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Worldwide Timeshare Exchange vs RCI vs ?

David Beckett

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Hello

Hoping for some advice & guidance from some of the more experienced members.

We have just bought 2 Gold weeks at Pine Cliffs in Portugal. We have been there before and love the place but balked at the prices being quoted us at the resort. A little research and shopping around showed us we could get our 2 weeks at a little over 40% of the "retail" or asking price. We bought the 2 weeks and are quite happy about that.

Pine Cliffs is affiliated with The Registry Collection and we just recently received some preliminary documentation on the Registry Collection. I'm not too concerned with the fees for an "exchange"...they seem to be inline with the fees I've seen elsewhere. I am concerned with the "Enrollment" fees (5 year fee is 1,214 GBP) & the "Membership" fees (5 year fee is 776 GBP). So....just under 2,000 GBP for 5 years. That seems extraordinarily high.

My question(s) are:
- is the quoted rate from Registry Collection out of line with the fees from RCI (with whom they seem to be affiliated)?
- is there a tangible advantage to Registry Collection membership?

On the same theme, we bought our timeshare weeks through a UK-based company, Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket. I have to say we received really good service from the folks there and are pretty satisfied. That said, Worldwide also operate an exchange program, Worldwide Timeshare Exchange. This company's rates are FAR lower than the Registry Collection so I am wondering:
- does anyone have any experience with this company they can share?

Any/all advice would be welcome!

David
 

Passepartout

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What's a 'Registry Collection'? I suspect something proprietary. You might find someone here with experience with this. Likely a UK based member. Most of us are North Americans, and better understand the intricacies of dealing with them- as difficult as that is, but throw a European TS, and another system, and most of us- particularly my, ate lost.

Good Luck. You might be flying a bit blind here.
 

DeniseM

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The Registry Collection is RCI's "upscale" exchange company. They only accept deposits from "better" resorts. It is more expensive than RCI. You can go to their website and get an idea of their inventory: www.theregistrycollection.com

I've never heard of Worldwide Timeshare Exchange - my guess is that they don't do much business in the US, since they are UK based.
 
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Sandy VDH

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Registry collection is very upscale and also includes some private houses/residences.

They have a limited locations and limited availability, but some really nice properties.

You would have to research if any would be desirable and reasonably available when you want to travel.
 

David Beckett

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Thanks for the input:
- Yes, WorldWide is a UK based outfit. They do have some North American exposure/access but are more European focused.
- Registry Collection state they are affiliated with RCI but, as Sandy & Denise say, they do tend to be focused on the upscale properties.

As the resort (Pine Cliffs) is listed in RCI, I seem to have 3 easy options:
Worldwide - membership is inexpensive (first year free via our purchase through them and subsequent fees in the neighborhood of 30 GBP annual membership and 80 GBP for each transaction).
Registry Collection - the Registry Collection membership fees simply seem out of line with what I would think appropriate, the prices quoted in the contract they forwarded total nearly 2,000 GBP for a 5 year span (so 400 GBP or $613 USD per year -plus- transaction fees).
RCI - I've looked at the RCI website but can't quite figure out what their fees actually are. Can someone point me to a simple list of their prices?

Thanks!
 

MULTIZ321

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Hi David,

You might want to look at Hapimag - http://www.hapimag.com/en.html

and for more information about the Hapimag Timeshare Concept - http://tug2.net/timeshare_advice/hapimag_timeshare_information.html

and from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapimag

Tugger Carolinian has previously posted advice about Hapimag. I haven't however, seen him post on Tug for awhile. Personally, I'm not familiar with Hapimag.

and for those interested in more information about Worldwide Timeshare Exchange see: http://www.timeshare-exchange.co.uk/

Best wishes for the New Year,

Richard
 

DeniseM

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I own a timeshare in the UK that I bought resale. It's managed by Hapimag, but since I bought resale, I can't use the Hapimag exchange system, unless I buy another week from Hapimag - which is expensive.
 
