Bluegreen-What happened?

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

Room Taxes (note plural)

In addition to room taxes, there is a $1.00 per night fee for city/state accommodations tax that will be added to your final bill.

Are there any other Bluegreen resorts that have to charge a city or county or state sales and/or accommodation tax when one is just using points?

Charles

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

I know LaCabana and Pono Kai do. There may well be others.

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

I guess Big Cedar would fall in that daily fee group at $5.00 per day.

[mag64507 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mag64507]

I am looking to buy into a time share not sure which one yet, had a contract with Bluegreen but cancelled it after terrible customer service. We had attended a presentation at Big Cedar only intending on getting information but left with what we felt was a good deal. After we got home we had a few question and tryed to call the customer service number we were given for the first 30 days before everything went through. Well left messages and no one returned a call and we felt we were being pushing out until after the cancellation period. Finally on the last day after we told them the paper work was in the mail they got back to us and offered piles of incentives to stay. Anyway, we felt like Bluegreen was a good company until this all went down. Now we are looking at Marriot, Disney and other options because we are afraid of what Bluegreen might be like once we get in.

Can anyone tell me why Bluegreen is better or worse than any others and please tell me how the service is for a standard member.

Also I saw on a web site, Boca's I think, that points can be used to pay fees, is there anyway that that works or is it just a waste of points.

Thanks

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

We have been owners since March 2003 - have upgraded every couple of years. BG is like alot of other things - it is not for everyone. We have been VERY pleased with our purchase. We believe part of the BG experience is using the system to book the reservations you want and continuing learning how to use the system.
We are currently @ a BG resort and cooked out last night with 3 other groups of BG owners and all were pleased with their purchases - have never met these owners before -nice people.
BG is like others - they are not perfect and we have had minor issues with them in the past. BUT ----- they have never failed to resolve any problems we have had.
We own no other timeshares, but if we had to do it again, we would definitely purchase BG.
We hope this helps and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

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

Some thoughts about Bluegreen...

I purchased all my BG points resale so the only experience I had with BG sales was sitting through the presentation, which was my worst experience with Bluegreen by far. Your story appears typical. Most people's worst experience with Bluegreen is the aggressive and sleazy sales tactics.

Luckily, customer service is not an issue with Bluegreen - their (non-sales) customer service is excellent and constantly improving in my 3 years experience.

The 2nd worst experience people complain about with Bluegreen is when they just can't get the reservation they want. Either they're trying too late (April for mid-summer at Big Cedar), or because the timing of when they receive their points and when they want to travel don't line up. (eg. You want to travel July 2011. You need to book Aug 2010, but you don't get your points until April 2011. It isn't going to happen...unless you know the way to work around!

On this board and on the Yahoo Bluegreen board, you'll find a lot of mostly happy Bluegreen owners.

I started with Bluegreen because I'm driving distance to Big Cedar. It is spectacular and worth my costs of membership. I got a bit disillusioned when I realized the other resorts in the system are not all the same caliber. Bluegreen runs the gamet from high end luxury like Big Cedar to converted motel in Florida. You should definitely check the website and look hard at the other locations to see if there are other places you want to stay. For me, there are just a few, but Big Cedar alone is enough.

I don't own other timeshare companies so I can't compare and contrast, but I can tell you pros and cons for me:

Pros
1) I love points - we're more long weekend kind of travelers than full week travelers
2) I love Big Cedar
3) Costs are relatively low overall. No BS extra fees, no exchange fees, minimal cancellation fee, no guest certificate fee. Based on my reading, it seems BG maintenance fees are fairly low compared to other timeshare companies, and buying points is dirt cheap right now.
4) bonus time is great (if you're realistic about it)
5) Bluegreen is constantly adding new resorts
6) The customer service people are excellent, and the website is pretty darn good and improving all the time.


Cons:
1) Although there are a lot of resorts in the network, I'm personally only interested in about a half dozen. (I'm an exception, tho; on the BG boards there are people who are thrilled to return over and over to the one resort I didn't like, so take my opinion as just one voice.)
2) You cannot expect to get any value back from the points you purchase when you dispose of them someday.

Good luck!

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

Also I saw on a web site, Boca's I think, that points can be used to pay fees, is there anyway that that works or is it just a waste of points.

Thanks

I have been an owner since 2002. I am at gold level with my last upgrade in 2007. Most of BG is great. The selection of resorts is wonderful, over 50 locations available, most in locations where the family can be entertained (pool on site or touristy stuff nearby).

The only problems I have with BG, when you are low on points and book cheap, some resorts have outdated rooms, but even then, it is still good to get away and you are not in the room the full time you are on vacation. The other problem I have (and even more with my wife) is the 'owner update'. I can not stand the owner update, and that is a BG issue.

Now, points to pay the maintenance fees-no. That is a costly way to pay the fee. If you have too many points, rent them out, even cheaply. Use that money to pay your maintenance fees.

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

We have been VERY pleased with our purchase.

We have owned since 1998 and are also very pleased. Yes, there have been a few mistakes along the way but generally they have been taken care of. Sales presentations by just about every timeshare developer is something to avoid if you don't have a stomach for the hard sell.

Join the Bluegreen Yahoo group to meet more happy BG owners.

Charles