Unconfigured Ad Widget

lawren2 · 02-20-2011, 01:51 PM

I've been railing against the TPU rate for last minute exchanges since this last enhancement was implemented. This has been the biggest loss to members IMHO.

I don't care what resort or week we are talking about. A trade <14days should be at a value that any member can get with the lowest TPU week they posess.

philsfan · 02-20-2011, 05:01 PM

If it really sits empty they will lose the potential income the maintenance fee or rental would generate. Eventually, they will notice the hit to the bottom line and adjust. After all, it's all about the money.

bnoble · 02-20-2011, 07:43 PM

And, all they need is one person to take them up on the exchange. As long as that happens, they are not "wrong". That stinks for the bargain hunters among us, but I was never promised a rose garden.

(Well, had I gone on a developer tour, I might have been promised one, but as we know, verbal statements are non-binding.)

JLB · 02-20-2011, 08:04 PM

I talked about it here:

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forum...presented.html

That exchanges should cost the same amount as an owner depositing at that point would get credited. Without that, a person could nor get their own deposit using their own deposit.

Yeah, I know, that's far too logical, and fair.

But, folks . . . I am not the only one to see the unfairness.

If we can see it, those involved in the class-action can see it, and during this monitoring period, the Court should be seeing it.

djyamyam · 02-21-2011, 12:04 AM

Originally posted by lawren2 View Post

I've been railing against the TPU rate for last minute exchanges since this last enhancement was implemented. This has been the biggest loss to members IMHO.

I don't care what resort or week we are talking about. A trade <14days should be at a value that any member can get with the lowest TPU week they posess.

Sorry but I haven't really been looking for a lot of last minute stuff. I do agree with your comments.

JLB · 02-21-2011, 09:33 AM

To be fair, LM exchanges are low . . .4 or 5 or 6 . . . which means we can use one of our much ballyhooed 2-bedroom Gold Crowns if we wanna go to undesirable locations on 14 days notice.

JLB · 02-21-2011, 09:34 AM

Originally posted by bnoble View Post

I was never promised a rose garden.

Never really been on a tour, huh?!

Carolinian · 02-21-2011, 09:57 AM

What makes this a prime example is that this is Hawaii, not somewhere you can just get in your car and drive to. A last minute exchange will require a very expensive last minute plane ticket, or more likely several of them. This is one of those short shelf life weeks that is going to be hard to find a taker. It is WAAAY overpriced.

Chap7 · 02-21-2011, 10:00 AM

YouTube - Lynn Anderson - Rose Garden

Carolinian · 02-22-2011, 05:08 AM

The 45 day window, when ''anything gets anything'' was a major selling point for off season weeks, and made the ownership / exchange model of timesharing work. It was a brilliant idea of Crystal deHahn, founder and longtime owner of RCI.

The 45 day window was not some developer or salesman scam. It was stressed in the sales materials, including the films, produced by RCI and provided to developers. Indeed, until a few years ago, there was a two page spread promoting it even to existing members, in the RCI directory. RCI itself highly promoted the 45 day window for years, and many members bought in reliance on RCI's representations over many. many years.

Since Cendant / Wyndham has taken over RCI, however, things have changed. RCI started to delete mentions of the 45 window, and then it starts dismanteling the 45 day window. Short term inventory got shunted off to rentals and to Points members, who were given access to short term Weeks inventory but not short term inventory in their own Points system. The 45 day window started drying up. Members were no longer getting the short term trades they had when RCI followed the principles of Mrs. deHahn and its own representations in its sales materials.

Now, under Points Lite when they are assigning larger numbers to some last minute inventory than points awarded for depositing many off season weeks, they have totally made a mockery of the 45 day window and their years of representations to timeshare buyers.

