Rules, rules, rules....

[katiemack Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close katiemack]

As we are preparing to head out for our annual trek to Aruba, I am reminded of some of the funny sights we have seen at timeshares during the years.

One of the funniest was seeing a balcony filled with nearly 20 teens, all having themselves a blast.....curious, we asked the front desk about the unit occupants, and were told that there were supposed to be only 6 people checked in to that unit.

Well, of course, it turned out that the unit had been "given" to the kids of the owners for their own use to celebrate their graduations from H.S. Parents were not with them. The kids invited more friends to fly with them...and they tried to turn the unit into a crash pad.

The resort management had to eject the excess number of occupants, and it was up to them to find lodging elsewhere. Security was put on the watch and the kids' parents were notified.

So, after this long story, here is the question: each unit has occupancy limits. Have you (or someone you know) ever pushed the occupancy limit at any timeshare and tried to sneak more folks in without being caught? And did you succeed? If not, what happened?

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

Yes, yes, it's true! I confess! Okay, a few years ago I went to a resort where we had a 2br sleeps 6, and we brought our three kids plus a friend's kid, plus us, and that makes 6, and then a friend and her DD came up and joined us and slept on the floor in the living room. Yep, that makes EIGHT!

I was in a panic b/c I was sure the management would catch us and give us a hard time (it's not that large a resort), but...they didn't! But I was scared straight anyway. Never again, I can't take the stress!

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to come clean about my past.

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

I have a number of times but I almost always ask the resort in advance (bar the one occasion below) to make sure since we have 5 kids and most timeshares won't allow us in a 2br.

We once turned up at a resort with our 6wk old baby and the manager made such a fuss. We hadn't mentioned it as had in the past booked another resort in the same group of resorts and they had been fine. So we really thought it would be fine with this one too. In the end, he said we could stay if we write on the check-in form that there were only 6 of us instead of 7. We couldn't in good conscience lie so decided to leave and ended up sending friends of ours to enjoy just one night of the week so that they could have a break from their kids. It was only about 1 1/2 hrs from home.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

I must confess that I do this all the time. Since the resort that we usually do this is close to my home friends always come and crash on check in night because Sunday there is no one in the office all day. On Monday things are back to normal but we have a huge fishing drinking party on Saturday night til Sunday night. When they start putting someone in the office on Sundays then we'll comply but until then they obviously don't really care so neither do we.

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

I have been tempted to take a 1 BR for my family of five when that was all that was available, but I have been too afraid because I think, what would we do if they called us on it? Leave? Also, I don't want to get my kids involved in the cover up and have them think I am a big fat liar

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

I've done 4 adults and one child; and 3 adults and 2 kids in a one-bedroom; but that was at a resort that never checked on anyone.

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

Our first timeshare experience was a gift from hubby's boss - he couldn't make a reservation he made and sent us instead. It was a Townhome 2 BR sleeps 6 at Christmas Mountain Village (Bluegreen), and there are seven of us (I have five kids). We never even thought about it, to be honest, because we had no idea what the unit was supposed to sleep anyhow.

After we got the Sampler we were making a reservation at Mountain Loft, same kind of unit, although happily we ended up with a chalet that slept 8 (the 2BR townhome was fine, but I really liked the chalet), and the reservation had some warning on it about the occupancy rate "being strictly enforced" - which it generally isn't, best I can tell, although I expect it would be in the case of the OPs situation. I like getting the biggest unit possible anyhow, so I told hubby we'd be following that rule, since it's not exactly a hardship with Bluegreen.

We do go over the official occupancy rate with hotels, because we strongly prefer being in the same unit and that can be a serious challenge once you get past six. But we never try to hide it, to the point of all seven of us being there at the check out desk talking to the clerk then hubby going off to get groceries while the kids while I collect golf clubs from the clerk to go play on the hotel's goofy golf course. I may break rules, but I'm not going to lie about it. If they have a problem with us going one over I'm fine with not staying there. We always do the "get at the last minute with a coupon" route with hotels, so I expect a lot of them would rather put up with us than have the unit go empty.