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Do go to TUG's forum. You will see many articles about the Festiva management team that has tried sucessfully and apparentely illegally forced people to sell their deeded property for points--actually you end up paying thousands of dollars do give up YOUR deed for points! You won't believe some of the cruel tactics they use--outright lies, people unable to cancel the forced deal, and threatening sales people coming right into your house pressuring people to change to points. Festiva is buying up cheap and forclosed timeshares and then gaining control of the entire property--you get no more say or you get out voted by the take over company. They can then charge huge special assessment fees (i.e. $900 per year) and no one knows where the money is going nor will they give the minority owners any information. It is also impossible to get a list of owners, so people are given two months to pay up or they get a collection agency after you--see TUG's timeshare news in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Massachusetts and on investigated news stations also. I willl say I have had good luck renting my deeded weeks and this at least has always paid for my maintenance fees--but not for outrageous special assessments that owners have never heard about until receiving a letter saying pay up now or we'll take over your property! With the points system you cannot rent out the property--you don't have a deed. You paid to lose it. Go to your annual meetings, keep in touch with other owners and watch for take overs--this is spreading across the U.S. and it's ruining the industry. RCI is also harder than ever to get a trade--why? They are and have been renting out your weeks for cash--nice if you are not an owner. It used to be easy to get the week you wanted--try that now. You will hear "Sorry that week, and yes that month is sold out too--really in the fall? We just heard that answer--and I'm talking about Cape Cod that is never sold out anywhere in the fall. It is a summer resort with motels drastically dropping prices once the summer is over. All I can say is be careful, and if anyone has any ideas on how to stop this trend let's hear it. The FTC is keeping an eye on the number of complaints, but who knows how long that will take?