Won the Four Seasons Exchange Lottery

[TravelTime]

This is our first year owning at Four Seasons Aviara. We own 2 odd year Gold week 2 BR units. Amazingly, we won the exchange lottery in our first year. I had been told by our resale agent and read on TUG that it is hard to win. So the process now is on the day that reservations open up (today), you go online and reserve the location and category type you want and then owner services calls you back to finalize it all. This process was quite easy. I was up and ready at 8 am PST and reserved a 3 BR residence in Costa Rica. I called Owner Services a bit later to verify things and they said they will call me back in 3-4 days to finalize but if the system said it was reserved in our names, we should be all set.

There is a flat $225 exchange fee. There is also an upcharge. It ranges from $75 - $300 per night depending on what you own and what unit size and season you are trading into. This is still a good deal since the weekly rate at places like Punta Mita and Costa Rica average $20,000 to $25,000 from May through November (the available times for exchanges).

We spent a lot of time debating between reserving at Punta Mita vs Costa Rica. We decided to go with Costa Rica since we have been to Puerto Vallarta many times and only one time to Costa Rica. We doubt we will do many trips to Costa Rica so we thought we will take advantage of this great opportunity in Costa Rica. If we get so lucky as to win again, then we will go to Four Seasons Punta Mita next time.

We are thrilled with our exchange. We calculated our “all-in” cost for a week in a 3 BR residence at the Four Seasons Costa Rica and it will be $4400 including our MF, exchange fee and upcharge.

 

[vacationhopeful]

Seems for about $1500 per bedroom/per week could be a very good deal ... I hope you have a great time using this with your family/friends.

 

[TravelTime]

It will just be me and my husband traveling. It is a very good deal, just 1/4 the cost of paying retail. About the same as a small luxury hotel room.

 

[TravelTime]

Not that this thread is all that popular but I will continue to report on it in case someone is searching for info in the future. We were considering rebooking to Punta Mita and I called today. The FS agent told me to think very carefully because the demand for Costa Rica was very high and we would not get it back if we let it go but there were still a lot of dates available for Punta Mita. She said the member satisfaction with CR in the past was very high. She said in this round, 150 of the 250 members who won the exchange lottery requested CR and were trying to get in. Just some interesting info for anyone who wins the exchange in the future. If you have any interest in CR, reserve that first and as early as you can. We decided to stick with our CR reservation after all. The rep assured us it will be a lot of fun and we will see many monkeys!

 

[Bao Nguyen]

Not that this thread is all that popular but I will continue to report on it in case someone is searching for info in the future. We were considering rebooking to Punta Mita and I called today. The FS agent told me to think very carefully because the demand for Costa Rica was very high and we would not get it back if we let it go but there were still a lot of dates available for Punta Mita. She said the member satisfaction with CR in the past was very high. She said in this round, 150 of the 250 members who won the exchange lottery requested CR and were trying to get in. Just some interesting info for anyone who wins the exchange in the future. If you have any interest in CR, reserve that first and as early as you can. We decided to stick with our CR reservation after all. The rep assured us it will be a lot of fun and we will see many monkeys!

Hi Traveltime; do you have to buy from an "Approved" broker for resale to allowed exchange lottery?. Can I just buy from ebay or any broker and still have the same benefit?