RCI changes= New strategies?

[tombo]

That's great for you, but my 2-bedroom silver crown red summer week can only exchange for 34 units in 8 resorts. Of those 8 resorts, 3 are silver crown and two are hospitality, and there are only two 2-bedrooms. None of that matters to me, because I'm not looking to go to Hawaii, just Orlando, which everyone says is one of the most overbuilt destinations. I don't expect DVC (I'm an owner so I don't need it). I just can't get Bonnet Creek, the one I really need, and I don't understand why. Yes, it's gold crown and I don't own gold crown, but I'd happily take a smaller unit. I can get every other Wyndham on the freakin' planet, so why did they take that one resort (the one I really, really want) away? Yes, I'm upset and whining about it. :annoyed:

Deposit your Disney Beach Club week with RCI and I bet you could get Bonnett Creek. You of course do not want to deposit your Disney week with RCI. You won't deposit your Gold Crown Disney week to try and trade for a top rated Gold Crown Orlando resort. You instead deposit a Silver Crown week to exchange with RCI and yet you refuse to accept anything but the top rated non Disney/HGVC resort in Orlando. Do you really not understand why you can't get it? Seriously?

 

[kkelley]

Nevermind, I'm sorry I asked.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Nevermind, I'm sorry I asked.

It's okay, I empathize, believe me. There is no argument here, just a different opinion. Tombo makes some good points, but I have my own experiences, and mine tell me that this is a drastic change in what I am used to getting, even from ten years ago, when we went to Hawaii the first time with our kids, and we were able to get Gold Crown resorts, months ahead of time, with the very same weeks I am using now. I have only been a TUG member for four years, so I didn't learn a thing from anyone about getting something much better than we own. Our Colorado weeks have consistently done well, and suddenly it's all changed. I am angry about it.

Prime summer in Colorado is actually hard to find, especially in Breck/ Frisco, where our resort is located. So I think it always had high trading power for good reason. Our weeks are JULY weeks, too.

 

[jamstew]

Deposit your Disney Beach Club week with RCI and I bet you could get Bonnett Creek. You of course do not want to deposit your Disney week with RCI. You won't deposit your Gold Crown Disney week to try and trade for a top rated Gold Crown Orlando resort. You instead deposit a Silver Crown week to exchange with RCI and yet you refuse to accept anything but the top rated non Disney/HGVC resort in Orlando. Do you really not understand why you can't get it? Seriously?

First, I'm not refusing to accept anything.

No, I honestly don't get it--seriously! If I weren't able to get any top rated gold crowns, especially in Orlando (or Vegas for that matter), I could understand it. But I can get lots of others (including HGVC). What I don't understand is why I can't get that particular one, especially considering that I could get it when my deposit was made and when the trading power was supposedly established. What I don't understand--seriously--is why that one specific, top rated gold crown resort is different from other top rated gold crown resorts.

As I've mentioned on other threads, I'm not even looking for high season. The only reason I want Bonnet Creek in particular is to supplement a DVC stay because they have a shuttle and I can't drive at night. But that's okay, I can rent it, or I can probably find a Downtown Disney area hotel with a shuttle for cheap. It's the principle. And no, there's no way I'd trade out DVC for anything, ever.

Another thing I seriously don't get is why I should have to take studio or 1BR silver crowns in exchange for my 2BR silver crown. It's supposed to be like-for-like, right?

 

[rickandcindy23]

It is the principle, because trading power is set at the time of deposit, and why is that not true today? They should have made this change from this day forward, affecting the new deposits, not those we had in our accounts!

I will get my exchanges over the next three years with RCI, because I will literally use each and every one, but I am missing what I had a few short weeks ago.

 

[Carolinian]

Well, shux, aren't the Canary Islands considered more or less the Europeans' equivalent of Orlando FL ?

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

Exactly! And Spain, Hungary,and Finland are not far behind.

