OLCC going points????

[lawgs Member Find all posts View Profile Close lawgs]

OLCC now has a "Go Global" program ( seemingly an internal exchange program ) which is points based and will require an initiation fee to get into....and will allow entrance into RCI points

does anyone have any further details on this new program??

[Tom52 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom52]

I just made a exchange into OLCC Saturday. The VC told me that before long OLCC would be an RCI Points Resort and that the number of RCI points to get into the resort would be increasing. Don't know how much truth there is to any of this.

[lawgs Member Find all posts View Profile Close lawgs]

thanks for you post tom...

not truely rci points but a sub layer of that for sure.....it is called Global Access ...reasoning being they are trying to wrestle back control "exchanges"

OLCC will control all the interface with RCI suppposedly .....and thus have been able to valuate the resort at a higher point value than the generic rci points grid for florida resorts

have not gotten any clear indication yet how this will affect RCI weeks and RCI points membership if you should happen to join the program...

would certainly not want to give up my memberships and have to work through OLCC Global Access in order to do exchanges....this is definately an evolving system

if RCI view orange lake as a points resort, then the gem instant exchanges are going to surely disappear, no more 3 bedrooms for 7500 points....that RCI points member can snag from rci weeks.....but there will still be weeks in the pool from people who have not "swung" over to the supposedly new and better

will OLCC management convert all the "weeks" it owns to points thus making it predominately "points"???

but then what happens to the people who stay with the present status quo in weeks.....seems to be a lot of ins and outs with this Global Access program

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

lawgs,

What is interesting to me or more accurately my perception is the fact the OLCC Global program has been out there but from reading the threads here and Over There, the program seems to be still evolving, not all is set in concrete yet. Maybe it has been but is secretive to non-owners. (But you're an owner at OLCC, right?)

It is beyond me that if my perception is accurate why a company like OLCC would roll out an unfinished program. It can do nothing but confuse the OLCC owners. I would think that this type of confusion would not be good for sales. Any negative perceptions about the new program now will be very difficult to overcome later.

Just my observations.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

Kat,

I have no problem with a points system as I am a Fairfield points owner myself. My post was only to state that my perception is that the complete rollout of the Go Global was not or is not (?) ready to go.

I am sure that OLCC has or will get its act together in communicating the full extent of the program. It will be interesting to see what the full program is and how it will interact with RCI.

[lawgs Member Find all posts View Profile Close lawgs]

mshatty

yourobservations in your first post are right ON

from what i gleaned today when i called to find out who my personal rep was, this whole planning process has been in the works for more than a year now.....probably due to the influx of HGVC ( CEO ) and FF (Senior VP ) blood who were "brought in" to shake things up...

the sales staff was not privy to this until a couple of months ago.....but they started selling the product at the very end of JUNE ( they supposedly have been undergoing major training since then....it would be a whole new paradigm for a lot of the people there )

it seems the program will "kick into gear" come september 1, 2006

we first learned about the program when we called our sales manager about the change in policy about how people got into river island....we had been told only river island owners were being allowed to be placed there ( of course it was not completely true )

during the course of the conversation he apologized for not getting back to us sooner since he had been in "seminars" about .....a new exciting program that was launching at the end of JUNE which which would be good for OL owners due to its flexibility....that is all he could say

thus, we called back at the end of june and was told the project had launched and was called GO Global.....that is when i started the threads here and there

we also sent an email to member services asking about the program but did not get any reply for over two weeks, when we finally were able to get someone from that department, we were told they did not deal with questions about Global Access and our request had been forwarded to the appropriate department....we asked that they contact that department and have someone get in contact with us ASAP...within 20 minutes we had our call and the support person was very helpful ( he was the one who forwarded the brochure to us )

the brochure while containing basic information about the program has raised some other questions ....some of which i had tried to post over yonder but was chastited by moderators for "badgering"

there seems to be a "close to the vest" mentality about this program as displayed Over Yonder.....basically people should not know about it unless the details emanate from the purveyor of orange lake truths...

