TimeshareGuru

I haven’t been keeping track of my current complaints, but heres a sample.  Note how some issues come back even after they get fixed!

21-Jan-08

• I submitted about 6 feedbacks, didn’t start recording them until the one below
  • In previous I said dates and location change back to an initial entered date after I last cleared my cache, too short time before my session is terminated, sometimes I get week before and week after but others I get only the week after when unite the week before are available, I could use a download ability, want to be a beta tester
• I am searching DBR and when I pass 17-Jan-09 the search results say there is no availability.
• 1) At the minimum this should search to 21-jan-09 for checkin, but since I’m in DRUSC (CSV1) I should be able to see to late Feb-09.  Yesterday I did a similar search for Feb-09, had the same problem, and had to call Club reservations to check the availability, which there was, right up to just before Race Weeks BIG SUNDAY on 15-Feb-09!  Why can’t I do it online?

22-Jan-08

• Hi, It’s Peter Chocholak again! 

-        When making a reservation the conf page does not show my room request information.

-        The e-mail confirmation also does not show the room requests I submitted.

-        After making a reservation I am not able to add a guest online.  I was able to do this on the Sunterra system.

-        When I need to look up an existing reservation, I can no longer (as I could in the Sunterra system) click ahead or to the end of my reservations.  I have about a dozen pages and if I need to get to the last reservation I must click a dozen times to get to it.

-        Currently the reservations are in conf order.  Please allow me to search and sort by conf number, resort, date, unit type, etc (search or sort on each field available in the Itinerary table)

24-Jan-08

-        The reservation search keeps “bombing” - yesterday I could close the page, start a new session, log out, log in, and get a search.  Sometimes I had to clear my cookies.  But today it just keeps bombing, or when I search for 7 nights it shows me avail for 3.  I think this last problem is because when I click the checkin date and then click the checkout, your system is running so slow it changes the checkout to 3 days after checkin even though I just set it to 7.

18-Mar-08

-        For the past few days the website is very slow for the login.  Once I reach the reservations page it’s not as bas, but still slow.

-        For three days now when I try to book a unit I am dumped to a page which says an error ocurred.  I believe it is due to my 0 available points in 2008, but I actually have 10,586 (soon to be less because I’m on the phone to make a booking) prepaid points remaining from “borrowing” from 2009.  Yesterday I was told I should still be able to book online since the system should first tell me I don’t have points, but then still allow since I actually have the 10,586.  I’m about to book using 1,200 points.

20-Mar–08

-        This is my second submittal, but for a week now the site is excruciatingly slow?  Is this happening to everyone or is it a direct result of when I borrowed 2009 points on

14-Mar-08?

-        Coincidentally my problems with the site began after I borrowed the points.  My 2008 bal is 0 but I still have prepaid 2009 points (about 10k) to use for 2008.  Peter 714-328-7121

24-Mar-08

-        I can only see contract 1351006 rather than all my contracts under the Summary Page

27-Mar-08

-        Hi! It’s Peter Chocholak 799522 again!  When I book a reservation online and add a guest, the confirmation page includes the guest and when I e-mail the conf it also includes the guest.  HOWEVER, if I book the reservation over the phone, then log into my account, the guest name is not shown online AND is not shown when I e-mail a conf!  I believe if I later log into my account to look at a reservation I made online, I have the same problem!

18-May-08

-        I see there is now an inline method to add/change a guest at a later time after making the intitial reservation!  I tried it today and while it would allow me to change the Guests’ e-mail, phone, address, it would not let me change the Guest Name (non-editable fields for FNam and LName).

-        My apologies for my “I can’t add a guest after the fact”.  I noticed the option to change farther to the right of the screen!  However, after I added the guest to the reservation and saved, I am returned to a home page.  Please return the user to the reservation which has just been updated!

LODGING-        Exchange No. 011490109 Confirmed To: 
Westgate
Flamingo
Bay 5625 West Flamingo Road
Las Vegas, NV, 89103  702-251-3435 • WFB Unit: UUU2 (2 bedrooms) Week: 21 Sun, May 27, 2007 to Sun, June 03, 2007-        http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=dspv&&itid=&itdx=&itty=new&from=m-        Expedia has good info on the resort, go to Expedia and search for “

Westgate
Flamingo
Bay”-        http://www.wgflamingobay.com/resort.asp-        I’m liking the BBQ, pool/hot tub, awesome looking room, and interesting activities-        Activities http://www.westgateresorts.com/resources/pdfs/activity_guide_flamingoBay.pdf

-        The activities are a bit more focused on kids than at the Grand Mayan Riviera Maya (Best resort I’ve Stayed at yet!), but there’s still hoops competition, ping pong, mini golf competition, horse shoes, a blackjack and poker night, a Pool Party BBQ, and wine and cheese social!  They also have board games, water basketball and water volleyball, shuffleboard (old folks, look out!), but the morning exercise walk was disappointing.  I mean, take me on a walk to see something interesting.  If I want to walk thru boring neighborhoods I can do that on my own!

