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Some of those who say they are in the know about the new RCI ''Points Lite'' that Weeks will be straight-jacketed into soon say that some form of the 45 window when essentially anything is supposed to trade for anything still in the system will survive in some form. The question is what form.
Many of us do not own blue weeks and do not use this system, but we need to understand why it is important to the financial health of our resorts. The weeks that people buy to trade into the 45 day window are the weak links of timesharing. The 45 day window is what has given them value. RCI's founder realized the mutual benefit that existed for resorts, owners, and RCI and created the 45 day window. RCI promoted in the materials they provided to developers as well as by a two page spread that regularly appeared in the RCI Directory. Developers, following RCI's lead actively sold it in selling thier offseason weeks. For buyers, it made owning an offseason week worthwhile.
RCI has already partialled degraded the system, by using the 45 day window inventory for multiple 9K trades in Points (the Points members have cheap access to Weeks last minute inventory but no similar access to their own last minute inventory) and for rentals to the general public. This has already started some to bail out of these offseason weeks.
The real question is what will happen with Points Lite.
Supposedly, the values under the new system will range from 5 to 60. For everything to trade for last minute inventory, this would mean assigning a value of 5 to all of that inventory. They may assign differing values, but this would be a major departure from the way the 45 day window has already worked and would be a huge devaluation for the very weakest links in timesharing. Assigning each one a value of 5 may, on the other hand, cause an even bigger exodus from people with somewhat higher values snatching multiple weeks. In short there does not seem to be a way that this would not involve a devaluation for people who are just marginally hanging in timesharing, the offseason owners who trade.
Resorts need to comprehend what is coming down the pike at them. RCI is almost certainly going to be kicking some more financial props out from under them.
Many of us do not own blue weeks and do not use this system, but we need to understand why it is important to the financial health of our resorts. The weeks that people buy to trade into the 45 day window are the weak links of timesharing. The 45 day window is what has given them value. RCI's founder realized the mutual benefit that existed for resorts, owners, and RCI and created the 45 day window. RCI promoted in the materials they provided to developers as well as by a two page spread that regularly appeared in the RCI Directory. Developers, following RCI's lead actively sold it in selling thier offseason weeks. For buyers, it made owning an offseason week worthwhile.
RCI has already partialled degraded the system, by using the 45 day window inventory for multiple 9K trades in Points (the Points members have cheap access to Weeks last minute inventory but no similar access to their own last minute inventory) and for rentals to the general public. This has already started some to bail out of these offseason weeks.
The real question is what will happen with Points Lite.
Supposedly, the values under the new system will range from 5 to 60. For everything to trade for last minute inventory, this would mean assigning a value of 5 to all of that inventory. They may assign differing values, but this would be a major departure from the way the 45 day window has already worked and would be a huge devaluation for the very weakest links in timesharing. Assigning each one a value of 5 may, on the other hand, cause an even bigger exodus from people with somewhat higher values snatching multiple weeks. In short there does not seem to be a way that this would not involve a devaluation for people who are just marginally hanging in timesharing, the offseason owners who trade.
Resorts need to comprehend what is coming down the pike at them. RCI is almost certainly going to be kicking some more financial props out from under them.
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