Hey Beverly, this is Jim. The valium is settling in on this premier issue. Kathy and I are booked for May 19-26. Normskid, Karan, Steve, remember the 1st reunion? It seems so long ago, and so simple. Oh well. Jim
1) Lower owner / member AI fee, keep it comparable with other resorts. Other resort guests see that, and they may want to become owner because they will save money. Selling more timeshares are good for business, the resorts get busier, BBG will make more money in volume. 2) Give owner guests same status as owner (Gold bracelet), if they need to pay additional charge, keep the charge low. Owner will invite more guests, and his guests may buy timeshares. Again, Selling more timeshares are good for business, the resorts get busier, BBG will make more money in volume. Happy members will bring you more members! If you screw the members you have, you may be screwing yourself out of business.
I know you guys have had a tough time with this booking, but at any rate, we look forward to meeting you in May, we will be there at the same time. We just bought our membership last September so we are just learning about everything, hopefully your problem can be addressed. See you in May.
I think Jim and Kathy hit the nail on the head on the head. -Premier Members aren't going to be happy paying a fee for there points being converted/banked. -A.I. fees Blue Bay controls and can charge what they want. But they should charge whatever the going rate is for similar hotels with similar amenities. Also keep in mind if you raise your A.I. fee to high it demishes the savings/selling point of Premier to begin with. Why would people join if it costs about the same as going through the internet or travel agent?? Obiviously the perks come into play but at what cost, members view those perks differently. To me with the big A.I. fee increases (about $20 a person per a night) are nearing that point of dimishing the savings of the Membership to a point of making the Membership not saleable to many guest. Anyone with a current membership plan could you please break down the weekly cost of a trip for two ???? Using the $90 A.I. fee pp per a night, Avg. airfare from your area, and the rough cost of what each week comes out too $$$$ wise based on what you paid for your contract??? I think this information maybe helpful for the BBG to reconsider some of there charges or at least see where the BBG stands as far as savings with the Membership go. Also anyone have a membership to tug2.com ???? Through there we could compare A.I. fees to surrounding resorts. Otherwise if anyone is really board they could call RCI and have them run some A.I. resorts and see what hey charge for a daily A.I. fee. I would do it but I'm no longer a member of RCI, just a Premier Member. I would also just like to thank the BBG for at least looking and showing interest in this thread. Please could the BBG Premier start to send out a newsletter to all members a few times a year about changes, news on the resort, etc. etc.. That way alot of this out of the blue stuff like A.I. fee increases, charging to bank points, and changes in general in the program aren't surprises to us members. I know many members feel the same way. In fact the way you currently handle us Premier Members outside of the resort is quite poor. We know nothing that is going on with our resort we bought into. If it wasn't for Cancun Care we would be completely in the dark about changes at your resort. I can not stress enough how much a newsletter or dedicated website for members is needed. Nick and Renee
In my opinion this is the problem. Premier membership sold so much more rapidly than they were expecting, that now they can't handle the volume. But once again, their problem, not ours.
nmarcks, the AI fee has not increased by about $20 per night per person, it has increased $20 - $28 per person per night since 2004. Now last year in April we paid $70 per person per night. Not bad. That was okay. Just a few dollars increase, but and extra $20 just one year later. Totally rediculous and bull. And their big selling point to us was, "it hasn't increased in years and we don't expect it to for quite some time" Okay our dumb s??t believed it, but still.
When I signed up way back in the day they told me the same thing. Every few years it may go up a few dollars. Not a $20 plus increase in one year. Like I said they are pricing themselves out of the market. If I have some time this week I'm going to try to get some info. on other resort's A.I. fees. Just so we can all see where the BBG fits into the big picture. Like my previous post says, the BBG jacking up the A.I. fees is making the savings very little if any for most of us members. Nick and Renee
Kinda sad to say but I'm really glad that we were too broke to buy into this whole thing when we were there the first time and avoided the whole thing on our 2nd trip!