When I was first elected a member of my HOA board at one of my resorts, the person who nominated me at the HOA meeting was the member who owned the largest number of weeks at the resort, and his 5 weeks were mostly blue, with one white and no red. He was an avid exchanger in the 45 day window. He did frequent the OBX in summer, but on those visits he stayed at his whole ownership condo, not at a timeshare, although he would drop in on his timeshare resorts while there. He and his wife (Louis and Louise) were retired and could travel on short notice and really liked the opportunities of places they could go in the 45 day window. Their timeshare at our resort plus the other 5 offseason weeks they owned at other OBX resorts were used exclusively for exchanging in the 45 day window. Being one who did a lot of 45 day exchanging, he was one of the first to notice the negative change in what was availible and one of the first to bail out as a result. He did not follow timeshare discussion boards to know why this was happening, but he could see with his own eyes that it was. When he mentioned it to me, as an HOA board member I did not want to throw kerosene on the fire by detailing to him why this was happening, but I had to be honest to acknowledge that, yes, I could see the same thing he did. He subsequently sold all of his weeks at our resort and at the other OBX resorts and got out of timeshare exchanging. I happened to run into him on the OBX at a restaurant a year or so after his bailout, and he and his wife were still doing lots of travelling, just not with timeshare any more.

When I was on the board, we also had two similar owners, who each had 4 blue weeks that they always deposited for exchange. While these two did not attend HOA meetings, and I do not know for a fact that it was the 45 day window that attracted them, it is logical that it did. One of them bailed out shortly after Lou, so common sense says that he too saw the handwriting on RCI's wall, and the other put all of his weeks up for sale. When I resigned as HOA president to take my current position overseas, they were still up for sale.

A resort manager from another OBX resort I spoke with a couple of months ago said that when Points Lite came out, they had gotten lots of calls from very uphappy members, mostly owning offseason weeks but some also in shoulder season. Many were wanting out. She was concerned that there would be many more as she thought many members had not yet learned of the changes, but in due course, they would.

When one looks at corporate behavior of making representations on the 45 day window on a widespread basis over many years, and then suddenly jerking the rug out from under the members and the resorts that depend on their m/f's, one has to ask ''Is this responsible and honest corporate behavior, or does it reveal this corporation under its current leadership as liars and fraudsters?''

JLB · 02-22-2011, 09:58 AM

If the 45-Day Window was the selling point for off-season weeks, inexpensive LM exchanges is just about the only thing available for many deposits now.

It serves to confirm that lies were lies for so many years (the Blind Years).

longtimer · 02-22-2011, 04:35 PM

Originally posted by Carolinian

RE: When one looks at corporate behavior of making representations on the 45 day window on a widespread basis over many years, and then suddenly jerking the rug out from under the members and the resorts that depend on their m/f's, one has to ask ''Is this responsible and honest corporate behavior, or does it reveal this corporation under its current leadership as liars and fraudsters?''

You hit the nail on the head. Corporate officers for both RCI and II are like the Titanic. They think they are invincible and the passengers have bought their tickets are already on board. The ship is sinking and they are taking us with them.

JLB · 02-22-2011, 07:25 PM

Originally posted by longtimer

You hit the nail on the head. Corporate officers for both RCI and II are like the Titanic. They think they are invincible and the passengers have bought their tickets are already on board. The ship is sinking and they are taking us with them.

Funny, when I talk to lesser officers on the Titanic, they not only believe that it is not sinking, but that they never hit an iceberg.

I wonder what those down near the boiler room think? You know, the ones trying to figure out to to bail the water faster.

Carolinian · 02-23-2011, 03:44 AM

Originally posted by JLB View Post

Funny, when I talk to lesser officers on the Titanic, they not only believe that it is not sinking, but that they never hit an iceberg.

I wonder what those down near the boiler room think? You know, the ones trying to figure out to to bail the water faster.

Didn't a number of them just get laid off?

Unconfigured Ad Widget

Unconfigured Ad Widget

Announcement

LM Points & Weeks bookings no longer worthwhile

LM Points & Weeks bookings no longer worthwhile

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment