New to timeshares. Please Help.

[abr111 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close abr111]

Hello, my family is new to timeshares and i'm looking for some help. So this July, my father bought a timeshare in Vegas. It's part of the RCI timeshares. We got 1 bedroom for 1 week a year. They gave us an entire RCI book and told us we can go to any of the gold crown resorts in any country, etc. We are thinking of taking a week at the end of December for winter break. We'd like to go to Mexico or a nice Caribbean resort. Would we be able to get a week in any place we choose from RCI? How early do you have to reserve a week? Do you have to pay for any of the amenities at the resort? And what resorts from RCI would you recommend (Mexico, Caribbean, etc.)?

My father sort of purchased the Vegas timeshare on impulse so I don't really know much about the way this works. They also told us that we could get really cheap plane tickets through RCI, is this true? Hope to hear from you guys and please tell me anything else someone would need to know about this.

Thanks.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Hello, my family is new to timeshares and i'm looking for some help. So this July, my father bought a timeshare in Vegas. It's part of the RCI timeshares. We got 1 bedroom for 1 week a year.

Welcome. What exact did your father bought? Since it already over 20 days, you should know the resort, the exact program. Sounds like a week resort? Maybe a floating week resort? But since you mention cheap airline ticket, it maybe RCI point resort. In that case, how many points you can get from the week you brought?

Does not sound like you bought one of the mini system.

They gave us an entire RCI book and told us we can go to any of the gold crown resorts in any country, etc.

There are somethings they did not tell you
1. subject to availability
2. depends on RCI wishes, you may or may not get them.

Not all resorts will open its whole inventories to the whole world. Most will first keep them to their owners, then release the excessive time slots.

And RCI is working on its way to be renting company first, exchange company 2nd. some of the inventories it got also is for rent only.

In fact, you probably will see less than 1/3 of resorts constantly deposit to RCI.

We are thinking of taking a week at the end of December for winter break. We'd like to go to Mexico or a nice Caribbean resort.

That will be X'Mas time. Usually the resorts will be packed. If you are looking for next year, you will have better chance to get one. More likely, you may want consider purchase airline + resort package from other travel sites.

For Mexico, RCI usually has a lot of all inclusive rentals available, it is much cheaper than you go the exchange.

Would we be able to get a week in any place we choose from RCI?

see above, no you will not get that.

How early do you have to reserve a week?

there are 2 part of exchange, you need to give RCI something first, than you need ask RCI to get you something.

for the 1st part
If you are RCI point week, it should be semi-automatically.

If you are fix week, once you paid your maintenance, you can tell RCI or your resort you want to deposit your week.

If you are floating week, you can reserved based on your resort requirement, I have seen 14 month to 12 month, do it as soon as possible. Pay your maintenance fee than make a reservation, than tell your resort you will need to deposit it.

If you are mini-system, you can deposit based on the system rules.

To ask RCI for an exchange, you will need 1st to make deposit, than based on your deposit type, you can ask RCI for exchange.

For RCI week, you can search up to 2 years from the week travel day you deposit. So if today you deposit a 2011 New Years week in Vagas, you can search upto 2013 New year.

For RCI points, it is 1 years.

Ask RCI to do search as soon as possible when you determine where you want to go. A lot of resorts will start showing in 10 month or so.

Do you have to pay for any of the amenities at the resort?

depends on the resorts, most will be free, some will charge you, and some resort you may also need to pay room tax. Mexico has a lot of All-Inclusive, and a lot are you have to pay.

They also told us that we could get really cheap plane tickets through RCI, is this true?

It is much much expensive unless you have a very inexpensive maintenance fee resort and your week are very high demand one if you are RCI point.

Usually, if you bought package one (air + hotel), RCI can not compete. And if you are willing to wait for the airline discount (although it is very unlikely it will happen in X'Mas), RCI can not compete.

