Timeshare Qustions & Answers - Atrium Resort, St. Maarten, West Indies


Timeshare Q&A's If you have any question you would like answered, please forward to us at e-mail: Atrium@sintmaarten.net

Timeshare is quite simply the division of a condominium or hotel unit into the 52 calender/weekly increments, and then owners purchase just the week (or weeks) that they know they can use. In this way there can be up to 52 different ownership families "sharing" each condominium. Many customers come to us with the initial interest in purchasing a condominium for the whole year, but realize that purchasing only the number of weeks you can use makes a lot more sense.

Just as the owners share in the initial purchase price, they also share the cost of maintenance. We establish a management company that operates the resort just as any other hotel or resort property. The management company invoices each owner once a year (in December), a minimal fee for each week of ownership. The management company has contracted with psbill to provide payment processing services for your timeshare. That fee billed to your credit card is to cover the operating costs and covers the expenses such as water, electricity, housekeeping, replacing furniture, building insurance, etc.,etc.

I own a week at the end of the year. Why should I have to pay my maintenance fee in January?

Collecting maintenance fees has to made as simple as possible, with necessary penalties to ensure compliance. The collection date is specified as January 15th each year for ease of accountability. It is acknowledged on every contract as an agreeable condition of purchase. As with any rule or regulation, there has to be one rule for everybody or otherwise there would be no control. Why should the majority of owners that pay on time have to pay for the collection services of those that are tardy?

That is why timeshare ownership is so unique, because we are affiliated with an exchange network called RCI; which is a network of over 3000 other timeshare resorts worldwide from Disneyland to Australia, which allow you to trade/exchange your home resort every year to a different location for just $118 (domestic US) or $155 (international). Each resort in the network is graded by quality, location and season of the year to ensure the "fair exchange" policy of RCI. Here at the Atrium we have the highest possible grades which allows all of our owners regardless of which week they own - the highest trading value. An exchange can be made up to a year in advance or on as short notice of just 48 hours - for a complete explanation of how to make an exchange please refer to your directory or link over to RCI web site at http://www.rci.com.

What is the difference between a "fixed" week of ownership and a "float" week?

There are two types of ownership, fixed or float; and that depends on the type of usage an owner requires. Some owners have the intentions to come back to Sint Maarten for the same week every year, and expect to use the exchange company (RCI) only once out of every five years - for these owners we would have to recommend a fixed week ownership, whereby the owner chooses the specific unit location, view and week number. Other owners have the intentions to use the exchange network most years and return to St.Maarten only once every five years, and therefore we would recommend for them a float week. A float week ownership does not specify any particular week and therefore affords a lower purchase price. If you are using the week on exchange with RCI the unit week number or season does not matter.