What is the Caravanserai Beach Resort?

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

There are have been serious issues trying to log onto Fairfield's (FF) online reservations for the past week or so.

Today, I finally got into the FF online reservations. Because of Lawren's plead for help today, I wanted to search availability at the Caribbean FF resorts, St. Thomas at Bluebeard's Club and St. Thomas at Elysian Beach.

When I clicked on the Caribbean area to search, the only resort that showed for searching was something called Caravanserai Beach Resort on St. Maarten Island. This resort is NOT one of the FF resorts listed in its directory.


I looked this resort up on the internet and it is a very very nice hotel resort. There was no availability for March 2007 (Sorry Lawren ).

Does anyone know what the deal is?

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

And another thing

Oh, and the two FF resorts Bluebeard's and Elysian Island were not even in the list of available resorts to search in the Caribbean area for FF.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

This is a Gold Crown resort located in Sint Marteen on Beacon Hill Road NO 2 Sint Marten, Netherland,Antillies. 5995/4-5400.

Unit size st2/2. st4/2. 1br 4-4

www,caravanseraisxm.com

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

I will guess this is a new associate resort/hotel they just signed this year for next year. Don't know if/when the inventory will be loaded. But if it is associate hotel, use FF points for reservation may not be favorable things to do.

You will think when they worked so hard to get these associate agreement, they will want to advertisement them so it will get take and use. I don't think I saw that though. So make you wonder why. On the other hand, I guess there are enough owners that can carefree with enough points, so all these units probably will be taken enentually.

As to no inventory there, isn't these resorts just convert to points last year? So some of the units/week get converted, and some did not. And if they converted, the owner has until 10 month to take it, but VIP may try to get the unit at 11 month. I wonder if this is the situation here. At least they are trying to avoid a mess by take all the inventory out. With the remove of IRIS project, I guess they have to deal with current inventory system and try to deal with the issues by dramastic measure.

Jya-Ning

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

Jya-Ning

What's curious is that the St. Thomas FF resorts listed in the directory are not even on the drop down list to search for availability at the FF online reservation page.

You would think that FF would at least have some statement to refer the owners to to at least explain their absence and to explain why this other resort is listed but not referred to any the new directory or anywhere else.

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

My wife and I bought here a few years ago. It's an RCI Points resort. It was Nov, and they offered a "free" week the next year as an incentive. We returned in April of the next year to find that they had plans to demolish the "hotel", sales offices, shops and restaurant area to build "better" units, leaving the existing time share units intact. They were not offerring trade-ins, only "additional" weeks.

We tried for a few weeks this year to make reservations during our home week in 2008, and difficulty because the inventory had not been loaded. After about 6 weeks, we finally got our reservation. Shortly after receiving our confirmation, we got a letter from the resort. The entire site has been torn down, they can't honor, call in to get points reverted and then call RCI to schedule another resort on St Maarten or elsewhere.

There was no information regarding our ownership in the demolished area, or how they intended to accomodate us; my guess is they feel we own points but no longer have a "home resort" - wonder how they'll assess our maintenance fees next year?

Calls to the resort got an email saying the equivalent units are "bigger with more amenities" but cost more money, and that the property housing "our" unit is converting to condos. Maybe they are now offering the upgrade that wasn't available before.

We did have a good time the one week we spent there, and the staff was very helpful.

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

Wow! Thanks for the information. It sounds like it's going to be tough to go there for a while.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

What an awful experience! That would qualify under the "horror stories, bad experiences" thread. Hopefully it will work out and you will have a decent t/s to go to, at some point.

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

.... Shortly after receiving our confirmation, we got a letter from the resort. The entire site has been torn down, they can't honor, call in to get points reverted and then call RCI to schedule another resort on St Maarten or elsewhere....

That's awful! I take it this was a RTU (right-to-use) resort, not deeded? And no elected HOA board?

[vincenton Member Find all posts View Profile Close vincenton]

I heard that for St Thomas you'll need to call in for availability.

Vincent.

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

I just checked my paperwork again. We rent through 2020, then we own our week, and we can sell or will away our share. I think this is a deed.

If I hear any more relevant info from the resort, I'll post again. I'm thinking that if we can't reach a reasonable agreement with the resort, we'll still visit so we can see a lawyer/government agency to determine what rights we have...