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Deposit our week? If so, where? [ Maui Lea ]

Polly Metallic

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Last year RCI reduced our TPU on week 9 Maui Lea from 40 to 33. We were outraged. We rented it. We were lucky. People were still traveling on March 1st. This year, I wouldn’t count on the resort renting our week, but RCI is currently down to offering only 26 points for our week. What would you do? I hate to deposit the week for that meager amount, but the more obscure exchange companies never have much inventory that interests us.
 

Tamaradarann

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Last year RCI reduced our TPU on week 9 Maui Lea from 40 to 33. We were outraged. We rented it. We were lucky. People were still traveling on March 1st. This year, I wouldn’t count on the resort renting our week, but RCI is currently down to offering only 26 points for our week. What would you do? I hate to deposit the week for that meager amount, but the more obscure exchange companies never have much inventory that interests us.

How come the points keep getting reduced. I stayed at the Maui Lea about 10 years ago and it was a very nice resort in a good location. Could the reduction this year be due to the Coronavirus so that they don't want to give you alot of points since they can't get anyone to stay there?
 

Luanne

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I have never deposited our Maui Lea week with RCI. I always deposit it with Trading Places Maui. But we always trade back into Maui Lea.
 

Tamaradarann

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I have never deposited our Maui Lea week with RCI. I always deposit it with Trading Places Maui. But we always trade back into Maui Lea.

OK, I don't know that Trading Places Maui System but what is the benefit of depositing your week and then trading back into it? How much does it cost to do that?
 

ljmiii

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Another alternative is SFX Preferred resorts. That said, I know nothing about them other than another TUGger recommended it when I was looking for an alternative to II for my MVCI Hawaiian week.
 

Dean

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Last year RCI reduced our TPU on week 9 Maui Lea from 40 to 33. We were outraged. We rented it. We were lucky. People were still traveling on March 1st. This year, I wouldn’t count on the resort renting our week, but RCI is currently down to offering only 26 points for our week. What would you do? I hate to deposit the week for that meager amount, but the more obscure exchange companies never have much inventory that interests us.
I think the problem with many of the independents is they are HI and MX centric which isn't likely a good choice here. I can't imagine renting is going to work out well either. I'd likely either deposit with an independent that isn't centered more toward HI or just bite the bullet and take the 26 TPU if you can't use it. While I haven't used them, DAE might be the best alternative choice here if they'll take it. You may have trouble getting some of these alternatives companies to even accept the deposit.
How come the points keep getting reduced. I stayed at the Maui Lea about 10 years ago and it was a very nice resort in a good location. Could the reduction this year be due to the Coronavirus so that they don't want to give you alot of points since they can't get anyone to stay there?
I'm sure the demand is way down and to me, a drop from 40 to 26 is actually probably generous toward the member. When I looked it up a 2 BR week 9 was 28 with a max of 31 or 26 for a 1 BR with a max of 29. The adjustments are due to being closer to the time of deposit. I can't imagine the demand for March is as high as 29 for a 1 BR for early March on Maui right now.
 

Tamaradarann

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I think the problem with many of the independents is they are HI and MX centric which isn't likely a good choice here. I can't imagine renting is going to work out well either. I'd likely either deposit with an independent that isn't centered more toward HI or just bite the bullet and take the 26 TPU if you can't use it. While I haven't used them, DAE might be the best alternative choice here if they'll take it. You may have trouble getting some of these alternatives companies to even accept the deposit.
I'm sure the demand is way down and to me, a drop from 40 to 26 is actually probably generous toward the member. When I looked it up a 2 BR week 9 was 28 with a max of 31 or 26 for a 1 BR with a max of 29. The adjustments are due to being closer to the time of deposit. I can't imagine the demand for March is as high as 29 for a 1 BR for early March on Maui right now.

So are you saying that the reduction in points is related to the time that the deposit is occuring before check-in date. If Polly Metallic deposited the Maui Lea week a year in advance it would go back up to 40? I got the impression that the TPU's were downgraded for a different reason than time of deposit.
 

Luanne

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OK, I don't know that Trading Places Maui System but what is the benefit of depositing your week and then trading back into it? How much does it cost to do that?
As owners at Maui Lea at Maui Hill we belong to Trading Places Maui for free. There is a member level that does cost, but so far I haven't found a reason for us to upgrade to that. There is no charge to place on ongoing search, they only charge you when a match is made. The fee is the same for any trade they would make $169. You can check out their website to see what kind of availability they have.
 

