Well, This is a Fine Kettle of Fish - Festiva takes over Escape! Resorts

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

"The letter promised big changes,

I asked the people at the check-in desk what the big changes were. I was told that the resort was going to be selling units as RCI Point units.

Nice first post.

Are you someone?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

If the RCI points rumor is true, how would they market and sell them?

Hey, it's Branson . . . plenty of deal-schpielers who have had some lean years.

They'll be selling something that we've established cannot be given away.

[ace2000 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ace2000]

Hey, it's Branson . . . plenty of deal-schpielers who have had some lean years.

They'll be selling something that we've established cannot be given away.

Actually I'd be interested in buying some RCI points at Stonebridge. It would have to be resale though. What I'd really like to know is how long it will take before I see them on eBay?

[ace2000 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ace2000]

Nice first post.

Are you someone?

The sign on the fireplace mantle that I referred to earlier, stated to ask them for the details. I guess this "someone" actually did that.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

What fireplace?

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Oh you own those economy units with no fireplaces. No wonder you can't give them away.

[ace2000 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ace2000]

What fireplace?

What fish?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

What kettle?
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The 600# units I am finding online are $1900.

5-7 years ago, they were $7000-8000.

When I first started advertising ours, others online were $4900.

The big sign on 76 advertising weeks has been replaced by one for SBV, LedgeStone, and the restaurants.

The sales company to the left before you go through the gate is a traditional TS tour operation, but they selling for stuff at Horseshoe Bend, AR (Crown Point)!!!! I wasted about three months with them, waiting for their owner to get back to me. That was this time last year. I went ahead and paid this year's fees ($1950), so they would have more than a year to flip them before they owed anything. I even agreed to pay the transfer fees, $1050 total.

After stringing me along, the owner of that operation did not take them. Well, actually, just stopped getting back to me, after not getting back to me for a couple months. Somewhere along the line he said something about so many owners trying to give them away.

The same is true with lots in SBV.

Lots in Branson Hills that were bought for $99000-$199000 are now mostly bank-owned, and mostly $29000. Somewhere around 500 lots. I know several folks stuck with them. Branson Hills Development LLC (HCW) let at least 200 lots go at the county tax auction last August. A few houses are being built in Branson Hills, as if there were no problems.

[ace2000 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ace2000]

$1900? Yikes, they can dream I guess. Do the empty lots in Branson Hills require monthly fees to paid? That's the killer at the FKV (Fine Kettle Village) - almost $120/mo.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

$1900? Yikes, they can dream I guess. Do the empty lots in Branson Hills require monthly fees to paid? That's the killer at the FKV (Fine Kettle Village) - almost $120/mo.

I golf with a lot of Payne Stewart/Branson Hills folks . . . I'm there five days a week. I don't know of any gated community/POA-type place that does not have POA fees. But, in the case of Branson Hills, I'm not sure where it's at as far as the few residents taking over the POA, or if HCW is still carrying the load. I know a lot of really upset lot owners, but the are more "Bank Owned" for sale signs than anything else.

I'm guessing around 400 lots were "presold" to speculators, and guessing most are not paying anything for anything.

I also know Fine Kettle Village people who have Branson Hills lots . . . and places in Florida.

The couple that have the house on the bluff behind the green on 15 at Fine Kettle have two places in Florida and their son's family lives in Payne Stewart.

I guess we're lucky that we only have six timeshare weeks, two houses, and a lakefront lot we wanna build another house on.

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

Nice first post.

Are you someone?

The sign on the fireplace mantle that I referred to earlier, stated to ask them for the details. I guess this "someone" actually did that.

