July 17, 2009
Anyone have a Manhattan Club Timeshare?
Reader submitted question: My mom bought into the Manhattan Club three years ago. She has been in not so great health in the last couple years so I've been trying to
help her out with anything I can.
Anyways, she asked me to call the Manhattan Club last week to try to book a room under our timeshare for a weekend in September. So I call and basically get laughed at, that we have to book our rooms NINE months in advance to get any type of room.
How is this possible? NINE MONTHS IN ADVANCE? We don't know what we're
doing 2 weeks from now, nevermind nine months in advance. We also have a Hilton Club timeshare in Manhattan and we can get a room there the night before we are going. It's friggin great.
But with Manhattan Club, we get 2 weeks during the year that can be used day by day, or week by week, whatever you choose. We wind up having to convert our weeks to RCI points and use them at other places. In three years, we've only been able to stay there once. It's ridiculous.
When my mom bought it, they told her she would only have to give a months notice during peak season (summer, christmas) and 2-3 weeks during off peak. Now it has suddenly turned into 9 months. I just talked to one of my friends whose dad has the same timeshare, he said he has this same problem, hasn't been able to get a room in 3 years. He's had it for 10 years. He called them last week to book a room 9 months in advance to the day, and he STILL couldn't get it. They said they were booked for the weekend he wanted already.
They must have way oversold the place. Anyone else have a timeshare there and have this exact same problem?
My answer: I don't have one, but I think it's pretty common in the "time share world"
to make those plans pretty far out in advance. Usually people have the same week every year and its locked up like that.
As you already know, however, the timeshares at the Manhattan Club are not locked in the same week every year. However you may want to consider choosing a time to go every year anyway so that you can make reservations 12 months in advance. If you're unable to do that it sounds like you're stuck with exchanging for RCI points because selling a timeshare is pretty tricky and you'll usually lose a good chunk of money.
Posted by James Trotta at July 17, 2009 9:40 PM
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The problem with the Manhattan Club is that it's sold out or nearly sold out. They probably sold 50 or 51 weeks of the year like all timeshares do so they are at maximum capacity, unlike hotels that work on about 65% occupancy.
You need to find out exactly what the reservation parameters are for booking in weekly increments or less than weekly increments. Typically, you can reserve a week of time more in advance than shorter stays.
You'll also want to find out if certain members have priority, or a longer booking window. This is not an uncommon perk to offer to people that buy bigger packages. There's nothing you can do about it, but it's good to know.
You'll face the same problem with Hilton as they near sell out, and will have to make your reservations further and further in advance.
Timeshare works best if you can plan 9 or more months in advance, unfortunate in your case, but get to know all of the reservation parameters for the Manhattan Club and your Hilton so you can adjust.
Posted by: Jeff Pierce at July 18, 2009 2:41 AMUnfortunately I was stupid enough to buy a share in this project (coned into it). I have not been able to use my week for the last 3 yeas. I belive that this project is all about cheating people by renting the rooms to either other RCI owners or to customers walking directley in from the street, and at the same time have some stupid owneres paying more pr. week in maintenance fees, than a hotel room in midtown Manhattan cost.
The selling price for rooms after you bought it is about 20% of the price you payed when you bought the place.
My hope is that a great deal of owners would find together and start a case against them.
I am not paying anything anymore, I rather cast away the money i spend than paying anything anymore
Ben
Posted by: Ben säbel at August 4, 2009 1:13 AMI went there last month, they have lot of people at the showroom. The salesperson started with $41K for 7 days/year timeshare at the club with about $1900 yearly maintenance fee plus tax. I think that’s too expensive, then they cut it down to $13K for 2 days/year timeshares with $1600 yearly maintenance fee plus tax (which they said they’ll wave the first 3 years fee) . Besides, it’s hard to plan your NY trip 90 days in advance, if not, you may not able to use it. Even if you want the RCI plan, you have to pay a $200 onetime fee, plus $89 yearly fee. I suggest you to take a look at their RCI website to see if their timeshare locations is good for you. For me, I don’t think I can breakeven with buying any timeshare plan they have, but if you have a big family, it’ll be a different story…..
Posted by: jan at August 18, 2009 5:27 AMThe Manhattan Club seems to have oversold. we bought an annual flex seven years ago. Its been hard to get even a few days, and then not when we want to go. If dissatisfied owners could somehow get together, maybe a class action suit could be filed. This is consumer fraud.
Posted by: naomi weller at November 12, 2009 10:58 AM