Jya-Ning

[abr111 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close abr111]

Thank you for you help. Unfortunately, I do not know what package we got (Points or floating week) We were in Vegas for a weekend and were offered free show tickets but we had to attend the timeshare presentation. They were first offering us 2 bedrooms but my father bought 1 bedroom. This is for the Grandview in Las Vegas.

From everything I hear, It's going to be impossible to get a week in a high end Mexico resort for Xmas break for this year.

[MargeS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MargeS]

"From everything I hear, It's going to be impossible to get a week in a high end Mexico resort for Xmas break for this year. "

In the TS world, the further in advance you search for prime locations/dates, the more successful. I am talking 1-2 years in advance.

You may also find that what you deposit will never pull the resorts you desire in trade. Not a happy thought, but true. Sometimes you will be able to grab something really good at the last minute (someone's cancellation/loss, your win), but coordinating that with last minute expensive airfare...??
a drivable location, much better scenario for last minute quest.

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

Timeshare salesmen never tell the truth about the resorts they are selling and how well they will exchange; if they did, most people would not buy the weeks they do without checking very carefully to be sure they are getting a week that will suit their needs. The facts they ignore are pretty much what Ja Ning outlined. To simplify, I would add that
1. not all resorts are equally desirable and RCI rates resorts and how they
exchange based on how desirable they are. For example, in Las Vegas
resorts that are on the main area of the strip are much more desirable
than those that are off the strip or on Las Vegas Boulevard but out of
the "big name casino" area. The ones in the most desired area will
trade much better than those that aren't.

In addition, the area itself is rated for desirability. A southern California
beach resort will out trade Las Vegas--fewer resorts, grater demand; a
big city timeshare will outtrade even a southern California beach resort:
there are almost none of them and there is very high demand.

2. Because of the "desirability" factor, there are some resorts that will never
have the opportunity to trade into New York, London, San Francisco,
etc. For example, if you own a timeshare on a lake in Indiana, you'll
never even be offered the opportunity to consider the highly desired
locations--except on a last minute basis or possibly when a resort makes
what is called a "bulk deposit," and for a short time period, there are a
number of highly desirable weeks in the system that would not normally
be there.

3. In addition to the resort's location and the area's desirability, the resort
itself is rated according to the degree of luxury it provides. A rather
plain resort with few luxuries will not be offered the opportunity to
exchange into a luxurious, highly desirable resort--except at the last
minute.

4. In addition, the time period you own will make a difference in your
ability to trade. For example, a ski resort week that occurs in "mud
season" won't trade well; a Caribbean week that occurs in prime
huricane season won't trade as well as one that occurs in peak tourist
season, etc.

What you will be able to do with your week very much depends on what you have and how much you learn about the RCI system and how to maximize it for what you have. This forum is a perfect place to learn about the system.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Not an owner at Gradview, but I believe Grandview is tied to RCI points as its exchange affliation. So you get a week package, if it is floating week (very likely), you will need to let them know you want to use it for exchange, you can either go through RCI week or RCI points. You should have the account set up maybe pretty soon.

Not RCI point owner, so can not tell for sure. But you need first find out what kind of week you have, it will determine how many points you can get from RCI points. If you don't have enough points, you can not go through RCI point or RCI week, your only hope will be try to get at 60 days discount period with 9000 RCI point deposit to week. Expect to see cheaper rental at that time.

Although X'Mas is a high demand season, this is a very bad economic time, you maybe surprise to find out how many rental you can get cheaply than your MF. If you want to go there at X'Mas time, no time is better than now.

Hopefully, some Grandview or at least RCI point owner will joint.

Jya-Ning

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

At this moment, from RCI week side, I saw enough inventories around X'Mas time (maybe more than 10 but less than 200 units. So call Grandview, tell them you want to make exchange and start from there. Ask them to give you the available match, and you can check back to see if these resorts are upto your like.

