Maintenance Fees: Understanding What You Pay
The annual maintenance fee — sometimes called the levy, management fee, or club fee — is the recurring cost that every vacation ownership member pays each year regardless of whether they use their entitlement. For most owners, the lifetime total of maintenance fees significantly exceeds the original purchase price.
What maintenance fees cover
Maintenance fees typically cover: resort property maintenance and refurbishment, management company fees, insurance, real estate taxes (where applicable), and a reserve fund for future capital expenditure. The exact allocation varies by club and is disclosed in the annual financial statements that most clubs are required to provide to owners.
How fees are calculated
For points-based programmes, fees are usually charged per point owned or per unit of membership. For fixed-week programmes, fees are calculated per week or unit. Fees are generally allocated pro-rata across all owners at a resort, so a resort with fewer active owners may have higher per-owner fees.
Why fees increase annually
Maintenance fees have increased at most APAC resorts every year. Drivers include: general inflation, increases in resort operating costs, labour cost rises, capital refurbishment requirements, and in some cases management company fee increases. There is no cap on maintenance fee increases in most club agreements.
Evaluating your fee against use
Divide your annual fee by the number of nights you actually stay each year to calculate your real cost per night. Compare this against the publicly available rack rate for the same accommodation. This comparison gives you the most honest view of whether your ownership represents value.