Weeks Enhancements

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

Why it was important to set RCI's methodology

(the heading should be ''see'' rather than ''set'' but there seems no way to edit that)

One point I have made consistently is that the worst possible combination is published values and a hidden means of setting those values. It creates both the incentive and the mechanism to fudge the numbers.

The SA board OY is a good example of why full disclosure was necessary if this was going to be an honest system. SA has been severely whacked in value. The visible measures of supply and demand offer no justification whatsoever for that. When you look to trade into SA with RCI, not that much is availible. RCI's own availibility tables in the European version of its directory show it to be a rather high demand / low supply place.

A member OY talked to an RCI rep and was told a rather amazing tale. It seems that with the change to Points Lite that changed the way they valued South Africa. Now values are based on supply and demand of Americans wanting to go to South Africa versus the number of South Africans wanting to go the US. Amazingly, that greatly devalued number is even applied to European members of RCI. Now this makes no sense. Most tourists, and therefore timeshare exchangers, to SA are Europeans, not Americans. And what about local demand? For filling a timeshare week, does it really matter to RCI whether the inbound exchanger is local, foreign, or from the moon? So if you are an American or European and own timeshare in South Africa the supply and demand used to set your values in an arbitrarily chosen subset that is a thumb on the scale deliberately pushing it downward. Would RCI base values in Orlando only on demand from the US west coast? of Japan?

What other arbitrary shortcuts has RCI taken to artificially raise or lower certain areas? There is no integrity, honesty, or fairness to the system unless all are valued by exactly the same methodology.

There is only one word for what RCI has done with its valuations in South Africa and that is F-R-A-U-D, and that is exactly why a published system without a published methodology for setting the values stinks to high heaven.

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

I said:

...a couple of years back I traded a crummy blue one-bedroom in inland Texas for a Grand Mayan Riviera Maya in February, about 1.5 years before check-in.

Now, RCI is saying my crummy blue Texas week is worth 8 points, and a Grand Mayan in February 2012 costs 24 points....

I went the "other way" = my trade into the Cotswolds has a value of 31 - and the SoCal fall week is a 26 - the week I used to trade in has a value of 48.... I want my "change" back!

Well, as it turns out, I was too sick to go to Mexico and had to cancel that trade. I hadn't bought travel insurance, so RCI got my $179 (or whatever a trade to Mexico cost at the time), and I got my crummy blue Texas week back. So, RCI came out ahead, in the end.

....The cost for an RCI Weeks Exchange Points, though, seems to be all over the map. Units at Alhamabra at Poinciana are worth as little as 4 points each when deposited more than 9 months out, but I think their Mf is $600 or more. So, that's maybe $150 per Exchange Point.....

I want to correct this. Units at Alhamabra at Poinciana cost as little as 4 trading credits each to book a year months out, but owners who deposit those same weeks are offered 8 credits for depositing them. In fact, 8 credits may be the least members are offered to deposit a week, no matter how little their weeks cost to book. I deposited one of my blue Texas weeks late, and still got 8 points. RCI seems to charge only 2 points for last-minute off-season inland Texas weeks.

Most illogical pricing so far:
Exchange credits given for depositing a 1-bedroom at Vacation Village at Parkway, Christmas 2011 (12/24/2011): 49 credits for B-side, 50 credits for A-side
Cost to book 1-bedroom at Vacation Village at Parkway, Christmas 2011 (12/24/2011): 11 (for either B-side or A-side)
As pointed out on TUG, an owner there could book their unit, deposit it, pay a $179 fee to exchange back to it, and have 39 points left over.

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

RCI employee Bootleg who used to post here told us the Vacation Village at Parkway was the resort that consistently had the largest oversupply in the entire RCI system. Those units units refer to are really two sides of a lockout, which probably has the same owner. He gets 99 points lite for depositing his lockout at two units and RCI gets 22 point lite back from the inbound exchanger. With his 99 points lite, he can then get two similar sized summer weeks at Allen House in London, that is if any Allen House owner is fool enough to use RCI under this new scheme. They should be making a bee line to SFX. Or better yet, Allen House as a whole should do what another London resort, Sloan Gardens Court, already did a few years ago, and that is drop RCI entirely and move all its exchange business to SFX. While Orlando is getting overpointed, the UK is getting underpointed and resorts are already starting to hear about it.

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

RCI employee Bootleg who used to post here told us the Vacation Village at Parkway was the resort that consistently had the largest oversupply in the entire RCI system. Those units units refer to are really two sides of a lockout, which probably has the same owner. He gets 99 points lite for depositing his lockout at two units and RCI gets 22 point lite back from the inbound exchanger. With his 99 points lite, he can then get two similar sized summer weeks at Allen House in London, that is if any Allen House owner is fool enough to use RCI under this new scheme. They should be making a bee line to SFX. Or better yet, Allen House as a whole should do what another London resort, Sloan Gardens Court, already did a few years ago, and that is drop RCI entirely and move all its exchange business to SFX. While Orlando is getting overpointed, the UK is getting underpointed and resorts are already starting to hear about it.

Acutally, bootleg said Vistana. But they both begin with V, so that works.

Hope that doesn't scrw up your point.

