texdoc

Is anyone else concerned about the change in Long Term Reservations to include 3 or 4 day stays?

As a Private member, I'm finding it incredibly hard to plan and book week-long stays at many of the HCC locations because so many of the weeks are now broken up by 3 or 4 day stays. I've been hoping to book a ski week in either February or March but many of the locations are EXTREMELY limited if a person desires a full week. If you look at any of the calendars, you will see that most weekends are booked while many of the weekdays are open. It may work out great for the Colorado people because I imagine that there will be a huge amount of mid-week days available come this winter. Not being from Colorado though, a short stay is very difficult for me to do.

I don't want to begrudge the Companion and Affiliate members of the group their chance for a good vacation, but with so many new HCC members and the same number of weeks available, it is becoming extremely difficult to book all of my available time.

Maybe the answer is NOT to be a Private member! As some have said in the past, there really is NO advantage to having the higher cost memberships. Too late for me but by changing this reservation system, HCC may effectively be driving away the group that they seek the most.

Thoughts?

NeilGoBlue

There is no easy answer... I'm kind of bummed my club requires a minimum 3-4 night visits.. so even though I live 3 hours from NY, I have to stay three nights.. vs the two nights I want to.. I also just booked a 4 night ski weekend for february.. It's just me and some friends... so I didn't want to stay a week..so I'm glad I can stay for just 4 days..

I hear your point.. but there is no pefect system..

Bourne

Contrary to popular opinion, the culprits are within the ranks of Private members.

Here is the data...

* Feb 7 to Mar 28 are 7 weeks of Prime Skiing in Colorado...
* With 11 properties in Colorado, that totals 77 prime weeks of skiing.
* There are 30 full or partial weeks still available.
* The breakup of available weeks is 22 full and 8 Partial weeks.
* Of the 8 Partial weeks, 5 are holiday weeks(4 Prez and 1 HCC Spring Block).

And my analysis...

* HCC still has ~40% availability for Colorado locations during peak Ski season next year.
* Avalilability of Full weeks outnumber partial weeks by 3:1
* The partial holiday weeks outnumber the non partial holiday weeks by 2:1

Given today's date, generally speaking, only Private members would have been able to book those 5 Parital weeks out of 8. In other words, only 10% of the availabe weeks ( 3 weeks out of 30 ) have been impacted by non Private members. It bears repeating that these are avaialble weeks and not all weeks during the peak season.

IMHO, you are probably looking for a prime property during prime season for a holiday week i.e. Presidents day week. For that, you have to burn a Long Term Holiday reservation way in advance.


P.S.
The poster childs for HCC these days are Companion and Associate members. They get almost double deposits by selling the same number of days using the two lower membership plans.

tripTX

Let’s set the Companion/Associate debate aside for a moment and discuss the original focus of texdoc's post. He was concerned with the change that now allows long-term reservations of 3 and 4 nights - rather than a full week. NYC was the only property that used to allow long-term reservations to be broken up this way. This coming ski season is the first one that is being booked under these new rules.

In the past, members have said that prime ski locations or holiday ski weeks needed to be grabbed with long-term reservations, but that people using advanced reservations (120 days) would still be able to find openings at Colorado ski properties. That has been our experience before too. However, this year, we are still 7 months out from February bookings, and the number of full weeks available is significantly lower than last year at this time. It appears that this is a result of the 3 and 4 day bookings. Many of the locations are booked with weekend bookings that previously would not have been possible until the 120 day point (actually, I think the rule was 90 days at that time last year).

My concern is that the new rule for 3 and 4 day long-term bookings is leaving us with an extremely fragmented reservations calendar -- and will result in lower occupancy ratios. I’d probably love it if I were one of HCC’s Colorado members because I’d use a lot of the mid-week days under the space available rules. However, I need a full week if I am going to travel to Colorado (and bring in family from other parts of the country as well). I am not looking for one of the prime ski properties or a holiday week -- just 7 days to enjoy with the family.

So I’m voicing my preference for the previous rule: long-term reservations (except NYC) had to be 7 days; shorter-term reservation weeks could be broken up. HCC is an evolving entity. I’m glad they’re trying out different guidelines as we go along. Some will work well, and others won’t. At this point, I think this change falls in the latter category -- especially if it means any week of skiing will require you to use a long-term reservation.