Polly Metallic

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The TPU for last year’s week fell from the usual 40-41 range to 33. That’s why we were outraged and rented it. There was no reason for the drop. It was long before anyone had heard of Covid-19 so it has nothing to do with that. If you want to trade into Maui you’re looking at 40-60 TPU so the reduction was illogical. We get 33 for our Kona unit, which is none too much, but Maui is always in greater demand and gets higher TPU.

At this point in time, I understand why they’re only offering 26. If a week deposited a year out was only getting 33, then a week deposited five months out is only going to get 26. But it’s such a pitiful amount for Maui I hate to give them the week. Considering we have few options I suppose I may have to this one time, but never again. I haven’t used SFX in years. I wasn’t impressed with them. Trading Places Maui is mostly useful if trading back into the resort for a different season. I know little about DAE. I thought they had been bought out and absorbed into one of the bigger companies, but I may be wrong.
 

Polly Metallic

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How come the points keep getting reduced. I stayed at the Maui Lea about 10 years ago and it was a very nice resort in a good location. Could the reduction this year be due to the Coronavirus so that they don't want to give you alot of points since they can't get anyone to stay there?

No, the initial reduction from the 40 range down to 33 was long before anyone heard of Covid, and we told RCI to stuff it and rented our week. The reason it’s 26 now is because we’re down to five months lead time, so the 33 points we would have gotten 12 months out had been lowered again.
 

Polly Metallic

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As owners at Maui Lea at Maui Hill we belong to Trading Places Maui for free. There is a member level that does cost, but so far I haven't found a reason for us to upgrade to that. There is no charge to place on ongoing search, they only charge you when a match is made. The fee is the same for any trade they would make $169. You can check out their website to see what kind of availability they have.

We’ve used them in the past and traded into the Big Island once and Palm Desert the other time. I felt their inventory outside of Hawaii was extremely limited and not worth exchanging for our Maui unit.
 

Polly Metallic

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So are you saying that the reduction in points is related to the time that the deposit is occuring before check-in date. If Polly Metallic deposited the Maui Lea week a year in advance it would go back up to 40? I got the impression that the TPU's were downgraded for a different reason than time of deposit.

That’s correct. We were downgraded from 40 to 33 for no reason. Back then, I told them we’d be renting our week from now on, and apparently they took me at my word because they removed the week from their list of weeks we own!
 

Luanne

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We’ve used them in the past and traded into the Big Island once and Palm Desert the other time. I felt their inventory outside of Hawaii was extremely limited and not worth exchanging for our Maui unit.
Yes, their inventory is limited. But as I said we trade our week for a different week at Maui Hill so it works well for us as they have the most inventory for that resort. Also, I love working with them. They are the nicest people.
 

Dean

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So are you saying that the reduction in points is related to the time that the deposit is occuring before check-in date. If Polly Metallic deposited the Maui Lea week a year in advance it would go back up to 40? I got the impression that the TPU's were downgraded for a different reason than time of deposit.
No, I'm saying there are 2 components. A real reduction in TPU almost certainly due to lower demand AND a further but smaller reduction in TPU based on the lead time.
 

Polly Metallic

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No, I'm saying there are 2 components. A real reduction in TPU almost certainly due to lower demand AND a further but smaller reduction in TPU based on the lead time.

The initial reduction from 40 to 33 had nothing to do with reduced demand. The reduction was for our 2020 week which we would have been depositing in early 2019 when demand for all of Hawaii was high.
 

Polly Metallic

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Yes, their inventory is limited. But as I said we trade our week for a different week at Maui Hill so it works well for us as they have the most inventory for that resort. Also, I love working with them. They are the nicest people.

Yes, I understand completely. If we planned to trade back into Maui Lea, it would be a no brainer, but we were just there a couple years ago and have no immediate plans to return. It’s a long way from New York.
 

Luanne

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Yes, I understand completely. If we planned to trade back into Maui Lea, it would be a no brainer, but we were just there a couple years ago and have no immediate plans to return. It’s a long way from New York.
When we bought at Maui Hill we lived in California. For years we would go every summer, using the week we owned. Over the past years we've traded our week for a week earlier in the year. We're now living in New Mexico, but it's still not a bad trip. We break it up with two nights in San Francisco coming and going.
 

