Great fun @Mountanside Villas and questions

Hi!

We are new to timeshares, my parents gave us this week at Massanutten Mountianside Villas by trading through Interval International.

We are having a great time here and love the unit. Very spacious and comfortable, and a nice mountain/rustic feel.

We went to the timeshare sales pitch, and weren't swayed, but that drove me to the interned and I found you!

The sales lady was very clear that we couldn't come back here because of the 1 in 4 (soon to be 1 in 5 according to her) rule. She said that meant non-owners couldn't use the units more often the one year in every four. Does this apply to renting directly from the week holder? Or something else? It seems odd to me that they wouldn't want our money, seeing as much of the parking appears empty this week.

We live about 2 hours from here and we homeschool so we are flexible on our travel, but we are in a coop that meets on thursdays, so being less than 2 hours from Winchester, VA is important during the school year. Is there a "master" time share map that could help us see what other resorts might be in the right distance for us?

We were just discussing buying a timeshare (re-sale of course) because of what a great time we are having this week, but we want to be sure we are making a good decision, since we could just rent them from other people too.

I have seen that the general opinion of Massenutten is that it is over built and weeks are found easily here. Are there higher value resorts not far from Winchester?

Sorry for all the questions, thanks fr any help. Let me know if you need more information.

I used to own at Mountainside Villas but sold it because it was cheaper to get last calls for less than $300 than to pay the cheap maintenance fee of about $450 ( I think that is about right). They are independent of all the other owner associations there and are not controlled by the developers like the other ones are and they do a great job. This means that there is no 1 in 4 rule and you can belong to either RCI or II unlike the other associations that can only join RCI.
If you will check at the Welcome Center where you checked in, you will find a bulletin board where owners post their weeks for sale but the cheapest weeks are on ebay. I bought my week 8, ski week, for $300 and sold it for $1000 on the bulletin board.
They are great units and owners association. I would be happy to own there if it wasn't cheaper to get Last Calls through RCI.

Here is a link to a timeshare map found on the homepage that shows all the US timeshares: http://tug2.com/tsmaps/TimeshareMaps.html
Click on Southeast USA.

Welcome to TUG
Couple things:
How can you tell a timeshare salesperson is lying- his lips are moving.

Interval doesn't have a 1 in X rule so you can exchange through interval all you like. Mountainside is the only section of Massanutten that is affiliated with both RCI and Interval. Interval gets a lot less deposits especially during prime time. (Even in RCI Mountainside is not subject to 1 in 4 rule- only Woodstone, Summit, and Regal Vistas and with those you can still alternate on different years).

Massanutten is probably the nicest resort near Winchester.
The others are much smaller with less amenities but you might want to research them as well.
There is a small TS on deep creek lake in MD but it only has about 12 units.- Lakewood Resort.
There is one called the Presidential Resort in Chancellorsville and I think one in Front Royal- skyline Ranch resort. There is also one in Gordonsville called Shenandoah Crossings.

Here is a map of timeshares across the USA.

familyvacations said:

We went to the timeshare sales pitch, and weren't swayed, but that drove me to the interned and I found you!

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Lucky You - Welcome

familyvacations said:

The sales lady was very clear that we couldn't come back here because of the 1 in 4 (soon to be 1 in 5 according to her) rule.

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See subsequent post

familyvacations said:

She said that meant non-owners couldn't use the units more often the one year in every four. Does this apply to renting directly from the week holder?

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Does not apply to rentals

kwelty said:

I used to own at Mountainside Villas but sold it because it was cheaper to get last calls for less than $300 than to pay the cheap maintenance fee of about $450 ( I think that is about right). .

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You have to be (have been) an owner of A timeshare to get access to last minute rentals, perhaps your parents could give you access to their II account or enroll in RCI at your expense if the resort is dual affiliated to double the access to last minute rentals

Thanks everyone!

My parents don't have a timeshare that participates with RCI, so I am out of luck there. They are Diamond International and II members though, so I can look there for deals.

We are kicking around purchasing a week, because that would also get us into the RCI club, and because we really liked it there. But we would want to trade it either for different times of year there, or for other places. Does anyone know what the popular times of year are at Massanutten?

I also looked at the board of directors meeting minutes that are posted online. It looks like they have been selling quite a few weeks to the developer that runs the rest of the timeshares up there. Any thoughts on that?

familyvacations said:

Thanks everyone!

My parents don't have a timeshare that participates with RCI, so I am out of luck there. They are Diamond International and II members though, so I can look there for deals.

We are kicking around purchasing a week, because that would also get us into the RCI club, and because we really liked it there. But we would want to trade it either for different times of year there, or for other places. Does anyone know what the popular times of year are at Massanutten?

I also looked at the board of directors meeting minutes that are posted online. It looks like they have been selling quite a few weeks to the developer that runs the rest of the timeshares up there. Any thoughts on that?

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Hi. Congratulations on finding TUG and welcome!

