TravelTalkOnline Forums People Talk Caravanserai Now Alegria Caravanserai now Alegria

I would think getting confirmation from the resort would be more appropriate....

Thx for the info, plse keep us posted, will try RCI again tonight - not sure I want to wait till the last moment???

As I Caravanserai TS owner I find the actions of Alegria farcical. Do any of the TS owners have first hand knowledge that the emails were indeed sent by Alegria. I have not received one. It seems to me that if allowed to follow through on this plan the entire TS structure could be jeopardized. Not just on St Maarten, but in many other places as well. and RCI business model could also be very well damaged. We also should be careful about what is said on this and other public places as Alegria will be monitoring them for information on what people are thinking and planning. If they see a general weakness on the part of TS owners they will act accordingly.

What ever Alegria does won't affect any business model that RCI has. RCI isn't the best business model to begin with and has its own customer relation issues currently and in the past. I also don't think what happens to Alegria will have a big effect on the TS industry as a whole but instead on the unfortunate TS owners in that complex.

I hope that logic prevails in this situation as it does not look favorably on either Alegria or the Bank of Nova Scotia. I am sure the Minister of Tourism is looking at some type of resolution that will appease both the new owner and the TS owners such as myself. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

Send this government a message .......Flood those in government with a continuous communication campaign until they implement the consumer protection policy required . <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/smashpc.gif" alt="" />

And what required policy in St Maarten is that? None that I know of.

.....aman ...the policy that does not currently exist .One that would protect consumers while investing in a challenged country ...

This is far from being true. The truth is that if the new owner is allowed to turn a timeshare facility into a straight hotel facility, a HISTORIC PRECEDENT will be set not only on this island but possibly at any timeshare facility, exclusive of U.S. timeshare properties. The government needs to take a long, hard look at this mess. This totally unprofessional act of sending people emails may be a ploy by the new owner who controls Alegria Real Estate in that they know they can't simply null the sales. Remember that sales were taking place at the resort while a Scotia Bank agent was overseeing the property. That IS the truth.

In the end we keep our timeshares at a price 9 times the yearly maintenance fee of 2014. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/hammer.gif" alt="" />

Wasn't dawn Beach a timeshare and went belly up after the storms? Did those owners have any recourse?

Dawn beach hotel paid their insurance premiums to their agent. The agent didn't forward the payments to the insurance co. So Dawn beach hotel didn't have insurance to rebuild.

SXM??? Wendell

I guess what I'm asking is have their been other timeshare resorts on the island that have closed their doors and if so how was it handled and what was the outcome. Idk why I though Dawn Beach was timeshare not a resort, but I knew the agent fled with the $$$$.

Totally agree...

...and the unplanned closing of a resort due to storm damage is a bit different than transferring ownership, dumping existing contracts and continuing operations

I should also mention that the only way SOME owners know about this event is through this forum. It is obvious that not everyone received the email. Those that did not and do not frequent this board are still clueless as to what is going on....

Thus my original post about how lame it was to send the notice via email vs. certified mail. They have no proof of ANYONE actually getting it.

Another thing I don't understand. If the leassee's fight the resort owner in court and win to get to stay there. Do the leasee's think think they will be staying at a place with open arms? Will the owner go out of their way to make the place comfortable and have full services for the leasee's? I really thing the leasee's will be staying in a hostile environment.

SXM??? Wendell

I would be a bit hostile....probably would have made more sense to play the savior card and then just double the AMF's for whatever reason. That might have gotten rid of quite a few players....making THEIR choice and not a forced hand...and it STILL may come to that

The new owner probably wants to get a head count of who takes the offer by year end ( thus the Nov 1 deadline). instead of waiting for a couple of years. And beginning the first of the year start the hotel promotion.

Really the hotel offer isn't too bad. Some will pay $575 for a week stay in a newer resort.

SXM??? Wendell

How is it going to run as a hotel? Aren't all the units either studios, 1/2 Bedrooms? I guess when I hear hotel; I think a room with a bed and bath (and possibly a mini fridge). If someone bought a 2 BR unit there's no way they could get 6-8 people in a hotel room.

You are right RoryS! We have 2 weeks in a sleep 8 Penthouse unit during low season when the kids are off school since we have 4 kids and needed to sleep all 6 of us comfortably. We only bought the timeshare unit at Caravanserai because it was complex every year to try to find a centrally located place that could accomodate our whole family comfortably for 2 weeks. Getting a "hotel unit" for the price of our maintenance fee would not even make sense. Maybe a lot of people have only 2 people and would be able to make it work, but it is worthless to us to pay our maintenance fee and not have a place to put everyone!

There are some owners who did not have an email address on file with Caravanserai. I would assume they will receive letters by mail? All notices should have been sent by registered mail and not by email since Alegria's letter could have ended up in junk or spam and never reached the intended timeshare owner. Alegria has no guarantee that any particular owner actually received their letter. Something else to consider.

You have to wonder how many people might find out simply because at some point they go to RCI to book a vacation and they have a zero point balance! RCI is going to be fielding a lot of po'd calls before people realized what Caravanserai/Alegria did!

Lena checked our RCI point balance and you are correct we have a 0 balance!!

Count us in on ANY class action suit. And I urge everyone to broadcast a call for a BOYCOTT of St.Maarten - St.Martin
until they do something to protect TS owners rights.