 

[Carolinian]

Tombo, the stuff just isn't there. Don't you get it? Someone with a June Allen House week, the creme de la creme of UK timeshare based on huge demand and little supply, could not pull decent stuff in summer in England. If that cannot, nothing else in the UK will.

It has been years since I owned a blue week, Everything I own is summer and red, like July OBX beach, and a couple of summer weeks in northern Europe (not the overbuilt countries) in resorts that RCI currently has no availibility at any time of the year. The one exception is a red silver crown SA where RCI's availibility table in the European version of its directory shows the most limited category of availibility all 12 months of the year, a much more favorably supply / demand situation than, say, Florida.

What you describe is the way RCI trading power should work, and the way it did work before points and rentals showed up. Where does one find the missing weeks? Usually the RCI rental pool. Try taking off the rose colored glasses.

If you want to know where the missing RCI UK weeks are, take it from an RCI employee who has seen their computers:

www.timesharetalk.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7761

The owner of Timesharetalk site, essentially a UK equivalent of TUG, checked out Anon's bona fides by asking him questions about his own RCI account that only someone with access to RCI's computers could answer and Anon came back with all of the right answers. Anon is exactly what he says he is.

They are rare in the warm season. I agree 100% that those are hard to get weeks. Deposit a warm season in the UK 12 months or more in advance and look at the large amount of available inventory that will show up. Deposit any old europe week and yu shouldn't expect to see a ton of hawaii or warm season europe weeks.

Look at what i can see in the UK and Ireland with a good trader. I shouldn't be able to see a lot of warm season weeks because I only deposited a GOOD week. I can see a lot of GOOD weeks available though which is as it should be:

October 2009 [10]
November 2009 [89]
December 2009 [112]
January 2010 [104]
February 2010 [62]
March 2010 [23]
April 2010 [2]
May 2010 [1]
October 2010 [9]
November 2010 [47]
December 2010 [51]
January 2011 [61]
February 2011 [43]
March 2011 [29]
April 2011 [14]
May 2011 [5]
June 2011 [3]


Junk in , junk out is a good rule. Deposit a december, january , or February week and you should have poor trade value because those are easy to get.


Deposit an April, May, or June week and you have deposited something that is hard to get, so you should have great trade power. Gold in, Gold out is also applicable.

Everyone here wants to deposit a January UK week and be able to trade for a warm season Europe week, a Disney week at Animal Kingdom, Aruba, Ocean front summer on Hilton Head, Key West in the winter, Panama City Beach Florida in the summer, etc. People don't want to buy Hawaii and pay the high purchase costs and high MF's, but they expect to be able to easily trade for them. Those TUGGERS that own hawaii tend to rent their weeks or use them personally, they rarely deposit them, but they somehow seem to expect others to deposit their Hawaii weeks so they can easily trade for them with a weak trader they deposited. So many here talk about how they would never deposit their DVC week in RCI, yet they expect to be able to trade for a DVC week with a week they will gladly deosit with RCI since they don't want to use it themselves. Does that really make any sense to think it would work that way?

It is ridiculous how many TUGGERS keep their best weeks and never deposit them , but expect the weak weeks or last minute weeks they deposit to return the best RCI has to offer. If you want the best RCI has to offer, deposit one of the best weeks that RCI can receive, and do it far in advance.

If you will not be happy unless your weak to good trade gets you Hawaii and DVC, please quit RCI in protest because that will probably not happen again. Don't wait, call RCI right now and QUIT!!!! Most of us won't miss the weeks you used to deposit, but we will surely enjoy the weeks you used to trade for. Before you get busy and forget, go ahead and call
1-800-338-7777 and quit RCI in protest. It is a toll free call and it will make us all happier.

 

[Carolinian]

If I recall, at the end of that discussion we decided that the Allen House deposit *was* seeing nearly everything that anyone else saw during its window----the reason it had a comparatively low number is that it could only search a shorter window.