Dean

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The initial reduction from 40 to 33 had nothing to do with reduced demand. The reduction was for our 2020 week which we would have been depositing in early 2019 when demand for all of Hawaii was high.
It would have been based on demand but may not have been Covid related. They continually monitor and adjust demand over time.
 

Polly Metallic

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It would have been based on demand but may not have been Covid related. They continually monitor and adjust demand over time.

Very true, but until the pandemic, I’ve never seen reduced demand for Maui, and my resort always gets excellent reviews from timeshare folks and independent travelers, so I’m completely baffled.
 

Dean

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Very true, but until the pandemic, I’ve never seen reduced demand for Maui, and my resort always gets excellent reviews from timeshare folks and independent travelers, so I’m completely baffled.
This doesn't sound baffling to me. It's clear that the in RCI's eyes the demand is lower there than other Gold Crown Properties on Maui. KBC at full power for that week in a 1 BR (partial K) is 44, for SOK in a 1 BR 39. And I didn't see any different between 2021 & 2022. You might want to ask RCI this question although getting to someone who actually knows and will share might be difficult. Likely the place to get real answers is talking to a member of the BOD or the GM there.
 

Tamaradarann

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This doesn't sound baffling to me. It's clear that the in RCI's eyes the demand is lower there than other Gold Crown Properties on Maui. KBC at full power for that week in a 1 BR (partial K) is 44, for SOK in a 1 BR 39. And I didn't see any different between 2021 & 2022. You might want to ask RCI this question although getting to someone who actually knows and will share might be difficult. Likely the place to get real answers is talking to a member of the BOD or the GM there.

Since you brought up the KBC in Maui having more points that the Maui Lea it got me thinking. While we loved the Maui Lea when we went in 2009, we loved the location of the KBC when we went there in 2019. Kihei is not Lahaina so that the KBC does have an edge on location.
 

Luanne

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Since you brought up the KBC in Maui having more points that the Maui Lea it got me thinking. While we loved the Maui Lea when we went in 2009, we loved the location of the KBC when we went there in 2019. Kihei is not Lahaina so that the KBC does have an edge on location.
That all depends on which location you prefer. :D
 

Tamaradarann

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That all depends on which location you prefer. :D

Of course everyone has ther own personal preference. My point is that perhaps that is the reason that KBC has kept the points the same and the Maui Lea has gone down since more people prefer the Lahaina location over the Kihei location. There is more going on close by. The thinking here is similar to why Oahu (and specifically Honolulu) is so popular compared to the other Hawaiian Islands. We have been to all 6 Hawaiian Islands that you can go to and we prefer Honolulu. We can vacation there without a car and always find things to do since there is so much going on. You must get a car in the other islands and after awhile we get kinda bored with less to do.
 

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Of course everyone has ther own personal preference. My point is that perhaps that is the reason that KBC has kept the points the same and the Maui Lea has gone down since more people prefer the Lahaina location over the Kihei location. There is more going on close by. The thinking here is similar to why Oahu (and specifically Honolulu) is so popular compared to the other Hawaiian Islands. We have been to all 6 Hawaiian Islands that you can go to and we prefer Honolulu. We can vacation there without a car and always find things to do since there is so much going on. You must get a car in the other islands and after awhile we get kinda bored with less to do.
I think overall Lahaina is more in demand but KBC is a partial kitchen and SOK isn't necessarily in a better general location and it's a higher TPU than ML but lower than KBC. ML being further from the beach is the negative to me. While I haven't stayed there, I have been on property and I didn't come away thinking it was somewhere I specifically wanted to stay because of location compared to the beach not because of the part of the island it was at.

But the issue is why the reduction in TPU for ML over the past couple of years. Did the others change also and proportional over the same time period?, that I do not know. It makes me wonder if ML might be heading for a step down in rating to Silver Crown or it could be that RCI has simply reduced the TPU for HI upcoming due to the affects of the current situation. If I owned there I'd certainly be raising these questions to the BOD because it makes you wonder what's going on that it has changed since the location hasn't changed and it's not a new resort so it has a track record. Basically are there problems internally with the resort that is affecting the ratings with RCI.
 
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