As an owner who bought while the first floor of the T/S bldg was going up and who has used our penthouse unit 3 times starting in 2010 we have been on a roller coaster ride from day 1. to some of the people who have posted I can truly tell the non owners versus owners.We as many owners recognize the great potential for Caravanserai and have had some wonderful times there. We do miss Ray:( He always tried to help us and give us good info.I know many people posting don't fully understand what is in our hearts but to the people who are siding with Allegria I think they need to walk a mile in the owners shoes. I also think that is shameful that the St.Martin government has not made an effort to better communicate any efforts to solve this dilemma which they obviously have been aware of. As far as the bank goes ...They are a bank and they could give a rat's [censored] about anything but their money which is to be expected of the bank. I do beleive that it would be in the interest of bothe the government , and Allegria , and The Time Share Assoc. to solve this in favor of the owners for 2 reasons 1.) If they don't this will seriously weaken the timeshare business in general but specifically in St.Martin and 2.) We as other owners also own other weeks in St.Martin and you can bet your bottom dollar that we will spend every waking hour on that island making all parties involved lives MISERABLE!!!

Another thing to consider. What if some TS owners took a mortgage to buy? Didn't the lender require a guarantee (lien) against the property? Did the sale of the TS Resort to Allegria account for that? The borrower doesn't own anything, the lender does until the mortgage is paid off. Lots of unknowns at this point.

I just received a SECOND email from Alegria with the same awful letter attached. That's 2 emails in five days.

Do you own 2 weeks and have separate contracts? Am thinking they are working their way through contract by contract.

Somebody earlier posted that there were about 2,000 timeshare weeks sold. If each one involved an eamail response or a phone call, that would make for a very busy month.

"Thus my original post about how lame it was to send the notice via email vs. certified mail. They have no proof of ANYONE actually getting it."
When an email fails a notice is sent to the sender that it failed to deliver to that address.

And the emails heading come from Algeria not Caravanserai and reference timeshare. I would assume it was spam if I had gotten it. Most people who own at Caravanserai would not even know who or what alegria is. Unless you follow a social media site that talked about the sale and new name then why would you open the email? For all I know I got the email and deleted it as spam.

In theory, you are correct, in practice, not so much. I am involved in a business systems analysis project at work right now and one of the major elements is email deliverability rates. There is a significant gap between reported non-deliverables and actual. If you are counting on reported non-deliverables and following up only with those, you are going to miss a ton of people because there are a lot of ways that email is reported as non-delievered but is never seen by the target.

We have difficulty with purchase receipts that, because of the status of my employer, are held in company records, so must get through. This seems like a notification of similar importance. Our experience is that relying solely on email for critical documentation, especially that with financial implications, is folly.

As far as I know, there is no legal obligation for anyone to have an email address, much less active.
So in the event that an email sent by Allegria is returned undeliverable, the burden of communication and proof of it remains on Allegria's side.
Sending registered mail is the only way Allegria will be able to prove to a Court that they did contact the owners.
Regardless of the above, it blows my mind that Allegria decided to communicate such an important information to the Owners via email and not by registered mail.

What I really want to know is ,the hotel room they offer... Is it for the same week that I bought??I own week 9 and go there every year and it's a 2 bedroom end unit on the 2nd floor.If this whole thing is true,it's not a good thing,but if they guarantee the same unit every year... I could probably live with that.

Did anybody read the last page of their letter? If they are so sure of their position why are they asking for a total release of all your rights? They are trying to see how many people can be coned into sighing their rights away

Bob and Dot,



I copied those stats from the info listed online when the first auction took place. Back in summer, 2013 yes: 2,056 weeks had been sold but a number of owners own two or three weeks so 2,000 owners maybe, plus or minus. We don't know how many units were purchased in the last year so this gives us a rough estimate on the number of owners, not necessarily the number of weeks owned.

I, as an owner WILL NOT SIGN that letter!!!

Is your reservation still good at RI??

I got my letter yesterday, I have no plans on signing it.
T

Yes, that was the points balance for 2015.

Good for you - RCI told me my reservation was no longer valid as of today - see you guys soon.

I would recommend against signing that letter at this point in time also. As I think about this, it seems to me the emails (as opposed to registered letters) were just a means to get the topic on the table, They probably expected blow back from angry t/s owners and, as I wrote in a previous post, the "hotel" offer was just meant as a starting point for discussions.
So I would also recommend waiting to see the outcome of the meeting proposed by Ted Richardson and the SMTA with Scotiabank and Alegria as well. I would be very surprised if they would reject taking such a meeting.
But I do think everyone needs to be realistic about their expectations. I can't imagine that Alegria bought the resort without first doing a feasibility study and profit and loss assessment, and based on that developed a strategy to fix it. As we all know, the business model under Kildare/Caravanserai was unsustainable, so some operational adjustments (increased AMF's being a possibility?) must be implemented to right the ship. If you want the place to become everything you hope it can be, and I know you all do, then I think you'll all be better off in the long run participating with the new owners rather than fighting them. Manek is responsible for creating this mess and I don't think Alegria should be cast as the bad guys here for trying to find a remedy for the situation.

"As we all know, the business model under Kildare/Caravanserai was unsustainable"

No it was not sustainable the way he did it, if Royal Islander was run that way it would not be sustainable either. Where did the money go? How many stories have you heard about what he promised vs what he delivered. It is my belief that at the amount that was paid for this place, it will be a cash cow for the new owner. It took somebody with some deep pockets to do it, and some risk and hassle but he will do well off of the place.

I also add, do you think that Scotia Bank told the new owner what he wanted to hear or what they thought the truth was?

Cheers,
T