ACTIVITIES

-        Legends of the Fall - great impersonators  [we got these at the half price ticket places]

-        Cirque du Soleil:  KA (awesome) and Zumanity (interesting but not a performance to go back to)

-        Lance Burton - best magician in Vegas.  He’s not as campy or flashy and doesn’t profit off of exotic animals. He just puts in an honest  night’s work making stuff disappear and reappear, with a great deal of square humor.  At The
Monte Carlo, 702-730-7160. Wednesday-Saturday, 7 p.m.; Saturday 10 p.m. Price: $66.50 and up.

-        UltraLounges

1.     Caramel, Bellagio Hotel Hours: Nightly, 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. Cover charge: None Information: 702-693-8300

2.     Light, Bellagio Hotel Hours: Thursday through Sunday, 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. Cover charge: $20, or complimentary for local women Information: 702-693-8300

3.     Risqué, Paris
Las Vegas Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Cover charge: $20 for men, $10 for women and local men, complimentary for local women Information: 702-946-4589 At Risqué, the male and female restrooms are separated by a translucent wall creating silhouetted views of the opposite gender.

4.     Tabu, MGM Grand (

5.     Mist,
Treasure Island Hours: Nightly, 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. Cover charge: None Information: 702-693-8300

6.     After a decadent dinner at Ah Sin, the stylish pan-Asian restaurant downstairs, couples can nuzzle on private terraces and enjoy treats by a French pastry chef at the city’s first free-standing dessert bar. Unattached patrons can ogle female servers in short black dresses or, at one of the bars, Kama Sutra dolls in various sexual positions.

7.     Playboy Club/Moon Nightclub (The Palms? 4321 W. Flamingo Road; 702-942-7777; cover $40), a unique two-in-one ultralounge and dance club connected by escalators and a uniform cover charge on the 52nd and 53rd floors of the Palms’ new Fantasy Tower. The lower level is the sleek Playboy Club.  For a more energetic experience, there’s the upper-level 12,500-square-foot Moon Nightclub with the only retractable roof over a dance floor in
North America.

8.     Pure (

9.  Light (

10.  Ghostbar - exquisite sidelong view of the Strip (

11.  Studio 54 (

12.  Tangerine Lounge & Nightclub (Treasure Island

13.  Seahorse Lounge One of the cutest, most clever lounges in Las Vegas is the Seahorse Lounge (

-        First Friday - (702-384-0092), a monthly four-hour crawl among about 50 galleries, restaurants, thrift shops and other funky locales in downtown
Las Vegas. The event usually runs from 6 to 10 p.m., with a special trolley that ferries attendees between nine stations in an area of about two square miles. This event was generally disappointing.  It is not comprised of attractive arts as the
Laguna Beach art & wine (held first Tuesday or Thursday each month), and most places offering refreshments charged for them.  This is more of a teenagers’ street fair with twenty somethings in funk also having fun.  In my opinion, even for the twenty somethings this event would rate fairly low, except for the possibility
Las Vegas doesn’t offer them anything better.  There are many antique stores with amazing collections, but you won’t find any bargains.

Remember me when you’re booking lodging!  Peter 714 - three two eight - 7121 www.TimeshareVacationNow.com and www.TimeshareRentalsNow.com

It’s bad enough that DRI changed their buyback program.  If you didn’t know, DRI has a buyback program where (until mid 2008) an owner who paid $16,000 for a timeshare could sell it back to DRI for $800 to $2,000.  That sounds pretty bad, especially since DRI re-packages the timeshare into its sales program and re-sells it effectively for $5,000 to $20,000.  But since mid 2008 DRI now buys those units for $100 to $700 and charges the timeshare owner $300 to $600 to transfer the unit back to themselves!  DRI often charges more to transfer a timeshare back to itself than timeshare closing companies do!

Add to that a new policy in Jul-08 where DRI has decided to charge a $250 transfer fee for all sales and transfers (except in a few cases where legally they are not allow to), and their 2008 $70 assessment to Club owners (Club owners pay about $155 to $300 each year depending on ownership/membership type) which might be incorporated as a standard additional fee.