We own at Mountainside Villas and love it there. We have always found the Welcome Centre staff to be very responsive. It’s a separate HOA from the rest of Massanutten, with a check-in process that’s fast, with no high-pressure tactics to get you to attend a presentation. Mountainside Villas is the only Massanutten property that’s dual-affiliated with both RCI and II so you can pay for memberships with both. Once you have those memberships, you can have access to their extra vacations (RCI) and getaways (II) inventory. Extra vacations will range anywhere from $300 per week (in low season) to upwards of $800 per week during the height of summer. We’ve also deposited our summer week with SFX (an independent exchange company), and received bonus weeks in return.

We’ve only ever stayed at Massanutten during the summer (DH is an avid golfer ), and can’t speak to the popularity of weeks in other seasons. We do know that summer in Massanutten can get very busy.

Some weeks do come up for sale in ebay or Redweek, and the HOA newsletter also lists some weeks for (re)sale. If we had to do it all over again, we’d still buy at Mountainside, as the one week ownership gives us lots of options and access to a variety of exchange companies.

Hope that helps.

Here's another (cheap) approach to consider:

If your parents are platinum members, they can get free guest certificates and they save $50 on each Getaway. If they are not platinum members, I think that the cost of upgrading to platinum is roughly $150 / year or so.

So, volunteer to pay the upgrade fee for your parents and have them either book the getaways for you or perhaps talk them into giving you their login info. That would be a really low-cost way to get access to Getaways. Also, if your folks use getaways, they would save money too.

Interval has a travel demand index with weeks 24-31 having high demand

familyvacations said:

Does anyone know what the popular times of year are at Massanutten?

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http://www.intervalworld.com/web/cs?a=1503&resortCode=MVM&parentResortCode=MVM#.UoKFUPmsim4

We have been going to Massanutten for years and owned a couple of weeks there in the past. Mountainside Villas are our favorite for many reasons. Yes, it's overbuilt but it's still a great resort. The maintenance fees are low and the Villas are a great size and well-maintained.

You all are so nice to pass on all your great information!

I spoke to the general manager today about the place. She told me summer was the busy time there, and of course holiday weeks were also popular. I asked about the weeks going to the developer, and while she didn't volunteer any information on what they might be doing with the weeks, she did give me the website where I can see the ads for foreclosure weeks in Massanutten. www.candbsaleads.com this includes Mountianside Villas as well as the rest of the groups (Summit, Woodstone etc.) and she said anyone could come and bid on weeks they wanted. She said their next sale would be in March.

She said summer was the peak season there, and holiday weeks were also popular.

I think we are going to go back on a getaway week this winter to ski, and keep our eyes peeled for a good week that might trade well.

Interesting list. Plenty of foreclosures! You could certainly pick up a desirable week if the price is right. Wonder how many people are aware of this sale and actually bid?

In the board of directors minutes http://www.mountainside-villas.com/index.php/owners/board-meeting-minutes It talks about a previous sale and how all the weeks went to the developer and the HOA lost $98 on the sale. There was discussion about setting a reserve to cover the costs of forclosure and also some discussion about offering the weeks to current owners first.

It seems to me that the developer is accumulating quite a few weeks and I can only speculate as to why...

I doubt very many people know about the existence of that list.

familyvacations said:

I doubt very many people know about the existence of that list.

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This list is only available to owners, as we have first dibs, they do them on a silent auction. in the newsletters once a year or so they list the weeks available, you send in a refundable deposit with you offer, and if you win you pay your dig, fees, and its yours. you are outbid you get your deposit back.

They try to keep Great Eastern (Developer) from buying and getting majority in the ownership. Very well managed and maintained, they put all the money back into the units, wifi, appliances, flooring, etc... and the OWNERS vote COUNTS !! as long as you are active and VOTE.

We have stayed at Regal Vistas the past two years for ski weeks through RCI Extra Vacations. Both times it cost roughly $350 for the week. From my experience the 1 in 4 rule does not apply for extra vacations or last calls, and they seem to be plentiful. I'm looking at availability right now in RCI, and there are EV weeks for next summer at Mountainside Villas for about $450.

So, one strategy might be to buy something that gets you access to RCI extra vacations/last calls. I personally like the Wyndham points system that pays for your RCI membership.

One in four

We are non-owners and have stayed the past three years in Massanutten via RCI. We stated at Summit, Woodstone and Villas. There usually seem to be plenty of units available, so the "1 in whatever" seems to be a bit of a myth if you change units - don't know about if you tried to stay in the same unit, though. We're looking to purchase in Massanutten or trade our Kissimmee unit for here. We WON'T be doing it via their overpriced sales pitch, though we'll attend for the information and free water park tickets. We didn't do the pitch last year at all.

We're in the Villas as I write this. Older, but very nice secluded units. The steps might be an issue as we get older otherwise we'd want this over the nicer units at the Summit and Woodstone because of the seclusion and setting. Deer outside our porch daily. Saw a kid feed one and pet it - bad for the wildlife and dangerous, but interesting.