How Big Is Yours?

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

In light of that, it occurs to me that the deposit plus money concept RCI toyed with was dumped in favor of money (rental) only for lower trading power deposits.

I also don't understand why Affiliates haven't got their panties in a bunch since ultimately this breach of faith will hit them hard. Maybe it has just not trickled down to them yet.

I wonder if sales presentations now inform prospects that what used to be available as exchanges now have to be rented?

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

As has been discussed elsewhere, RCI has clearly chosen to restrict the degree to which deposits with less-favorable supply/demand curves can trade up. I think we're still coming to understand just the degree to which that has been tightened---and it's been restricted more than most of us initially considered.

There are reasons why such tightening makes sense. In particular, deposits with more favorable supply/demand curve tend to have longer "shelf-lives"---fewer deposits can see them, so they are less likely to be taken at any point in time. This tends to reduce the penalty that owners pay for not obsessively checking availability daily or even hourly, and in return, such "less aggressive" owners are more likely to find something acceptable for exchange when they do check. This will tend to encourage those owners to continue depositing, rather than having them turn to renting out their own weeks or finding some other outlet for them.

On the other hand, deposits with less-favorable supply/demand curves are less likely to bring happiness to their owners, so they are likely to withdraw. A certain amount of withdrawal is okay, though---by definition, these are weeks that have more ample supply relative to demand, so it's no great loss to have them disappear. But, the withdrawal of those units does mean loss of exchange and membership fees, and that will need to be made up somehow.

Time will tell whether this move helps RCI's business model, or hurts it. I suspect the resorts in active sales don't care either way. They aren't truthful about anything else, why start now?

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

I also don't understand why Affiliates haven't got their panties in a bunch since ultimately this breach of faith will hit them hard. Maybe it has just not trickled down to them yet.

This is a very good question. I suspect they don't have any idea---the change is relatively recent, less than half a year. That's too short in the timeshare cycle, where things are measured in multiples of years.

But, highly seasonal resorts with significant ownership bases that trade blue time up to extract value are going to see an even faster increase in collections activity as more of those owners figure out that their worthless weeks now really are worthless.

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

I suspect they don't have any idea---the change is relatively recent, less than half a year. That's too short in the timeshare cycle, where things are measured in multiples of years.

***I first noticed and documented the reduced RCI inventory in 2004, for 2006 exchanges, suspiciously coinciding with the ramping up of rentals.

I had four other threads documenting the decline before the one below, which started in December, 2005. Each of them got too cumbersome, so I started new ones:

Florida in January--Fifth Generation Thread - Page 8 - Timeshare Users Group Online Community Forums

***Affiliates are typically either clueless (limited RCI usage by members or intimidated/duped by RCI) or co-conspirators, keeping the lie alive for their own monetary purposes.

I contacted my home resort about RCI rentals there, also in 2005 I believe (I could check). I was in contact with others who had also contacted their home resorts. What my home resort did was to cluelessly share my concern by forwarding my email to their RCI Rep, who denied it, and that was the end of that, me being the jerk with both RCI and my resort. Live and learn.

Since that, coincidentally, many things at my home resort have imploded. The management company (who handled my inquiry) is gone and one couple has taken control of the place, ramrodding both the full-ownership and interval-ownership.

But, highly seasonal resorts with significant ownership bases that trade blue time up to extract value are going to see an even faster increase in collections activity as more of those owners figure out that their worthless weeks now really are worthless.

I believe I already said that, and in combination with the economic speedbump, the bad behavior could not have come at a worse time for the industry.

During 2009 another of our home resorts promised to hold annual fees at the 2009 level, then raised them.

That is why I am surprised Affiliates are not bent out of shape about it.

JMHO

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

They've been boiling the frog for years, but 5/30 really turned up the heat. We'll see if anyone jumps.

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

[QUOTE=JLB;357046
***Affiliates are typically either clueless (limited RCI usage by members or intimidated/duped by RCI) or co-conspirators, keeping the lie alive for their own monetary purposes.

I contacted my home resort about RCI rentals there, also in 2005 I believe (I could check). I was in contact with others who had also contacted their home resorts. What my home resort did was to cluelessly share my concern by forwarding my email to their RCI Rep, who denied it, and that was the end of that, me being the jerk with both RCI and my resort. Live and learn.
[/QUOTE]

Wow, deja vu!

I had recently contacted a SW FL resort asking if anything had changed with their relationship with RCI that would have prompted the disappearance of their deposits.