But the real point is that even good weeks are not seeing anything in the UK like used to be availible. Heck my July week at a northern European silver crown resort where RCI has no availibility any time of the year sees a heck of a lot less what a blue OBX week used to see some years ago when I used to own such a week. I would hate to see what a blue week pulls now!

 

[tombo]

First, I'm not refusing to accept anything.

No, I honestly don't get it--seriously! If I weren't able to get any top rated gold crowns, especially in Orlando (or Vegas for that matter), I could understand it. But I can get lots of others (including HGVC). What I don't understand is why I can't get that particular one, especially considering that I could get it when my deposit was made
Another thing I seriously don't get is why I should have to take studio or 1BR silver crowns in exchange for my 2BR silver crown. It's supposed to be like-for-like, right?

As far as not being able to see what you could before the change, that is how it works. After the change, things have changed. If I could get round trip first class for 50,000 XYZ airline miles last year that you had accumulated over the years, but I didn't book, now it takes 75,000 miles or more for the same flight.The rules changed and so did the value of my miles. If I had booked before they changed I would have gotten the R/T ticket for 50,000. I didn't book before the change so the 50,000 won't work anymore. It hapened to me this year with Delta miles (yes Carolinian the hated Delta). I should have booked sooner but didn't. I hate it but they changed the rules for everyone, not just me. I did not whine or write protest letters. I simply booked with more FF miles.

If you had reserved one of the Bonnett Creek weeks you could see before RCI's change you would have gotten it. You didn't. Now you can only get what your week will pull after the change. Do you expect them to honor trades you never confirmed?

You start out by saying that you don't refuse to accept anything, then you follow up immediatelly saying that you can get plenty of top rated Gold Crowns including HGVC. Well if you would take anything you would gladly take HGVC. That is not a dump they are forcing you to take! Of course out of the hundred plus resorts in Orlando only one will make you happy. Does it really seem right to you that you are upset that you can't get the toughest resort to exchange for in Orlando (other than DVC) with a silver crown deposit? If you want like for like as you claim, you shouldn't even be able to see HGVC, OLCC, or any other Gold Crown resort with your Silver Crown deposit. I personally am thrilled to deposit a silver crown week and see HGVC and other top resorts and appreciate RCI for chances at those resorts. I know I am getting the opportunity to trade for a better week than I deposited. I don't dwell on the fact that I can't see Bonnett creek or DVC (which I can ocassionally see, but shouldn't).

You should only be seeing 2 bed room SILVER CROWN resorts using your "like for like" theory, right? Why don't you complain that exchangers like yourself are able to get gold crown weeks (like HGVC) with silver crown deposits? This means that silver crown depositers are taking Gold Crown inventory from people who actually deposited gold crown weeks? Where is your RCI outrage that they are giving you the opportunity to TRADE UP rather than "LIKE FOR LIKE"? Why is everyone here only complaining because they can no longer easily trade up to a better week than they deposited?

 

[Carolinian]

When the ''change'' seems to be hijacking exchange deposits for rentals, members have every right to be concerned. Did you read the info from Anon in the link above? RCI just seems to go farther and farther in this direction.

All of this is getting to the point of impacting resort economics and our HOA's should be raising a howl, and in the meantime develop other markets for all weeks, but most urgently offseason weeks than to people who mainly plan to rent with RCI. Part of this should be to other exchange companies and part to other owner bases. Any thinking HOA should be exploring dual affiliation with II and also educating its members about the independent exchange companies that are out there.

A crown ranking does not make a particular resort a better resort or in higher demand relative to supply than an unranked resort. It is merely one driver of demand. Location is in fact usually a more important driver and particularly location in conjunction with season. A July week at a standard resort on Cape Cod or in London is going to beat the pants off of most, if not all, Gold Corwns in an overbuilt area like Orlando or the Canary Islands.

 

[tombo]

But the real point is that even good weeks are not seeing anything in the UK like used to be availible. Heck my July week at a northern European silver crown resort where RCI has no availibility any time of the year sees a heck of a lot less what a blue OBX week used to see some years ago when I used to own such a week. I would hate to see what a blue week pulls now!

