Reef Resort says I can't rent my week myself.

[Kal]

well that certainly changes things...could you post the section of the contract where this is explained?

He would tell you, but he'll have to kill you! That's top secret information where you would have to have a special "de-coder ring".

 

[TomCayman]

ok...to simplify this for me since I am a public school grad =)

you charge a commission from a customer. yes?

you take the money from this commission to pay for advertising for your business. yes?

if you didnt charge this commission (and or make money from it)...you would have to pay for advertising with money from somewhere right?

I am still just not quite understanding how you collect a fee...and use it to pay for a business expense....and this is not considered a profit/income.

The words in bold are where I think the fundamental misunderstanding lies...the management company does not own the inventory being rented out, it acts as the agent for the timeshare and condo owners in renting out their weeks... so no, it is not advertising for our business, it is advertising for their business.

Why should we then act as an agent for someone else without any fee ? Partly because we are good guys (!), but in the long term (as previously stated) we will earn a fee from this work in future years.

 

[TomCayman]

well that certainly changes things...could you post the section of the contract where this is explained?

Brian, you've already put the word advertising in quotes, inferring that we don't spend the money on advertising.

I'm getting a bit fed up of the inferences, insinuations and downright accusations made against me in this thread by you and others.

By asking me to post the section of the contract where the residual rights of members in the real estate value are noted is to doubt my word.

You might call me oversensitive, but whilst taking jabs at developer and resort operators may be sport for some, this is my career and livelihood.

My reputation for honesty and integrity in business is very important to me, so feel free to question me, but do recognise that if you all continue to keep trying to find the negative (and in fact accuse me of same without the slightest shred of evidence or reason)....when it (inevitably) turns out that I have acted in a fashion that is positive and to the benefit of our owners, who'll be the fool then ?

Several moderators and posters with thousands of posts have now jumped in on this thread, and some have not exactly covered themselves in glory... perhaps the moderators might want to lock / take down this thread, as some clearly keep want to jab away, and they've found my weak spot... if people post negative things about me for all to read, I am generally compelled to answer (although I've made clear to one poster that I've got to the point that I will ignore them in particular )

 

[Seaside]

Tom, the way to "fix" things is for you to give the answers to the questions you are being asked.

 

[Kal]

The original premise of the thread was to call out someone who trolled the web to scare off people from trying to rent their own timeshare unit. Now in the latest post the approach is to attack others who question the legitimacy for such a tactic rather than provide backup supportive information.

Aside from that, it is clear that there is an outfit who earns income directly (or indirectly) by renting owner's units. They charge a heavy fee for that service and we assume they are not a charitable enterprise who provides that service for free. So it still comes down to "trolling for dollars" under the quilt of "it's just the law; the government made me do it".

 

[ralphd]

Tom, the way to "fix" things is for you to give the answers to the questions you are being asked.

Why have you not answered the question Caladezi asked you earlier?

I think most Morritt's members know the answer.

It seems Tom has done a better job of communications than some resort owner/developers. Whether you agree with the rental policy or not, The Reef has, as stated previously, been controlled by a good management group.

The tone of some posters on this thread, including the Administrator, has almost become personal.

 

[Rod in Louisiana]

I was thinking the exact same thing Rod as you and I had exchanged a few heated comments on that thread and in the end I saw and respected your point of view (albeit grudgingly at that time ).

Thanks for the acknowledgement.

I've just completed a review of that entire thread. Actually, our (yours and mine) comments to and about each other on that thread were quite civil.

While reviewing the thread, I noticed that some of the same posters who were presenting passionate arguments and opinions about a resort where they did not own are the same posters who are now presenting equally passionate arguments and opinions on this thread about another resort where they do not own. Interesting.

 

[Dave M]

The tone of some posters on this thread ... has almost become personal.

I agree, and unnecessarily so. Tom has been a long-time, very helpful, straight shooter on TUG and many TUGgers have benefited significantly from his posts. I think he has responded to why he made his initial post.

Many of the questions here are related to issues that no business would disclose unless it was a publicly held company that disclosed specific info as required by the SEC or other regulatory agency. Because The Reef is not a publicly held company, pressuring Tom for those details is unfair, particularly with the less-than-courteous wording used in some posts.

