RCI Weeks to offer value transparency

Thread is here:

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118636

Does anyone have the text of the article? I've been an RCI member since June but my subscription apparently hasn't started yet. (It does come automatically doesn't it?) I'm curious if there's any new details there.

Its pretty basic info, less than on the enhancements link from RCI

MichaelColey said:

Thread is here:

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118636

Does anyone have the text of the article? I've been an RCI member since June but my subscription apparently hasn't started yet. (It does come automatically doesn't it?) I'm curious if there's any new details there.

Click to expand...

It may be in the mail

MichaelColey said:

Thread is here:

... I've been an RCI member since June but my subscription apparently hasn't started yet.....

Click to expand...

I haven't received my issue as well. They must be in the mail.

Michael,

Some of us get more than one copy when RCI sends out the Endless Vacation magazine and some of us get none, zip, nada!

It is interesting to note that the link originally put up by RCI at their website disappeared early this month and has yet to re-appear at their INFO section.

But, thanks to you we still have access; but not through the RCI site.

http://app.rci.com/landing/InsideRCI/memenhancements/

Regarding the information published in the Endless Vacation magazine.

1) It was a two page spread under Member Benefits on pages 74 & 75.

2) The text which follows is attributed to Endless Vacation magazine, Winter 2010 Edition Pages 74 and 75:

ENHANCEMENTS TO YOUR WEEKS MEMBERSHIP COMING SOON ​

Here's the scoop! ​

Throughout the past two years, we've launched many new features to make your vacation planning easier and more fun.
Later this year, we're unveiling more exciting changes that will give you even greater flexibility and more choices.
It's what you've been asking for, so be on the lookout!

a good thing

gets even

better!

To be sure you're ready to take advantage of these exciting new enhancements:

1. Deposit your week(s).

2. Ensure your membership is paid up to date.

3. Make sure you have paid your maintenance fee at your home resort.

RCI SERVES UP SOME CHANGES​

Trading Power *

Deposit Trading Power will still be determined in the same way, but now you will be able to see what that number is. Soon you'll be able to see all available weeks for Exchange vacations, and compare the trading power of those weeks to your Deposit Trading Power.

Deposit Credits​

If you confirm an Exchange with a lower trading power than your deposited week, you'll get a Deposit Credit for the remaining trading power you didn't use, which will appear as a new Deposit on your account for you to use however you like. Combine it with another Deposit or use it on its own to look for and book another vacation! **

Combine Deposited Weeks

If you want to trade up to an Exchange with a trading power higher than that of any of your Deposits, you can combine two or more of your weeks and their trading power, giving you access to vacations that you might not have been able to book in the past.​

* For additional information on trading power, please see the Terms and Conditions of Weeks Subscribing Membership available at rci.com.

** These vacations are limited. Destinations and travel times are subject to availability and confirmed on a first come, first served basis. Offer includes only accomodations and specifically excludes travel costs and other expenses that may be incurred. Taxes, additional fees and charges may apply. All-inclusive resorts may charge a mandatory all-inclusive fee. Promotional discounts and offers may not apply to all properties. Other restrictions may apply. Offer void where prohibited by law. CST: 204655-50. Registeration as a seller of travel does not constitute approval by the State of California. Fla. Seller of Travel Reg. No. ST-26552.

Nevada Seller of Travel Registration No. 2002-0793.
Washington Seller of Travel Reg. No. 602357907

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Thanks so much for reposting that! I do see one additional piece of new information:

If you want to trade up to an Exchange with a trading power higher than that of any of your Deposits, you can combine two or more of your weeks and their trading power, giving you access to vacations that you might not have been able to book in the past.

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Previously, all that I had seen mentioned was combining two. If it was only two, that still would have restricted trades up a bit (two 20s can only see up to 40), but if you can combine more than two you can exchange for anything (assuming you have enough weeks).

I can see some people vacationing less often but going to nicer places or more desirable times (essentially turning their every year Blue weeks into every other year Red weeks, etc.).

I know that some will trade up and some will trade down, but I still think the impact will be more evident on the prime weeks since the dog weeks are plentiful and the prime weeks are more rare.

This also confirms that the weeks can be combined, rather than just adding leftover points to another week (as was discussed fairly early in the other thread).

I agree that it could result in higher demand for some of those peak weeks, but I suspect that extra demand will taper off over time.

While people will be willing to combine those 2 or 3 weeks for that one special vacation, I don't think it will be a regular occurance - once they complete that exchange it might be a few years before they do it again. The first year or two we will see demand from everyone that wants to do this, but those who are successful will not necessarily want to do so again.

This could be a good thing, as those who make that one-time trade far outside their trade window may decide they want to own a better valued week. Others might decide that they're happy with what they have, for the price they have - that special vacation is nice, but maybe not worth 3 times the cost of what they're used to.