from various chats with OLCC employees, and from an infomation booklet sent to me by the person talked above ....a semblance of the program was beginning to emerge, yet that information was being portrayed as "mis understandings" or "made up stuff"

as i said once there just give me the facts....no need to be secretive and protective about this "exciting" new program


all the owner service support personnel i have talked with .....did not have any problem spending a great deal of time on the phone with me answering questions.....slowly i am grasping the extent of this program....which seems to have a lil bit of FF in it....with the tier system own more...more points...more perks...ala....VIP system within Faifield

some of the front line staffers know some about the program but not enough.....and i give kudos to the front line person that i once got on the line who said i do no know enough about the program to answer questions and who then transferred me to someone who she knew was more knowledgeable.....


the saga continues

as to your second post .....my feeling as stated above the mass mailing and booklet will probably cause more questions than answers in those who read it......there is a lot about the interface with RCI that is not explained ( unless of course they are adding other RCI information pamphlets to explain RCI_Global Access connection ) there was certainly not much to show how that would work in the booklet...there is one page out of the total 20 pages dealing with RCI....

most of my unanswered questions concern how the Global Access points will inteface with RCI points and what happens if you already have RCI weeks or Points accounts

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Lawgs,

Thanks for standing up for what you believe. I admire that.

There was so much noise over yonder about the program that I got really confused about what it really is.

I trust what you've researched more than what I've seen from anyone else because you interviewed a cross section of people. I'd like to know what you think because I will use that as a starting point to figure it out myself.

I truly appreciate it.

Jim

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

OLCC Global Access... The facts that were presented to me

After 3 days of trying, I finally reached the Global Access line for Orange Lake and I collected facts concerning this program that I believe will be helpful to this board.

I am quite sure that others have also expressed the identical information, but there was so much back and forth going on in other such threads that I couldn't figure out what was real vs. what wasn't. So, I decided to call for myself and then report what I found here.

The quick summary is that OLCC has become an RCI Points resort with a different point table for River Island, the North/East Village and West Village. Obviously, River Island has the highest values and the West Village has the lowest values. In addition, OLCC has added two other features above and beyond a standard RCI points membership. The first is internal exchanges and the second is direct exchanges with the Marcus Vacation Club.

The first feature of internal exchanges is the ability to book units by the day or week at Orange Lake for a $40 internal exchange fee. I asked if the fee were the same for weekends vs. weeknights, they said yes. But, I expect that to change. That doesn't make any sense.

The point table for an internal exchange is equal to 2 times the RCI Point value. Not sure why they did this. I guess they did it to make it seem different than RCI Points.

There is currently only one resort in the Marcus Vacation Club which is in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. It only costs $40 to do a direct exchange there. My sales rep said that they plan on adding additional resorts to this direct exchange capability.

The cost for converting a week into the program is $1295. Developer purchases will include this fee (or it will be waived more likely). The annual fee is $89. (Actually, since RCI Points charges $99, he probably had the fee incorrect is my guess). The other RCI Point fees and rules and regulations apply. So, owners who used to be able to use points for deposit for their OLCC weeks will no longer be able to do so.

The owner services person told me that he gets a small commission if I convert. But, they get much more for new deals. This is consistent with my experience in the business. You always provide a commission to people selling timeshare products. Their title is irrelevant. If they are trying to get you to cough up your credit card for a purchase, then they are in sales.

I will be getting a powerpoint and word document that describes the highlights of the program in more details. I will add more information if I learn something I haven't posted yet.

Let try to keep this thread as fact based as possible. Analysis is good and welcome here. I just want to avoid obfuscation of the facts from information received via double secret handshakes and the like.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

My crystal ball brought this up. That is precisely why they multiplied by two, to make it propietary.

So, they are becoming a Points resort (dividing the existing resort into three sections to determine point assignments) and taking over internal exchanges.

I'm disregarding the vacation club until it becomes something worth discussing.

That about it?

Why do you think they divided the resort, treating different owners differently? To get more money out of some owners than others? To make some villages harder to trade into through Points?

The point table for an internal exchange is equal to 2 times the RCI Point value. Not sure why they did this. I guess they did it to make it seem different than RCI Points.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

My crystal brought this up. That is precisely why they multiplied by two, to make it propietary.

So, they are becoming a Points resort (dividing the existing resort into three sections to determine point assignments) and taking over internal exchanges.

I'm disregarding the vacation club until it becomes something worth discussing.

That about it?

Why do you think they divided the resort, treating different owners differently? To get more money out of some owners than others? To make some villages harder to trade into through Points?

That's it. I wish someone else just said that. It would have saved a lot of confusion.

