NEW 2012 SFX Deposit Promotion

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

Mark, Any response on these questions?

Djyamyam - I responded in post #10 in this thread. Hope this helps, and if you have further questions, I will be happy to respond.

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communication

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

This does help Mark, however from what I am seeing online the coding is not working properly (or at least the way I think it should). The Holiday weeks do not show as prime for this particular resort and from what I can tell some other resort. The only weeks showing as Prime weeks are the summer months. No Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc are being marked as prime.

Could this possibly be because it is a Canadian property and some of our holidays are different (Thanksgiving being a perfect example). I could give your Thanksgiving week at this property and it would cost me a lot less points but give me better trading power. Alternatively, it looks like it could have been change that it is no longer across the board. The calendar for Vino Bello Feb 19 to 25 shows Prime, but not for Carriage Hills. The US Thanksgiving for 2012 at LaCabana is also not showing as a prime holiday week. When you say coding, do you mean, behind the scenes and not visibly shown to the customer?

Gandalf - Thank you for your post. The Holiday week coding is embedded in the site and is included in factoring what you are offered. The offer may well be the same as the week before or after, but where you come out ahead is in the Higher Trading-Power for your exchange, where the coding is specific to a Holiday-Week.

Hope this helps...

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communications

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

Hi Mark

This does clarify things, but I think that the coding is not working properly. EIther not the way it was intended, or at least they way I think it should.

When viewing the calendar for Carriage Hills, none of the holidays shows as being prime weeks. Vino Bello correctly shows Presidents week as prime, in addition to Thanksgiving week, but neither is displayed as prime at Carriage Hills. I am using Presidents week and thanksgiving weeks particularly because they fall outside of the normal summer period. Another example would be La Cabana does not show Thanksgiving week as being Prime.

Could this possibly be because it is a Canadian property and some of our holidays are different (Thanksgiving being a perfect example)? The reason I ask, is that I could give your Thanksgiving week at this property and it would cost me a lot less points but give me better trading power. It would also I would hope be more attractive to your customers. Alternatively, could it be that Holiday weeks are no longer being considered prime across the board?

Which BTW, when you have a request for a particular resort do you ever go to clients and as them specifically? For example, if somebody said they wanted this property and you did not have the week available would you come to me and say is it possible for you to get and deposit this week for a better exchange? I would like to help your customers get exactly what it is they want rather than just trying to deposit for the sake of getting bonus and prime weeks.

Gandalf - Thank you for your post. The Holiday week coding is embedded in the site and is included in factoring what you are offered. The offer may well be the same as the week before or after, but where you come out ahead is in the Higher Trading-Power for your exchange, where the coding is specific to a Holiday-Week.

Additionally for points based owners with access to mutiple properties, the listing of resorts in the profiles would be innacurate. For example mine has Carriage Hills and Vino Bello? I have never despoted Vino Bello, but it is in the SVC network. Does this mean I have to ask to have every SVC property and BlueGreen property to my profile?

When you submitted your membership application, you entered Shell Vacations Club instead of a specific resort. Being points based, that is understandable. However, your profile in our system has to recognize a specific resort rather than a blanket name of a club. In this instance, the agent allocated Vino Bello into your profile. A great property in a great location with great trading - power!

You don't have to enter every resort from SVC or BG into your profile. I recommend simply adding maybe just 2 or 3 resorts from each with good demand (Trading-Power). So when you go to call your resort to book a week you can deposit with SFX, if there is no availability at one location, you can request another. Just trying to make life simple

Hope this helps...

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communications

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

Hi Mark

This does clarify things, but I think that the coding is not working properly. EIther not the way it was intended, or at least they way I think it should.

When viewing the calendar for Carriage Hills, none of the holidays shows as being prime weeks. Vino Bello correctly shows Presidents week as prime, in addition to Thanksgiving week, but neither is displayed as prime at Carriage Hills. I am using Presidents week and thanksgiving weeks particularly because they fall outside of the normal summer period. Another example would be La Cabana does not show Thanksgiving week as being Prime.

Could this possibly be because it is a Canadian property and some of our holidays are different (Thanksgiving being a perfect example)? The reason I ask, is that I could give your Thanksgiving week at this property and it would cost me a lot less points but give me better trading power. It would also I would hope be more attractive to your customers. Alternatively, could it be that Holiday weeks are no longer being considered prime across the board?

