Welcome to the Club Intrawest Members Wiki!

General Information

Club Intrawest (or CI, for short) is a private points-based, resort club with eight locations in North America. Most are four-season resorts to fit a variety of vacation styles. More than 34,000 people from 48 countries are Club Intrawest Members.

CI owns a portfolio of condo units in each of the 9 locations, but does not necessarily own all the units in each building that displays the "Club Intrawest" banner. The condos are developed and constructed by Intrawest Corporation, and sold to the Club in exchange for Resort Points, which the developer then sells to the public. Once the Club buys a condo unit from Intrawest Corporation, the Club holds legal title to the property.

Ownership of "Resort Points" entitles the member to reserve occupancy at all CI locations. Legally, CI is a Delaware non-stock corporation. In matters that require a vote, such as election of the Board, members receive one vote for every 15 Resort Points owned. Resort points are owned in perpetuity, and can be sold or transferred, subject to payment of a transfer fee and subject also the the developers right of first refusal.

CI is also managed, under contract, by a subsidiary of Intrawest Corporation.

Intrawest Corporation (or "Intrawest" for short) is a private company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia that develops "village resorts". Intrawest owns and operates Whistler Blackcomb, North America’s most popular mountain resort. It also owns or manages a variety of other village resorts including Mammoth, Squaw Valley, Tremblant and Lake Las Vegas.

Membership

Membership gives you vacation privileges at eight Club locations. ( No home resorts) No two properties are alike, but they all share a common standard of excellence.

Club Intrawest gives you access to some of North America's best resorts including :

Membership in Club Intrawest lasts forever: so does the obligation to pay annual dues. When you become a Club Intrawest Member, you receive an annual allotment of Resort Points — this is the currency you use to vacation at the locations owned by the Club. Every year you receive a new allotment of Resort Points, which must be used within the next two year period. Points can also be "borrowed" one year in advance. The annual dues for each Resort Point is currently (Dec 2007) Cdn$6.10. The annual dues for each Resort Point has been increasing each year.

At each CI location, units range from Studio (sleeps 2) to 3 bedroom (sleeps 8). The number of points required to reserve a unit depends on the time of year. The calendar is divided into, in the order of increasing points requirements, Relax, Opportunity, Activity, Peak, and Holiday periods. In addition, the number of points required for a reservation depends on:

• size of unit - bigger unit requires more points.
• day of week - weekends require more points.

Making Reservations: CI accepts reservations for 6 nights or more up to 11 months in advance. Reservations of less than 6 nights can be made up to 4 months in advance. Reservations made with Resort Points can be transferred to family and friends.

Lead time required to make a reservation:

(1) NB: It is very difficult to make a Holiday reservation at a prime location, such as Whistler, even if you call exactly 11 months in advance

Consecutive Reservations: If a reservation for 6 nights or more has been made for one Club location, a second reservation at another Club location for dates directly preceding or following the first reservation may be made up to 11 months in advance for a minimum 2 night stay. This is really only worthwhile if you fly into Vancouver and want to add a couple of days in Vancouver before going to Whistler.

Weekend Reservations: There is a 2 night minimum on all weekends. One weekend reservation may be held at a time for each 80 Resort Points owned.

Approximate Points needed for a reservation

Exchange Program

Intrawest also operates and exchange program for Club Intrawest members, called ExtraOrdinary Escapes. There is a fee for this program that is over and above the annual "resort dues" on CI points. ExtraOrdinary Escapes vacations can be reserved up to 12 months in advance of your desired travel dates. Reservation requests for Resort Villas are done at Gold Crown RCI locations. You may also take advantage of RCI's "Extra Vacations" and "Last Call" offers by paying a cash amount and without exchanging any of your points. Unfortunately this cannot be done directly on RCI's web site and you must call Club Intrawest member services and ask to speak to an RCI counselor. You can also use your points with independent resort, hotel and cruise partners.

When making an exchange, you do not reserve a specific week or location but simply pay with points. (ie 150 pts is a 2 bedroom, 1 week, Red time for RCI locations). A "getaway" request made for an RCI exchange, 45 days or less from check-in date, will cost only 40 points for whichever size unit is available. This means that if a 2 bedroom unit is available, it will only cost 40 points if reserved 45 days or less from check-in date.

CI members are not required to belong to Extraordinary Escapes. CI reservations can also be traded through the Interval International company some CI members find that they are able to obtain better trades in this manner. In order to trade through II, CI members must also be members of Interval International's programme. In addition, only 7 night reservations (Sunday - Sunday) made at CI's Whistler, Palm Desert or Tremblant locations can be traded through II. If you became a Club Intrawest member after 2001, Club Intrawest will not allow exchanges through II, only memberships dating from 2001 or earlier are permitted to register with II. Even if II has taken your payment for membership, they will get a refusal from Club Intrawest and will be unable to process your request. It can take up to 8 weeks for reimbursement from II if this occurs.

Price

As of July 2011, Intrawest Corporation is selling membership points for CDN$ 220/point with maintenance fee (condo fees) of CDN$ 7/point and a minimum purchase of 110 points. Discounts are offered for same day purchases made at the presentation - discount percentage increases with the number of points purchased. A discounted price of $CDN 202/point is offered for purchase of 150 points - compare this with price of $CDN 214/point for 110 points. These pricing details are based on actual new membership purchase by the author at the Tremblant resort.

For historical perspective, here are pricing details from January 2009 - CDN$ 209/point with maintenance fee (condo fees) of CDN$ 6.10/point.

Like every timeshare scheme, it costs a lot more to buy Club Intrawest points from the developer (in this case Intrawest) than from an existing member.

One of the good things about Club Intrawest points is that they are freely transferable (subject to Intrawest's right of first refusal, and certain minimum amounts). Here is a link to a page that shows the price of the winning bids for Club Intrawest points on eBay. This is a better indication of the true value of CI points than the prices quoted by Intrawest when selling to new members, or selling additional points to existing members. Click here for the eBay price history.

Recently (in 2007), the developer changed the rules regarding transfer of membership in Extraordinary Escapes. Members who buy points from other members are only eligible to join the Extraordinary Escapes program if they paid at least $150 per point, and also pay an additional $12-per-point fee to the developer. This was probably an effort by the developer to increase the price at which members were selling their points in the secondary market.

The content of this page is based on the Timeshare Users Group advice page for Club Intrawest. The original page is located at http://www.tug2.net/advice/ClubIntrawestInfo.htm

The page was originally written by Bill Bunker based on promotional material available at clubintrawest.com, but has been updated for this wiki.

Wiki resources

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