Atrium Resort

Do not mess around with the Festiva Corporation, owners of the Atrium in Sint Maarten. I will tell you why. For me they are changing the general rules of operation. I own two floating week contracts valid weeks 15 through 50. Reservations cannot be made more than one year in advance. When I tried to make a reservation this year for next spring on the first week of eligibility for weeks 21 and 22, I was told there was nothing available for week 22 and only one room in the entire building for week 21and that room did not face the ocean. I have been going to the Atrium since 2000 and have always had a nice choice of rooms on an upper floor with an ocean view so this was rather a shock. So I pushed to discover how this could be and was told the following.
Festiva internally assigns a week to all the floating contracts. This is not part of the contact and the owner of the contract has no visibility of this. In my case I believe it is week 35 and 36. When an owner requests a week that is not on this internal assignment, the only way a room can be available is if another floating week contract covers that week and has not been exercised. In my case, no one was assigned week 22 so there was nothing available for me.
All the other units had been assigned to the Festiva Adventure Club and points programs even though no reservations had yet been booked. I should point out Festiva controls at least 40% of all weeks as they have never been sold to individuals and they always have rooms available for rent. These are obviously not the conditions under which floating weeks were sold and I doubt the legality but I am one person against the corporation.
Why was I told this? I suspect I am a special case. When I last used my condo, the Atrium added some daily fees to the bill that amounted to $4.50 per person per day. I challenged this with American Express by sending a copy of my contract to them. American Express agreed with my claim and I did not have to pay the fees. So be careful in dealing this outfit.

I booked the Atrium thru booking.com 3 years in a row they always had plenty of rooms .
Just checked the first 3 weeks in April showing plenty of rooms.
http://www.booking.com/hotel/sx/atrium-b...tal;ucfs=1&

That's not the issue. The OP is my neighbor and has had lots of trouble dealing with the atrium as a TS owner.

I booked Week 47 only about 60 days ago, have not had problem dealing with them over the last few years. We purchased in 2007. I only own every other year floating week but have never had a problem getting the week I want so I am surprised you had an issue booking.

As for any of the fee's when there, with AMF's at only $734 per year for a 1 bedroom unit a few extra fee's don't bother me. While the wifi is not great, it is nice that it is free as well or was the last time I was there where some resorts charge for that.

I guess we will see how we like it this year, in 77 days.
Cheers,
Todd

My nieghbor has a two bed every year but goes every other year for two weeks. That is where the problems start. He goes weeks 20&21. Not the weeks he stated since he is there during some of the weeks we are.

Atrium's rooms are in different pockets, and it's difficult to switch pockets. Certain rooms/weeks are timeshares, some are for the Adventure club, and some are hotel units. There might be other pockets/categories. So if you're in the Adventure Club, there might be plenty of empty rooms, but you can't book them because they're in the wrong category. Screwy situation.

Just to share my experience as I am now a biannual points owner with Festiva:

We started 30 years ago with a fixed week (blue) at Sandpebble in Myrtle Beach with I can't really remember who. It started out easy to exchange into anywhere, any week, but became increasingly harder and harder. We lost usage the year Hugo hit with no recourse and an assessment, even though nowadays they give people their weeks back.

We got so exasperated we forked over extra money to get a red week at Peppertree by the Sea as supposedly no red weeks were available to buy up/in to at Sandpebble and were bounced around through several companies until Festiva took over. Then the pressure to convert to points began. I was very resistant but eventually forked over YET AGAIN more money and converted to points.

Truthfully the whole thing did tork me but they gave me a high level of points for my trouble/money.

Using points, as it is fluid for what you need, I could theoretically take at least 6 or more weeks per year. Just this year it has ranged from us using almost 8000 points (with many left over) to visit New Orleans during Jazz Festival to using ZERO points for 2 weeks at the Atrium (albeit during hurricane season). We can also trade into most any locale. Last year we needed lodging in Orlando for a convention and were told nothing was available. When I became insistent we ended up in a non-Festiva resort.

So, this does not directly make your situation any better but converting, after the initial distaste, can be a useful evil...

I agree if you want total flexibility, points is the way to go. With points you can get the time you want even if it is two days in the middle of a week. That is why often the entire week is not available for some weeks floating weeks owners. If a points owner has booked Tuesday and Wednesday only and you want that week, your week is shot. We converted to points several years ago for free with an upgrade and have never looked back!

was informed that new mgmt. altered policy last yr.. owned at Atrium 20yrs.used to bank our top floor premium ocean view upon arrival for the following yr.. prohibited from doing so. had to deposit in RCI and suffer a loss. I guess they are controlling more of the inventory for profit. MHO

Did you own at the Atrium? We have a fixed week and back some years ago when Festiva took over they wanted us to convert to points and although I can't remember how much it was it wasn't cheap so we kept the week and fortunately I have someone who rents it since we really don't use it. Maybe I should give them a call?

Yes, we have a week at The Atrium since 1994 just after the resort was completed.