Oh, and maybe you can answer my question: do you see any difference in the IS from past years to this year?
Yes, there is a difference. Hereis my humble opinion
In the old day when Timeshare using fix-week fix-Unit system, eveyone have one week per year reserved, everyone get exactly the week they bought. Sometime there is a owner can't use the week, the week is put back to the system, the HOA let the other owner use it for a fee and call it a bonus time. If you ever own a fix-week fix-unit system you will see how rarely you can get a bonus week. Then come to a new floating-week, floating-unit system. A lot of owner try to reserve summer or holiday weeks, some early bird get the slower can't.Ony somelousy blue or white week left that no owner want to reserve. Some reserve anyway but can't show up, some reserve and space bank to a exchange compnay which later, for some , they can'teven exchange to nowhere to meet their need. Some when can't reserve the week they need and don't know the exchange scenario exist or don't have an account with an exhange company or get sick of the exchange . forfeit it and the weeks is put back to the system. Thus other member again have a chance to pick up a few day or the whole weeks as a bonus. This bonus time happen in this case Again in this case there is more chance to get a bonus time. This system seem not fair in term of reservation because some get none and some get a holiday or summer week with some bonus weeks too. It give the owner some flexibility trade off with some unequal share of usage.But in this case bonus still rare in white or blue week only Now come to a point system , with multiple resort with different quality and a complicated way of booking that the unexperienced user barely comprehend tto satisfy his or her own need. In theory if it's fairly distributed, you bought 8000 credit account, you get a 1 week 1 bedroom reserved for a week or two long weekend a year, you bought 10000 credit you get 1 week two bedrooms reserved. But life is not fair, There are very small fraction of holiday or summer week at hot resort that eveyone want to get in and of course only some small savvy owner get it, very few owner want to use the credit to book for a whole week of Marcch or October at not so popular resort like Angel camp. Because of this situation, there are bonus and special inventory release for owner to increase the occupancy. In the old day, there are few owner access to computers and know how to fully utilize the system( to give you example in 2001, there are around 100,000 but only 1000 owner log on WM forum), they only call the Vacation planer when their day off come close, of course they can't book the week at the resort they want, they end up not using it. This is why there are many bonus time and inventory time available and also in the last few years the developer put a lot of more resort inside the system that the new owner and older can't absorfb, that another reason there was more bonus and Special inventory available. What whapen now? A lot of don't-know-how-to use WM accounts appear on resale market being bought by savvy user, thus reduce the bonus time and increase the competition of good week at quality resort. I bought my 6000 credits account 10 years ago and I used to book 30-40 a year easily in quality resorts, in the year 2002 I booked a record total 48 days . I found that it's harder to book with small account so I add some more credits to my account. Last year I havea 30,000 but I utilized only 25 days of booking, The bottomline is when you buy in 8000 credit for WM you only expect to have 1 week usage guarantee if you book far in advance, it's not guarantee in any resort either and bonus is just bonus, not a guarantee. The savvy fold in Wmowners.com very greedy , read what they boast in the posting, with a tiny account they have visited a lot of resorts and they still complain. There are a lot of unfortunate folk out there bought in WM but never have a chance to use it. Time is changing, more owners know how to use it, more owners know how to exploit the system, then it's not a surprise to see bonus time dwindle, not a surprise to find it harder to book a coast resort in summer even by credit. Thanks to yourself, the folks at Wmowners.com, have trained 5000 owners how to fully utilize their account. These 5000 owners are a big competition for a few summer weeks period, small number of units at coast resort. Blame on yourself,don't blame on Wyndham, don't blame on Travelshares. I don't think the new Travelshare folks can use the funtime to grasp your summer weekend at coast resort, you fellow savvy owners do. AskJimP ar PerryP, I don't think they have any problem book in any resort any week they want. Learn how to outfox your friend, don't complain