I am a Festiva owner or should I say one of their victims. I not a really involved owner I pay my lovely maintenance fee, which has gone up over 100% since I purchased my timeshare in 2002, book my week and then deposit it in Interval. That is my total dealings with Festiva.I own even years so may last payment I made in 2009 for 2010. I just called in Dec to pay my 2012 fee and found I was past due on special assessment fees. After going back and forth I have paid all of my fines and collection costs and I am back up to date. While I do understand the concept of special assessment fees I do not understand theirs. I have done a lot of research on the internet and find that special assessment fees usually are for repairs and renovations. I have not found anything out there that they are used to cover company loss. Below is how Red Week.com describes it".
Special Assessment:
A fee, over and above the annual maintenance fee, assessed by the resort pro rata to interval owners/. This fee, when assessed, is intended to defray expenses related to major repairs and refurbishing of resort equipment, facilities, and units?.
I find it pretty amazing that they use their owners to bail out their company losses!. By this I am referring to the letter sent out in 2010 explaining the special assessment fees". Part of the fees was to cover people not paying and lost rental fees/. I had asked them that in the good years would the owners expect a dividend check as it appears we are sharing the wealth now". They stated that only a small part went to this but why should any amount go to it!. Why should I be expected to pay someone else’s fees? Reading all the posting I see other people are mad about the special assessment fees as well. People have talked about lawsuits and if anyone knows of any lists or info on where to sign up count me in ( ). There has to be some way to stop this insanity. Doing the math on this I have owned my timeshare for about 9.5 years. I have paid special assessment fees in 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2012. That is a little over 40% of the time we are paying special assessment fees. I asked Festiva when I wrote to them what was there outlook for special assessment fees going forward. Let’s face it the letter sent basically stated that times were tough and we are going to charge you well if you look around the economy is worse now. They stated they do not forecast based off of past years so I am assuming since I did not get a statement saying we are not going to charge one I will start putting some money aside now. As there seems to be no cap on how often they can charge them or how much. I would urge anyone who is thinking of buying a timeshare you may want to think twice before buying from Festiva.
--Delinquencies and defaults have been rising, rental rates have been falling and costs of operations
(taxes, insurance, energy, labor) have remained the same. While any vacation resort experiences
attrition of its member base as a natural consequence of time, that attrition is usually at a predictable
pace spread out over time. As such, being able to monetize that inventory through rental efforts (in
other words, to recoup the delinquent maintenance fees by renting the unit) or through the sale of
that inventory to a new dues paying member (in other words, a new vacation ownership customer) is
a very realistic solution to the attrition problem. However, the rapid increase of attrition over the last
two or more years, combined with a negative growth in both local rental production and vacation
ownership sales, has left Ellington, along with many other resorts, facing some very difficult financial
challenges.--
128d00b
Special Assessment:
A fee, over and above the annual maintenance fee, assessed by the resort pro rata to interval owners/. This fee, when assessed, is intended to defray expenses related to major repairs and refurbishing of resort equipment, facilities, and units?.
I find it pretty amazing that they use their owners to bail out their company losses!. By this I am referring to the letter sent out in 2010 explaining the special assessment fees". Part of the fees was to cover people not paying and lost rental fees/. I had asked them that in the good years would the owners expect a dividend check as it appears we are sharing the wealth now". They stated that only a small part went to this but why should any amount go to it!. Why should I be expected to pay someone else’s fees? Reading all the posting I see other people are mad about the special assessment fees as well. People have talked about lawsuits and if anyone knows of any lists or info on where to sign up count me in ( ). There has to be some way to stop this insanity. Doing the math on this I have owned my timeshare for about 9.5 years. I have paid special assessment fees in 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2012. That is a little over 40% of the time we are paying special assessment fees. I asked Festiva when I wrote to them what was there outlook for special assessment fees going forward. Let’s face it the letter sent basically stated that times were tough and we are going to charge you well if you look around the economy is worse now. They stated they do not forecast based off of past years so I am assuming since I did not get a statement saying we are not going to charge one I will start putting some money aside now. As there seems to be no cap on how often they can charge them or how much. I would urge anyone who is thinking of buying a timeshare you may want to think twice before buying from Festiva.
