Maintenance Fees

I wonder if RCI ever read these forums and I wonder if the people who complain on here also conplain to RCI as well as on here. We've comlained to RCI abouta situations a couple of year ago and reached a compromise but we're still not happy. A fter all, the fees they charge are only for simple administration. Like others we can never get what we want either and we're flexible.

Yes indeed, I have complained in writing several times to RCI. They could care less. All they want is money from new suckers, and they don't seem to care whether I sign up again. I get 20 reminder letters a year to "sign up for antoher year" (or 2 or 3); but never are my complaints and real problems even addressed at all. From that I infer that RCI hopes to attract those who are new and don't know any better, and they make enough money from that to let everything else slide. Those who know from experience how they don't do anything to help resolve cheating and lying by the member vacation resorts, (like me) will just not join again. THey don't care, is the bottom line.

ednab2 wrote:

I wonder if RCI ever read these forums and I wonder if the people who complain on here also conplain to RCI as well as on here. We've comlained to RCI abouta situations a couple of year ago and reached a compromise but we're still not happy. A fter all, the fees they charge are only for simple administration. Like others we can never get what we want either and we're flexible.

Also when it comes to expenses what about phone calls. It can take an hour to sort out a holiday, not to mention the amount of time you've been kept waiting in a queue in the first place. There's no point in looking at the directory and choosing somewhere because ineveitable you won't get in.

Maintenance fees (Operating Fees, Reserve Fee, Real Estate Taxes) have risen on the average of $100.00 a year during the time that I have owned a deeded unit. Tried to rent it out for two years, but the Management Co. (Hilton) has a policy of first posted, first rented. So even though I have a beachfront, they rent poolside first, even though someone may request beachfront. We have a Board, but question if they are interested. Board meets once a year, January, but we don't get the minutes until the following years meeting, after everything is done and over.

joel382 wrote:

thomasc147 wrote:

After 25 years of exorbitant and ever-increasing maintenance fees, I've become "mad as hell and I can't take it anymore." My main complaint at my resort (High Point World Resort) is that management and administration fees account for 33% of the operating costs, or $884,871 for 108 units. That is ridiculous! I feel helpless to act. Does anyone have any experience on how one begins to address this issue? Is there a regulatory agency in Florida I can contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm ready for action. Thanks.

I TOTALLY Agree! These Resorts have us by the Gonads, and the Maintenance fees are a BIG Stinking Rip-off! As stated above, they get 500-700 per unit, per week, or 52 x 500 (average) = $26,000 average EVERY YEAR FOR EVERY UNIT! Multiply that times however many units are in the resort and you know how much money they are bringing in on the 'Maintenance' fees! Then, like that wasn't enough, last year, my Stinking Resort, Celebrity Resorts in Indian Shores, FL., had the gall to charge me over $1000.00 'Special assessment' ON TOP of my normal $500.00 maintenance fee. I Was Steaming Mad, and so were a lot of other owners. I called the local Government offices, and they are USELESS! They said there was nothing they could do. I believe the only way to correct these situations is to get enough owners to vote out the board, if it is run by a board, and get a new board in there that have some common sense! Only problem is, with Indian Shores, it is 'owned' by a Father/Son, or something like that, and they 'make the rules', so if you don't like it, tough! Guess I will have to sell this unit to some poor unsuspecting sole! ;) By the way, I didn't see it above, but I may have missed it. Did you add up how much these original owners made on the original sale of each unit? 52 x $10,000 (one bedroom average), or 520,000 PER UNIT. Your realize how much it costs to build a 800-1000 square foot apartment/condo? Maybe 150,000!, and that is being generous as it should be more cost effective to build 20 units than one. Talk about a KILLING! Even if you pay the High Pressure Salespeople well, they are still making about a 50% profit on each unit. No wonder there are so many Timeshares Out There flooding the market! Just my 2 cents worth!

pats92 wrote:

joel382 wrote:

thomasc147 wrote:

After 25 years of exorbitant and ever-increasing maintenance fees, I've become "mad as hell and I can't take it anymore." My main complaint at my resort (High Point World Resort) is that management and administration fees account for 33% of the operating costs, or $884,871 for 108 units. That is ridiculous! I feel helpless to act. Does anyone have any experience on how one begins to address this issue? Is there a regulatory agency in Florida I can contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm ready for action. Thanks.

