RCI Weeks to offer value transparency - Finally!

[jancpa Member Find all posts View Profile Close jancpa]

Will RCI Points members be able to "raid" the Weeks inventory?

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

I thought at this moment, "All deposits" is all the visible deposits you have. Maybe not.

Right now today, this is true. I'm referring to the "enhancement" that was described in Walt's link above.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Lets look at what RCI's real gambit is with all of their numbers rackets, and that is to try to trap members into their system as much as possible. The way they first rolled out GPN / RCI Points was really awful. Once in, you could only escape at long intervals (8 or 10 years if memory serves) and then only if you very precisedly followed their escape mechanism. Fail to touch a base or miss a key date and you had to wait another 8-10 years to try again. Fortunately, Blackwell Brogden of the NC Real Estate Commission came down on them like a ton of bricks for that heavy handed crap and told them they would be classified as a developer rather than an exchange program if they did not shorten the time commitment to 3 years or less and simplify the escape mechanism. Brogden was also campaigning hard with other state real estate commissions to take a similar stance, when RCI caved in.

With an exact number system, the deterant to leaving their system that they are trying to create is leaving value on the table. Those with leftover ''hanging points'' (sort of like a hanging chad) and those who have stripped points from an upcoming year are forced to leave value on the table if they leave RCI. With a clean week-for-week trade, there is no control mechanism over members of leaving value on the table.

As to values of weeks, it is supply and demand that set these, and ignoring the way supply is impacted by overbuilding in certain areas is just whistling past the graveyard. And while not scientific, every thread on every t/s site that I have seen on the subject shows that timesharers overwhelmingly value location over bells and whistles (amenities).

Can ALL timeshare owners exit the point system at their resort on the exact date of the third year when they joined the point system? When they miss this date, are they on the hook for another three years? Where can they find out when the next date is to exit the point system? Do you have to ask RCI or at your resort?

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

I have not been following this exactly, and RCI is down right now, but . . . when you go to deposit a week online does it show how many exchanges each potential deposit can get, so you can decide whether to deposit it or do something else with it?

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

I have not been following this exactly, and RCI is down right now, but . . . when you go to deposit a week online does it show how many exchanges each potential deposit can get, so you can decide whether to deposit it or do something else with it?

I got on RCI, earlier than they said, BTW, and the answer is No, there is no disclosure on the deposit page. It does not tell you how many exchanges each week could get if you were to deposit them.

So, it is still a crapshoot, forcing you to give them something to find out what is worth . . . same as yesterday, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago . . .

Same as the beaucoup sales pitches over the eons . . . buy it to find out.

& what is their get it back policy? . . . Not if they give it to someone.

So, where's the love they are promising?

[Lisa P Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lisa P]

This was not the big change - that's still pending, supposedly in mid-November. This was just another maintenance shutdown. Oddly, it does seem to be running a wee bit faster for me today.

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

Off topic, but, oh well, I recently saw where RCI again said something about rapidly changing inventory.

Anyone who has done a daily search for a far-off date (like starting 24 months out) knows that is not the case. It is more like day after day of seeing the same stuff you do not want. Although the numbers in our favorite area are no longer like they were pre-5/30/09 (600-ish), it is still bouncing around the same number every day (360).

When you get right down to the specific month/area, it is zero in our desired area, and 5 or 6 in our settlefor area.

Yeah, bouncing right around zero . . . sometimes minus zero . . . sometimes zero . . . sometimes plus zero.

&, this time I also have an ongoing search at the same time.

Well, at least the nothingness is transparent.

[jancpa Member Find all posts View Profile Close jancpa]

I just realized in this discussion of RCI's new numerical transparency that we will finally find out for sure which resorts have the "tiger" traders!

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

I just realized in this discussion of RCI's new numerical transparency that we will finally find out for sure which resorts have the "tiger" traders!

It is only a partial transparency unless they also reveal how they come up with their numbers scheme, and it is the methodology for producing the numbers where the likely corruption in the system will lie. As long as that remains hidden, it is not a system the members can trust.

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

I just realized in this discussion of RCI's new numerical transparency that we will finally find out for sure which resorts have the "tiger" traders!

For that moment in time.

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

"Combine it with another Deposit:You can combine your Deposit Credit with another week that you have deposited to increase the trading power of that deposit. With higher Deposit Trading Power you can trade up into an Exchange vacation requiring more trading power than that of your original Deposit, giving you more Exchange options than you had before! "

But I don't see that it says you can combine deposits to get increased trading power (give two weeks deposits for a one week exchange).

It only says you can combine a deposit credit (a leftover from a previous exchange) with a deposit.

Anyone know about that?

The answer is yes. By year's end, they say.

Page 75, Endless Vacation, Winter 2010

[daviidwilson Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close daviidwilson]

As long as values are dynamic instead of frozen, I have no problem with such a system in the broad sense. We will see about the details. The main concern is that the mechanism for setting values be transparent, as otherwise we will have the same problem as the RCI Points numbers racket; i.e. that developers would politick RCI for numbers that the market does not justify. Another big concern is whether values will be dynamic or not. The value of a deposit has always been set at time of deposit, which makes good sense, but its ultimate value depends on supply and demand at the time of deposit. The value of an exchange, likewise, is based on market conditions at the time the exchange is made. Removal of dynamic market conditions in the value on either end would be a huge negative for exchanging. However, doing so would help RCI justify diversion of weeks into rentals.

If RCI screws the pooch too much on this, it will just add to the reasons that owners need to be screaming to their boards to dual affiliate with II.

__________________


If it's a sign of credibility then an interesting fact I heard was that in the system, if 60 is the top value (I'm not sure what the real number is so we'll use that) then the resort/week that holds the absolute top trade value of 60 happens to be a tiny, island based motel conversion studio of under 250 square feet. Why? Because the demand for the location/date is so great that it trumps even the nicest, 3+ bedroom palace with every amenity but happens to be located in an area that has more inventory vs requests.

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

__________________


If it's a sign of credibility then an interesting fact I heard was that in the system, if 60 is the top value (I'm not sure what the real number is so we'll use that) then the resort/week that holds the absolute top trade value of 60 happens to be a tiny, island based motel conversion studio of under 250 square feet. Why? Because the demand for the location/date is so great that it trumps even the nicest, 3+ bedroom palace with every amenity but happens to be located in an area that has more inventory vs requests.

I have said stuff similar to that for years, and trading power has worked similar to that for years. Supply and demand has traditionally been the governing factor (of all the factors). If ten people want one crappy Slimey Slough unit, that is better than if one person wants ten great units.

Funny though, how some (well, one) on the inside tend(s) to scold/chide me for getting better than I give (in their opinion) when all that should really matter to them is someone always take what I have given them. (Well, I know, maybe my deposits don't have enough rental value).

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

I noticed BF's spam warning.

Funny thing happened this morning. I made my first post on The Villages forum, answering a question about golf cart problems because I have been dealing with the same problems with a fleet of the same golf carts for the last two years.

I linked to a lengthy discussion about it on a golf cart forum. Wow, using a link in my first post! I never gave it a second thought.

Boy did I get ass-whippin'.

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

So Is This The Big Week End?

Are we to believe that this is the big week end for RCI's new program? If it is, it will be interesting to see if we will still think it may be better than the old program. Just in case I made a hard copy of all my confirmed exchanges. I also will make a hard copy of the exchanges available to me before the start of the new program.

Walt