you at the sales pitch. Somewhere in there is a points chart that will show the various points required for each resort by season by size of unit. I know Villa del Arco (VDA) and the winter rates off the top of my head so I'll use that as the example.

My feeling is that if you're going to bother to own something then own what you want to be able to use. I don't know that you are there...thus Bill is suggesting that maybe you need more points. An example of this follows...

Let's say your goal would be to visit one of the resorts every winter...assuming VDA points to keep it simple - you'd need 1200 points for a studio, 2200 points for a 1 bedroom and 2900 points for a two bedroom. You purchased 1000 points for $13,000. So if you wanted to visit VDA every year in the winter your membership is insufficient. Now you could borrow points from a future year...which gives you 2000 points and rent a 1200 point studio and bank the remaining 800 points for the next year. Then you could continue to do this until you have borrowed up to five years into the future (which is the limit). Assuming I did the math correctly this would get you to year 25...so far into the future to not really be a worry.

Bill's point is that it's really not that great to have four adults in a studio. A one bedroom is a lot better and a two bedroom is best (my preference). That will probably require more points than 1000 to work out best long-term. In the short run you could do the same borrowing from the future to be able to reserve a one bedroom at VDA for four years before maxing out your five year limit. For a two bedroom unit you would max out after two years. A 2 bedroom penthouse is 7200 points. So to reserve a penthouse you'd need to bank your points for three years and once there borrow five years to get a total of 8000 points. Ugh.

My suggestion would be to live with what you own for a couple of years. Figure out how the points really works. Study the past messages here and the materials you have. Figure out and get comfortable with how the borrowing and banking work. Then try it out a couple of times. Each time you visit they're going to want you to do a membership update meeting...an opportunity for them to sell you more points.

Don't even think of upgrading until you made at least two visits and have a firm idea of how you want to use your membership...every year? What season? What size unit? Then you'll know enough to determine what you want to own.

You can not buy points based memberships via resale - regardless of some who try to sell them...it's in the contract that they don't resale as points memberships. But you can buy older memberships (premier and gold) resale for great prices. Once you've figured out how you want to use your membership this may be an option for you. Otherwise, you can always add more points later...for a hefty fee of course. You paid $13 per point for your initial membership...That may not be the cheapest you could buy them for but highly unlikely you can buy them for less than $10 per point now. Thus for you to upgrade to a 2200 point membership you're looking at spending another $12-15,000. A big chunk of change to upgrade something you haven't even used yet.

Also...be aware the peak winter season weeks are at a premium. It may already be too late to reserve a Jan/Feb/Mar week at one of the new resorts. If that's your interest then call now for 2016. I usually make my reservations 12-14 months in advance to be sure to get what I want.

FWIW

bbb

 

[itchyfeet]

My suggestion is to look for an older Gold weeks membership (winter). Then supplement that with your studio points. We have an older Gold 2 BR membership and love it. We can bank for five years . I just booked Flamingos for early March so there are still weeks available there. Arco was not available. Arco always fills faster than others--seems to be more popular.

 

[714kts]

We are so happy we bought from the Villagroup in 2009 - otherwise we would never have known to look online to see how timesharing really works. Yes we know we paid too much, but we have subsequently bought 2 other units on ebay and redweek, paying pennies; getting 5 banked weeks on a studio and 1 banked week on a 2 bdrm. Thank goodness for TUG. The only way to be happy with timeshares is to USE them. We would never rent or exchange our weeks, as we have the flexibility to use or bank every year. Villagroup rules! We have gone to several other presentations with other resorts and none even compares to being able to go to 5 different gorgeous locations in Mexico. We have been to all but Loreto - looking forward to going there for 2 weeks at Thanksgiving. Interval International is a great exchange company, but we only use them for getaways and gifts for our kids. Don't regret your purchase - use it!

 

[easyrider]

My suggestion is to look for an older Gold weeks membership (winter). Then supplement that with your studio points. We have an older Gold 2 BR membership and love it. We can bank for five years . I just booked Flamingos for early March so there are still weeks available there. Arco was not available. Arco always fills faster than others--seems to be more popular.

This is a really good idea, imo. With a gold membership 1 bedroom a person could take a week and with the points they could add extra days for maybe a 10 night stay.

Bill

 

[itchyfeet]

And the 2 BR can be split into a studio and 1 BR (for an extra fee) and give you three weeks per year.

 

[TacoTerry]

Don't forget about the optional extra summer week with the Gold Membership. It's just another source for more time at your timeshare. We have owned with the Villa Group for 25 years, VDP Cabo wasn't even finished back then, yet, it was the highlight of our year! Our kids wore out a bathing suit bottom a trip on the whale slide.
So OP, Triple B and Easyrider(and the others) are giving you the straight skinny on how to do this thing and do it the best way. I wish that We had had someone to help us through the whole process back then, someone that was on OUR side. Definitely go and enjoy your place, read up on your options, see the different properties for yourself, and don't make a move til you do all of that! You're starting out as we did, we stopped at the Winter Gold 1 Bedroom, good luck on your journey, 2045 will be here before you know it!
Taco Terry

 

[AlbertaTravel]

Pic luck
my husband and I did a trip to PV 11 years ago and went to Flamingos for a presentation. We bought 2 winter weeks in a one bedroom for 30k. At the time it was a gold. However I had that this does not feel right feeling so next morning I went on line and found Tug. Subsequently we did a letter and hand delivered to Flamingos the next day. We got out of that. I started looking at eBay for resales and there were quite a few at that time. We didn't buy because they were going quite high. Well I waited and there were fewer and fewer on resale but finally I was successful buying a 1 bedroom gold for 2 winter weeks. I am an extremely happy owner even with the poor Cdn dollar. Yes Denise might be right when she says you can't rent it out but anyone on Tug knows you don't buy a timeshare to rent it out. The villa hotels are great. My favourite is Puerto Vallarta. You will not regret it as long as you listen to easy rider and bob. They are villa experts. (Sometimes I wish we would have just gone thru with the original sale)