Tweet
Originally posted by ace2000
View Post
As for which units are going to be offered as RCI Points units, I would have no way of knowing. The entire former Escapes timeshares are an odd arrangement, to say the least though. To understand why its so odd would take a lot of behind-the-scenes access I don't have. Escapes! had timeshare units at Stonebridge and Branson Yacht Club, both in MO; Hot Springs, Bella Vista, and Cherokee Village, all in AR; Panama City Beach and Orange Beach, both in FL, and Galveston, TX.
Let me offer my personal opinion of what makes Stonebridge so complicated. As the timeshare system evolved over the years, what started out as being sold as a deeded week, moved to being sold as a point system. It allowed for more flexible access for owners and an additional selling point to generate money for the developers. The problem is, once someone has a deeded ownership, that is their property, and their week can't be used in the point system open to anyone. For the point system to work, it needs to have good availability to the point system owners, or complaints begin to surface, and lawsuits begin.
Escapes' resorts were initially deeded, then later some remaining units were marketed as point units. Separate inventory exists for both areas. As a float owner at Stonebridge, as an example, my week may be used during any week that has an opening anytime during the year. If I don't want to go to Stonebridge this year, I can pay an $80 internal exchange fee and go to the Yacht Club, Hot Springs, Bella Vista or Orange Beach, or I can have my week banked into RCI as an RCI exchange. Float weeks were sold by a color system that limited the time that inventory would be available for use. Red allows access the entire year, the other two colors had time restricted access.
Fixed week owners and float week owners are in a separate system, with separate inventory and availability, then point owners. Point week owners are in a system called the Escapes Travel Club, or ETC. Units that were sold at many of the resorts were sold as club memberships with the ETC. You were sold a week/unit, but unlike normal, it was for inventory purposes only. What you bought in reality was a specific number of points that could be used at most, but not all, Escapes resorts, again based on inventory/availability.
Because of the separate inventory control, its possible to have no availability of the week you want, when there are obviously unoccupied units all over the property. When point systems begin, there is normally contact with deeded week owners to try to get them to convert their ownership from deeded to point based. That allows the point system to add the unit/week to its inventory available to all point members, otherwise your week/unit will never be available to anyone but you. If you aren't locked in to a specific week in your personal travel plans, it may be an attractive offer to go for Christmas this year, your anniversary next, your birthday the next, etc. The problem is, the developer/whoever in charge, wants to make additional money and tries to get you to pay additional money to join the new system. Some people see it as paying more money for what you already own and someone else wants.
It all became way too complicated along the way. Escapes built a really nice, new beachfront resort, Escapes! to the Shores, in Orange Beach, AL., on land where a hurricane had destroyed an existing timeshare. They bought the land, built a really nice ocean front property, included several timeshare units per agreement with the previous land owner and made the rest of the building regular condos. Then the bubble burst and the condo units couldn't be sold at the estimated price, or even close to the estimated price, and money went tight for the entire system. Maintenance that wasn't absolutely required was ignored, updates of any kind, few if any, not just at the Shores, but across the entire spectrum of resorts. Bills were not paid in a timely fashion. Lawsuits between the POAs and HOAs and COAs were initiated. Suits were directed to arbitration. The Attorney Generals of several states chimed in. Time was running out. The decision to drop the timeshare units was made by Coopershare/Escapes, but the system was so convoluted and tied up at that point, not much was going to be straight forward fashion. Or as you phrases it, an odd arrangement.
The only Escape resorts it seems that anyone wanted were three of the four beach resorts. Panama City, Galveston and the Shores in Orange Beach. The PCB and Galveston resorts were the first to be sold, to Holiday Inn Club Vacation. The unit owners were given the opportunity to keep their existing weeks/points, or pay a reasonable $100 fee to drop their current ownership by joining HICV.
Festiva wanted ownership of the Shores, but to get it, Escapes packaged their point system, the ETC, along with it. Festiva already owned several resorts in the Branson area and was seemingly hesitant to gather more inventory than they already had in the area. Did they really want Stonebridge and the Yacht Club's point units? The only way to get the Shores meant they were forced to take it.
So, there are an odd assortment of ownership interest in controlling Stonebridge. I had heard a rumor from one of the resort managers that the reason Stonebridge didn't fall more in line with the original sell plan was that one of the guys in Escapes' management moved to Stonebridge and was doing essentially a hostile takeover of the property. If that was really the case, I imagine there would be a lot of stalling of information flow, sort of what seems to be going on now. Still, it was a rumor, and it could be innocuous in that with such an odd ownership, and all the on-going lawsuits, arbitration, and negotiations with the various exchange companies, RCI, RTX, II, its too complicated to really explain everything that likely changes monthly. If RCI had dropped Stonebridge's gold rating, during the negations that were ongoing, the value of the property likely would also have dropped. Hence the special assessment.
To give all Escapes owners a single phone number to call for customer service seemed to be an effort that was being made by Festiva to simplify all the complications of who calls who to make a reservation. I've noticed that things are not always what they seem in the timeshare world and someone apparently decided that simple effort wasn't the right thing for them and changed the phone numbers to make reservations, and changed the name of the resort. Likely as a way of distancing the resort from the ongoing lawsuit against Coopershare., Escapes!, Inc., Escapes Travel Choices, LLC., and Festiva in all its many facets.
Originally posted by JLB
View Post
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.
&, yes, Escapes! was a much-admired and ballyhooed mini-system, another warning that should be heeded.
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.
&, yes, Escapes! was a much-admired and ballyhooed mini-system, another warning that should be heeded.
Comment