# Huge Fee to Convert to Points?  Summer Bay Resort, Orlando



## New Englander (Oct 8, 2006)

HI:
I'm trying to make my first RCI points purchase and running into a snag. Would appreciate any help!

Briefly, I'm interested in purchasing 66,500 points at Summer Bay Resort in Orlando. When I called the resort to inquire about special assessments -- the salesperson told me that EACH TIME a unit changes ownership, there is a points conversion fee charge of $7,950!!!  Can this possibly be true or was she trying to discourage me from purchasing resale? She claimed that this fee is paid to RCI. A quick call to RCI disputed her claim, of course. 

But now I'm wondering if resorts can and do pull this stunt...meaning do they charge a hefty points conversion fee each time the timeshare changes hands? The seller is telling me that the property has already been converted to points at a cost of $3,000. 

This all sounds too BAD to be true to me. Seems to me the resale market wouldn't survive long if this were actually the case. 

Any insights on this?  THANKS!!


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 8, 2006)

PAHIO does not even allow resale buyers to get points, at any price, which really devalues what the original purchaser bought, in my opinion.

Summer Bay may allow points to transfer into your name.  Maybe someone who has purchased a Summer Bay week can help with that one.  Unfortunately, the sales department is not going to have any helpful answers.


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## timeos2 (Oct 8, 2006)

*Anything is possible*

If this is true then I pitty the poor owners at the resort who decide to sell!  The cost to convert to RCI Points is only $199 - anything above that is going to the slaes weasels, resort, whoever.  It would be bad enough if they charge at an outrageous level like that even once but to say that if the week/points sell you have to pay again means the time is worthless. If this is really the deal then tell the owner "no thanks" and let them raise he** with the resort. You don't want to deal with a resort like that.


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## ouaifer (Oct 9, 2006)

rickandcindy23 said:
			
		

> PAHIO does not even allow resale buyers to get points, at any price, which really devalues what the original purchaser bought, in my opinion.
> 
> ......



Actually, this is not true.  Perhaps it is Pahio, Bali Hai, but it is not Pahio at Ka'Eo Kai.


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 9, 2006)

Sorry to hijack this thread.


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## ouaifer (Oct 9, 2006)

No, we did _not_ purchase through Pahio.


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## "Roger" (Oct 9, 2006)

I really don't know one way or the other, but the confusion might stem from Pahio having instituted this (new) policy more recently.  Way back, I never saw any messages saying that you could not convert a resale (at Pahio) to points.  I also know for sure that they did not have a right to first refusal policy.  More recently, I have seen messages claiming both no conversions and a right to first refusal on resales.  

In any case, with regard to the OP's dilemma, I agree with John.  If you haven't bought, stay away.


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## rickandcindy23 (Oct 9, 2006)

ouaifer said:
			
		

> No, we did _not_ purchase through Pahio.



Sorry about that.  There was one TUG member who had purchased at resale at your resort through PAHIO and was able to get points.  I think he got a pretty good deal for the entire package because of the points conversion fee they charge their own customers, which is $4,995.   

Sorry for straying off the original post.

I wouldn't believe the sales department, but I have no idea where you would get some answers on this one.  Hopefully someone who owns there can help you.


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## New Englander (Oct 9, 2006)

*Confusion over Points Conversion Fees  Summer Bay Resort, Orlando*

_Please refrain from double posting in accordance with the rules for posting on these boards.  I see your thread has gone a stray, and I am moving it to the Florida Forum for some more exposure.  If this doesn't get some activity there, please let me know._


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## gjw007 (Oct 10, 2006)

New Englander;

The jist of this is that it does not cost the resort that much to convert from a weeks to a points resort but they use it as an opportunity to extract additional revenue from the owners.  There are some resorts that RCI handles the conversion.  RCI, for all its other faults, charges $495 for Vistana Resort.  Unfortunately, they only do 4 resorts, I believe.  When I toured Vacation Village @ Parkway a few years back, they were quoting the value of the conversion as $3000 which of course they touted as adding value to the ownership.  Of course, this is hogwash.  

As far as an exchange of ownership, this is the first time that I have heard about a resort charing the conversion fee if the ownership is already a Points week and the ownership is being sold.  I've heard of conversion fees for weeks that were bought resale that hadn't been in the points program.  Do I understand correctly that the week had already been conveted into Points.  I know that I have seen ads stating that the units had already been converted, not for Summer Bay but for other resorts, and use it as a feature when selling the week.

I would not pay $8000 to convert a week's unit into a Point's unit.


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## frenchieinme (Oct 10, 2006)

If it does not pass the smell test at the onset, STAY AWAY.  There are other places to buy where you will be treated in a more fairly, equitable manner.  If this is how prospective buyers are treated imagine being an owner wishing to sell? 

frenchieinme


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## BillR (Oct 10, 2006)

New Englander said:
			
		

> HI:
> I'm trying to make my first RCI points purchase and running into a snag. Would appreciate any help!
> 
> Briefly, I'm interested in purchasing 66,500 points at Summer Bay Resort in Orlando. When I called the resort to inquire about special assessments -- the salesperson told me that EACH TIME a unit changes ownership, there is a points conversion fee charge of $7,950!!!  Can this possibly be true or was she trying to discourage me from purchasing resale? She claimed that this fee is paid to RCI. A quick call to RCI disputed her claim, of course.
> ...


*The initial cost to RCI is $199.00 - the rest is profit for the developer.  My suggestion is to find a resort that will sell you a small studio with RCI points conversion cost.  You should be able to find this for:  EXAMPLE:  **$995.00 1st year - including MF for, example, 15,000 points and 15,000 points for each year thereafter.  You then deposit your RCI weeks into Points for, I believe, $29.00.*


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## roni (Oct 10, 2006)

*similar frustration*

We purchased a 3bdm lockout at Summer Bay a few weeks ago off EBay (paid just over $800). Our plan to convert to points met with the same nightmare you describe - supposed fee of $8000.  At this point, we've decided to go ahead with the purchase, hoping  that once the paperwork is complete and we've been owners for awhile, they'll offer us an amazing DEAL (Ha!) to convert for a mere $3000...
If we get the conversion, it'll be worth 126,000 points for MF of $895. That sounds reasonable to us.
Otherwise, we'll stay in weeks with the option of splitting the lockout for 2 weeks of vacation per year.


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## New Englander (Oct 10, 2006)

*Thanks!*

I appreciate everyone who took the time to answer.  We have absolutely NO intention of buying from Summer Bay, now that we know they would charge an additional $8,000 -- even for a unit that was already converted to points!!

The whole experience just left me very nervous about the entire buying process. Here I was on E-Bay, getting ready to bid for the first time; THe seller assured me the conversion had been done and the points were all set to go...I honestly wonder if HE'S aware of what the resort is doing!

In any case, I'm learning so much here and hopefully saving myself some $$$ and aggravation down the road. BUYER BEWARE can't be reinforced strongly enough as far as I'm concerned. 

Thanks again.


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## AwayWeGo (Oct 10, 2006)

*Points, Shmoynts.*




			
				Bill Riney said:
			
		

> * EXAMPLE:  **$995.00 1st year - including MF for, example, 15,000 points and 15,000 points for each year thereafter.  You then deposit your RCI weeks into Points for, I believe, $29.00.*


That's pretty much what we did last year -- bought an eBay a points timeshare in Arkansas, not Florida, & for sure not Summer Bay.  It works just as you describe in the example -- we get 15,000 points each year automatically just by owning & continuing to pay MF at the Arkansas points timeshare.  Optionally, we get more points by depositing our regular timeshare weeks into our points account if we choose -- or we can deposit them into the old-style week-for-week exchange system if we choose -- the best of both.  That works just as long as our non-points RCI timeshares remain non-points.  Should they transform themselves into RCI Points timeshares, then (perversely) we can keep on exchanging them into the week-for-week exchange system if we want, but from that point on we can't get points for them unless we pay whatever the resort is charging for "conversion."  So it goes. 

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


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## traveljunkie (Oct 10, 2006)

roni said:
			
		

> We purchased a 3bdm lockout at Summer Bay a few weeks ago off EBay (paid just over $800). Our plan to convert to points met with the same nightmare you describe - supposed fee of $8000.  At this point, we've decided to go ahead with the purchase, hoping  that once the paperwork is complete and we've been owners for awhile, they'll offer us an amazing DEAL (Ha!) to convert for a mere $3000...
> If we get the conversion, it'll be worth 126,000 points for MF of $895. That sounds reasonable to us.
> Otherwise, we'll stay in weeks with the option of splitting the lockout for 2 weeks of vacation per year.



What is the benefit of converting to points? We're relatively new to Summer Bay (owned 1 yr.) and it's our 1st t/s.  We visited in May and were happy with it and even happier that we can split the lockout and use 2 weeks or use 1 and trade the other half.   
What can points do that our weeks can't? Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question.


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## AwayWeGo (Oct 10, 2006)

*Weeks, Shmeeks.*




			
				traveljunkie said:
			
		

> What can points do that our weeks can't?


As far as using your own timeshare week(s) that belong to you right there at your own home resort, points are _mox nix_.  For that matter, so are week-for-week exchanges so long as you just keep on using your own timeshare week(s) yourself intead of making swaps for the use of other people's timeshares. 

Timeshare exchanges on the old conventional week-for-week system are more like Forrest Gump -- you never know exactly what you're going to get. 

When you add timeshare points into the picture, exchanging yours for somebody else's becomes less of a crapshoot.  That is, you know how many points you have in your timeshare-points account & you can look up how many points it takes for a reservation at a resort you'd like to go to at a time you'd like to go there.  _If_ you've got access to that many points _and_ there's availability for your desired reservation time, then -- _BOOM!_ -- you're good to go. 

The RCI version of timeshare points also lets you get last-minute reservations (i.e., reservations you make no more than 45 days before check-in) for a maximum of 9*,*000 points for the nicest, largest, fanciest, highest rated, most desirable timeshare week that shows up as still available.  On TUG, that's known as _Raiding The Weeks Inventory_.  At RCI, they call it _Instant Exchange_.  It doesn't work for reservations into RCI Points timeshares.  It's only good for last-minute points reservations into RCI Weeks timeshares.  So it goes. 

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


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## NJmom (Oct 11, 2006)

Did you ever get absolute confirmation that this is true , or could this be salesman talk? 

 I have also been interested in Summer Bay points.  No one has posted that they have been charged  to convert  already converted points at Summer Bay or not. 

 Has  anyone  purchased Summer Bay Points and been charged to reconvert them?

I agree that if this is true I would never do business with them.





			
				New Englander said:
			
		

> I appreciate everyone who took the time to answer.  We have absolutely NO intention of buying from Summer Bay, now that we know they would charge an additional $8,000 -- even for a unit that was already converted to points!!
> 
> The whole experience just left me very nervous about the entire buying process. Here I was on E-Bay, getting ready to bid for the first time; THe seller assured me the conversion had been done and the points were all set to go...I honestly wonder if HE'S aware of what the resort is doing!
> 
> ...


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