I have four Escape units, not that they seem to be called that anymore, three at Stonebridge and one at The Shores in Orange Beach, AL. I am "someone" who read the sign and asked the woman who drives the yellow mustang at the check-in office what the "improvements" were going to be. She said they were going to begin selling RCI Point units and gave me a phone number to call if I were interested, which I am not. I pay for RCI membership for my Stonebridge float unit and the OB Shores fixed week unit, and a second ETC membership that covers the RCI membership fees for the Escape Travel Club points units. The last thing I want to do is pay for a 3rd RCI membership to use the RCI Points system. As for marketing the RCI Points units, I suspect all owners will all be contacted, either by an additional mailing, or by telephone, giving us the wonderful opportunity to convert our deeded weeks over to the new and improved RCI Point System, at the small fee of $$$$.$$

When Festiva took over the ETC units, I was contacted and met with their representatives, and was ask to join their system by signing over the them all my Escape properties and to give them the small fee of $5000.00 to join their travel club. I turned that down.

Because I own in both the ETC point system and a float week at Stonebridge, I was also provided the wonderful opportunity to pay the special assessment two times, for total of approximately $1300.00. I guess I should have showed up at an owners meeting, if I had any complaints...

I was told by Festiva that Stonebridge was on the cusp of losing its RCI Gold award, unless Stonebridge got its maintenance act together, and that that was the reason for the special assessment. They stated that it was not Festiva that did the assessment, but Escapes. The buildings needed new roofs, stairs, ect., and updates to the interior of the units.

As for the board providing information in a timely fashion to the owners, if they can't afford to have a web-site, or pay for producing and mailing information letters to everyone, I don't see why they can't provide information via email. What is the cost in typing notes and doing a mass send?

Coopershare may have been a good business initially, but their dumping of the timeshare section left a frustrating and bitter tasting mess behind for everyone who still remains.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I have four Escape units, not that they seem to be called that anymore, three at Stonebridge and one at The Shores in Orange Beach, AL. I am "someone" who read the sign and asked the woman who drives the yellow mustang at the check-in office what the "improvements" were going to be. She said they were going to begin selling RCI Point units and gave me a phone number to call if I were interested, which I am not. I pay for RCI membership for my Stonebridge float unit and the OB Shores fixed week unit, and a second ETC membership that covers the RCI membership fees for the Escape Travel Club points units. The last thing I want to do is pay for a 3rd RCI membership to use the RCI Points system. As for marketing the RCI Points units, I suspect all owners will all be contacted, either by an additional mailing, or by telephone, giving us the wonderful opportunity to convert our deeded weeks over to the new and improved RCI Point System, at the small fee of $$$$.$$

When Festiva took over the ETC units, I was contacted and met with their representatives, and was ask to join their system by signing over the them all my Escape properties and to give them the small fee of $5000.00 to join their travel club. I turned that down.

Because I own in both the ETC point system and a float week at Stonebridge, I was also provided the wonderful opportunity to pay the special assessment two times, for total of approximately $1300.00. I guess I should have showed up at an owners meeting, if I had any complaints...

I was told by Festiva that Stonebridge was on the cusp of losing its RCI Gold award, unless Stonebridge got its maintenance act together, and that that was the reason for the special assessment. They stated that it was not Festiva that did the assessment, but Escapes. The buildings needed new roofs, stairs, ect., and updates to the interior of the units.

As for the board providing information in a timely fashion to the owners, if they can't afford to have a web-site, or pay for producing and mailing information letters to everyone, I don't see why they can't provide information via email. What is the cost in typing notes and doing a mass send?

Coopershare may have been a good business initially, but their dumping of the timeshare section left a frustrating and bitter tasting mess behind for everyone who still remains.

Thanks for the accurate and real-world assessment. Sometimes that's hard to come by when you're hanging with folks still in Timeshare La La Land.

I'm curious as to how you found this site, and thread, since your only two posts are here.

Did you use a search engine? Maybe looking for Fine or Kettle or Fish?

In case you did not read this entire thread, you are among the few who will understand the jist of it, which is that along the line way back when Deeded Weeks owners were converted to floating and/or ETC Points, so that in the 600# units more than one class of owners exists. Those who don't understand that, would not understand the confusion caused when you are on the practice tee or get paired up with other Villas owners in a different class, they insisting they are members of Festiva, and you wondering where they're coming up with that. But, all owners, including us with plain Jane deeded weeks are getting all the Festiva emails, too.