We should also not that RCI has tated that Trading Power will still be determined the same way, suggesting that the "formula" that certain people want published is not changing at all.

For those that don't have their magazines, I like the visual that they used with it. On the left is a picture of a plain vanilla ice cream cone, while on the right the sugar cone has been dipped in chocolate with sprinkles, and their are three scoops of ice cream - vanilla topped with chocolate then strawberry - an apt image. The cone on the right will obviously be more expensive, but sometimes we're willing to have one such cone, rather than several plain vanilla cones.

Additional Wish

I hope that Resale websites like TUG and ebay show the "credit value" of RCI weeks offered for sale.

I recognize that this may be more inaccurate than the "maintenance fee" numbers, e.g. value may or may not include early deposit extra credit, so one should not take them as gospel.

Better yet, hopefully we'll be able to see the current credit value of all resorts/weeks on the RCI website without adding the early deposit credit.

I suspect you'll be able to see credits if you have a week deposited, but hopefully we'll be able to see credit values without depositing a week.

To expand upon your thoughs on ongoing searches:

If we have one week worth 42 points, and another worth 16, will we have the option of setting the number of points we can use for that ongoing search, or will we be restricted to a choice of 16 or 42 (one of our weeks), and possibly 58 (the two weeks combined).

Then there's the issue of bulk banking.

Right now if a resort bulk banks, I'm assuming what happens is the supply drives down the credits for the newest banked weeks. As exchanges are made, and the supply diminishes, the credits required increases back to where it was before.

While the timing of bulk bankings are valuable for owners of "almost good enough" weeks now, they will be just as valuable for all owners now, because they results in a lower cost for those weeks.

Thirdly are those last minute weeks. Maybe weeks owners will at last have the same benefits that points owners have - the ability to use smaller numbers of credits for those last minute reservations. Will they simply set a single cost (maybe 5 points) for all last-minute inventory, or will they base it on a percentage of the "full price?" And is 5 points the minimum RCI will award for any deposit, or will a week with a value of 10 points deposited a full year out only get 3 points if deposited really late? If there is no real change to the trading power, just "publication of the numbers" I would think the cost of last minute weeks would be the same as the minimum given for all last-minute deposits. It should be interesting to see how this all works.

Mel said:

Maybe weeks owners will at last have the same benefits that points owners have - the ability to use smaller numbers of credits for those last minute reservations.

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Actually, I think it's weeks owners who have the benefit (currently). Trading value totally goes away at 45 days, so the bluest week can pick up anything. With the points system, points reservations still cost the full amount within 45 days. The 9k reservations raid the weeks inventory, so it's kind of a crossover between the two.

It's all still a guess until it rolls out, but I suspect that they'll allow weeks members to get 45 day trades for 5 points. Look at it from their perspective and consider a good trader (let's say 40 points) that uses their week to exchange for 8 last minute weeks. It pulls 8 weeks out of inventory, but they were weeks that probably would have gone unused anyway. Plus, RCI gets 8 exchange fees ($1432!) instead of just one.

Mel said:

We should also not that RCI has tated that Trading Power will still be determined the same way, suggesting that the "formula" that certain people want published is not changing at all.

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True (and they've stated this from the start), but what they aren't saying is that the trading value will be used in the same way. Currently, it appears that there are trading power "bands" and you can exchange for anything within your band or any lesser bands. This allows for the possibility of a slight trade up. It's not clear that this will continue. In fact, it seems likely that it won't. Part of it will depend on how granular they make the visible trading powers.

Mel said:

.
Then there's the issue of bulk banking.

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Dave599 & Bourne,

I am also wondering how the new RCI rollout will affect our ability to exchange into prime inventory such as Manhattan Club, DVC, Wyndham, and HGVC. Currently, when those resorts do bulk bankings, the number of deposits flooding into the system lowers the trade power of those deposited weeks, allowing those of us with middle-of-the-road traders to exchange in.

Would these resorts become harder to exchange into in the new system? It seems like plenty of Tuggers still exchange into these resorts now, via points. So, not being a points person I'm a little confused.

For example, if summer Manhattan Club 1 bedrooms receive 50 points, no matter whether the resort deposited 2 weeks or 200 weeks, each deposit would be worth 50 points. If you trying to trade in, you would need 50 points to get that exchange, right? So would there be no affect or trade power loss from "bulk space bankings" that we have all benefited from in the past?

If this the case, then most people might need at least 2 deposits to make a peak season Manhattan Club or DVC trade under the new system?

-- Rene

MichaelColey said:

Actually, I think it's weeks owners who have the benefit (currently). Trading value totally goes away at 45 days, so the bluest week can pick up anything....

