Something new? Exchange plus cash?

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

It's not quite as "good" as a cruise deal, but it's good enough to create more rental

I talked to RCI this morning on another matter but asked the question "What is this new Exchange + cash icon" and the VC I was talking to said she didn't know but whould switch me over to the internet support folks and the answer I got from them is that this is going to be for certain areas where they have availability in Wyndham hotels you will be able to book that with an exchange plus some anount of cash additional.

Yup - just like the cruise = your week PLUS money totaling far more than you could simply purchase the cruise for and keep your timeshare week. Now we get the same wonderful option for a beautiful, cramped hotel room? They should be buried in requests for that I'm sure. All the more weeks to rent because of the tremendous volume of "hotel for timeshare plus cash" trades.

[bookworm Member Find all posts View Profile Close bookworm]

This makes sense.
We can already get a few of these hotels with Fairfield/Wyndham points through Fairshare Plus. A lot of points are required - VERY PRICEY. I can't imagine using it. It would be rare for me to trade into a hotel room in exchange for a 2 bedroom timeshare with additional cash. Of course, what they have going for them is location in the big cities. This is probably another thing that some will go for but most will ignore. Unless of course it is the only thing can get with their week that looks remotely good.

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

You know this is an ill wind which blows.

So, I don't have the trading power to get a particular week. But if I send RCI some cash, suddenly I do.

Basically, they are trashing the entire weeks program and methods.

I don't buy into this "just a test stuff." We all know how bad RCI's IT department is...if they change the website for a test, it's something they are going to implement.

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

A straight answer from RCI? How likely is that? I'm afraid this is just a preview of another scheme from RCI that sees timeshare owners as merely a cash cow to be milked for their stockholders.

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

You know this is an ill wind which blows.

So, I don't have the trading power to get a particular week. But if I send RCI some cash, suddenly I do.

Basically, they are trashing the entire weeks program and methods.

I don't buy into this "just a test stuff." We all know how bad RCI's IT department is...if they change the website for a test, it's something they are going to implement.

Also not buying Just A Test. Testing should be done on THEIR TEST SERVERS, not their production environment. OR, Jethro the webmaster just got canned for an embarrassing gaffe.

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

Straight answers would be nice, but adding a cash option in and of itself is not a bad thing, nor incriminating.

As a matter of fact, it is long, long overdue, and something that at least some Weeks members, including myself, have asked for for a long time. Cash, two weeks for one, something to be able to get better weeks with lesser ones. I was asking for that at least 15 years ago, after the first few years of mediocre trades.

There's likely not any program anywhere that does not have disparities. Certainly all Points weeks of equal Point value are not perfectly equal trades, which suggests perhaps a Points plus Cash option forthcoming.

Very few trades in any program are perfectly equal, and never have been.

So, why not try to make them equal, if that is what this is about?

Someone mentioned rental value in the open market. If there was a good gauge of real value in the rental market, and an index could be devised, that might be a good yardstick for the amount of disparity in exchanges.
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We should also consider the likely possibility that bragging on Internet forums about crappy weeks trading for good weeks helped to bring this about. We know our audience is not restricted just to those who wish to do good for us, and that the industry listens to things we talk about and makes adjustments.

I have heard for years that people in the industry have read the bragging about great trades and have asked the exchange companies to do something about it.

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

What on earth is wrong with making great trades? A person who makes a good trade is a satisfied customer, no? What's wrong with satisfying your customers?

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

You know this is an ill wind which blows.

So, I don't have the trading power to get a particular week. But if I send RCI some cash, suddenly I do.

Basically, they are trashing the entire weeks program and methods.

I don't buy into this "just a test stuff." We all know how bad RCI's IT department is...if they change the website for a test, it's something they are going to implement.

Exactly, Aldo. The hocus pocus will continue, and the weeks won't go to the deserving folks who deposit early and have great traders unless they are willing to add some cash.

Let's face it folks, there are very few of us who have not talked with a VC only to be told that we can't get a trade but the exact week and unit we are hoping for is sitting in the rental area, at a steep price.

By the way, the exchange plus icon has disappeared, there is only a sign sitting in the spot where I had seen that icon earlier in the week....so it would seem the IT folks did a gaffe, letting us peek into the future, and somebody's head must have been cracked if not rolled for it.

What makes anyone think that adding a PLUS cash factor to a trade makes the system fairer for weeks or points owners.....wake up, folks, that is not going to happen....RCI is milking the cash cow, and laughing at us all the way. For every week we deposit into their system, they laugh....and if we are stupid enough to pay cash for our trades, they will be hysterical.

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

Sorry, but my motto is do not deposit your weeks. Try the independents! It is so simple because we still have choices with other companies. If there were no choices, then it would be really bad and sad.

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

I'd argue that within a closed Spacebank which was not subject to looting for rentals, there might be no such thing as a trade up. Certainly not within a short time frame immediately before the actual usage of the week.

I mean, what can you say about a 2 bedroom, Gold Crown, red week, 30 days before occupancy, that no depositing members of a Spacebank has taken up?

After all, isn't the best indicator of the value of a week within a closed Spacebank the actual demand within the Spacebank?

Conversely, a Spacebank which is subject to looting for rentals isn't a "bank" at all.

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

I'm not familiar with the details of RCI Points. Can you buy extra Points if you don't have enough for an exhange?

That's quite common in programs where purchases require certain amounts of credits.

Points represent $$$ (Points purchased differently at different prices--thus creating a disparity), so in Points, an exchange that costs more Points than another exchange is, essentially, Points plus $$$.

In RCI Rewards credit card program, if you do not have enough credits for a purchase, you can add cash.

It's interesting that the evil doers are being blamed for evil doing before the evil they are doing has been done.

There's likely not any program anywhere that does not have disparities. Certainly all Points weeks of equal Point value are not perfectly equal trades, which suggests perhaps a Points plus Cash option forthcoming.

Very few trades in any program are perfectly equal, and never have been.

So, why not try to make them equal, if that is what this is about?

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

In this ongoing RCI, Love em or Leave Em saga, we have the love ems, the leave ems, and us wafflers.

Since I'm waffling, to this point in time, RCI and those with RCI who are there to help us if they can, have been of more help to us in getting the vacations we want and in solving problems that come up, than all of their detractors on all of the Internet forums have been of help to us.

Ya know what I mean?