I TOTALLY Agree! These Resorts have us by the Gonads, and the Maintenance fees are a BIG Stinking Rip-off! As stated above, they get 500-700 per unit, per week, or 52 x 500 (average) = $26,000 average EVERY YEAR FOR EVERY UNIT! Multiply that times however many units are in the resort and you know how much money they are bringing in on the 'Maintenance' fees! Then, like that wasn't enough, last year, my Stinking Resort, Celebrity Resorts in Indian Shores, FL., had the gall to charge me over $1000.00 'Special assessment' ON TOP of my normal $500.00 maintenance fee. I Was Steaming Mad, and so were a lot of other owners. I called the local Government offices, and they are USELESS! They said there was nothing they could do. I believe the only way to correct these situations is to get enough owners to vote out the board, if it is run by a board, and get a new board in there that have some common sense! Only problem is, with Indian Shores, it is 'owned' by a Father/Son, or something like that, and they 'make the rules', so if you don't like it, tough! Guess I will have to sell this unit to some poor unsuspecting sole! ;) By the way, I didn't see it above, but I may have missed it. Did you add up how much these original owners made on the original sale of each unit? 52 x $10,000 (one bedroom average), or 520,000 PER UNIT. Your realize how much it costs to build a 800-1000 square foot apartment/condo? Maybe 150,000!, and that is being generous as it should be more cost effective to build 20 units than one. Talk about a KILLING! Even if you pay the High Pressure Salespeople well, they are still making about a 50% profit on each unit. No wonder there are so many Timeshares Out There flooding the market! Just my 2 cents worth!

I also own at Indian Shores, as well as another Celebrity Resort. I have been extremely unhappy with the Celebrity since they took over. The maintenance fees have skyrocketed with excuses regarding the previous ownership, and promises about improving the quality of the places. I just received my new RCI book, and they continue to stay the same or go down in ratings. Is there any kind of consumer advocacy group for owners? At some point I would think this would need to come to the attention of some authority somewhere. There doesn't seem to be any accountability anywhere. I think the only way to fight it is to present a united front as owners. But how does one organize that? I've put a lot of money into the timeshares, so hate to just bail out for nothing.

We too have had issues with Celebrity Resorts - Harbor Club in Palm Coast, FL - especially Special Assessments. We currently have contacted the Florida Dept. of Business and Professional Regualtion, Consumer Contact at 850-488-1132 ask for Uniform Timeshare Complaint Form. Depending on your issues you may want to contact Celebrity and ask for a copy of the Budget that was used to arrive at your special assessment amount. You may also want to ask Celebrity for a copy of your personal accounting statement These all take time so you might want to start in advance. Good luck

JMHO, but initially investing money in a timeshare then having to pay rising yearly maintenance fees (and possible special assessments) is like buying to RENT your owned week .... a win-win situation for developer and/or HOA. This one realization is the reason that we sold all of our timeshares.

Yes, there should be minimal maintenance fees, but not the excess amounts that resorts request each and every year. We can now rent for the cost (or less) of our previous maintenance fees without the hassles of owning.

marlm wrote:

I completely agree, and I have done the math before to come to the same conclusion. What is even worse, most of the timeshare co's oversell theweeks like crazy--there is no legal restriction from their overselling--they all deny it but they all do it--so they dont just sell 52 weeks a year; they may sell 500 weeks ayear, counting on most people not using their weeks there at all in some years, or banking them and exchanging them thru RCI or some other exchange, just pusing the overcrowding forward to the future while taking our money today and putting it in their own pockets and, with our maintenance dues, just buiding and expanding new units instead of doing real, actual,

responsible maintenance on the units we actually bought. So I have found my units deteriorating steadily, uninsured, and finally blown down in a hurricane with no rebuild as there was no adequate insurance. This was the most basic item supposed to be covered by our dues. It was not.

aristotle1 wrote:

The maintenence fees are much too high in all the resorts. Take for example a one bedroom unit one may have for one week. One can find to rent one such resort for 70$ to 100$ a day or or on average 550$ per week to rent a given place yet the maintenance fees are about the same as renting a place for which one did not pay 15,000 or 20,000 on day one to own that week. If we take a unit where the maintenance fees are 500.00$ per year per week. If we assume that the developer sold the same unit for 45 weeks. This means that the developer collects 22,500.00$ per year for that one unit. Given that the building may have 20 units he is collecting 550,000.00$ per building per year. That to me is very high for maintenance fees. I like to see what others think. My email: irini90@msn.com

No legal consequences for selling more weeks than you have?? Isn't that what Rev. Jim Bakker was jailed for?

Hi guys,

Yes ,my maintenance fees are high but I realize I am an owner and most of the responsibility for how my owner's association spends that money I can do something about If I get more involved. You know, actually go to the meetings and speak to those issues instead of sign those proxy forms.

I don't have alot of money but I know my fees are made up of taxes(rising every year) energy bills, grounds keepers, they have to clean that place every week (think how long that takes if they do it right) stock the place with supplies, clean the pool, cable, insurance, members services have to be there if you need them, several salaries are involved just to manage the place, fix things when they break, wash the pool towels, maintain security, there usually is an activities staff, (don't we all like to get paid well?) and the list goes on. I know I want my gold crown resort to maintain its rating. That means at least every few years it needs a total overhaul. I paid good money and If I use it only once a year I certainly want it to look new 5 years from now. These things cost money!

Imagine if you had all these salaries to pay around the house for a week. Now imagine if your house sat on the beach and you had to pay taxes on that.

OK OK we have all that under control but now the AC compressor goes out. They don't do so well when the renters leave the doors open to hear the waves.

Do I need to go on?

There has to be a staff to make these reservations and someone to manage them too!

Jay Jay says the answer is to get rid of them and just rent. That will work until every one gives them up and then there is no one to rent from. And then we have the gall to say they are charging us too much to rent for a week. Give me a break!

I wonder if the timeshares will have a come back like stock or better yet Beanie Babies. Probably so with all the confusion going on.

Stop and think before you type to hear yourself typing. Now maybe we'll give the developers a break thisweek and trash the exchange companies. Next week we'll change up again and talk trash on Redweek.

Are you that perfect? I think not!

Jeff

by the way, half of what you are saying is just conjecture. Where is the proof? I'll bet you just heard someone else say it and it sounded good.

There are laws to cover most of the things you are talking about. If they are breaking the law, it will be just a matter of time before they get caught.

Especially since everyone is convinced they are doing so whether they really are or not.

There is an old saying "you get what you are looking for" Come to think of it, those people who always seem to have everything fall in their lap aren't very negative. I wonder if it is because they have everything go their way -or- they have everything go their way because they look for it to happen.

Just a thought or two.

Jeff

Jeff, like you, there are millions of timeshare owners that are very satisfied with what they own and are satisfied with their rising maintenance fees, HOWEVER, there are literally millions who are NOT happy with the rising costs related to timeshare ownership, including rising exchange fees.

All you have to do is access all the hundreds of timeshare resale sites on the internet, not to speak of brick and mortar timeshare resale companies, to see the GLUT of timeshare weeks for sale. And check out the $1.00 - $100.00 timeshares on Ebay, some at gold crown resorts.

I'm not knocking timeshare ownership (we owned 9 timeshare weeks at one time), but the rising costs and special assessments just became non cost effective.

Also, when we bought our timeshares there were not the prolific amount of rental sites on the internet as there is now.

The straw that broke the camel's back for us was when one of our resorts charged all owners a special assessment in 3 year increments on top of a hefty rise in maintenance fees for 3 years in a row. We sold that week, but we hear that they are now threatening to charge owners ANOTHER special assessment. It all boiled down to poor management at this resort and no reserves. That's when we decided to sell all of our timeshares. We saw the handwriting on the wall.

There't nothing wrong with renting from a timeshare owner. We are still timesharing and we're also helping pay somebody else's maintenance fees.

BTW, when all timeshares implode economically (probably after all the baby boomers die off), the resorts will merely sell full ownership units. It's not a doomsday scenario.

jeffr92 wrote:

Jay Jay says the answer is to get rid of them and just rent. That will work until every one gives them up and then there is no one to rent from. Jeff

Jay Jay,

It is no different in ownership of houses or cars. Things go wrong, and yes, it sometimes gets expensive.

What makes the difference is how you deal with it. The easiest thing in the world is to turn totally negative on the situation. Thats bad enough by itself but then people go about spreading this negative mentality to others.

Nobody sees there own responsibility in the situation. Instead its someone elses fault,and then someone else, and then someone else. Never me!

The real reason that prices have been driven so low in the resale market is that many have adopted this mentality by way of listening to it night and day. people have devalued their TSs in their own mind.

I still like and value my TSs for the same reason when I first bought. I'm not selling mine for dirt cheap. Its like people on wall street racing to sell because everyone is.

That is their perogative but when I come on sites like this to learn and all I hear is negative all the time, it gets old. There comes a time to either speak up or Join them and thats not going to happen.

Now to turn this thing positive again, just like there are things to do to maximize trading power and the like, there are things to learn to keep from losing out all together when these fees go up.

recently, I did an equity trade into a brand new resort to dodge the special assessments. This also reduced fees because most of my points are now in one resort instead of several. also I got into a tower because I realized how much roofing has gone up and if there are only three units under a roof then when it comes time to reroof only three units are going to pay for it.

Now a person can think constructively and come up with these answers for themselves or they can spend all their time thinking about sueing somebody.

People chose to be a part of the solution or part of the problem. Personally I get tired of listening to the belly aching all the time. Its not that I am completely satisfied with my TSs. I just chose to sound that way to offset all the bad I hear.

Jeff

jeff, how could special assessments and rising maintenance fees be the timeshare owner's fault? Since we could not physically attend HOA meetings, we voted in the people we thought best qualified for the job via their resumes sent to all owners before voting time. Owners are not mind readers, all they know is what they are sent concerning those running for an HOA.

The problem with the resort that I mentioned earlier is that there are also full ownership units there. I think many of those people were on the HOA board. Of course they would want the timeshare owners to take on the brunt of the special assessments and rising maintenance fees to keep their resort in good condition and to repair problems.

After researching concerning the full ownership condos at this resort, I then decided to sell that timeshare, since I, as a timeshare owner, was tired of carrying the financial burden for the full ownership condo owners.

It was the HOA's fault that they did not perform proper maintenance and have adequate reserves in place for emergencies, not mine. That's not bellyaching, that's fact.

If timeshare ownership was so brilliant then there wouldn't be millions of timeshares for sale in the marketplace. Does that fact tell you something?

BTW, I am very glad that you love your timeshares, but there are millions of people that have become disillusioned with timeshare ownership due to many factors, including costs and fees related to owning and exchanging.

jeffr92 wrote:

Nobody sees there own responsibility in the situation. Instead its someone elses fault,and then someone else, and then someone else. Never me!

The real reason that prices have been driven so low in the resale market is that many have adopted this mentality by way of listening to it night and day. people have devalued their TSs in their own mind. Jeff

Jay Jay,

I see we're still playing the blame game. So while we are at it, Where is the proof that the full-time owners pay any less than the TS owners?

Also, If the reserves were in place, then the maintenance fees would have been higher to begin with (pay me now or pay me later). Whats the difference except you were caught off guard?

The fact that there are many TSs up for sale in the market only tells me people didn't do the necessary research about the particular resort or the costs associated with ownership before they bought. Then they got to listening to all the naysayers and it swayed their thinking. What were they thinking to begin with? Where did that go?