I’ll keep watching these next several months to see if any of the remaining ski weeks stay available until shorter-term reservations are possible.

tripTX

I'm just using ski season as an example. The partial-week long-term reservations are found throughout the calendar and list of locations. Wanted to start a conversation to see if other members preferred the previous rule (only 7 night long-term reservations) or the new one. I'm all for 3 and 4 night reservations as the travel date gets closer -- just not a year in advance.

LTTravel

But realize that if you use up a long term reservation token for 3 or 4 days. that leaves you 3 or 4 mor space available days to use up. So I think that it may even up in the end.

pwrshift

I would never join or stay with a Club that didn't offer vacations of less than 7 nights at all their resorts. HCC permits this now, and that's a very attractive benefit to timesharers - key prospective members.

Depending on their membership status, I believe HCC members can only book one or two 12 month stays a year, regardless of whether it is for 7, 4 or 3 nights. That forces members to book all 7 nights even if they don't want that many -- and cuts down on the availabilities for other members. In other words you should be able to book a total of 7 nights a year ahead - even if it's made up of 2 different dates and locations. Give it some thought....

What a huge advantage that would give HCC members -- the ability to book NYC for 3 nights and a 4 night stay at OB at a different time .. but both 12 months ahead of the check in dates! Same for 'holiday' bookings for qualified members. Love it. More variety - more satisfied members.

Dare to be different HCC. One of the things I don't like about DC's is members usually can't book more than one week at any given location as you can with timeshares, but more flexibility in the 7 nights or less benefit is a real advantage to exploring explosive membership growth from the huge timeshare arena.

DC4MS

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Marriott a week-based reservation system (7 nights only with check-in only on Fri-Sat-Sun) and don't you own several Marriott timeshare weeks?

kddpac

I have to agree with Pwrshift on this issue. We recently joined HCC and we would not have considered it without the 3 and 4 night stays. We are a young couple without kids and we would never consider a timeshare due to restrictive week long stays and inconsistent quality of properties. The competition for HCC for us would simply be high end hotel stays. We liked the idea of having a little more space in the event we want to travel with extended family or friends. We do a lot of long weekend travel due to demanding work schedules and full week long reservations would definately NOT work for us.

pwrshift

That's correct. I own 6 Marriott weeks that can be split to provide up to 10 weeks of holiday a year. I bought them when my kids lived at home, but now that they've left the nest I seldom have need for a 2 bdrm suite.

Perhaps I didn't make it clear, but hoped to point out that because TS weeks are usually 7 nights minimum, the 'less than 7 night stays' at a DC would be a great incentive for a TS owner to move over, and even more so if the DC also addressed the 'size' concerns that empty nesters will also have.

tripTX

I hope it's clear that HCC has always allowed stays of 4 nights and less. No one is suggesting that they change this.

However, it has only been in the last 6 months or so that the rule changed for long-term reservations (that are one year in advance). Previously, these reservations required a stay of one week. This encouraged members to use more nights (resulting in higher occupancy rates of the properties, in my opinion) -- and still allowed you to split all your weeks up with shorter-term reservations if you chose.

Private members who joined under the original plan have 45 nights per year. If one chooses to split all those up into 3 night stays, he or she breaks up 15 weeks on the calendar each year. Obviously, not all of those can be made with long-term reservations since we only have 3 of those each year. Still the previous rule encouraged private members to use up 21 of their nights with their 3 long-term reservations (since these had to be 7 nights each). The rest could be split up however they wanted. (I used 5 full weeks last year and split the rest of my time into two smaller trips)

This debate isn't about adding any more rules on. It's just a discussion as to whether we like the new rule or the previous one.

Glad you joined, kddpac. This forum has been a great place for us to trade ideas, share tips about locations/trips, and discuss how to make HCC the best it can be. Other members have been a great source of info for several of our trips -- with recommendations for restaurants, best place to rent a car in smaller locations, activities, etc. Plus, it's sometimes hard to know what to expect from a location unless you've visited it before. The members here have been invaluable in helping us select the right HCC units for the type of trip we're planning. Just post any questions you have, and people will do their best to help you out. Welcome again.