Just curious, is there no daily cost for the food and beverage portion of the stay? Or is that included in the membership price? Someone once told us that at Desire they still pay $285 per night for F&B.
We ALWAYS used Expedia until we became members. We joined a couple of years ago because it finally made sense to us and we finished paying for 5 kids college and weddings. To date, we have done three 10 day trips. I keep track of all the costs because I want to know where our break-even point is. I run the trip (room plus flights) through Expedia just like I always did, then I run it again for just the flights. I subtract the cost of flights out of the trip total because I still book my own flights as a member so that is a wash. That gives me a cost per night for the room and includes the discounted rate Expedia gives you for booking a package deal. I subtract what we pay for our member room from what the room cost is through Expedia. If we get an oceanview room (which we always do), I use that rate. For our three trips - we saved $137 per night May 2015, $98 per night Sept 2015, and this May we will save $113 per night (if we get oceanview). That's how it has worked out for us so far. Everyone is different. For the longest time (we have been going for probably 12 years or so) it didn't make sense for us and we didn't want to make any long term commitments. Now we are in a different place in our lives and took the plunge. So far, we are glad we did it - but like many others kind of concerned about the renovation. But we will figure out what to do as we move forward - if we need to go somewhere else in September - we will find a place. Firm
Thank you for the explanation. In all the threads about this no one has ever broke it down. All they ever say is "it works for us".
Timeshare industry in a whole has changed quite drastically over the last few years. I'm not sure what Premier is doing right now. But what is becoming more of an industry standard is something to this effect............You buy a large bulk of weeks (think like a 150 weeks over 30 year time period for example) upfront. You can use them at any of the resorts in the program 100's if not thousands through out the world and your not tied down to dates or how many weeks you can use each year. You pay like 10K upfront for this. But every time you use it you pay a predetermined set fee which is usually in that $450 range give or take. They call this maintenance fee, resort fee, or any other odd names. If the resort you go to is A.I. you then pay an A.I. fee on top of it. My guess is maybe Temptations is moving to this type of system as it really makes it easy for all parties to understand. Plus the AI fee they charge you is the way they can adjust cost over the years.
Member benefits, our take We bought after our 2nd trip to Blue Bay 10 years ago. We just finished trip #11, and most trips were for 10-14 days each. Since we only pay for the AI (which does go up a bit yearly), now get free wifi, get the 2 lobster dinners / week, room upgrades, etc., I calculated that we broke even on the cost of the package after trip #7. Now we just take the benefits. Our last trip for 2 weeks with first-class air was a bit less than $3000 total. Vacation anywhere else, and I'd be paying almost that much for just meals for two weeks. I don't do RCI, so that yearly / usage cost is not present, I only wanted the Premier hotels and have only gone to TTR, which was fine with me, and made my upfront package costs much less. I started on the "old" package when we initially bought, which did have the yearly fee, which was applied back to your AI when you booked. When they revamped the program about 4-5 years ago and removed the yearly fee, we converted to the new program at no additional cost to me. It took a bit of negotiating - so don't be afraid to ask for the world and then come back a bit to reality. They negotiated hard, so did I. In the end, we both walked away smiling. Overall, I'm happy with what we got and how much it cost us upfront. If you plan on going to TTR and Premier a lot (or at least yearly), it may be worthwhile for you. If you think you may only go there once every 6-7 years or only want to use Premier for RCI, your math may be different. I don't know what the new packages are, or how much they cost, so I can't talk about what they are offering now - I make it a point not to do the tour when I go. The last thing Premier wants you to do is to use your package frequently at their resorts, that's not how they make their money. They want your contract to end with nights still on it, and they want to make money on RCI night / point transfers. We fully intend to use every night in our package at TTR before the end of the contract term. Yes, I'm expecting the cost of the AI to go up after the renovations, I'm used to that. I'll be back when it's all done for trip #12. Will it be different? Sure. Every trip is a new adventure, we'll bring the crazy. artyhorn:
According to the RCI website, the AI fee, depending on the season, is between $74 and $161 per night, per person. Could this really be accurate?
There are 2 fees we pay, the Hotel room fee and the AI fee. The Hotel room fee stays the same year round, The AI fee changes depending on high or low season. ours are not near that high per person.
Complete shut down and rebuild starting this September 25th through August 2017. Follow this link HOME - Temptation Resort & Spa
There is a hotel fee even after your initial capital outlay? Wow! It kind of looks like some people have left out these fees when calculating any savings.