I likely have it saved in Ole POC.

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

With the disappearance of so much inventory during 5/30/09, max numbers never recovering to pre-5/30/09 levels, and, if we can trust disclosure to be full, confirmation that there truly is nothing available for specific searches like my SW FL in January (when there are more than 50 resorts in that area . . . times all the units . . . times 50 weeks per unit), when I have documented that there used to be substantial availability, and, all of the talk about losing deposits to other systems, or to owner rentals . . .

and, could it be that due to the immense competition (glut) in the rental market because of readily-available, low-priced rentals on the Inernet, the renting of deposits proved to be less prosperous than had been planned . . .

has anyone considered the possibility that the latest enhancement is a desparate effort to grab $$$ while they can, to milk the captive cash cow, a standard industry practice?

Is it not, in simplest terms, just a more confusing and expensive way for timeshare owners to do the same thing they have been doing, and to get less for more $$$, if you get anything at all, again another standard industry practice? . . .

Have we not seen this time and time again, when the timeshare industry (whether it be individual resorts, mini-systems, or major exchange companies) roll out something new to replace something old, & generate hundreds of millions of dollars? . . .

Is it not a red flag when something simple is intentionally made complicated, beyond the realm of easy comprehension?

Just wondering.

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

The positive:

As has been mentioned, today there are 11 very nice SW FL resorts, comparable to what we used to get at 15-18 months out, for one deposit or less.

The negative:

They are all in the next five weeks.

How can anyone but those who can just drop everything and leave do vacation planning like that? How trying on the nerves will it be for those like me who have started looking at two years from now while on each year's vacation [because that's when you had to to be able to get (good) stuff]?

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

The positive:

As has been mentioned, today there are 11 very nice SW FL resorts, comparable to what we used to get at 15-18 months out, for one deposit or less.

The negative:

They are all in the next five weeks.

How can anyone but those who can just drop everything and leave do vacation planning like that? How trying on the nerves will it be for those like me who have started looking at two years from now while on each year's vacation [because that's when you had to to be able to get (good) stuff]?

If you have to fly, that becomes an even bigger negative. FF tickets open at at 11 months and the more popular places see award tickets disappear rather quickly. The later you get, even buying tickets becomes more costly. And the new timetable RCI has imposed is going to push people to wait until 9-10 months out to deposit. Not as user-friendly for the fly-to destinations as it used to be!

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

If you have to fly, that becomes an even bigger negative. FF tickets open at at 11 months and the more popular places see award tickets disappear rather quickly. The later you get, even buying tickets becomes more costly. And the new timetable RCI has imposed is going to push people to wait until 9-10 months out to deposit. Not as user-friendly for the fly-to destinations as it used to be!

Yeah, I saw where you said that yesterday, or the day before.

For planes and rentals cars and getting time off, it's a bitch.

It will be hard on a working family with two jobs and kids in school.

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

Starting a search and having to switch to an expanded search every time is already an annoyance.

Can we default it?

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

Exactly what I have been saying for a long time now, that I just used the system that was presented to me to get what I got.

Now I can't.

When you do something for a long time, say more than ten years and more than 100 times (representing an expenditure of more than $50,000), you should not have to apologize for it, or have to take ---- from anyone, and you should have earned some right to expect it as SOP.

I felt violated 5/30/09 and I feel violated now.

I have not changed anything about what I am doing . . . someone else has, and each time we have gotten screwed.

Using realistic averages:

110 $500 maintenance fees: $55,000
110 $149 Exchange fees: 16390
20 $70 subscriptions: $1400

$72,790

(plus what 9 weeks cost to buy)

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

I'm chuckling, thinking that a purpose of disclosure, and TPU's, is supposed to be to clear up the secrecy and mystery surrounding trading power.

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

A few folks talk about the changing times, as if the dinosaurs did something to deserve their fate , but I don't see very many reveling in the latest enhancement.

Except for those fortunate enough to be able to travel at the last minute, or to have guessed right at the RCI TPU crapshoot (not knowing there was going to be an RCI TPU crapshoot), no one else appears to be better off. More realistic, better off appears to mean simply still being able to do what they were doing before, for the same amount of $$$.

The majority do not appear to be in that category.

Who, exactly, is better off than before 5/30/09? Who is seeing more inventory (more than 170K)? Who is paying less now than before?

The lifeblood of timesharing, the hardcore longtime owners, including my real-life golf buddy whom I met OY years ago, are now saying, "I'm getting rid of my (favorite timeshare)."

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

Starting a search and having to switch to an expanded search every time is already an annoyance.

Can we default it?

There is a little shortcut . . . Save this Search.

I saved Florida, all available exchanges with all available deposits.

Now when I click to Search, and the default 1-for-1 page loads, I click My Favorite Search over on the right, and it goes to that.

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

I see the brouhaha has died down.

Have we beaten into submission?

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

I searched for the weeks that they only give us 8 for, and for 2011 and 2012 those weeks are not available through RCI.

I checked our three much-aligned Slimey Slough weeks, for 2011 and 2012, and of the six of them, only one, for 2012, is available.

So, it is not the supply side that is the problem.

But, then, for as long as I have checked, going waaaaaaaay back, someone has always taken them.