Ok members, I had an hour to kill this morning and this dawned me overnite. Here is one question I would like the BBG Premier staff to answer.......... For a non member to go to the BBG for a week the avg. price increase in the last 7 years has only costed them about 10% to 20% tops. Premier Member the avg. cost from during 2001 to 2007 has seen about a 25% to 30% increase for a one week stay. Please I would love for someone to explain this to us members. Here is the facts to back it up............. Non Member back in 2000 for a couple I paid about $2050 to $2100 through Apple Vacations. This wasn't a last minute special or anything. Non Member (friends of ours) in 2003 paid right around $2100 for a couple. Non Member (friends) in 2005 paid about $2250 for a couple. 2007: Today on Expedia traveling Tuesday, April 3 to Tuesday, April 10 flying out of Chicago cost a couple $2441. Now that is not looking around for a deal or anything. So $2050 to $2440 is about a 19% increase in 7 years. All prices include taxes and fees. Keep in mind no special deals or anything. So just a $75 savings pushes that increase down to 15%. For PREMIER MEMBERS (I believe started around Jan or Feb. of 2001, I joined April 2001) during the same time period. I don't have the exact fee for A.I. each year. I'm sure some one does (and can help me make these rock solid numbers). But from memory I know I'm within about a two dollar a night range. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm using $400 a person for round trip airfare for the avg.. All these numbers are with the taxes and fees. A.I. fees I used was for the high season each year Jan. to mid April. 2002: Contract said fees for 2001 was $65 a night high season. I remember when we booked in 2002 it was less somewhere between $58 to $62. I thought oh well maybe a mistake on there part. Either way that is what I paid. So are trip cost us about $1640 (used $60 for the A.I fee, though I believe it was less). 2003: A.I. fee I believe was $63 to $65 a night. So we paid about $1700 for the same trip. 2004: A.I. fee was $65 I think. So paid around $1700 once again. 2005: A.I. fee was $68. So one week was about $1750. 2006: Busy with a new business, other business, and got married. So couldn't go . But the A.I. fee was $70. So a week ran about $1780. 2007: A.I. fee is now $90. So it would cost about $2060. So from 2002 to 2007 the increase was about 25% to 27%. Now the real shocker is that is not figuring in what each of us paid for are Membership and what it breaks down to per night. I would think most of us are somewhere in that $20 to $35 a night for that week. So those Premier numbers above in reality should have around $175 added to them, maybe more, maybe less depending on your contract price. Also we pay for a transfer when most of my above costs for nonmebers it was included. So for 2007 a nonmember can go the the BBG for $2440 for a week, less if you look around for any kind of deal. A Premier Member $2060 plus an est. of $175 (from your org. contract cost) comes to a rough number of $2235. So maybe as a Premier Member we save about $200. When in previous years it was about $500 savings. Biggest shocker is in one year the BBG went from $70 to $90 for A.I. fees, a 29% increase. My other question is were do they go from here??? The inflation of the BBG for us Members is inflating at a much higher rate then the non-members from year to year. Like I said before BBG is approaching that area where the value of the program isn't saving the avg. vacationer any money or very little. Then adding a fee to banking your nights/points and that is even more eating into your little bit of savings. Sorry for the long post. I just find it shocking as a member my cost of vacationing keeps going up and up. Yet a nonmember's cost has stayed quite steady through the last 8 years. These numbers also tell me that the nightly rate of resort hasn't changed much through the years. But for us Premier members we seem to be making up that increase for the BBG. So that tells me this is nothing more then the BBG screwing us Premier Members to try making more money for the BBG. Why doesn't the BBG raise there damn nightly rates, stop giving huge cuts to Apple Vacation, Funjet, and other travel companys for weekly rates???? Seems to me they've been paying around the same each year and us member make up the difference. Numbers just don't add up. Feel free to comment on any of this info. or add to it. Nick and Renee
Hello everyone, This thread is very interesting reading for us Premier Members. For us we joined in April 2001. My monthly pymt is 71.00. I have 150 nights. Rci charges 99.00 per year. Went to SD California 2004.. Used points for 1 airfare and points for Hotel in SD. Paid 100 for Hotel for 6 days total. 49 for Airfare. I do not include any costs for membership since this is a vehicle for travel. Other purchase examples are for Cars and Mortgages. I know BBG is raising prices, Is this possible due to facility upkeep and Hurricane damage costs. We have also used our points for other travel other than BBG. Although BBG costs are up. I recently paid 300.00 to stay in a private condo in Maryland for 10 days during thanksgiving. Without Premier Membership we would not have been able to do this. My thought is that if you bought membership at BBG to just go to BBG then you have to incur costs they charge, We use it for basically for all our travel to save a good bit of money when possible. Davejoshmd aka Dave and Jocelyn.....