It's all still a guess until it rolls out, but I suspect that they'll allow weeks members to get 45 day trades for 5 points.....

Click to expand...

I agree with your 5 credit example.

In your example, one will have the choice of paying $169 plus 5 credits, or just renting for $269 as a Last Call Vacation.

RCI can't charge much more than 5 credits, or members will just pay $100 more for a Last Call vacation with no credit charge. This assumes that RCI doesn't raise the prices of Last Call vacations.

Having transparency is great, but the real change is only charging the actual value of the exchanged unit and allowing "change back." This is much better, fairer, complex, and interesting than charging one week for one week.

MichaelColey said:

Actually, I think it's weeks owners who have the benefit (currently). Trading value totally goes away at 45 days, so the bluest week can pick up anything. With the points system, points reservations still cost the full amount within 45 days. The 9k reservations raid the weeks inventory, so it's kind of a crossover between the two.

Click to expand...

I was thinking in terms of the RCI weeks resorts, where Points owners have the benefit right now - where Weeks owners still have to give up the full value of whatever week they have on deposit. Now we will potentially have the same advantage as weeks owners regarding those resorts.

But you are right about the RCI Points resorts - Points members are not allowed to reserve at those resorts for the reduced rate. If they still have to pay the full points value, while we get the last-minute cost of 5 points (or whatever RCI chooses), points members are going to be upset. Perhaps they will create a straight conversion chart to deal both with crossover trades will allow its use in both directions - PFD for points members who want to use their weeks there, and for points members wanting weeks at non-points resorts.

The question still is, how do they handle late reservations at points affiliates. If they allow points members reduced cost that will drive the demand for those weeks up from both sets of members.

Tommart said:

I agree with your 5 credit example.

In your example, one will have the choice of paying $169 plus 5 credits, or just renting for $269 as a Last Call Vacation.

RCI can't charge much more than 5 credits, or members will just pay $100 more for a Last Call vacation with no credit charge. This assumes that RCI doesn't raise the prices of Last Call vacations.

Having transparency is great, but the real change is only charging the actual value of the exchanged unit and allowing "change back." This is much better, fairer, complex, and interesting than charging one week for one week.

Click to expand...

I suspect they will will increase the cost of last call rentals. If the difference is greater, more people will use those 5 points, which will eliminate those 5 points from the exchange system.

This also begs the question about travel insurance, since they changed it last year to allow for ANY cancellation. You spent 25 credits for your exchange, and bought cancellation insurance. A similar week is now available for 5 credits. It would be worth the cost of the insurance to be able to "recover" those extra 20 credits. It might even be worth doing for an extra exchange fee without the insurance, if you can get your full 25 back on the cancelled exchange and use 5 for a new reservation!

Mel said:

This also begs the question about travel insurance, since they changed it last year to allow for ANY cancellation. You spent 25 credits for your exchange, and bought cancellation insurance. A similar week is now available for 5 credits. It would be worth the cost of the insurance to be able to "recover" those extra 20 credits. It might even be worth doing for an extra exchange fee without the insurance, if you can get your full 25 back on the cancelled exchange and use 5 for a new reservation!

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This can be done, however you would have to be very careful and watch the check in date of your banked week, if you were doing this without insurance. Remember if you cancel without insurance your trading power gets recalculated as if you banked on the day you canceled using your example you have a 25 you book a 25 it becomes available 2 weeks out you cancel (without insurance) your week gets recalculated ie 25 < 14 days get 40% = 10 so you only get 10 back what if its "On Sale" but for 12, your out of luck.........with insurance its not an issue without it you would have to be very very careful........

Dave

Dave599 said:

This can be done, however you would have to be very careful and watch the check in date of your banked week, if you were doing this without insurance. Remember if you cancel without insurance your trading power gets recalculated as if you banked on the day you canceled using your example you have a 25 you book a 25 it becomes available 2 weeks out you cancel (without insurance) your week gets recalculated ie 25 < 14 days get 40% = 10 so you only get 10 back what if its "On Sale" but for 12, your out of luck.........with insurance its not an issue without it you would have to be very very careful........

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But does it get recalculated based on the use date of YOUR deposit, or on the use date of what you're puting back in?

If you use your 2012 week to secure and exchange in 2011, and then cancel it a year before your own use-date, do you lose trade power or not? I suspect they will have to institute a new cancellation policy more like what they have in points - cancel more than x weeks before use, get 100% of your credits back, before y weeks out, get 50% back...or buy the insurance to pretect your 100%

No, you're right. If you exchanged a 2012 week and you put it back at least 9 (or 12?) months before the use date, you should still get full trading power back, even without protection. Of course with protection, you'll get the exchange fee and original trading power back, even if it's closer in.

