Re: Outside Companies contacting owners to sell weeks. In response to a post wanting to purchase your weeks.
BEWARE......THIS IS A SCAM....
We also had a company contact us, they also had all of our information regarding what we own with Grand Luxxe. \"ULTIMATE VACATION NETWORK\" was the company name, they may have changed their name now. If they have asked you to pay upfront any funds, ie: Mexican tax. CALL YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY IMMEDIATELY to cancel these charges. The charge on your card will not show up as the name the company is using when they contact you, it will be a company out of Mexico.
We have notified Grand Luxxe Management as to what happened to us. An email went out immediately to all sales staff. Grand Luxxe had told us they were going to get the police fraud unit to investigate this company.
PLEASE BEWARE IF YOU GET A CALL WITH AN OUTSIDE COMPANY THAT HAS ALL YOUR INFORMATION. We were also told that GRAND LUXXE companies DO NOT GIVE OUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.
My wife and I returned from a week at the Grand Mayan, RMaya on Feb 21. While there, we checked out the progress of the Grand Luxxe construction and talked with our sales person, Arsen. I took several photos of the three story building number one from several angles: including a few feet from the building, from the beach looking back at it, from the snack bar deck at the Brio and from the tennis courts. The building is in a triangle shape with three wings. All sides of building are shown in the photos. It looks like each top floor is made of two Villa units. Another building is going to be located between building one and the tennis courts and the foundation work is just starting. For what it is worth, the security guard who ran us out indicated that building 3 would be between the beach and building one. The sales people are saying building one will be complete by November 2010. They have a lot of work to do by then. We watched the Grand Mayan pools being built over several trips and several years. November is only 9 months from now. During this February week of President's Day, the Grand Mayan, the Iberostar and Valentine resorts next door were nearly 100% occupied. Hope these pictures are informative. I may have to send the photos separately and you can attach. each photo is named with the view point.
I would like to comment on Karen's excellent report re developments and her recent experience at Riviera Maya. We were there from October 25 to November 1 and just missed Ida. Our experience with the sales staff mirrors Karen's. First of all we wanted to check on the status of the Luxxe development. We arranged to meet with our salesman from two previous purchases of Grand Mayan weeks. We figured we had some type of \"reasonable\" relationship with him since he made a substantial commission on his sales to us. Thus we believed that we would get some reliable information in a minimal amount of time. So we arranged for an owners meeting. Little did we know what we were getting into. My wife is still ticked off about the amount of pool time and shopping that she missed.
Enrique met us and was accompanied by his manager Jack who proceed to dominate our breakfast meeting. We were given the hard sell to buy more Luxxe weeks and turn them over Wyndham to rent. As soon as I heard rent I knew it was a sham. We had heard the rent pitch on two previous occasions. We tried renting our weeks through two companies recommended by Grupo Mayan. We never heard a word from them after paying our fee to list our weeks.
I think the ultimate goal of Grupo Mayan is to sell real estate to its time share owners. They are willing to give you a generous sum in so called equity as a down payment in one of their real estate developments. A few years ago we took a family vacation to the Mayan Palace in Puerto Penasco. On our owners tour they offered us the opportunity to buy a villa in the 23,000 acres they were developing for approximately 300K. Our existing Grand Mayan weeks would be the down payment. I asked the salesman about this concept. He told me the company makes more money on a 300K villa than it does on a 70K time share. When I related this story to Jack he told me that these same units are now selling for 550K. By the way two couples that were with us in Puerto Penasco did buy villas.
After our breakfast meeting we were not through with Jack. He took us back to the sales office where he was going to share some \"secret\" information with us. My brother calls the sales office the \"torture chamber\". Jack told us that each Grupo Mayan resort was going to have a casino. We were then offered this opportunity to purchase additional weeks by two other sales people including a last ditch effort by signing a release. In other words by signing this release we will lose this wonderful opportunity. I told them their approach was all smoke and mirrors. Sound familiar?
We never did get a tour of the Luxxe construction. I tried to locate it by walking up the beach. I thought that it might be visible from the beach like the one in NV. Not seeing anything I came away with the impression that construction hadn't started. I was glad to see your pictures. By the way how many buildings are under construction? I know that there is a three story limit on construction. Do you have any other information to share about this development?