Which BTW, when you have a request for a particular resort do you ever go to clients and as them specifically? For example, if somebody said they wanted this property and you did not have the week available would you come to me and say is it possible for you to get and deposit this week for a better exchange? I would like to help your customers get exactly what it is they want rather than just trying to deposit for the sake of getting bonus and prime weeks.

Gandalf - sorry for the delay, I have been traveling out of the country and have not had good access to the internet. I will fully respond by this Friday.

Apologies and Thanks!

Mark @sfx
Member Communications

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

Hi Mark

This does clarify things, but I think that the coding is not working properly. EIther not the way it was intended, or at least they way I think it should.

When viewing the calendar for Carriage Hills, none of the holidays shows as being prime weeks. Vino Bello correctly shows Presidents week as prime, in addition to Thanksgiving week, but neither is displayed as prime at Carriage Hills. I am using Presidents week and thanksgiving weeks particularly because they fall outside of the normal summer period. Another example would be La Cabana does not show Thanksgiving week as being Prime.

Could this possibly be because it is a Canadian property and some of our holidays are different (Thanksgiving being a perfect example)? The reason I ask, is that I could give your Thanksgiving week at this property and it would cost me a lot less points but give me better trading power. It would also I would hope be more attractive to your customers. Alternatively, could it be that Holiday weeks are no longer being considered prime across the board?

Which BTW, when you have a request for a particular resort do you ever go to clients and as them specifically? For example, if somebody said they wanted this property and you did not have the week available would you come to me and say is it possible for you to get and deposit this week for a better exchange? I would like to help your customers get exactly what it is they want rather than just trying to deposit for the sake of getting bonus and prime weeks.

Gandalf - Thank you for your patience. I am now back from my travels and will address your questions.

I checked the Promo-Widget for Carriage Hills and noticed all the Summer weeks were coded Green (Prime-Time). The Easter period wasn't, and has since been modified to reflect Prime-Time. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We find that President's week in that region has very low-demand, with very high demand in Colorado, Utah and Lake Tahoe for skiers. There is virtually no demand for the US Thanksgivng week in that area, so although it would cost you less in points, it would have very low trading-power. The Canadian Thanksgiving week would have more demand, but it would be more regional to the location of your resort, and thus mid-range trading -power. The highest trading-power for that region would be a Summer deposit.

With regards to the Caribbean, Thanksgiving doesn't have a very high demand, it's not low, but certainly not prime demand. The Caribbean prime demand is Christmas/New Year week, Jan through mid-April with premium demand for President's week, Spring break and Easter.

Very often when we have a request for a particular resort/location etc., if we do not have an exact match in our space bank, we are very pro-active in calling Members who own at that resort to deposit their week for the requesting Member... We also call our contacts directly at the resort for a developer week... and we have a large network of other strategic alliances in the industry that we can call on.

Hope this helps, and if you have further questions I will be glad to respond.

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communications

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

I just got an exchange for the deposit that I made during this promotion. I cannot tell you how incredibly thrilled I am.

I deposited a one bedroom WM Birch Bay for 4th of July week. In return, I got a 2 bedroom Wyndham Kona for Thanksgiving week next year. With all the added incentives, the trade was only around $159. with the added vacation protection. And, I still have 5 Lifestyle weeks available to me.

I will without a doubt, continue to make deposits into SFX.

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your candid, and straight forward response. I am still getting the hang of what is considered prime, when and where as each company is slightly different in their interpretation and valuation.

Good to know that Canadian properties are not as highly sought after for the American Thanksgiving. It would make sense that many Americans would not travel north for their thanksgiving unless they have family that resides here.

Gandalf - Thank you for your patience. I am now back from my travels and will address your questions.

I checked the Promo-Widget for Carriage Hills and noticed all the Summer weeks were coded Green (Prime-Time). The Easter period wasn't, and has since been modified to reflect Prime-Time. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We find that President's week in that region has very low-demand, with very high demand in Colorado, Utah and Lake Tahoe for skiers. There is virtually no demand for the US Thanksgivng week in that area, so although it would cost you less in points, it would have very low trading-power. The Canadian Thanksgiving week would have more demand, but it would be more regional to the location of your resort, and thus mid-range trading -power. The highest trading-power for that region would be a Summer deposit.

