Book Early and Often: Usage Scheduling

Part of the tenants in common agreement that is signed by all owners and that governs the use of the house is the usage terms. These are the rules that describe how blocks of time will be allocated throughout the year. There is no industry standard here, and the owners of the property are free to establish any set of usage rules that works for them. Obviously the key objectives of the chosen usage allocation methodology are:

• Fairness. This one is obvious.
• Flexibility. The ability to change plans after the schedule is set.
• Advance scheduling predictability. There is a balance between flexibility and the ability to schedule your year (or many years in some cases) well in advance.
• Enforceability. Whatever rules are established need to be enforceable or they are useless.

Diverse methods are used today in different properties, each with advantages and disadvantages. Some common methodologies at other properties:

• Rotating weeks. Each owner is assigned a set of week numbers. Each year, that set of weeks “bumps up” by a week. For instance, if you are a co-owner of a quarter-share property and receive 12 weeks per year, in Year 1 we you may be allocated the weeks numebred 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41 and 45. In Year 2, you would receive weeks 2, 6, 10,…. You get the picture. The benefits here are that 1) you know your schedule years in advance, adn 2)you are assured of getting certain prime weeks at least every four years. The disadvantage is the rigidity and that some like to plan around having the same week(s) every year. This can be mitigated by swapping weeks with other co-owners to some degree
• Draft system. An annual or semi-annual meeting, conference call or webcast is held for all co-owners during which each owner uses a draft lottery style order to choose their weeks for the year. Whichever owner had the first pick in Year 1 would get the 4th pick in Year2. We go around the table choosing weeks (or blocks of time), taking turns in order until at least the prime season weeks are scheduled. The advantage of the draft system is the flexibility in which weeks you are allotted each year. The disadvantage is the unpredictability of scheduling your vacation time more than 6 months to a year out becuase you do not know which weeks will be allocated to you for next year until the draft.
• Fixed Allocation. You get the same week(s) every year. This is best for those co-owners who like the predictability of knowing which weeks are theirs for years to come. The downside is that if you have Memorial Day week, you may never see the 4th of July without trading.
• Swapping. Regardless of the allocation system that ends up being chosen by the owners, you are free to swap and trade weeks. With a centralized web-based schedule, all the owners can see who will be using the house when throughout the year and contact them as needed to propose a swap.
  

I'll give my views on how to allocate off-peak season time in a future post.

Does anyone have any additional methodologies that they have seen at work? Which of these would you prefer?