As I said before, Europe is of limited demand in the US RCI. I never hear any TUGGER other than you who goes to europe every year other than those who live in Europe. I know plenty of TUGGERS who go to Hawaii every year, the caribbean every year, California, Hilton Head, Orlando, Vegas, a US beach, etc every year. The demand for europe is probaly nowhere near what you think it is here in the US. Even though inventory is limited, there are not a lot of people fighting over it. Aruba yes, St Johns yes, Hawaii yes, UK, no. Out of the people who post the most on TUG very few that I recognize have discussed their recent or future trip to Europe besides you. Not that tuggers don't vacation there, it just isn't an annual or semi-annual trip for most like most high demand RCI locations. In the next 5 years I will do the mainland several weeks each year, the caribbean almost every year, Hawaii probably once, South Africa none, and Europe none. I think that most RCI USA members and most Tuggers travel like me and have demand for the US and the caribbean almost exclusivelly with Erope and SA being a once in the blue moon trade.

What the value of a week is in RCI Europe doesn't matter to me because I am not a member. It is interesting to hear about, but their trading strengths or weaknesses don't affect me at all.

 

[tombo]

.

A crown ranking does not make a particular resort a better resort or in higher demand relative to supply than an unranked resort. It is merely one driver of demand. Location is in fact usually a more important driver and particularly location in conjunction with season. A July week at a standard resort on Cape Cod or in London is going to beat the pants off of most, if not all, Gold Corwns in an overbuilt area like Orlando or the Canary Islands.

I agree that the ranking is one of several factors. However I think you would find very few Silver Crown resorts that would be considered trading up from an HGVC deposit. I think it is hard if not impossible to find a silver crown summer week in Colorado that isn't trading UP when they exchange for a gold or silver crown in Hawaii. There are few Silver Crown resorts anywhere that equate to a DVC or Bonnett Creek. These are the weeks everyone is mad that their silver crowns won't trade for anymore. Does this outrage really seem justifiable to any reasonable person?

 

[tombo]

It's okay, I empathize, believe me. There is no argument here, just a different opinion. Tombo makes some good points, but I have my own experiences, and mine tell me that this is a drastic change in what I am used to getting, even from ten years ago, when we went to Hawaii the first time with our kids, and we were able to get Gold Crown resorts, months ahead of time, with the very same weeks I am using now. I have only been a TUG member for four years, so I didn't learn a thing from anyone about getting something much better than we own. Our Colorado weeks have consistently done well, and suddenly it's all changed. I am angry about it.

Prime summer in Colorado is actually hard to find, especially in Breck/ Frisco, where our resort is located. So I think it always had high trading power for good reason. Our weeks are JULY weeks, too.

Ski weeks are the highest demand and hardest to get Colorado weeks from my experience. Summer availability is higher than Jan Feb and March when there is snow in Colorado. I am not saying that your week isn't high demand, just not the highest demand. March is by far the hardest to get month in Colorado Here is what I currently see for 2010:

City
Aspen [20]
Avon [34]
Beaver Creek [2]
Breckenridge [164]
Copper Mountain [63]
Dillon [90]
Durango [33]
Estes Park [128]
Frisco [13]
Keystone [3]
Mesa [50]
Mount Crested Butte [5]
Pagosa Springs [131]
Silvercreek [226]
Steamboat Springs [210]
Vail [220]
Winter Park [209]

Check-In Month

January 2010 [53]
February 2010 [37]
March 2010 [24]
April 2010 [97]
May 2010 [119]
June 2010 [67]
July 2010 [84]
August 2010 [83]

 

[rickandcindy23]

Trading power is supposed to be set AT THE TIME OF DEPOSIT and never has changed in the middle of the game.

That is what RCI said for the first two weeks after the "enhancement."

Then all of a sudden, deposits are subject to change without notice.