Here is their reply, which I just opened:

"Good Afternoon,

I have received a request for your RCI Member Number or identification number so that RCI can run a test."

See what I mean by clueless . . . they want to ask the fox why chickens are missing from the hen house! & tell the fox who the chicken counter is.

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

They've been boiling the frog for years, but 5/30 really turned up the heat. We'll see if anyone jumps.

I am familiar with Zig!

If I told you how familiar, you would likely be surprised.

See You At The Top.

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

This just struck home with DW. She asked me to check for her annual Girls' Week Out week, which we have exchanged for for years.

Here it is:

2 BR 8 (6) Full 25-Jul-2010 01-Aug-2010 USD 1,187.99

Now that it is personal, she said, "If that's the case, why do we even have the damn things. Just give em away or stop paying the maintenance fees."

In case y'all hadn't figured it out, it's one thing for me to be pissed, but whole nuther thing for her to be pissed.

Now they've gone and done it.

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

To calibrate, you need a week that sees more than 7500 total units in July '10 to see that 2BR 8/6 Nashville unit on 7/25 (the number might be lower; hard to tell). 7300 and change is not getting it done for the 2BR 8/6 units, but 7300 and change does see the 2BR 8/4 units. The next one I can look with is just shy of 4700 total July units. It sees only two 1BR deposits for all of July for Nashville.

I'm not sure exactly how you draw the conclusion that the total number of selections for a month determines what unit size you will be able to see at each resort, and I really don't think I could endure the explanation of how you came to that conclusion, but this is the first time I have not been able to see an 8/6 any time of the year, and the first time it has been available as a rental, which is the only thing I give a rip about, and this is all one sentence.

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

Short version: the total number you see in a particular month is roughly indicative of the trade power for the week, modulo VEP effects (which I suspect are small). Higher totals->better trade power. Deposits I can search with at 7300+ or lower (as of yesterday) could not see the 8/6 unit. Deposits I can search with that had about 7500 or higher could.

It's not that hard to follow.

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

Short version: the total number you see in a particular month is roughly indicative of the trade power for the week, modulo VEP effects (which I suspect are small). Higher totals->better trade power. Deposits I can search with at 7300+ or lower (as of yesterday) could not see the 8/6 unit. Deposits I can search with that had about 7500 or higher could.

It's not that hard to follow.

Simple, but not.

We all know from experience that gross numbers can be misleading because of filters.

Thanks to our good friends we can now see that searching with All Deposits provides more selection than searching with any one deposit. Different deposits see a different selection of resorts.

Over the years it has been reported that the better traders that are seeing the better exchanges, which an 8/6 would be, do not see lesser selections, reducing their gross number.

At the resort in question, for all of eternity up until now our lesser traders could see the 6/6s but not the 8/6s. Our better trader(s) could see the 8/6s. Any time of years.

Now none of our deposits can see any 6/6s, any time, and cannot see the 8/6s past May.

The not being able to see any 6/6s is more baffling than the 8/6 issue.

As it applies to me/us, it means that we no longer can do anything we have relied on RCI to do.

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

JLB, unit-size is the biggest tightening that seems to have happened on May 30, so it's right in line with what you're experiencing. I'm curious, are you searching with smaller units - studios or 1-BR's? Are you able to see any 1-BR's at this resort?

My small-unit but otherwise tigers (including silver-crown rated) can no longer get many 2-BR's, no matter how many they sleep. So they're no longer able to see even some bulk banks, when they're 2-BR's, especially at gold-crown resorts.

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

It's not just unit size. It is also location/area.

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

Ah, true. I guess this time my traders, from what I can tell so far, got more badly hit in unit size (with some exceptions, where they lost ability to see certain resorts at all).

Previously RCI has adjusted for locations though. I do think this is the first time they have done this unit-size thing. For the past 10+ years I've been checking, either my resort had the ability to see another resort, or it didn't. If it did, it could probably see any unit size available. Size of my owned unit didn't seem to matter. Now it does.

The one exception to that historically was that my weaker traders occasionally could see a couple of smaller units only, at resorts generally excluded to me - but only for those intervals that temporarily had a glut of larger units.

As an aside, some folks initially reported having trade power go up after 5/30, for previously so-so traders. Can we draw any generalities yet of where that happened?

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

Another bone thrown to the mongrels, but a very nice bone:

South Seas Club at South Seas Island Resort (#3044) 1 available unit
Captiva Island
FL, 33924
USA
Available Unit Size
2 BR (6 max)
Check-In Date
04-Dec-2009