I believe all who post subsequently in this thread should be especially careful to adhere to the BBS "Be Courteous" rule.

* * * *

On a different note, I don't understand Brian's questions about profit. (Accounting is my profession.) Using a variant of his example, if I have $150 of rental income and I have $150 of business expenses related to that income, my profit is zero, not $150, and I would have no taxable income. Profit is what's left over after paying business expenses.

That's much different that Brian's example, as follows: If I have $150 of income in my paycheck and I use all of that for my personal electric bill, I still have $150 of profit, all of which would be taxable. The fact that I used that $150 for personal expenses doesn't change the profit or taxability.

 

[Seaside]

[Message deleted. As I stated, please be courteous. Among other things, that includes not rehashing your dissatisfaction with others in this thread. Dave M, BBS Moderator]

 

[TUGBrian]

i never said the 150 was for personal electric bills...even tug has to keep the lights on with money.

It was not my intention to personally attack anyone...nor do I feel I have done so. I dont insult you (I actually insult myself)...call you names...or belittle you in any way.

I merely wanted clairification on a single point I read in the thread....you replied with what I felt was an unsatisfactory answer (to me) and I chose to make my point more clear (although it doesnt appear that was what was done).

I wont continue the conversation further however given daves endorsement that you have been a long time supporter and contributor here on the forums.

thats good enough for me.

 

[Bluewaterbums]

Interesting discussion! We own two weeks at Morritts and have rented at the Reef when Morritts was closed post-Ivan. We love both resorts.

We have rented out our units a number of times, including this year. Sometimes we rent to friends and other times we rent to individuals who have found us via the Morritts forum. In any case, the individuals who rent our units are our guests and are therefore subject to the $10 a day Cayman tourist tax. This tax is clearly stated in our rental agreements and is collected by Morritts from the guests when they check out.

We tried to use the Morritts rental program in the past but there are no guarantees and the resort takes a 30% commission.

We have never, no do we intend to, advertised our weeks for rent on Redweek. com or any other forum of that type. If the Reef can guarantee that the owners units will be rented out AND that the owners will be able to recoup at least their MF's, I see no reason why the rentals should not be restricted. If not, the owners should be allowed to rent out their units as they please as long as the Cayman tourist is being charged and collected by someone and turned over to the government.

 

[RMitchell]

Morritts and The Reef are very close together and the Morritts people depend on Tom's info during any crisis. We have trouble getting info from our reps and have to depend on a second website. Because of our dependence on Tom we have become more or less a second cousin to The Reef. This second cousin element causes any comments about The Reef or Morritts to be somewhat combined.

The Reef must be doing something right because Morritts currently has 7 units for sale on EBay at a dollar. I have never seen that kind of price tag on Reef resale.

Did anything get settled on the week rental problem?

 

[JRS]

Rental by owner or resort only ?

I am also not happy with resort's ability to rent out weeks for the owner - I am not a Reef owner so not targeting Tom or this resort. It seems to me the based on different conversations is that the resort will try to rent their own weeks in inventory before an owner week, so perhaps a conflict of interest in this respect ? I'd like to see this one debated - but not limited to the Carribean. In one instance in particular I as an owner was supposed to have been 10th in line for available units for my week. At about that same time called the resort, they thought I was a potential renter and indicated there were NO weeks available for the particular week that I was supposed to have available ..... hmm, then I went on to explain again my situation ......

 

[TomCayman]

I am also not happy with resort's ability to rent out weeks for the owner - I am not a Reef owner so not targeting Tom or this resort. It seems to me the based on different conversations is that the resort will try to rent their own weeks in inventory before an owner week, so perhaps a conflict of interest in this respect ? I'd like to see this one debated - but not limited to the Carribean. In one instance in particular I as an owner was supposed to have been 10th in line for available units for my week. At about that same time called the resort, they thought I was a potential renter and indicated there were NO weeks available for the particular week that I was supposed to have available ..... hmm, then I went on to explain again my situation ......

Please therefore open another thread (perhaps in the buying,selling,renting forum?) to discuss this in general.... as you say, you are not referencing theReef, plus your situation could not occur with our resort, as a) our programme works on a pooled basis, so you couldn't be "10th in line", and b) I can tell you we will always do everything to rent out the last available room