Delexed
TUG Member
What happened??
It's my understanding that RCI has a fixed amount of resorts that are Gold Crown (around 10% or so). To achieve GC status, the resort must meet certain requirements for amenities and units, plus it must have top-notch comments from RCI guests. Since RCI has recently added DVC as an affiliate, there are 8 or so new GC resorts. Plus Worldmark has added at least one new GC - Worldmark Anaheim. And there may have been additional GC resorts added. So, if Sedona Summit was on the edge before, it may have been bumped off, not because it is any worse, but better resorts were added.
That being said, I doubt it would have any impact on trading power. This is based mostly on supply and demand and since Sedona Summit is still highly regarded in Sedona, I doubt the label of Silver vs Gold has much if any impact.
Has Diamond moved to II? If not, where?
thanks
Anita
I have never heard that RCI has a "limited" number of Gold Crown ratings to hand out.
I could be wrong, but it was my understanding that only the top x% of resorts can be labeled Gold Crown. Somewhere on TUG there was a pdf of the GC requirements (probably 5 years old). I have noticed several resorts that have been downgraded in the past 2 years, but can't recall any that have been upgraded (although I'm sure there are). So I do think there is some legitimacy to the idea that the GC requirement may be harder to reach IF (big "if") more top quality resorts are added (DVC).
Still, this is RCI so who knows the truth?
I do agree that if I were in your shoes I'd be upset. And it probably does hurt resale value a bit, as GC would be a top marketing point. However, the common belief on TUG is that for trading purposes the most important factors are demand. I don't think a GC resort has much (any?) higher trading power than a Silver resort for the same week, size, and location.
When my 5star II resort lost it's rating (even though nothing at the resort has changed and the reviews are great) my trade power dropped big time. Where I used to be able to pull a summer two bedroom in the Royals in Cancun now I'm lucky to get a 1 bedroom September.
With II the rating DOES make a difference.
By the way, I am trying to get II and the resort to re-avaluate it. They say they will visit in this 1st quarter of 2009. We'll see.
Anne