As President of the Greater New York Timeshare Owners Group (a volunteer run group)I interact with hundreds of timeshare owners. Most of them have never heard of TUG and despite frequent recommendations that they visit this web site, few follow through. Many did not have access to the Internet until the last year or two. They tend to be older folks who have owned fixed weeks for several years. During our first contact with them, most express dissatisfaction over the exchanges (or lack therof) they have been offered by RCI in recent years. They look back on all the great vacations they used to take, and wonder why they are no longer able to get those kind of exchanges. None were aware of the rental activity RCI has been engaging in on an accelerating basis. And most were shocked and outraged to learn that the weeks they have deposited with RCI were not necessarily going to other ts owners as exchanges. Word will undobtedly spread to their baby boomer children and grandchildren. The expected future ts purchases from these groups may not materialize if they keep hearing complaints about ts ownership from their respected elders.
Clearly when RCI began engaging in this practise, which represented a significant change in their long-standing business model, they did not send out notices to their members (like the banks and credit card companies are required to do) nor did they highlight it in the fine print in the annual directory. I did not even know they had inserted the phrase about their right to rent or otherwise use deposited weeks until it was posted here on TUG a couple of years back. It certainly was not in writing when many of us became RCI members in the 1980's or early 90's. I did know of their public rental activity which began with the Mall Perks program and then through onsale.com where I "won" a 2 bedroom lock-off week in Williamburg at Christmas for $9.00 (I'm guessing this was about 1998?). There was quite an outcry from TUGgers and other RCI members about renting weeks to the general, non-timeshare owning public and the programs were quickly withdrawn.
I strongly suspect that only a tiny percentage of RCI members are aware of RCI's rental activity. So to say that people who do not like what RCI is doing should terminate their membership is not really viable.
In a white paper produced by RCI two years ago, they boasted about the fact that they were able to provide acceptable exchanges for about 92% of their 3 million members. But what about the 240,000 members who received nothing? What happened to all of those weeks? And of the people who received an exchange, how many of them really got what they requested, or at least something comparable in size and quality to what they deposited? How many may have settled for something not at all to their liking, just so that their week would not go to waste? Or how many (like one of our newer members) received a studio week in Palm Springs in the brutal heat of summer in exchange for the 2 bedroom Gold Crown February Hawaii week they deposited 18 months in advance AND thought it was a wonderful exchange? I guess ignorance can be bliss, as the saying goes.
I am proud to say that in the past year alone, I have helped 12 people rescind their purchase of over-priced developer weeks at inferior resorts, usually during off-season. My husband works for a large organization. Everyone there knows him as "the timeshare guy" because we own 15 weeks and travel extensively to dream locations. (I have been a TUGger since 1995 and it is here that I learned what to buy and how to trade). When a friend or relative of one of hubby's co-worker's buys a timeshare, they are immediately told to call me to see if they did the right thing. (I wish they would call BEFORE purchasing). Only one of the 13 people who called me in the past year actually bought something that met their needs, at the right price. The average person is still totally unaware of the resale market. The first thing I asked these people was: "Do you plan on using the week to stay at that resort most every year?" and every one of them said no, they would rarely or never want to go there. They stated that they bought the week because the salesperson showed them the RCI book and led them to believe that they could exchange into any one of the pictured resorts anytime they wished to do so. We all know how deceitful ts salespeople can be. Yet to this day most first time ts buyers are making the purchase because they have been sold "a false dream" about RCI exchanges.
I fault ARDA and other travel-related consumer protection agencies for not preparing an honest, factual "truth-in-exchanging" form and mandating that it be read to, and signed by, the customer as an integral part of the purchase process. I'd gladly write it for them!!! Under no circumstances should a person about to pay $13,000. for a one bedroom deep off-season blue week in a rundown low demand (at any time of the year)resort think that he will be able to readily exchange it for Aruba or Key West in February. But this is exactly what one of the 12 couples I helped was led to believe. And they are well educated, intelligent people who hold high paying managerial positions. I'm glad they spoke with me before the 7 day rescision period expired, and that they were able to cancel the sales contract. I told them that timeshare ownership can be very rewarding and I advised them to meet with hubby and I in the near future so we could help them find a more suitable timeshare at the right price. They replied that they will never buy a timeshare again because they have since talked to many unhappy owners and have been told that it is better to just rent what they want each year from owners or from "all those web sites where you can get weeks for less than the price an owner pays for annual maintenance fees."
As this information becomes more widely available, the whole timeshare ownership concept (including points)may be eroded, to the detriment to all of us. If people stop buying developer weeks, new ts properties will not be built.
The 15 weeks we own have been bought gradually over the past 11 years, via resale, at great bargain prices. All would readily sell now for more than we paid. All but one are fixed weeks. They include 4 winter weeks at the Royal Resorts in Cancun, two consecutive Florida February weeks including President's week (in the same unit), 3 consecutive Cape Cod summer weeks (in the same unit), a July week in Brigantine New Jersey, and a Christmas week in Hawaii. We would gladly vacation there year after year.
I used to trade our weeks quickly through RCI for properties of equal desirability. When the rental games began, I waited months for requested weeks that kept popping up on web sites such as SkyAuction.com. So I stopped space-banking them. For the past 4 years I have been renting out our weeks, primarily through RedWeek.com, and then using the proceeds to rent exactly what I want from other owners who advertise on RedWeek or TUG. I keep my RCI membership mainly to obtain "Last Call" weeks and occasionally as Extra Holiday" rentals.
As more and more owners do as I do, RCI's inventory of prime weeks will dwindle. Many believe that a large number of the prime weeks that points owners are receiving have been "raided" from the "weeks bank." So if weeks owners stop depositing, points owners will also suffer.
I have also "won" dozens of very prime weeks on SkyAuction for 50% or less than I would have paid in maintenance fees had I owned the week. And I have no continuing responsibility to "juggle" the week every year, nor do I face any special assessments if the resort suffers severe hurricane damage, etc... For $26. Travel Guard insurance, if the week I obtained through SkyAuction is not habitable, all my fees are refunded, and even the cost of the airline tickets purchased to go to the resort are refunded. (This happened to me once).
As others have stated, I applaud a lawsuit so that RCI's activities can be examined and if found to be detrimental to members, corrective action can be mandated. Even though I have found ways to enjoy timeshare ownership without RCI exchanges, too many owners lack the knowledge and skill to do so. Most bought their weeks with a promise of fair RCI exchanges and they deserve to receive that.
