Why Can't Vacation Club do more of this?

On numerous occassions I have pitched to Marriott the idea of partnering with a resort-style fitness club.

In 2010 I was walking around Lakeshore Reserve with the Marriott folks and they asked me what I thought of the fitness center, I said it's nice but it's not as nice as a resort style-fitness center like Lifetime Fitness.

If you've ever been to a Platinum Lifetime Fitness, you can actually forget you're at a fitness club and think you're at one of the finest Marriott's enjoying a plush resort/pool/activities.

When Cypress Harbour wanted to rehab the fitness center I asked the question if they would consider a partnership instead. Didn't really get any reception.

After moving to the West coast we signed up with Club Sport. Same idea as Lifetime, very like a resort and not like a traditional fitness club.

Interesting enough, after joining Club Sport I discovered Marriott had done this.

http://www.renaissanceclubsport.com/stay.do

I wish they would consider doing some of this in Vacation Club. It's a way to get MF's down and increase the level of services provided.

Any other VC owners who are also members of Lifetime or Club Sport and have an opinion?

Club Sport Member

Hi There,

I am a Renaissance ClubSport member. My membership is at the Aliso Viejo Renaissance Hotel. It is a very high end resort. The equipment is topnotch. They have personal trainers for everything and all types of classes such as step classes, cycling, boxing, pilates, etc., etc., etc.

In addition, they have child care while you work out, leagues for basketball, teen nights, movie nights for youngsters in the pool during the summer and Monday Night Football festivities, and a host of other stuff.

I would not mind having the quality festivities, but I am afraid of what the costs would do to our maintenance fees. I notice that owners don't want to share facilities with locals. I have seen how people don't like when locals at Ko Olina come and use facilities, so I doubt owners will like to share health facilities that could be in great use when they arrive. If owners find themselves constantly behind locals, resentment may set in and those increased maintenance fees will become a huge issue.

I have to agree that the upgrade of the fitness club to something else is a bad idea. Most of the fitness rooms as presently constituted are not used to any large degree. They are not a destination attraction but merely another amenity. Somehow, I can't connect my reason to go to a resort location is because of the fitness center. Many resorts have them in locations that aren't really convenient for guests. Since the equipment is often maintained by outside companies there is usually some broken equipment.

The biggest concern as mentioned that I have would obviously be the affect on maintenance fees. If we pay more I'd like to see the money go somewhere else on the property. Not into a fitness center.

kjd said:

The biggest concern as mentioned that I have would obviously be the affect on maintenance fees. If we pay more I'd like to see the money go somewhere else on the property. Not into a fitness center.

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I am not sure how much fitness centers are used at the timeshare properties as I don't use them myself. I was surprised to see how slammed they were on a cruise ship every morning. Though on a cruise there isn't anyplace else to go at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning.

I would agree with the above two statements. Many people don't pick a resort based on the fitness center. It is a place to get the average user through the week while on vacation. Not a place to prepare for the next Mr America contest.

I think people like the exclusivity of the timeshare vacation style. Sharing the facilities would bother some people. If one needs better facilities, can they not use a local club in the same chain/family as the on they are a member of at home?

sparty said:

On numerous occassions I have pitched to Marriott the idea of partnering with a resort-style fitness club.

In 2010 I was walking around Lakeshore Reserve with the Marriott folks and they asked me what I thought of the fitness center, I said it's nice but it's not as nice as a resort style-fitness center like Lifetime Fitness.

If you've ever been to a Platinum Lifetime Fitness, you can actually forget you're at a fitness club and think you're at one of the finest Marriott's enjoying a plush resort/pool/activities.

When Cypress Harbour wanted to rehab the fitness center I asked the question if they would consider a partnership instead. Didn't really get any reception.

After moving to the West coast we signed up with Club Sport. Same idea as Lifetime, very like a resort and not like a traditional fitness club.

Interesting enough, after joining Club Sport I discovered Marriott had done this.

http://www.renaissanceclubsport.com/stay.do

I wish they would consider doing some of this in Vacation Club. It's a way to get MF's down and increase the level of services provided.

Any other VC owners who are also members of Lifetime or Club Sport and have an opinion?

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I am interested in the part of your post that I have put in bold and underlined. I'm don't understand how this would cause MF's to be less--it would seem to increase the fees. What am I missing?

BocaBoy said:

I am interested in the part of your post that I have put in bold and underlined. I'm not sure I can see why MF's would go down--it would seem to increase the fees. What am I missing?

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I think that by allowing non TS owners to join, their membership fees would mean that the fitness center could be a money making operation.

If Marriott was going to spend money to upgrade facilities a pumped up fitness center would be at the bottom of my list. Fitness Centers are a dime a dozen nowadays. Not sure if creating a platinum club would necessarily encourage outsiders to join plus then there is the problem of overcrowding and shortages of machines.

I am a member of a training gym near my home. I go a minimum of three times a week and work with a private trainer. When I go to my timeshares my trainer gives me a plan to follow. My Marriott timeshares have adequate gyms, not great but ok. They are all busy. My Royal Resort timeshares have better facilities. I would not like to see Marriott timeshares go into the health club business. I do not like crowds and I would not like to have to compete for equipment while on vacation. That is why I belong to a training gym instead of a health club.

