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Re: Times have changed (by Mary D.):

johnc655 wrote:

adahiscout wrote:

geoffn wrote:

21 yrs ago I purchased a 3 br/10 occ/red week T/S in a Western Canada ski area for a measly $3000. Mtce. fees were less than $300 at the time and RCI was reasonable. Times change, however. That same purchase today is $25,000, mtce. fees are over $500 and RCI fees have jumped. I've gotten very good value from my T/S, but in today's market I wouldn't touch it. When my RCI membership runs out at the end of 2007, that's it. I'm through with them. I'll start using Redweek or any number of other sites to post my week for rental if I'm not using it. I have also begun renting through Redweek as well. A 2br unit on the Big Island for $800. Not too bad. And there are bargains to be found all over the web. Times have changed.

========= We may be in for another change. If RCI POINTS continues to spread, more weeks will go directly into their network automatically and leave fewer in private hands to be legally rented. MD

----- Let me get my head around this. If I own a floating week at X resort, I may run into problems down the road to get into resorts else where because the points system has taken over many of the slots. If someone is using even one day during the week that unit is not available for the week exchange. This might bring down the value of those who hold week slots instead of points....I think...comments please

If you owned a floating week at X resort that is not affiliated with RCI POINTS you could still offer it for rent, use it as you do now, or exchange through one of the various exchange companies, depending on which ones work with your resort. I am saying that a proliferation of RCI POINTS resorts would mean that many many of those resort's weeks would go directly into RCI for exchange and would not be available for rentals on sites such as RedWeek as they now are.

It is true that RCI POINTS resort owners CAN tap into the weeks deposited by owners at RCI WEEKS resorts. If they then take out partial weeks, that might create problems for those who are limited to exchanging for full weeks. However, there is also something called RCI NIGHTLY STAYS which taps into odd available nights. I know Fairfield/Wyndham uses this program. It has exchange rates the same or sometimes lower than RCI POINTS. I have no idea how widely this is available outside of Fairfield. You would have to check with your own resort or resort group.

In all fairness, the great increase in banked weeks coming into RCI through RCI POINTS may more than compensate for the fragmentation of some weeks. I am hoping that RCI WEEKS members can access these full weeks from POINTS, just as POINTS members can access deposits made into WEEKS but am awaiting a reply regarding this issue from "Contact RCI"! The regulations posted for WEEKS do not address this question, since they were probably written before RCI POINTS existed.

My previous posting was speaking primarily about a possible reduction in the number of available "Weeks for Rent", not the exchange weeks. MD

======== Addition to the above: I have now heard back from RCI Customer Communications. They confirm that RCI POINTS members can, indeed, access deposits from RCI WEEKS members. When they take such a week, an RCI POINTS deposit is moved into the RCI WEEKS program to compensate. Consequently, some of the RCI POINTS inventory does become available to WEEKS members but only on a one for one basis. From the viewpoint of a WEEKS member, this is not as encouraging as I'd like, but I suppose we are no worse off than before.

While I was correct in thinking that RCI POINTS members cannot rent out what is secured by points it seems that their home resort week cannot be rented out either. Members join RCI POINTS on a contract basis that gives RCI full control of what they own. RedWeek is very right in saying they cannot exchange anything related to RCI POINTS. MD