S a n d s of k a h a n a
Okay.....you may not have gone through a recent owners presentation...
...they are going to dump 80% of their inventory into RCI......your resort at SOK is part of the that inventory as my 2 ts in Las Vegas.....you will no longer be able to stay at your home resort unless you trade thru RCI is what I was told.
I realize that this is a bit of an old thread, but I just attended an owners update today and some things are clearer to me now.
Dumping inventory - - C R M told me that 80% of the owners use their own home weeks. So I think that if C R M is "going to dump 80% of their inventory into RCI", that it is more like 80% of the 20% that is available for exchange. While I could be wrong, I don't think that C R M can deposit more weeks than the owners are trying to exchange. Except for selling weeks to RCI or II for use as last minute vacations or getaways for cash (or renting out through 3rd parties), they don't have a clear mechanism for getting the cash back.
C R M made a unilateral decision (with essentially no owner input) early in 2012 to (1) no longer allow owners (through II) to select the week that they want to deposit and (2) to discontinue (through II) allowing owners to do a "search first". It finally dawned on me today what their apparent motivation. It was all related to the dual affiliation with RCI. They are trying to level the playing field in order to sell more $6K points conversions. RCI d/n support a search first. Now, C R M had directed II to do the same. Also the technique of selecting the highest demand week to give yourself the highest trading power has also been taken away. Again, to probably level the playing field with RCI. With the RCI points system, they are working with AVERAGE trading power. The RCI points for a 3, 2 and 1 br at the S O K are 98,900, 77,000 and 54,700. But when searching in RCI, I saw that the points required to exchange into the S O K is between 48,000 and 115,000. So the value of your week depends on seasonality (contrary to what C R M may say).
BTW, the number of average points assigned to the Kahana Beach is definitely less than the number for S O K for the same sized unit. The S O K has the highest points of any of the C R M Maui resorts. So, in approximate terms, if you would have received 77,000 points for the S O K and instead were credited with KB points, the KB points would have been worth something less. I'm not sure of the exact amount, but there is a difference. But (sadly) in "marketing" speak a $1400 mf is the same as a $1000 mf if
someone else is paying it.
I don't think that the S O K vaction club is doing a BAD job. So, I'm not intending on trying to "smear" them. In fact, they are doing most things right. But I think that they would benefit from a much better owner representation on their board. In fact, they should recognize this and the associated value. Having owner representation should not threaten their cash-flow model. Right now 4 of the 5 directors are in somewhat employees of a parent organization.
My advice to S O K owners is to vote for a non-employee at next year's annual meeting. Oh....you've got to do some research because the thumbnail that is provided omits where the candidates are employed. You've got to Google that. Also, you've got to pay attention to the proxy forms that you are sent. If you check the more obvious box on the form you are probably giving all voting power to the mgmt co. Unfortunately most owners don't respond and those that do don't read what they are agreeing to.
Keep abreast of things on the
www.sokco.info site. Give them your email address so that they have a way of updating you on items of interest.