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HudsHut

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Annual membership in RCI is $99USD/year. There are discounts for purchasing multiple years at one time.

https://www.rci.com/join-rci?promo=Caro19S2CARenUSc19ialreadyownaTSxC19S2BECAMBR1OWNWKS

Your resort does trade through RCI:
Pine Cliffs Resort (#5284)
8200-912 Albufeira, Portugal
www.pinecliffs.com

The resort is situated within the municipality of Albufeira in the area of Falesia. Located on a spectacular cliff top setting surrounded by pine trees and overlooking miles of beaches, Pine Cliffs Resort is self-contained, with its own shopping, sporting and entertainment facilities. The resort extends over 168 acres and includes the five-star Sheraton Hotel. A 9-hole golf course is situated within the resort, together with various shops, a children's village (Porto Pirata) and a private beach.

Does GOLD week mean a summer week? I checked what an August week (highest demand in Europe) would receive. RCI gives August weeks at your resort a Trading Power of 46 (out of 60.)
 
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David Beckett

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Good information and pointers....thanks all!

From the sounds of it, I think our best course of action is to keep the Worldwide membership and invest in a RCI membership....and take a pass on what appears to be a seriously overpriced Registry Collection membership. To be fair, the Registry Collection is included in the purchase price of the timeshare weeks when you buy through the resort. But the very significant difference in price of the timeshare weeks (resort pricing vs resale market pricing) renders that a moot point.

The only reason we are exploring exchange opportunities is that we have more weeks than we can use this year....we have 2 from the resort's introductory "Experience" package plus 2 from the purchase of the time share....but we can only use 2. Banking the other 2 or trading for something we can drive to (eastern North America somewhere) in the fall is our goal.

BTW - the high season in the Algarve is the summer and at Pine Cliffs those weeks are designated "Platinum". The "Gold" weeks are basically the shoulder seasons - roughly speaking they are March/April/part of May and Oct/Nov/most of Dec. and then the winter months are (mostly) "Silver". As we prefer the more moderate Spring temps there (~ 65-70 F - ideal for beach walking) we opted for the Gold weeks and plan to use them in either March or April each year.

Thanks again...I'm sure I'll be back for more advice/guidance at some point but you have all helped tremendously for now!
 

jnbsevy

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Hello

...we bought our timeshare weeks through a UK-based company, Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket. I have to say we received really good service from the folks there and are pretty satisfied. That said, Worldwide also operate an exchange program, Worldwide Timeshare Exchange. This company's rates are FAR lower than the Registry Collection so I am wondering:
- does anyone have any experience with this company they can share?

Any/all advice would be welcome!

David
Hello, David.
We recently made an offer on a timeshare through Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket. We bailed when they and their escrow (trust) company refused to provide a written agreement protecting the buyer's money. "We're the biggest and the best - since 2004", they said, and claimed that no one had asked for that before.
Their trust company Resort Financial Services, also seemed flakey and their name on the internet is not spoken with respect. When we asked for an agreement with a closing date specified, they sent the attached. "We hope that this is sufficient." It was supposed to protect the buyer?
We bailed on the deal, which looked like a good deal to us.
 

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David Beckett

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Hello, David.
We recently made an offer on a timeshare through Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket. We bailed when they and their escrow (trust) company refused to provide a written agreement protecting the buyer's money. "We're the biggest and the best - since 2004", they said, and claimed that no one had asked for that before.
Their trust company Resort Financial Services, also seemed flakey and their name on the internet is not spoken with respect. When we asked for an agreement with a closing date specified, they sent the attached. "We hope that this is sufficient." It was supposed to protect the buyer?
We bailed on the deal, which looked like a good deal to us.

Hi...sorry for the delay responding (I don't log-on to TUG too regularly).

Sorry about your experience with Worldwide but the only experience I have had with them was quite positive. I didn't spend tooo much time worried about the issue of funds protection because it has been my experience that most businesses and industries in the UK are quite regulated (and sometimes very over-regulated). The UK also tends to take a fairly strict approach to consumer protection.

The inability to specify a specific closing date is understandable from Worldwide' perspective....they are brokers and have to reconcile the buyer's interest in closing as quickly as possible with the seller's pace of supplying the legal paperwork etc., so there may well be delays that seem unreasonable. But again Worldwide did their job properly....they kept us informed as to what was going on, what sort of delays had been experienced and what timelines were in play....and as we weren't planning on actually using our newly purchased weeks immediately it didn't really matter all that much. That said, start-to-finish for the deal (and that included two separate owners selling their individual weeks to us) was about 2 months -plus- a little more time for the resort to actually produce the formal certificates of transfer/ownership and get them into our hands.

Your mileage may differ but all-in-all, I was comfortable dealing with them and it worked out well for us.
 
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