This is a big company that is taking great advantage of its customers, and their new system made it very possible for us to see the downgrades because it showed how many total weeks were available before vs. now. It's NOT OKAY WITH ME. BUT I WILL DEAL.

Anyone who is angry and upset with the changes, I empathize, but they will lose my business, and so Tombo doesn't care about my July Summit County weeks, and that is fine by me.........There are alternatives.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Only sixteen one and two bedrooms are available in Summit County for July of 2010 at this moment, which is Breck, Dillon, and Frisco. NONE are Silver Crown, all are regular old resorts. I actually see more weeks in Colorado than you can see.

Don't underestimate the size of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. These different areas are hugely distant from one another, and Summit County is always in low supply and high demand.

 

[Carolinian]

Actually for the last two years, I have lived and worked in Europe, but prior to that I travelled here about 5-6 times a year.

You may not be interested in Europe, but if you read the Europe board, you will find more on TUG who do. The availibility charts in the European version of the directory have to do with total supply and demand in the system, not what geographical part of the system the demand is from. There are many places in Europe, and indeed even South Africa, which cream Florida on low availibility (supply relative to demand). Also my home resort on the OBX has a regular newsletter column asking members to report trades they get through various exchange companies. There are regularly more trades to Europe reported than to the Caribbean or Hawaii.

The availibility of a week in the RCI system is not based on demand vs supply in the US market or the European market. It is based on overall demand internationally vs overall supply. The segmentation you try to make in the market just doesn't exist, except, and you may be surprised, RCI has at times given European members some advantages because RCI's avaiblility overall was more limited in Europe than in the US. I am not certain if they still do this, but for years they gave European members a 2 for 1 exchange if they would trade to the US rather than stay in Europe, and more recently RCI has started holding back some of the European inventory to reserve for European members, which is not availible to US members. Of course, the biggest problem for members overall is the rentals, and you have not yet addressed Anon's info in the link to Timesharetalk.

As I said before, Europe is of limited demand in the US RCI. I never hear any TUGGER other than you who goes to europe every year other than those who live in Europe. I know plenty of TUGGERS who go to Hawaii every year, the caribbean every year, California, Hilton Head, Orlando, Vegas, a US beach, etc every year. The demand for europe is probaly nowhere near what you think it is here in the US. Even though inventory is limited, there are not a lot of people fighting over it. Aruba yes, St Johns yes, Hawaii yes, UK, no. Out of the people who post the most on TUG very few that I recognize have discussed their recent or future trip to Europe besides you. Not that tuggers don't vacation there, it just isn't an annual or semi-annual trip for most like most high demand RCI locations. In the next 5 years I will do the mainland several weeks each year, the caribbean almost every year, Hawaii probably once, South Africa none, and Europe none. I think that most RCI USA members and most Tuggers travel like me and have demand for the US and the caribbean almost exclusivelly with Erope and SA being a once in the blue moon trade.

What the value of a week is in RCI Europe doesn't matter to me because I am not a member. It is interesting to hear about, but their trading strengths or weaknesses don't affect me at all.

 

[Carolinian]

The main corrective action needs to be throught he HOA's. Educate members about what is going on and what their alternatives are. Talk to board members, stand up at annual meetings, and if permitted write a letter to the editor of the resort newsletter.

Trading power is supposed to be set AT THE TIME OF DEPOSIT and never has changed in the middle of the game.

That is what RCI said for the first two weeks after the "enhancement."

Then all of a sudden, deposits are subject to change without notice.

This is a big company that is taking great advantage of its customers, and their new system made it very possible for us to see the downgrades because it showed how many total weeks were available before vs. now. It's NOT OKAY WITH ME. BUT I WILL DEAL.

Anyone who is angry and upset with the changes, I empathize, but they will lose my business, and so Tombo doesn't care about my July Summit County weeks, and that is fine by me.........There are alternatives.

 

[jamstew]

If you had reserved one of the Bonnett Creek weeks you could see before RCI's change you would have gotten it.