But what really rips me today is what appears to be a new policy affecting Club owners with short term reservations made at their own resorts.  Until June or July 2008, owners in Club were allowed to reserve at their resort anytime of the week without incurring a 10% point premium other Club owners would pay if they were not direct owners of the resort.  This was true regardless of whether the reservation was made 60 days or more in advance, or during the discount window of less than 60 days in advance.  For the past two months I have had to call central reservations becuase the DRI website has included the 10% premium.  When I called in and explained I was an owner at the resort, the reservations people, after conferring with their supervisors, would properly adjust the reservation to remove the 10% premium.  However, today I was told this had not been policy EVER.  Even after providing dozens of examples and asking to elevate the issue to a lead, then a supervisor, DRI would not admit they implemented a policy change.  After extensive review of documents and examples DRI finally admitted deeded owners were not subject to the 10% mid week premium at their resorts, but any discounts available for sub 60 day stays were based on “THE STANDARD POINTS RATE” for the reservation.  As DRI sees it the standard rate for mid week checkin is 10% higher than checking in Fri/Sat/Sun and as such I now pay 10% more.  They now view my rate during the week as a waiver of the standard rate rather than an exemption to the 10% premium.

Clever of them, I must admit.  Now if I just could contact a large enough group of owners to consider alternatives to DRI managing our Club membership, or other such actions to regain control of our benefits … call me or comment!

Well, I finally bought a rare 2BR unit on the resale market at the DRI Kaanapali Beach Club.  My primary intent is to re-sell it but I want to be a weeks owner for a while so I can see how the resort reservations works compared to the corporate Club reservations.  In the process I am experiencing one of the most troublesome closing experiences ever.  The company selling the unit to me is great, and is very customer service focused in resolving problems.  But Summit Title in Orlando, FL 32801 is HORRIFIC!  They fail to deliver documents, then want to charge a fee to “re-deliver”, then deliver docs via e-mail in 8.5×14″ (Legal) format for std 8.5×11″ docs (when I attempted to print, the top of the docs got cut by my printer since it didn’t know what to do with the 14″ doc), and since I’m buying two time shares from the seller, Summit Title mixed the paperwork together.  When they send e-mail they refer to one timeshare in the header but discuss the second timeshare in the message!  Very confusing.

In the meantime www.timesharetransferonline.com recorded a deed from another seller which referred to two different fixed week units.  They have been very responsive in fixing the problem, but took 5 months to complete the close.

I do my own closings now when I sell timeshares.  I completed a close in 40 days for a DRI Powhatan Plantation this month, my first closing!  I don’t understand why it takes closing companies 60-90 days to do the job.  Check me out www.capecomputers.net and soon www.timesharevacationnow.com and www.timesharerentalsnow.com

Depending on how long the timeshare has been owned, or the policies of the timeshare company/resort, units at the same resort can be weeks or points based, or both.

The Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas timeshare is a delightful experience, and this summer with the oil and airfare crisis there is no better time to stay at the resort!  1BR units which rented from timeshare owners last summer for $4,000/wk (and directly from the resort for $4,500-$8,000/wk) can be had for $2,700 right now!  Studios for $1,700 and 2BR for $4,400/wk!  And you can’t rent 2BR units from the resort, you have to rent from an owner!  Call Peter at 714-328-7121 www.mnop.biz to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity!

Westin has two phases on Maui, both in the same complex.  The original phase which is about 5 yrs old is also referred to as the South Phase and the new phase is officially Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas North, or North Phase.  North opened in 2007.  Westin recently opened the Westin Princeville in 2008 as well!

I rent timeshares for a living.  Admitting I’m involved in the timeshare industry makes me feel dirty.  A very large portion of all my experiences with timeshares is not positive.  Every portion of the “not positive” has to do with people in the timeshare industry though!  Using and enjoying the benefits of timesharing have been extremely enjoyable.  Why can’t the people in the timeshare industry be just as honest and enjoyable?  I’m stiving to change that … one timeshare rental or sale at a time!  Check me out at www.mnop.biz or www.capecomputers.net - I’m about to launch timeshare related websites this month as well!

Back to “the last minute”.  80% of the people inquiring to rent a timeshare attemt to do this less than 60 days in advance, and most of them attemt to plan less than 3 weeks in advance.  This conflicts with the basic timeshare process being that timeshare availability to owners is best four to twelve months in advance.  To be certain, a lot of owners get nervous holding onto a reservation to the last minute and so renters at times can secure fantastic deals for lat minute planning because the owners don’t want to have an unused unit!  Please reconsider!  Timeshare owners already offer tremendous value in contrast to renting directly from the resort.  I know you want a great bargain, but nearly ANY price an owner offers their unit for is far lower than the cost of paying the resort direct.  Just wait until you are a timeshare owner (hey, never say never!) and want to rent your unit.  You won’t believe the number of scams you must be aware of, people promising to rent your unit if you just pay them $300 to $900 first!  Then bargain hunters want to rent a unit with $900 annual maintenance for $600 when the resort charges $2,500?