Perhaps because we don't actually stay in our units, I seem to have missed the Board's fireplace-notification system, but I did have numerous conversations with the ladies at checkin, who know me well because each time I check-in, I complain about the 15 minute drive, how tired I am, and how I really need to get some rest.

I asked them numerous times what's going on, and suggested the board tell the owners what's going on. The standard answer was "Send a letter to . . . " Really???!!! and what, send it by Pony Express???!!!! They did finally give me an email address, which, of course, no one replied from.

How would you feel if after 14 or 16 or whatever months of asking for basic owner information, a member of the board calls you, chews your ass out, tells you if you wanna know what's going on you can come to the annual meeting (like 14 out of 6000 did), asks you if you wanna pay for mailings, and then, after the appropriate amount of ass-chewing, sends out three mailings to all owners (6 to us), I assume because it took that many to clear the air, if it is?

All that being said, because of the golf benefit, it's hard to believe these can't even be given away. That says a whole lot about timeshares that have no benefit (liability?) other than timeshare.

&, yes, Escapes! was a much-admired and ballyhooed mini-system, another warning that should be heeded.

[ace2000 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ace2000]

Because I own in both the ETC point system and a float week at Stonebridge, I was also provided the wonderful opportunity to pay the special assessment two times, for total of approximately $1300.00. I guess I should have showed up at an owners meeting, if I had any complaints...

Thanks for the update, very informative. To either of you, when was the assessment? I don't recall hearing about that. Also, are you both saying that the Villas are the ones for potential RCI points, whereas the rest of the old Escapes timeshares are now under Festiva? If true, that seems like kind of an odd arrangement.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Ah, yes, the assessment, which cost me the giving-away of one of our weeks, and which I know nothing about, and who got dinged, etc.
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As for the rest, I would assume (and thus my asking for the resort to explain things better) that all weeks are targets for RCI Points. I can think of no reason why they wouldn't be. There has got to be a whole bunch of unsold 700# units.

And, I am assuming, also, that it is the ETC owners only who are now being governed by Festiva. In our legal searches, mentioned early-on here, Festiva has taken control of unsold inventory at Branson Yacht Club (at least the Escapes! part of it), but not at Stonebridge.

See, it is all of this hocus-pocus, water-muddying stuff that the Association should address . . . Oh wait, they have now, three times . . . but there is still confusion.

FWIW, if you missed it, when the marketing company at the entrance was in the lengthy process of turning me down, they said that Festiva has a $1700 transfer fee. SVC has a $350 transfer fee to non-family members, not that you can find that information anywhere.

It's a many-tangled web, the simplest part of which is that if a person wants a week for golf at LedgeStone, a deeded 600# unit is the way to go.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

11 more and there will be as many owners here as at the annual meeting.

As far as RCI Points goes, if RCI is as unfriendly to the resort as it is in Faux Points Weeks, it would not a good value even if conversion is free.

I guess that just because RCI rates it a Gold Crown doesn't mean they have to respect it!
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We highly recommend Stonebridge! Have been vacationing at RCI resorts since 1996 and found this resort to be one of our very favorites. When we return to the Branson area again, we will definitely return to this resort!
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To sum up: A delightful week, a top notch resort, which in our estimation deserves it's Gold Crown rating.
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It was FABULOUS! We have nothing but praise for "Stonebridge."
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Awesome place . . . The resorts (sic) is in excellent shape very nice and comfortable.
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Beautiful Resort in a Tranquil Setting . . . This was a great resort for a quiet week in the Ozark Mountains
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The town is geared towards Southern Hospitality, and everywhere you go, you are pampered. This extends to the Stonebridge Resort. . . All the Escapes that we checked out here were top of the line.
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Very Very nice. he (sic) unit we had was just great.