I would have happily reserved one of the weeks, but the dates only went through January, and I was looking for the first two weeks in May.

 

[waldvogelmj]

The whole rental thing doesn't make sense to me. Let's say I own a Disney week and I deposit that with RCI, can they really turn around and just rent that to someone else? Aren't they required by some agreement to exchange that with someone else for what they deposit? Why would they exchange away any of the valuable weeks if they can get $3000 by renting that Disney week? I find it hard to believe that they can do that.

 

[happymum]

This means you should have great luck trading for what you want if you deposit your carribbean week with RCI a year or more in advance.


If people here are depositing Hawaii, caribbean, and summer ocean front beach weeks (June July, August) 6 months to a year in advance and not seeing any good inventory, that is sad for you and RCI is doing a poor job.

My Carribean silver crown April week, deposited a year in advance, is seeing 145000 units.

It is the principle, because trading power is set at the time of deposit, and why is that not true today? They should have made this change from this day forward, affecting the new deposits, not those we had in our accounts!
(

This notice was posted on the Interval board in May :

Trading Value

Interval International’s exchange program is based upon the concept of “comparable exchange”. In applying this concept, Interval works to provide you an exchange which is comparable in trading value to that of the week you have relinquished. The supply and demand of the week you relinquish is an important factor in determining its trading value and, ultimately, the week in to which you will be confirmed. World events, such as current health concerns regarding travel to Mexico, may reduce the demand for travel to the impacted region and, accordingly, may result in a reduced trading value for affected weeks.


So what RCI is doing is no different than II's practise.

 

["Roger"]

For those who are waxing over how things used to be ...

You might start by reading why Bill Rogers started TUG in the first place. He did not see his terrible exchange as an isolated incident, but something endemic to timesharing.

When I am not on TUG, but talk to people at work about timesharing, here are the experiences I have ...

• A coworker would not tell people she owned a timeshare because she did not people to think that she was soft minded. While using one's own timeshare might be okay, what you can get in a timeshare trade is a bad deal; everyone knows this.
  
• Someone who owned in Hawaii (what was the Embassy in Maui) tried to go every other year and use his week from the off year to trade to Kauai. One year the best he could get was the Banyon in Lihue; another, the Makai Club. These were huge downward trades. (I did not tell him that someone on TUG was complaining because he had only been able to use is non-rated SA weeks to get four weeks at the Embassy and wondered how to get a fifth.) This coworker gave up on trading and now rents a non-timeshare for his second week.
  
• Someone at a dinner party announced that you should pay the higher cost of a Marriott (both initial costs and maintenence fees) because trading Marriotts for Marriotts are the only way that you can get an even exchange.
  
• Three people told me that timesharing did not work out for them because you have to trade too far ahead. They were not able to arrange time off with their employers as far in advance as needed to get a decent exchange.

The bottom line is that, while some people did very well in timesharing by arranging vacations well in advance, that often left people who had very, very good timeshares left picking up the leftovers (or, giving up altogther).

With this as a background, I can see two possible root causes to the current situation.

RCI is skimming in order to gain rentals. (I have always said that this was a problem with the Weeks system. It allows for an exchange company to do this. Whether RCI is actually doing this cannot be known because everything happens behind a curtain of secrecy -- something that I have always argued against, but another poster says is what makes the system so strong.)

The second possibility is that RCI is trying to correct prior inbalances in which those who could reserve early were taking from those who could not. If a system "overaverages" trading power (prior to the recent upheaval, I was interested in the posting by a knowledgeable TUGGER that suggested that there were only four levels of trading power), this is exactly what will occur.

I am not definitely siding as to which of these two scenarios is true. Within the secret Weeks system, one cannot tell.

I am happy to see that Jennie, in here testimony in the RCI suit, essentially argued for a points based system. It removes the secrecy. People get to see exactly what their timeshare is being valued at. Furthermore, everyone gets back what they put in. If people question the valuation of a particular timeshare, they can see what is valued and buy accordingly. (In line with some of Tombo's comments, how often have I seen people post that they would like to join points but they don't think that their own timeshare is given enough points to get what they want. Everyone owns a prime week and what they trade into surely isn't worth more than what they own.)