--Delinquencies and defaults have been rising, rental rates have been falling and costs of operations
(taxes, insurance, energy, labor) have remained the same. While any vacation resort experiences
attrition of its member base as a natural consequence of time, that attrition is usually at a predictable
pace spread out over time. As such, being able to monetize that inventory through rental efforts (in
other words, to recoup the delinquent maintenance fees by renting the unit) or through the sale of
that inventory to a new dues paying member (in other words, a new vacation ownership customer) is
a very realistic solution to the attrition problem. However, the rapid increase of attrition over the last
two or more years, combined with a negative growth in both local rental production and vacation
ownership sales, has left Ellington, along with many other resorts, facing some very difficult financial
challenges.--
128d00b
 Comments (5) |
| 1. Written by on February 11, 2012 from culver city, california, US Endless Opportunity Agree with all you are saying. I was debating on getting rid of mine somehow. I was looking into the donation angle but I not sure if that is a scam as well. At this point, at least for me it seems to be a wash if I pay them and go on vacation or I rent something online. The price is comparable. I sure that will all change in a few years once my maintenance doubles again which I sure it is headed that way or we get more special assessments. Festiva Rep I have addressed my issues and question directly with you complaints department. In my opinion they have not addressed my question or concerns adequately. You state that owners are responsible for their share of resort costs including bad dept. Why as an owner am I responsible for someone else’s bad debt. What is Festiva’s “The Company’s” role in all of this? The company profits in good years and then in bad passes their losses to someone else. I sure the CEO still makes a good salary. Again I search the internet for definitions of special assessment fees and it does not state anywhere that bad debt or company loss is part of special assessment. You state that buildings 3, 4 and 8 are being renovated with the special assessment what do you do with our maintenance funds? I know it is for the general upkeep and running of the property but that sum must be quite large, hard to believe it is just for that. So once building 8 is done when we get hit with another fee for buildings 1,2,5,6,7, the club house, the pool and so on. Again my larger concern is that we, the owners, appear to be paying for the company loss due to attrition. With that said I do plan to educate myself a bit more on the world of timeshares and what the rules are. I do have quite a bit of time on my hands and was looking for another hobby so I may start posting on every site I can in hopes that other owners see the posts and realize that they are not the only ones with concerns over what they are being charge and for what reason. I see I am not the only upset owner out there after reading some of the post. I think that it may just take keeping the posts alive to get some attention. Also I hope that future buyers will see the posts and become a bit more educated before buying. |
| 2. Written by festowner on February 11, 2012 from culver city, california, US Endless Opportunity Agree with all you are saying. I was debating on getting rid of mine somehow. I was looking into the donation angle but I not sure if that is a scam as well. At this point, at least for me it seems to be a wash if I pay them and go on vacation or I rent something online. The price is comparable. I sure that will all change in a few years once my maintenance doubles again which I sure it is headed that way or we get more special assessments. Festiva Rep I have addressed my issues and question directly with you complaints department. In my opinion they have not addressed my question or concerns adequately. You state that owners are responsible for their share of resort costs including bad dept. Why as an owner am I responsible for someone else’s bad debt. What is Festiva’s “The Company’s” role in all of this? The company profits in good years and then in bad passes their losses to someone else. I sure the CEO still makes a good salary. Again I search the internet for definitions of special assessment fees and it does not state anywhere that bad debt or company loss is part of special assessment. You state that buildings 3, 4 and 8 are being renovated with the special assessment what do you do with our maintenance funds? I know it is for the general upkeep and running of the property but that sum must be quite large, hard to believe it is just for that. So once building 8 is done when we get hit with another fee for buildings 1,2,5,6,7, the club house, the pool and so on. Again my larger concern is that we, the owners, appear to be paying for the company loss due to attrition. With that said I do plan to educate myself a bit more on the world of timeshares and what the rules are. I do have quite a bit of time on my hands and was looking for another hobby so I may start posting on every site I can in hopes that other owners see the posts and realize that they are not the only ones with concerns over what they are being charge and for what reason. I see I am not the only upset owner out there after reading some of the post. I think that it may just take keeping the posts alive to get some attention. Also I hope that future buyers will see the posts and become a bit more educated before buying. |
| 3. Written by Endless Opportunity on February 8, 2012 from baghdad, baghdad, IQ Me and my wife have been owners since 2006, with fees and special assessment increasing we don't even get to vacation at the timeshare or any of the alternative locations offered. It would be nice if Festiva would sell the dead beat owners share (week)and lower the special assessments, they don't publish that if it is done or not. One day our legal system will catch up with the acts and scams and rule them as illegal. If our State's Attorney's offices would combine forces and canvas there state populations each State involved could start suites against Festiva and other timeshare company's and set an precedence. Until then we are all stuck paying and getting screwed for years. We all know Festiva has many Attorney's on their payroll which we pay for, finding all those lop holes to close. I would be happy if they would just take the god forsaken thing back and relieve me of all the obligations and resell it for their own profit I don't want a penny back. But that wishful thinking. |
| 4. Written by Festiva Rep on February 8, 2012 from asheville, north carolina, US To: Festowner Our post was meant to be addressed to you. |
| 5. Written by Festiva Rep on February 8, 2012 from asheville, north carolina, US To: Ed Please be advised that buildings 3 and 4 at the Ellington have undergone complete renovations and building 8 is also in the process of undergoing complete reservations with the use of the special assessment. The bulk of the special assessment is being used for renovations, but in an effort to be up front with all of our members we did feel an obligation to inform our members of the decrease in paying members at the resort. Keep in mind that all owners are responsible for their share of the resorts costs, which do include bad debt and attrition of the member base. If you would like us to review your account further, please write a post to us at www.festivareviews.com with your contact information and we will be happy to have someone review your account and get in touch with you. |
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