I'm obviously in the minority. I like that Marriott has upgraded the equipment in the fitness centers. No matter where I am, I will fit in a workout. It's my thing. We all have habits. This is one of mine. I will concede that the facilities don't need to be similar to a for-profit gym, but equipment in proper working order is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

BocaBoy said:

I am interested in the part of your post that I have put in bold and underlined. I'm don't understand how this would cause MF's to be less--it would seem to increase the fees. What am I missing?

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No I think I agree with most of the posts here. I would be in favor of driving down the costs.

In Cypress Harbour the "fitness club" is open/shared with the public. This was a strategy used to keep the MF down.

What I am suggesting is the other way around from they way I think most are reading my posts. I am suggesting that the resorts spend close to $0 on a fitness center and have some type of usage agreement with a local place like Club Sport or Lifetime.

Actually we were Lifetime Platinum members near the Marriott Lincolnshire IL resort. A few hotels in the area did just that, they partnered with Lifetime and people staying at the hotel could use Lifetime as part of their stay at the hotel.

My experience at the Vacation Club resorts has been the following, they either don't have Life Fitness ellipticals or they are all in use and I can't get on. The free weights I hardly ever see anyone use. In my experience three machines are used, the treadmill, the cycles, and the ellipticals.

I know at Barony Beach they had a similar deal with the tennis club and people staying at Barony/owners had rights of use at the tennis club.

I can't even guess the number of TS resorts I've been to and NEVER used their exercise facility...and any time I've passed by one they were either empty or only had 1 or 2 people. To raise MF to provide a minority of owners a treadmill kinda bothers me.

As I said in my previous post I do work out in the fitness facilities. They do not need to be upgraded. I use an elliptical, benches and the free weights. Are the facilities as good as my gym at home-no but they are fine for a daily workout while on vacation. The facilities at the Ocean Club, Surfwatch and the Royal Resorts are busy between 6 and 7 AM

When I was at Surf Club in mid-August 6 out of the 8 treadmills were out of order and there was a sign on the door saying sorry and that the parts to fix them would not be in until mid-September. Not sure why it would take a month to fix a couple treadmills. That was annoying as I usually like to get a 30 or so minute jog in to make up for all the eating I do.

I guess my point is, I don't think the fitness center is at the top of their priority list.

When I go on vacation, my fitness center is the ocean, the beach or the amusement park. Or the pool or ski slopes or hiking trails...


I personally don't want to pay more in MFs for a better fitness center, as I go on vacation to be outside. If I do want more, I'd rather pay separately for it, like a yoga or fitness class onsite, rather than be paying on an ongoing basis when I use only sporadically if at all.

I don't use the fitness centers onsite but Don does; there's definitely a value to them. He says that the limited equipment available suits his purpose just fine.

Talking about contracts between local facilities and resorts - the reason that Barony's agreement with the local tennis club (not sure it included a full-service fitness facility) ended is because the facility increased the rates they were charging to Barony and majority ownership voted to not pay for the increase. The board did manage to negotiate a new contract with the facility that offers reduced rates on a pay-as-you-go basis to Barony owners, don't remember when that contract will expire. A similar thing happened at DSVI but there the board elected to not re-sign a contract with the Marriott hotel that was providing services to the timeshare owners/guests, because the rates increased substantially when the existing contract was due to expire. Not sure if the board there was able to negotiate reduced pay-as-you-go fees.

Talking about a full-service facility onsite - I love that the European Spa leases space at Barony and owners/guests there get a (10%?) discount on services. But I think that a major fitness center would attract a different clientele, a few of whom I would call "undesirables." It might sound bad but I wouldn't want the same "gym rats" who frequent our local club wandering around the resorts.

I use the facilities at the Vacation Clubs that we travel to, and unless you are adamant about using it early in the morning, you can generally find time on any of the machines that you want.

The quality of the machines is sufficient for the week that I am there.

IMHO, it's great most of the clubs offer a fitness center at all. My DH and I use them sometimes, on some vacations, and we're glad they're there. But neither of us would want them to any more elaborate than they are (though we wouldn't mind if a few of them were a little more spacious, so people are not on top of each other). And we certainly would not want "locals" having access to the resort properties; that would most likely create additional issues for the resorts in terms of security and unauthorized use of other amenities, which would probably translate into higher costs (MFs).

A different approach would be for the MVC resorts to arrange some kind of daily/weekly usage deal with nearby local fitness centers at some special price for folks really interested in a higher-end fitness facility while staying at the resorts. Sort of like the deals they arrange with golf courses at most MVC resorts. I really don't know how these arrangements are worked out, but it seems like it could work.

I would not be interested in a shared facility and my number one reason would be that most Vacation Club areas unlike hotels have very limited parking. I cannot imagine trying to compete for parking spaces with gym users. I feel like parking can be limted at many of the Vacation Club facilities that we have visited.

tiel said:

A different approach would be for the MVC resorts to arrange some kind of daily/weekly usage deal with nearby local fitness centers at some special price for folks really interested in a higher-end fitness facility while staying at the resorts. Sort of like the deals they arrange with golf courses at most MVC resorts. I really don't know how these arrangements are worked out, but it seems like it could work.

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This is what I was proposing. As Susan points out Barony and other resorts have went to memberships that are off-site but close by and is setup as a pay per usage which is smart.

Most people are clear, they don't want increased MF for fitness centers, and a number of people have pointed out the equipment is sometimes(often?) broke or busy.

Sadly our resort has opened up membership to locals, MFs have still gone up, and the resort feels less exclusive. Bad idea all around.