One ought to have to pay more to own a TS than if they went to the local hotel and stayed in a lousy room with two beds and a coffee maker. Not because its nicer in the condo but because everything has to be maintained. AND its mine for now on, Not till check out in the morning.

One reason maintenance fees are rising is because people with nothing invested are using them. It has been a proven fact through just about every facet of life that those who make an investment in something tend to treat it with more respect.

Have you ever given a ride to someone else in your new car? They handle the thing way differently than you do.

Talk to every landlord out there and they will tell you that renters treat places with much less respect than if they own.

Some institutes who could offer training for free will charge a fee for no other reason than students will complete the training more often if it costs them something.

The key is that the mindset must be more positive and committed. I don't see much of that on many of these sites you mention.

Say what you will, there is no good excuse for most people on these forums being as negative as they are. People just need an excuse these days (any excuse). If they cant find one, they just fabricate it.

As long as you can stay in a nice place for no more than a maitenance fee (renting), places are going to continue to go downhill quick, which means fees are going to continue to sharply rise. People need to own before they exchange.

Only own at a place you can drive to and go more often. Research the company a little. Of course nowadays you will have to weed through all of the garbage to see what is factual. Don't buy impulsively. The good FEELINGS wear off.

Timesharing is a wonderful thing if you do it right. Of course you wouldn't know it for all the moaning going on these days.

Jeff

I am in total agreement with your statements below, however not everyone is as astute as you are.

Many people go to developer timeshare presentations (mainly for the perks offered), then the salesperson tells them untruths such as; you can exchange to any of the resorts in the RCI and II wishbooks anytime you wish, you can make a profit when you sell your timeshare, buying your timeshare is a good financial investment (the only investment is insuring that your family takes a vacation each year, it is definitely not a financial investment), you can easily rent your timeshare for a profit every year that you don't use it, and the list goes on an on. Salespeople don't mention the yearly rising costs of maintenance fees and possible special assessments.

Most developer salespeople will tell a prospective buyer anything to sell them a timeshare. Then when the buyer finds out that they can't simply exchange for any timeshare in the RCI and II wishbooks anytime they please, or they can't rent for profit (or at all), or they can't sell to break even, (or can't sell at all or take a huge loss), then owners become disillusioned with the concept of timesharing altogether.

This is one of the reasons millions of timeshares are for sale in the marketplace. All the prospective buyer did was believe the salesperson. Now how is the prospective buyer going to know about the above untruths before he buys. You blame the consumer, but the consumer believes the salesperson, so, I ask you, who is to blame here?

jeffr92 wrote:

Jay Jay,

Only own at a place you can drive to and go more often. Research the company a little. Of course nowadays you will have to weed through all of the garbage to see what is factual. Don't buy impulsively. The good FEELINGS wear off.

Timesharing is a wonderful thing if you do it right. Of course you wouldn't know it for all the moaning going on these days.

Jeff

jayjay wrote:

I am in total agreement with your statements below, however not everyone is as astute as you are.

Many people go to developer timeshare presentations (mainly for the perks offered), then the salesperson tells them untruths such as; you can exchange to any of the resorts in the RCI and II wishbooks anytime you wish, you can make a profit when you sell your timeshare, buying your timeshare is a good financial investment (the only investment is insuring that your family takes a vacation each year, it is definitely not a financial investment), you can easily rent your timeshare for a profit every year that you don't use it, and the list goes on an on. Salespeople don't mention the yearly rising costs of maintenance fees and possible special assessments.

Most developer salespeople will tell a prospective buyer anything to sell them a timeshare. Then when the buyer finds out that they can't simply exchange for any timeshare in the RCI and II wishbooks anytime they please, or they can't rent for profit (or at all), or they can't sell to break even, (or can't sell at all or take a huge loss), then owners become disillusioned with the concept of timesharing altogether.

