We own 2 weeks oceanfront at Ron Jon Resort Cocoa Beach. We have been very happy with our unit itself, but have had some difficulty finding suitable trading with rci for equivalent resorts (other than 1 time where we got lake tahoe ski resort room, even though it wasn't a gold crown we were skiing and didn't care).
We just had our owners meeting and initially were pleased that we weren't being asked to buy something. Then he alluded to the fact that the resort in a couple years may be switching from weeks to points, and it might cost up to $8,000 PER WEEK!!! He acted like he wasn't really supposed to be talking about this yet, but we kind of pushed him on the issue as we were very unfamiliar about the points system. It is attractive as I think our resort is pretty popular and should pull in some nice points. But I was shocked that when I already have paid off our weeks in full, now I might have to pay some serious $ just to go to points?
He then acted surprised when I told him both our weeks were paid off, he disappeared and then came back and said if we bought an every other year week from their sister resort down the road it could help us. A woman traded that in equity and applied it to buying an every year week at our resort. And it was in the deed that since that resort was already points, that it would convert any weeks from their company into points, thus converting our 2 rci weeks into points. And it was only $6900.
At first I was intrigued though I do not want a 3rd timeshare, I did like the points system idea and thought I'd rather own a 3rd week and get my existing 2 weeks converted than pay more $ for weeks I already own. But then I thought maybe I was getting played and they knew I wasn't go to buy another week but this could be a way to sell a week from their other resort.
So I have done a lot of research, and it appears it is indeed up to the resort how much they charge their existing owners to convert to points? And buying a different developers points timeshare (for example a cheap one) won't circumvent this by getting you into the points system? Or should I just pay a points membership fee and deposit my weeks into weeks for deposit or whatever it is called?
We usually always use our resort once a year and rent the other ourselves without problem. We have just found we can never exchange it for what we want with rci weeks even many months in advance so we just rent it at a very fair price (probably don't charge as high as we could, not looking to make big profits). we didn't buy timeshares to make money but to use as vacations.
thanks for any insight.
We just had our owners meeting and initially were pleased that we weren't being asked to buy something. Then he alluded to the fact that the resort in a couple years may be switching from weeks to points, and it might cost up to $8,000 PER WEEK!!! He acted like he wasn't really supposed to be talking about this yet, but we kind of pushed him on the issue as we were very unfamiliar about the points system. It is attractive as I think our resort is pretty popular and should pull in some nice points. But I was shocked that when I already have paid off our weeks in full, now I might have to pay some serious $ just to go to points?
He then acted surprised when I told him both our weeks were paid off, he disappeared and then came back and said if we bought an every other year week from their sister resort down the road it could help us. A woman traded that in equity and applied it to buying an every year week at our resort. And it was in the deed that since that resort was already points, that it would convert any weeks from their company into points, thus converting our 2 rci weeks into points. And it was only $6900.
At first I was intrigued though I do not want a 3rd timeshare, I did like the points system idea and thought I'd rather own a 3rd week and get my existing 2 weeks converted than pay more $ for weeks I already own. But then I thought maybe I was getting played and they knew I wasn't go to buy another week but this could be a way to sell a week from their other resort.
So I have done a lot of research, and it appears it is indeed up to the resort how much they charge their existing owners to convert to points? And buying a different developers points timeshare (for example a cheap one) won't circumvent this by getting you into the points system? Or should I just pay a points membership fee and deposit my weeks into weeks for deposit or whatever it is called?
We usually always use our resort once a year and rent the other ourselves without problem. We have just found we can never exchange it for what we want with rci weeks even many months in advance so we just rent it at a very fair price (probably don't charge as high as we could, not looking to make big profits). we didn't buy timeshares to make money but to use as vacations.
thanks for any insight.