Jya-Ning

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

This is one example of the exchanges you can expected from an All-Inclusive (AI) resorts. Which has open in X'Mas time (I am looking at Dec 24th to Dec 31st stay.) All of the available Mexico resort I can see are AI at that time.

"AI" Grand Velas International Residence Club (#6708)

Units that meet your criteria Total Units Available: 3
Unit Type Max Occup
(Privacy) Kitchen Check-In Date Check-Out Date Price
Studio 2 (2) No Kitchen 24-Dec-2010 31-Dec-2010 Exchange Fee Only
1 BR 4 (2) No Kitchen 24-Dec-2010 31-Dec-2010 Exchange Fee Only
2 BR 8 (4) No Kitchen 24-Dec-2010 31-Dec-2010 Exchange Fee Only


MANDATORY ALL INCLUSIVE* ALL FEES ARE PER PERSON PER DAY. 1 GREEN FEE PER STAY (US$43.50 CART FEE NOT INCLUDED) & VIP ONE WAY TRANSFER AIRPORT-HOTEL. MINIMUM OCC: 2 ADULTS IN ST & 1 BD; 4 ADULTS IN 2BD. CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR WKS ARE 7 NIGHTS MANDATORY. 2010 FEES: APR09-APR29 US$231; APR30-DEC16 US$189; DEC17-JAN06 2011 US$368. CHILD APR19-DEC16 US$60; DEC17-DEC31 US$80, 2011 FEES: JAN07-APR14, APR29-MAY05 US$231; APR15-APR28 US$263; MAY06-DEC22 US$189; DEC23-JAN05 2012 US$368. CHILD JAN01-APR28, DEC23-DEC31 US$80; APR29- DEC22 US$60. ***NEW CONFIRMATIONS FROM MAY/18/2010 TRAVELING IN 2010 & 2011: 2 KIDS UP TO 12 YRS FREE. KIDS 13-16 YRS PAY CHILD FEE. MAXIMUM 2 KIDS PER UNIT ALLOWED NO MATTER THEIR AGE*** PREPAYMENT CONTACT:US & CAN:888/777-3176; MEX 01800/0832500 TRANSPORTATION E-MAIL: CONCIERGE@GRANDVELAS.COM

so you will paying exchange fee plus 368 per person per day or about 5,152 for 7 night stay 2 person.

While you can find extra vacation that cost USD $323.99 plus the same mandatory fee from RCI's extra vacation.

It probably cheaper than if you try to make reservation directly from their hotel site, but I am not sure if it is going to be cheaper than if you goto airline company and get their air+hotel package deal.

Jya-Ning

[abr111 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close abr111]

Ok guys, I've cleared a bunch of things up.

I have an RCI weeks account.

We have deposited our week at the Grandview already.

Now, we were looking through the Mexico and Aruba resorts and almost all of them are all inclusive.

Why are the all inclusive prices so high? I figure with the all inclusive prices it would probably be cheaper without timeshares.

The main place we're interested in is the Royal Mayan in Cancun. It is not All Inclusive. But when I look at the available weeks, I see only one week available in the end of August.

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

Looking with a very good trading unit all I see at the Royal Mayan, Cancun is a 2 bedroom unit for check in August 28, 2010. There was little available in Cancun at any resort in December that was not All Inclusive.

Joy

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Why are the all inclusive prices so high?

Because they do provide drink and they assume you will consume all the liquor for 24 hrs 7 days stay in the property?

Most of it does not list clearly what is included in their all-inclusive package, and most will not tell you the difference between package 1 to package 2. But they will include food, drink, some activities, some shows. So you may want to do some detail check what kind of activities and drink are included for free, and what are extra cost and what are those costs. Or you just have to trust that it is what it is.

Generally, I perfer a written contract that no longer than 3 pages, anything more than that, I think there are something wrong. I suspect they will be either like our timeshare developer contract or mortgage closing contract. Which are usually not on your side.

jya-ning