This is one of the reasons millions of timeshares are for sale in the marketplace. All the prospective buyer did was believe the salesperson. Now how is the prospective buyer going to know about the above untruths before he buys. You blame the consumer, but the consumer believes the salesperson, so, I ask you, who is to blame here?

jeffr92 wrote:

Jay Jay,

Only own at a place you can drive to and go more often. Research the company a little. Of course nowadays you will have to weed through all of the garbage to see what is factual. Don't buy impulsively. The good FEELINGS wear off.

Timesharing is a wonderful thing if you do it right. Of course you wouldn't know it for all the moaning going on these days.

Jeff

JayJay, As you know I don't always agree with you, but I have to Totally Agree with you on many of your statements here against statements made by Jeff.

Jeff, You are either smokin' some good stuff, or you work for a timeshare company or exchange company. Nobody in their Right Mind that has owned a timeshare for any amount of time, and dealt with RCI believes half of the bull crap you are dishing out here! You state we are all 'negative', well I for one still own SEVERAL weeks and still enjoy my overall timeshare experiences, BUT I for one am STILL not happy with the likes of Celebrity Resorts and others that keep jacking up the maintenance fees AND THEN HAVE THE GALL TO DO A $1000.00 SPECIAL ASSESSMENT ON TOP OF IT! DO THE MATH... For my ONE unit it costs about $700 per year in Maintenance Fees. $700 x 50weeks (not using 52 because many are not fully sold) = $35,000 for my ONE UNIT. $35,000 x let's say 50 units for an average resort = $1,750,000 for that ONE 50 unit Resort. Now, keep in mind, this doesn't include the average $10,000 per week sold, per unit in this 50 unit resort. $10,000 x 50weeks x 50condos = $25,000,000 for initial sales of these condo weeks.

If these HOA's can't properly manage a 50 unit resort on $1.75 Million Dollars per year, they need to be replaced! You can hire a LOT of people and pay for A LOT of maintenance each year with that kind of money AND STILL PUT AWAY SOME OF IT FOR FUTURE RENOVATIONS!!! P.S. By the Way, Are you one of the owners/land developers at one of these sites? This would explain your writings...

You also insinuate that if JayJay would have done her research on the timeshare resort she sold with Full Ownerships that they were 'probably' paying the same assessments. I, for one, can GAURANTEE that if any of the full ownership owners, that is, they owned a unit 52 weeks of the year, had to pay 'the same assessment as the timeshare owners' of let's say $1000 LIKE ME, that would be $1000 x 52 weeks = $52,000 special assessment. Now, how many of those full ownership owners would pay this EVEN IF THEY COULD!!?? Don't state such assinine statements on here and not expect some 'negative' responses! SINCERELY! JoeL

jayjay wrote:

jeff, how could special assessments and rising maintenance fees be the timeshare owner's fault? Since we could not physically attend HOA meetings, we voted in the people we thought best qualified for the job via their resumes sent to all owners before voting time. Owners are not mind readers, all they know is what they are sent concerning those running for an HOA.

The problem with the resort that I mentioned earlier is that there are also full ownership units there. I think many of those people were on the HOA board. Of course they would want the timeshare owners to take on the brunt of the special assessments and rising maintenance fees to keep their resort in good condition and to repair problems.

After researching concerning the full ownership condos at this resort, I then decided to sell that timeshare, since I, as a timeshare owner, was tired of carrying the financial burden for the full ownership condo owners.

It was the HOA's fault that they did not perform proper maintenance and have adequate reserves in place for emergencies, not mine. That's not bellyaching, that's fact.

If timeshare ownership was so brilliant then there wouldn't be millions of timeshares for sale in the marketplace. Does that fact tell you something?

BTW, I am very glad that you love your timeshares, but there are millions of people that have become disillusioned with timeshare ownership due to many factors, including costs and fees related to owning and exchanging.

jeffr92 wrote:

Nobody sees there own responsibility in the situation. Instead its someone elses fault,and then someone else, and then someone else. Never me!

The real reason that prices have been driven so low in the resale market is that many have adopted this mentality by way of listening to it night and day. people have devalued their TSs in their own mind. Jeff

Now that time shares have been around for quite a while, realize that some are being sold because the owners, happy though they may have been, are getting older (or dead) and can't go . They have no children, or the kids are not (yet) interested in the location owned. If they were tied to a set week, it's like trying to sell a monogramed item. It won't be appropriate for most potential buyers.

