Might be old news? Redweek exchanges to be handled by DAE

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

Got an email, and not sure if this is old news, but this is the gist of the news:

That said, effective November 15, 2010 the RedWeek Exchange Program will be combined with the DAE Exchange Program and any remaining RedWeek Exchange Points will be converted to DAE Exchange Credits (good for one week per credit).

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

I guess their grand experiment failed. They could have made it a success if they only understood exchange customer needs better. It was doomed from the start.

[rikkis_playpen Diamond Club Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close rikkis_playpen]

Actually, I believe that DAE was the engine behind the entire program anyway. It was just branded as Redweek.. Perhaps they've run into some licensing or registration requirements that they didn't expect to have to deal with, and therefore are now being more transparent with how the exchange program works.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Sounds like they revert back from point to pure week. If that is an indication, RCI's new idea (which in some way closely resemble redweek's exchange model) maybe much tough to execute.

Jya-Ning

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

Actually, I believe that DAE was the engine behind the entire program anyway. It was just branded as Redweek.. Perhaps they've run into some licensing or registration requirements that they didn't expect to have to deal with, and therefore are now being more transparent with how the exchange program works.

Redweek was tired of getting only $20 from a $850 rental on their site. They thought they could get it by forming an exchange company. They saw $100+ exchange fees and decided that if they had a partner who did all the work (i.e. DAE), that they would get a higher percentage of the transaction.

What Redweek failed to understand that in order to get $100+ in exchange fees, the exchange companies have lots of affiliations that give them free inventory to get the exchange process going. Redweek didn't have that. They just thought that people would accept like kind exchanges.

Secondly, they wanted risk free exchange profits. So, they set up a model where they had no risk. So, they end up treating all inventory the same. What they should have done is used their rental activity to see which weeks were moving, acquired for cash the inventory that would rent, rent it at a profit. That would leave them only renting certain properties, but it would have been spectacularly successful. I think My Resort Network is thinking about or is doing something similar. In other words, they become the market maker and reap profits as such.