iahphx

The Bluegreen timeshare properties are still listed on the Choice website, and there are point redemptions listed, but for many months (even pre-Covid) they seem to all be listed as "sold out" for every night. Does anyone know what the story is? I assume they're no longer really participating in the Choice program, but why doesn't Choice just remove the option?

In the past, these properties have been great award redemptions, but I guess that opportunity has sailed.

Firewind

In my observation, "Sold Out" is used by some Choice properties possibly to cover a multitude of sins: closed temporarily, even Sun-Thur, "hibernating" (closed for the off-season or through COVID), housing homeless by government contract, healthcare workers, first responders or fire evacuees (CA, and now OR, WA, CO, ID)*, or really sold out. Or we might see that they list $300+ or $500+ per night. A follow-up call might yield, "Oh, that was a mistake; here's our rate," or the phone is not answered. "Sold Out" sounds a lot better than some of these explanations. Any of this might apply to other chains, too, but Choice hotels do seem to get picked first for all these irregular ops.

My observations have been mainly in the north Bay Area, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, Cape Cod and Maine.

* In the instance of first responders and evacuees, usually the hotel stays open but the rates truly go way up, despite anti-gouging laws -- one reason why the maximum rate on the back of the door is eye-popping high.

goldenbear

Some Bluegreen properties seem to have disappeared from the choice site altogether.


Before 2021, there was very limited availability at the good value destinations. I assumed since these were timeshare properties, they didn't release a lot of rooms in advance just to give bluegreen owners opportunities to book. Then 30-60 days out, there always seems to be a trickle of rooms available. Sometimes.

However, some seem to remain bookable - for instance the Las Vegas property is available for both cash and for points bookings basically anytime now. No one is really going to Vegas, so there would be no reason to hold back rooms for bluegreen members.

Who knows what this all means going forward. Was a great use of Choice Points that required a lot of searching to find availability...