Somewhere in all these blurbs, I noted that Mayan Palace (Mexico) now offers a plan under which owners pay only half the maintenance fee when staying at age 75 and 76. When they hit 77, there in no MF unless they rent or bank the unit for someone else to use. If the right to use is passed to a familly member, this will apply to that person, too, after normal MFs are paid for 5 years. Wouldn't it be nice to have that deal built into all contracts! However, it would kill lots of older/older owned resorts. At least a Mexican resort may get the "Right to Use" back after 25 years if no renewal is requested.

As we travel to our timeshares, we are aware of new things that owners now want. They have always expected the timeshare to be as nice or, preferably, nicer than their own homes. That home may now contain wireless computer access, DVD players and (heaven help us all) flat screen plazma TV. Want some of those upgrades over the old plan of one or two computers somewhere on the grounds? A 19" TV? A tape player? One of our resorts had a fire which destroyed the indoor pool. They rebuilt this as a mini-water park to compete with other offerings in the area. Will these upgrades affect the maintenance fee? Three guesses. And yet, resorts will not attract new buyers or please the old ones if these investments are not made as yesterday's "luxury" becomes today's "necessity".

Nobody likes rising prices on anything and, yes, there are some unreasonable companies out there, but let's not insult each other on the issue.

MD

ednab2 wrote:

I wonder if RCI ever read these forums and I wonder if the people who complain on here also conplain to RCI as well as on here. We've comlained to RCI abouta situations a couple of year ago and reached a compromise but we're still not happy. A fter all, the fees they charge are only for simple administration. Like others we can never get what we want either and we're flexible.

The above seems to be about RCI exchange fees or dues. The topic on this page was Maintenance Fees which are the fees paid to your resort or resort group for--well--maintenance! i.e. Replacing worn furniture and equipment, upkeep of the grounds, etc.

jeffr92 wrote:

Hi guys,

Yes ,my maintenance fees are high but I realize I am an owner and most of the responsibility for how my owner's association spends that money I can do something about If I get more involved. You know, actually go to the meetings and speak to those issues instead of sign those proxy forms.

I don't have alot of money but I know my fees are made up of taxes(rising every year) energy bills, grounds keepers, they have to clean that place every week (think how long that takes if they do it right) stock the place with supplies, clean the pool, cable, insurance, members services have to be there if you need them, several salaries are involved just to manage the place, fix things when they break, wash the pool towels, maintain security, there usually is an activities staff, (don't we all like to get paid well?) and the list goes on. I know I want my gold crown resort to maintain its rating. That means at least every few years it needs a total overhaul. I paid good money and If I use it only once a year I certainly want it to look new 5 years from now. These things cost money!

Imagine if you had all these salaries to pay around the house for a week. Now imagine if your house sat on the beach and you had to pay taxes on that.

OK OK we have all that under control but now the AC compressor goes out. They don't do so well when the renters leave the doors open to hear the waves.

Do I need to go on?

There has to be a staff to make these reservations and someone to manage them too!

Jay Jay says the answer is to get rid of them and just rent. That will work until every one gives them up and then there is no one to rent from. And then we have the gall to say they are charging us too much to rent for a week. Give me a break!

I wonder if the timeshares will have a come back like stock or better yet Beanie Babies. Probably so with all the confusion going on.

Stop and think before you type to hear yourself typing. Now maybe we'll give the developers a break thisweek and trash the exchange companies. Next week we'll change up again and talk trash on Redweek.

Are you that perfect? I think not!

Jeff

Yes but I still think they are too much. Don't forget they are getting the fee for one apartment x 52 x by all the apartments in the resort.

I agree with Jayjay I think it was, about all the untruths. All that blah blah was told to us when we bought our first TS. When we bought our 2nd one we bought a resale and if I advising anyone who was thinking of buying TS i'd advise them to got for a resale.