Increasing the number of bands is merely a technique for decreasing trading power.
If Carolinian is talking about the Weeks program, yes this (decreasing everyone's trading power) can happen. Fortunately that system is about to come to an end.
Long explanation: (I am sorry, but this becomes a double post. However, I think when there is post that states something that is flat out impossible, TUGGERs need to see why.)
First what happens when there is a splitting of bands within a Points system: Let us suppose before the adding of bands there were just two bands (to simplify) with ten people rated at 20 and ten at 10. Let us also take what some people might consider worst case scenario (just what you would expect from RCI) where RCI "lowers" half of the people when it creates new bands. ("Lowers" turns out to be an inappropriate word.) After the new bands are created, there are five people each at the levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. Now lets look at each of the four new groups:
The people at 5: They are definitely worse off. Before they could make an even trade to ten resorts, now they can only make an even trade to five. (The five that are considered comparable to their own resort.)
The people at 10: They are winners. They can trade for the same ten resorts that they could before. They have lost nothing in that regard. In addition, for five of those resorts, they can trade two for one. Finally, whereas before, they could not trade for any of the units rated 20, they can now do so. It would take a year and a half to trade for one of the units rated at 15, two years for a unit at 20. (Not great, but these trades were simply unavailable to them before.)
The people at 15: Modest losers. They can't trade for all the units that they used to even up. (Actually, what they can't do is "trade up" at the one to one ratio for the units rated 20 as before. There was a reason that they were not maintained at the 20 level - their units are not as good.) However, now when they trade for a unit at the 10 level, they still have change (extra points) to apply to some future trade.
The people at 20: Big winners. They can trade for everything (as before), but now get change whenever they trade down.
Summary -- Dividing into more bands will create winners and losers.
There is no mathematical scenario in which everyone loses.
Now with a Weeks system things can be different:
Do the same split described in the prior post (with half the units being given lower trading value). Add to that a proviso that no one is allowed to trade up.
What happens now is that whenever anyone trades down, a unit is left that is too expensive for anyone to afford. (Suppose, in the extreme, all of the owners of the units rated 20 trade for units rated 15. Now, no one is left who can afford the units rated 20.)
In this scenario, RCI can skim off the expensive units and use them for rentals. That is what the Weeks system does, enable skimming and rentals.
I am not saying that this is what occurs,
but, for those who are forever suspicious of RCI and hate rentals, the worst thing that you can do is argue for the continuation of the one-for-one Weeks system.