I agree that the properties and amenities are great. The sales tactics are poor. My son has a good position in marketing and went on a sales presentaion last summer in PV and was not impressed at all with the salesman and his pitch. We will continue to have great vacations at the various resorts. I don't think that I can ask my wife to attend any more owners meetings even if she has to give up that generous 10% discount on food and beverages. Her time in the sun is more important to her than a free lunch. I look forward to hearing more from you about our mutual Mexican adventure. Best regards, Don
Sorry for the delay in getting the blog comments out. There was a misunderstanding about how the blog works. We have to approve the comments before they appear. Now that we know what the rules are, we will assure you that comments will be posted soon after they are submitted.
About the photos, we still need to have everyone send their photos to infoaboutus at aimfair.com in order to post them.
Re: Bliss location - there is an architect's rendering that shows Bliss I and II. We will post the rendering when we return from NV tomorrow.
Re: Renting and where the renters stay....we will get the answer to that one tomorrow.
The only agreement with Wyndham that we are aware of is the Elite Reservation Program. We will get some information about it and post it next week.
Has anyone heard if the people that rent a Luxxe suite from us owners will stay at the Luxxe or just at the Grand Mayan with the Luxxe benefits as this is what we were told? We were told that only owners would stay at the Luxxe.
Also we have talked with Head office and they have said there is no rental agreement with Wyndam Resorts at all or at least not for now.
I'm probably being really stupid, but how do I post my recent pictures from Nuevo and GL contstruction? I'm pretty tech savvy, but just didn't see where/how to post photos.
No, Kathi, there is nothing wrong with you. Our platform does not allow the posting of photos yet....please stay tuned...Bob and Mary Ann
we just bought a grand luxxe villa and upgraded from a grand bliss. we are concerned about value. We wonder if this will offer trade poss. with other residence clubs? When will we be able to make reservations?
Our family and friends (13 people)will be traveling to Acapulco on the 14th of Nov for 2 weeks we have never been there and are hoping to get some insight on transportation, shopping,side trips etc. Can anyone help?
This is the content of an email we recently received. Interesting ideas.
The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat.
While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):
1. Frequently wash hands (well highlighted in all official communications).
2. Use a Hands-off-the-face approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).
3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you do not trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Do not underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.
4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.
5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.
6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.
Great idea, Gina. The only issue we can see that might stand in the way of someone from Grupo Vidanta answering questions is the extent of what they can say.
Change is the only thing that is constant in this world.
A representative could provide the current state of affairs as the truth, only to find the current plan changed. Seems like a no-win situation unless the Vidanta group is fully committed to living up to what the representative says will happen. If that were the case, it seems it would be a formal announcement of some sort.
Certainly would be great if that were to take place here.
If you would like to start your own blog about something that interests you, just let us know. We will open a blog in your name and you can fill it with your thoughts.
Our email is infoaboutus at aimfair.com. Let us know your \"handle\" and subject, we will open a blog for your use and on we go.
Of course, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments, since we have no interest in providing a \"soap box\" for information that is not useful. Not likely we will have to impose any restrictions with this group of travelers.
In one of the comments, someone had written something about sending a group email to the resort administration (I think????) Anyway - that got me thinking . . . I wonder if some type of customer service rep, that was really \"in the know\" would give an update to this site on a regular basis. I would find that very helpful. We realize the comments might be slanted (not as pure in intention as owner comments) but I think it still could offer extreme value. Or maybe we could start an area where there are questions that could be taken by another owner who will soon be traveling to one of the resorts and is willing to go through an owner update. Actually - I will be going January 3 -10 and plan on going to an update because I need a few things clarified, so I would be happy to take other general questions (of course, I could not get involved in specific issues).
My wife and I are proud owners of the Grand Luxxe Suite. Thus far we have had an excellent relationship with Grupo Mayan for the past two years that we have been Grand Mayan owners.
Just wondering if anyone is aware of any updates to the new resorts being built in Buenos Aires, Hawaii and Costa Rica.
I like the blog format. I am constantly searching the internet for information on Grupo Mayan. We have had our reservations changed so many times this year, thanks to Grupo Mayan, we are unsure where we will end up this year. We are owners at the Grand Mayan, and we go to Nuevo every year. We booked a suite at Nuevo Mayan Palace, for one week; so we could be with friends from Chicago that are MP owners. Well, we know that the MP Nuevo no longer exists. They sent our friends to MP Marina, and booked us into the GM Nuevo. Kind of defeated the purpose of spending a week with our friends. I know it is only a cab ride away; but still a pain in the backside. They finally put us at the Marina, and now we are hearing that they are sending people from the Marina to the GM in Nuevo. Lord only knows where we will end up. Hopefully, they will put all of us in the same location. We are staying two weeks at the GM anyway; so it really doesn't matter to us, but it would be nice to spend the first week with our friends.