I think OLCC did it because they found that the newer sections were more appealing to owners and exchangers. So, they found that they could extract more money out of people by doing so. For some reason, people view that negatively. I view it positively. If they tried to charge me the same amount for buying an old Golf Villa vs. a New River Island unit, I'd complain vociferously.

So, they've always had an internal resale list that had cheaper prices for golf villas vs. North and East Village. The same should be true for rentals and for points exchanges. They are worth more, now they can reflect it.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Any reasonable and prudent person would agree. It seems obvious that River Island is nicer than the East Village, which is nicer than the North Village, which is nicer than the West Village.

I think the ill will that has been generated by some has been because of defending the West Village more than it is worth defending, making it seem that everything there is new and spiffy when it is not.

Now that it is official, that the West Village is the least desirable area of OL, maybe the over-hyping of it will stop.

At least maybe in RCI Points those trading in will know what they are getting upfront, assuming they have to give more to get better.

And, yes, I realize a lot of people have stayed in satisfactory units in the West Village. I've been paying attention.

That's it. I wish someone else just said that. It would have saved a lot of confusion.

I think OLCC did it because they found that the newer sections were more appealing to owners and exchangers. So, they found that they could extract more money out of people by doing so. For some reason, people view that negatively. I view it positively. If they tried to charge me the same amount for buying an old Golf Villa vs. a New River Island unit, I'd complain vociferously.

So, they've always had an internal resale list that had cheaper prices for golf villas vs. North and East Village. The same should be true for rentals and for points exchanges. They are worth more, now they can reflect it.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Any reasonable and prudent person would agree. It seems obvious that River Island is nicer than the East Village, which is nicer than the North Village, which is nicer than the West Village.

I think the ill will that has been generated by some has been because of defending the West Village more than it is worth defending, making it seem that everything there is new and spiffy when it is not.

Now that it is official, that the West Village is the least desirable area of OL, maybe the over-hyping of it will stop.

At least maybe in RCI Points those trading in will know what they are getting upfront, assuming they have to give more to get better.

And, yes, I realize a lot of people have stayed in satisfactory units in the West Village. I've been paying attention.

Wow. What an epiphany. Are you telling me that all of this feuding about OLCC is all about whether or not the West Village is as nice as the rest of OLCC?

I could never understand what people were actually debating?

[JudyS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JudyS]

Wow. What an epiphany. Are you telling me that all of this feuding about OLCC is all about whether or not the West Village is as nice as the rest of OLCC?...

You know, I think that's probably it. Many owners stay in the newer areas, and then when exchangers are put in older areas, some owners don't seem to understand why the exchangers are unhappy.

What I don't get is why the differences in phases of the resort leads to so much controversy. Sheraton Vistana has some older areas that are supposed to be pretty dumpy, as well as nice new areas, but it doesn't seem to lead to arguments. Maybe it's because the Vistana doesn't seem to put exchangers in older areas and owners in newer areas? (This isn't meant sarcastically; I'm just wondering.)

And Boca, thanks for researching the Global Access program.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Judy, not ALL exchangers are put in into the older West Village. Many are put in the newer North and East Villages (I don't know about the new River Island VIllage?) This fact has been well documented here on this board and on Tug.

However, many people prefer the older West Village one story ground unit Golf Villa duplexes. You can park right at your front door for loading and unloading (no steps or elevators to hassle with) and you have a grassy lawn and a patio. It may be true that the older West Village units don't have all of the fancy amenities of some of the newer units, such as large jacuzzi tubs, but they are clean and comfortable (or the ones I toured were).

My family is in the camp that likes the Golf Villas. We stay in so many high rise condos that we like having a nearly standalone unit. The units are really big and spacious. With the granite countertop upgrades and hiding the washer and dryer, those golf villas will be even better. I just wish they allowed you to rent golf carts and bring them back to your villa. That would solve a lot of the transportation issues.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

No, but I anticipated that if I said what I said someone would think that.

It is about people, the way people treat other people.

I don't believe it ever was about villages or hot tubs or BBQ Grills, or lazy rivers, or how far it is from Splash Lagoon to River Island, or any of the other nuts and bolts topics.

Sorta like in our situation here with our neighbors. It never was about what dock would be best. It was always about how people treat people.

I suspect that most feuds are.

Are you telling me that all of this feuding about OLCC is all about whether or not the West Village is as nice as the rest of OLCC?