Overbooking - You may be on your own

[acesneights Member Find all posts View Profile Close acesneights]

For those of you who aren't on the Yahoo! group, Dave Pontius, President of Fairfield has confirmed that Fairfield has no policy of guaranteeing that you will have a place to stay when you arrive for a confirmed stay at a Fairfield Resort.

"He feels the overbooking should not be a problem in the future, but no guarantees.

No guarantees of FF putting you up in a similar number of bedrooms, within walking distance, but just working on an individual basis to put them in hotels nearby."

Nearby being within a hour or two drive?

So if you have two couples in a 2BR unit they may put you in a single hotel room with two double beds.

Also, no committment that Fairfield will PAY for the hotel room(s).

This an example of Fairfield's committment to "World Class Customer Service"

Caveat emptor!

Stan

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Hmm Sounds like they are taking after Mayan Palace resorts. Once when I checked in I saw a MP owner being put into a Sea Gardens unit and the owner did not even get an Ocean view. You can hear them arguing for over an hour.

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

What????#?#

[Steamboat Bill Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Steamboat Bill]

I will now move FF to the bottom of my "timeshares to Buy" list.

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

I agree, sounds like real BS to me.

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

Can they do that?? Is it legal??

sheesh..........and here most of us are worrying about getting a good view.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Something doesn't sound right here. If you make a reservation at a FF resort you are claiming it from the published inventory. it would be very hard for them to say there was a "mistake" or that you don't have a unit. If it happened sign up real quick for the "update". A few well placed, loud complaints in the sales room should get the mistake fixed fast. If you prefer just walk in & start talking to any sales weasel - loud - ablut what is happening TO AN OWNER! Bet they fix it fast.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

I read similar posts too more than once but don't remember where it was exactly. I am not saying that I am 100% correct but this is how I understood it.

Fairfield has some deeded fixed weeks and fixed units from older resorts and these units get deposited in an inventory of points, if the owners do not request using their own week at their resort by a certain date. Some owners forget to make the request to occupy their unit so their week was deposited in the points inventory pool. However, when the owner of the fixed week shows up at the resort but had not requested it, he will still get priority over the owners, who own points at this resort or exchanged to this resort from somewhere else.

Can you imagine coming there late at night after a long day's traveling and you are told that there is no unit available for you which you are entitled to but the resort is full? I would be furious!

Even if the owner has agreed to put it in the pool but changed his mind or forgot about it, he still seems to get priority of the use of his unit over everyone else. I remember reading this too.

I could not believe my eyes what I was reading so took good notice of these posts because it clearly shows to me that a deeded week is far superior to owning "points" which are nothing more than an entry in a ledger! If someone makes a mistake, your vacation has a very bad start. If I can find these posts, I will include the links so you can read it yourself and make your own conclusions.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

OK, I found three of the threads about overbooking at Fairfield. Here they are, #1, #2 and #3. I knew I wasn't making this up. It is mentioned too that Fairfield manages some of these resorts rather than owning the resorts where some of these problems showed up.

I am also confused why RCI is involved too? These companies are so intertwined with each other that even the points get mixed up with each other too? I am so glad that we do not own points of any kind because today, you own a week but tomorrow it may only be worth five days. The excuse is that people like taking shorter vacations but I believe that it is nothing more than trying to sell you more points while devaluating what you have. Our weeks, from over twenty years ago, are still worth a week today at all resorts we can exchange to, if there is availability but that is a whole new story with RCI.

I am upset that the Marriott is going over to a point-based system too but the handwriting was on the wall as they were the only hotel resort chain left that was still selling weeks instead of a point-based system but now they are starting to sell a points product too in the Orient and from there, it will come to the rest of the world. I just wonder how soon this will happen?

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

Is this true! I am totally confused will someone explain how this can be legal? Please explain!

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

Heck, this happened to us at Shadow Ridge when they were trying to sell us a week! I wrote a scathing review of that experience on TUG and haven't darkened their door again. Those sales people were, to put it mildly, incompetent.

Imagine just getting off a plane after doing a 24 hour turnaround in Florida to take your wife to a concert for her birthday and then dealing with that claptrap. Heh!

IMO, if FF walks you, they should refund your MF's AND pay for the alternative accomodations. That's exactly what a hotel would do. Your stay should cost you nothing.

Pat

[dolly1504 Member Find all posts View Profile Close dolly1504]

Use of fixed week converted to points

I have several Fairfield fixed weeks which have been converted to points. My understanding is that I have the option to use my week any year {same week I bought} by notifying Fairfield of my intent before 10 months of the use date. If I do this the number of points I received for that week will be deducted from my account. If I do not choose to use that week but plan to use my points elsewhere I do not have to do anything other than make a reservation with my points at another time or place. At times there may be a computer glitch, but I would be very upset if someone showed up expecting to use their week and had not notified Fairfield in the proper manner.

There has been a problem at some locations this year with overbooking but very, very few owners have been affected. Of course once is too many if it happens to you. I had a problem with my St. Thomas reservation in May but Fairfield went beyond what I expected of them to make me happy by giving me another unit which was very adequate for my group, and then restoring almost all of my points. Whenever I have contacted them about a problem a resolution to my satisfaction was quickly reached.

Joyce

[acesneights Member Find all posts View Profile Close acesneights]

Overbooking

One problem seems to be putting weeks into Points inventory that haven't been converted to Points and therefore aren't even Fairfield's to use at all.

The other problem seems to be units being reserved but not removed from inventory, so the same unit can be reserved multiple times (up to 20!)

The worst part is the failure of Fairfield to guarantee to make things right.

Stan