I have given two solutions. One is to migrate members who own off season to other exchange companies. The other is more appealing because it means not relying on exchangers at all, and that is push HOA inventory primarily to own to use markets. That happens naturally, anyway, as the longer a timeshare is around and weeks change hands, at least in our area, the percentage of own to use people goes up and exchangers goes down. That may be partly a function of not getting the exchange company razzle dazzle at a sales presentation or it may be from other factors. A reseller on another site said virtually all his buyers these days come in wanting specific weeks at specific resorts and have no interest in trading.
Some of the potential own to use markets that I am aware of include:
1) local people who own to use the amenities yearround. Some developers pushed in way back in developer sales, like Wychnor Park in the UK which was marketed by its developer to locals as ''a country club that is also a timeshare''. On resales, Outer Banks Beach Club I and II have made good use of this concept to market resale weeks, and other OBX timeshares have taken advantage of it to a lesser degree. The m/f is well worth it often just for use of the pool, and the timeshare week itself can be used to put up visited relatives or just to get away from the house for a week or even exchanged.
2) One OBX resort, Seascape is adjacent to a golf course at which owners (but not exchangers or renters) have golf priveleges. They have been succesful in selling offseason weeks to golfers. The golf option is, of course, used in HHI, but also in selling Myrtle Beach off season timeshares.
3) Figure out other things going on in the area where you can attract members. On the OBX, fall fishing season, which runs to Thanksgiving has always attracted a strong own to use base. One resort, Ocean Villas, figureed out that duck hunting season coincided with the very lowest part of the timeshare season in December through February and that there were duck blinds within a couple of miles of the resort. They have had some success in marketing those weeks to duck hunters. That part of the year also has the best off shore game fishing, but as far as I know, no resorts have tried to attract that group. Perhaps they tend to just come for a weekend, while the inshore fishermen in the Fall season like to come for a week. Still it is a market that can be tried.
4) Use your own own season own to use members to talk to their friends by offering them some premium for resales based on their referrals. They know other people who think like themselves. One resort I formerly owned at had some interesting off season owner who were real characters. They had one who had bought with her husband all four weeks in February in the same unit at a resort from the developer at developer prices. They lived in tidewater Virginia and loved coming to the Outer Banks for the whole month. The husband had been dead for years, but his widow kept coming. She knew all the other own to use members during that month and liked to befriend exchangers who were there. She arrived with her cats, and would immediate set up her first cocktail part for fellow timesharers, something she did at least once a week while she was there. Another of my resorts had a former HOA president who had bought one January week from the developer. The guy was wealthy and could have afforded any week he wanted but was not into swimming or lying on the beach and he got annoyed at a lot of children being around, so he avoided summer. So January worked fine for him, and he came every year on his week. The point is that there are people who like those weeks, and you just have to find them.
What week you use shows the level of your understanding of the system.
So your solution is nothing except "RCI is bad - they took away the 45 day window"
OH, and for the Nobility owners to just keep paying more and more and more and more as the "peasants" drop off the cart one by one.
Your "let them eat cake" attitude fails to consider who tills the field, fires the ovens and bakes that cake.
And no one here except you gives a rats rear which exact week I use as an example of a mud week.
Come back when you think of a possible solution!
