Westgate time spare exchange

[Hendrikus wynberg]

i have owned a one bedroom at Westgate vacation villas in Orlando for twenty years. I have a couple of weeks banks (3rd week January). I contacted them to exchange for this January and was told that they were available. With future discussion they wanted to charge we $600.00 per week for each week I traded. I questioned the charges and was told it was because I did not buy from the developer. I bought my unit from a resale company. Is anybody else having this problem? How can I get better value for my weeks

 

[NiteMaire]

i have owned a one bedroom at Westgate vacation villas in Orlando for twenty years. I have a couple of weeks banks (3rd week January). I contacted them to exchange for this January and was told that they were available. With future discussion they wanted to charge we $600.00 per week for each week I traded. I questioned the charges and was told it was because I did not buy from the developer. I bought my unit from a resale company. Is anybody else having this problem? How can I get better value for my weeks

If true, that's a new low...and not just for Westgate, but the entire TS industry.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

 

[Passepartout]

That's the way Wastegate treats resale buyers. Including those who buy from retail owners- effectively making their weeks worthless. The only way to get use from them is to use the deeded week(s) you own. Exchanging is near impossible or expensive- more expensive than renting.

Sorry for the bad news. However, if you've owned there for 20 years, and bought resale, you're on the good side of the ledger sheet. You paid a LOT less than the money-grubbing thieves would have charged, had you bought from them.

Jim

 

[tschwa2]

Westgate raised those fees several years ago for resale owners. The simple solution going forward is don't bank internally. The bigger issue isn't that they raised those fees to the point where the internal exchange program is worthless to resale buyers, it is that they didn't publicize the change so you would have known not to bank internally. Westgate allowed resale owners to participate in their internal exchange program at the same cost (lower than II) for many years. Then in about 2013 instead of grandfathering current participating resale owners they tripled the exchange fee and added additional fees if you were uptrading in season or size but still allowed participation. For the benefit of those who own other system, it would be like allowing voluntary resale Vistana owners to participate in SVN or post 2010 Marriott resale owners to participate in the DC but only with an additional $400-$600 per usage charge. Most just wouldn't do it. There are other less costly ways to exchange. Problem only comes when you have already banked several weeks because you didn't know about the fee and didn't know about other exchange methods and companies.

To the OP if you have used your last 3 years, just let them go and moving forward, either use your week or get an Interval International Account ($89 annual membership fee) or use one of the independents like DAE or Trading Places, or others.