With regards to the Caribbean, Thanksgiving doesn't have a very high demand, it's not low, but certainly not prime demand. The Caribbean prime demand is Christmas/New Year week, Jan through mid-April with premium demand for President's week, Spring break and Easter.

Very often when we have a request for a particular resort/location etc., if we do not have an exact match in our space bank, we are very pro-active in calling Members who own at that resort to deposit their week for the requesting Member... We also call our contacts directly at the resort for a developer week... and we have a large network of other strategic alliances in the industry that we can call on.

Hope this helps, and if you have further questions I will be glad to respond.

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communications

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your candid, and straight forward response. I am still getting the hang of what is considered prime, when and where as each company is slightly different in their interpretation and valuation.

Good to know that Canadian properties are not as highly sought after for the American Thanksgiving. It would make sense that many Americans would not travel north for their thanksgiving unless they have family that resides here.

Gandalf - Here is a link that will help give a general idea of Seasonality. It is what we used prior to the current Promo-Widget. There may be some differences between the two, in which case the Widget takes precendence.

Hope this helps....

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communications

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

I just got an exchange for the deposit that I made during this promotion. I cannot tell you how incredibly thrilled I am.

I deposited a one bedroom WM Birch Bay for 4th of July week. In return, I got a 2 bedroom Wyndham Kona for Thanksgiving week next year. With all the added incentives, the trade was only around $159. with the added vacation protection. And, I still have 5 Lifestyle weeks available to me.

I will without a doubt, continue to make deposits into SFX.

Presley - Thank you for your post. Glad this went well for you. We look forward to receiving your next deposit and sending you on great vacations.

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communications

[vandesa Member Find all posts View Profile Close vandesa]

Is states this expires 1/18/2012. I have some deposits that I would like to make but was holding off a little as I want my bonuses to last a bit longer, as I have 6 that are going to expire in the next year already.

Any chance on a extension or perhaps I will have to pass on another deposit?

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

Is states this expires 1/18/2012. I have some deposits that I would like to make but was holding off a little as I want my bonuses to last a bit longer, as I have 6 that are going to expire in the next year already.

Any chance on a extension or perhaps I will have to pass on another deposit?

Hi Vandesa - Thank you for your post. Are you aware as part of our current promotion, any unused exchange weeks in your account will get a further one year extension on their expiration?

The conceptual intent of this is, if you keep banking, we keep extending your weeks, helping avoid loss of weeks. I don't think the Big 2 offer this great benefit. We have many multiple week owners like you, and designed this feature to help promote higher utilization of their weeks.

Let me know if this helps...

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communications

[vandesa Member Find all posts View Profile Close vandesa]

What I meant was that I have 6 bonus weeks that will expire in the next year already. That is in addition to my 6 or so regular weeks on deposit, it was higher but I used one just this morning.

I might consider a deposit but I already have 6 bonus weeks expiring this year. I really do not know if I would want to deposit another to get 5 more that expire in 18 months.

I just wanted to know if the promo might continue into the spring so that I can get a few more months out of the bonus 18 month window.

Sandy

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

What I meant was that I have 6 bonus weeks that will expire in the next year already. That is in addition to my 6 or so regular weeks on deposit, it was higher but I used one just this morning.

I might consider a deposit but I already have 6 bonus weeks expiring this year. I really do not know if I would want to deposit another to get 5 more that expire in 18 months.

I just wanted to know if the promo might continue into the spring so that I can get a few more months out of the bonus 18 month window.

Sandy

Sandy - There is no 18 month window. It is replaced with a new rule giving you more than 18 months in this instance. This incentivizes Members to deposit earlier rather than later, which benefits everyone.

If you deposit a 2012 week now, you will have from now and until December 15, 2013 in which to use it. That is 24 months.

If you deposit your 2012 week with us in the spring, you will still have until December 15, 2013 in which to use it. However, at that point in time, you will only have about 20 months in which to use it.

In having a number of weeks deposited with us, I feel there is a greater value for you in having your deposited weeks extended by another year, rather than adding more Bonus Weeks. Also, qualifying for more credits to your SFX Cash-Card is a big plus too. Even if you cannot use all or most of those bonus weeks, they are there for you, or you can let family or friends use them at the same price.

Does this information help?

Thanks,
Mark @sfx
Member Communications