Good point about them needing to update the cancellation policy and protection.

Michael

Mel said:

But does it get recalculated based on the use date of YOUR deposit, or on the use date of what you're puting back in?

If you use your 2012 week to secure and exchange in 2011, and then cancel it a year before your own use-date, do you lose trade power or not? I suspect they will have to institute a new cancellation policy more like what they have in points - cancel more than x weeks before use, get 100% of your credits back, before y weeks out, get 50% back...or buy the insurance to pretect your 100%

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I vaguely recall reading that the recalculation is based on the use date of the *exchange*, not the original deposit. This could have been entirely wrong, but it would be a shame to find out the hard way.

RCI changes, when?

Hello everyone,

Does anyone have an educated guess as to when RCI's new weeks trading rules/system is going to go into effect? I was trying to find information on this in the loooong running thread below, but any estimates seem to be few and far between.

Thanks,
Michael

Mid-November

RCI told me "soon", but said they were not at liberty to give a date.

Several TUG members have stated that the RCI Weeks website will be closed November 12-14, and the new system will likely be in operation November 15.

It looks like mid-November.

Mjpierce said:

Hello everyone,

Does anyone have an educated guess as to when RCI's new weeks trading rules/system is going to go into effect? I was trying to find information on this in the loooong running thread below, but any estimates seem to be few and far between.

Thanks,
Michael

Click to expand...

RCI has repeatedly stated it will be "November" but I have yet to see a date such as November 14, 2010 or 11/2/10. Why the mystery of the implementation date after all this time is anyone's guess. So what we have now is November.

Yes, Michael I'm thinking that some of the trades I have made in the past for areas with lots of availability will require more credits than my timeshare will be given. The only thing certain in life is change, so change we will. I have noted that you are having a lot of enjoyment from your ownerships and hope this continues.

Mel said:

But does it get recalculated based on the use date of YOUR deposit, or on the use date of what you're puting back in?

If you use your 2012 week to secure and exchange in 2011, and then cancel it a year before your own use-date, do you lose trade power or not? I suspect they will have to institute a new cancellation policy more like what they have in points - cancel more than x weeks before use, get 100% of your credits back, before y weeks out, get 50% back...or buy the insurance to pretect your 100%

Click to expand...

It is based on the check in date of the unit you banked not on what you booked and of course if you cancel still more then 9 months from your banked weeks check in you would still get it all back its when you cancel LESS then 9 months from your banked weeks check in that you run into the loss. This has NOTHING to do with what you booked only what you banked.

Dave

bnoble said:

I vaguely recall reading that the recalculation is based on the use date of the *exchange*, not the original deposit. This could have been entirely wrong, but it would be a shame to find out the hard way.

Click to expand...

Its based on the check in date of what you banked it has nothing to do with what you exchange into.

Dave

RCI Weeks = Death of the 2BD lockoff exchange?

Based on the way RCI rates the parts of a 2 bedroom lockoff as far, far greater than the whole, there will be a more transparent incentive for owners to deposit these units in pieces (especially when one considers the ability to recombine deposits for another 'small' fee and then get a significantly higher trade value, far more than you would have gotten otherwise by depositing whole.

I've actually seen preliminary trade value numbers from RCI for a handful of well known resorts. Based on these numbers, I cannot imagine anyone depositing those weeks without splitting them first. I expect that bulk bankings of all 2BD lockoffs as 1 bedrooms and studios instead will become the new industry standard. If you want to exchange into a two bedroom lockoff at most resorts, you will now likely need to exchange twice and call the resort to recombine the two reservations for your visit. The key benefit for RCI here is more exchanges, which equals more revenue. Timeshare companies will 'educate' owners on why they are depositing their ownerships with RCI separately in that way. More to come...

Of course, when RCI does change the trading power, they don't tell you the truth. They claim they haven't changed anything. So why should we believe this claim when lying about such things is just a broken record for RCI.

And an exact number system is going to be a lot more aggravating for those who only own one week than it is for those with multiple weeks. Extra points and points back are a lot easier to absorb for multiple week owners. Those with one EOY week are going to be the most aggravated, I suspect.

Tommart said:

Texas Belle,

This has been discussed a lot. See "RCI Weeks to offer value transparency."

Most of us think that this is a good change.

RCI claims they are not changing the way they credit weeks, they are just showing people what the credit is.

However, there are desirable changes. If you trade for a lesser unit, you get "change back." If you want to trade for something better than what you have, you can use the change back credits or combine weeks. And we believe that you will know the value of your week, before you deposit.

Also, when you buy a timeshare, you will know it's trading value (credit) before you purchase.

However, I believe that over time knowing trading value will make low value weeks even lower, and high value weeks even higher.

Tom

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