Phew....

 

[tombo]

My Carribean silver crown April week, deposited a year in advance, is seeing 145000 units.

So what RCI is doing is no different than II's practise.

I am sure that some resorts on some islands can see more, and some can see less, but that seems like a fairly good trading power. St Maarten has a lot of timeshares and is relativelly easy to trade for, so you would expect lower overall trading power (yes I own a week there anyway). Aruba has more demand and less RCI availability. It is a hard trade to get which is why I purchased a week here too and it rightfully should have high trading value. so not only where the week is determines the trading power, also the resort itself is a big factor. A silver crown 2 bed room on Aruba on the ocean should have more trading power than a 2 bed room ocean front in St Maarten.

Lesser Antilles availability:
Antigua and Barbuda [43]
Barbados [9]
Guadaloupe [229]
Martinique [3]
Saint Lucia [1]
St. Martin/Sint Maarten [533]
St. Vincent & The Grenadines [16]
Trinidad and Tobago [80]


Netherland Antilles (Aruba) total availability is 19 weeks using my good (not great) trader (not a single 2010 week available):

June 2009 [4]
July 2009 [3]
August 2009 [3]
September 2009 [2]
October 2009 [4]
November 2009 [2]
December 2009 [1]

Of course II does the same thing. They try and give the best trades to the best deposits. In fact Marriott owners get to exchange for Marriott inventory before other II members can. There is something to complain about. You pay the same as the Marriott owners to be a member, you pay the same amount to exchange your week, and yet you get the left over Marriott inventory the Marriott owners didn't want. Where is the outrage?

 

[toby9116]

On going search

Am I mistaken that on going search requests get priority and are filled as deposits come in? If this is in fact true why would there be a high demand deposit to see in a real time search?

 

[rickandcindy23]

Am I mistaken that on going search requests get priority and are filled as deposits come in? If this is in fact true why would there be a high demand deposit to see in a real time search?

Trading power still comes into play with ongoing searches. You will be ignored and skipped right over with a request that isn't in your "league."

I have a request for a Wyndham Shearwater week for February, which I started two months ago, and at that time, I could see 166K+ available weeks. Now that same week sees far less, more like 144,000 today. I know I won't get my exchange until it is too late. The dates are important to me because it is my sister's 50th birthday, and this is her first trip to Kauai.

I may have to find a rental. I have SFX working on the exchange, and I am also watching Trading Places, TPMaui, and HTSE. I have another TUGger watching for me, too. I am getting a bit panicked, and it used to be me who assured people that 8 months was plenty of time.......... She would probably be okay with an exchange into Lawai Beach Resort, but I don't know about Pono Kai or something else for her dates.

Perhaps my Westin/ Hanalei Bay Resort search will come through with II. I can always hope, plus I have a friend who owns about ten Shearwater weeks.

 

[Carolinian]

The whole rental thing doesn't make sense to me. Let's say I own a Disney week and I deposit that with RCI, can they really turn around and just rent that to someone else? Aren't they required by some agreement to exchange that with someone else for what they deposit? Why would they exchange away any of the valuable weeks if they can get $3000 by renting that Disney week? I find it hard to believe that they can do that.

It doesn't make sense for an HONEST business.

Read Anon's posts in the link to TImesharetalk if you do not think RCI is up to its ears in skimming the best deposits and renting them out. This guy was working at RCI and could see what was going on right on his computer. Another RCI employee, Bootleg, posted similar info here.

One European timeshare chain, Seasons, jumped ship to II over RCI skimming weeks inventory for both its rentals and its points system. They had a great article in a special edition of their newsletter that explained the evils of RCI's malpractices, firing a withering broadside at RCI over both rentals and points as they escaped to II.