Does searching for sighting cause problems??

[Bill4728]

Does our member's searches for sighting cause the exchange company's computers to think there is more demand for some areas than there acutually is?? By doing searches, are we causing the areas we search to be harder to get??

JLB over on TS4Ms seems to think so. (He said I could post this here.)

I just finished a very thoughtful, interesting and instructive phone call with a person from RCI, a person I got to know because of her concern and helpfulness. I'm not sure if she still is in Customer Service, but she mentioned being involved with stuff way beyond what a Guide or Supervisor deals with.

I had emailed her about my recent strange search results for SW FL, where I can see stuff for 12/12/09, but not 12/5/09, when just a few months ago I could see both, searching with a week that has been devalued by RCI (I still have a 2007 full powered week to compare with.)

Once she realized what I was talking about, when I mentioned that I was comparing with other RCI members who also search every day, she perked up. She has just completed a project studying that, the effect of those doing EX Ops/Sightings.

It is something that will never be an official RCI position, but her study strongly speculates (and she firmly believes) that when a group of RCI members all does the same searches, the computer is reading that as false demand, even when no exchanges are confirmed. It is the searching itself, not the confirmation of exchanges, that is skewing the computer.

Wow!!! The Law of Unintended Consequences.

So, in short, she believes that Ex Ops/Sightings, by creating an artifical demand, increases the trading power needed to see those Ex Ops. Those with the strong traders (the ones doing the Ex Ops searches) still see them, but as more searches are done, and more false demand created, the lesser traders stop seeing them.

She believes it is possible that stuff I saw in May cannot now be seen by our devalued trader, because of the number of searches being done for SW FL for that timeframe, and there are a lot being done. She says it is not just the person doing the Ex Op, but all those who do the same search because of the posting.

She gave me some hints on possible ways to overcome this situation, but, because posting on the Internet appears to negate the things you post on the Internet about, I choose not to, at least not before I try them.

 

[rhonda]

Interesting thought. I would have been sure that demand was based on exchanges booked ... not the searches themselves. Interesting, very interesting.

 

[Carol C]

That's just silly speculation. Exchange company software isn't that advanced. :rofl:

 

[DanM]

It seems more likely that reduced availability for particular times and areas is driven more by the fact that those times and places are booked faster...what we had all been told and believed all along. This would undoubtedly correlate with searches, because obviously, people will be searching more for high demand times and places. But if searching is the chicken and booking is the egg, I think the egg comes first

There is also the fact that Tuggers and the other timeshare fanatics probably don't search enough to change "search" values driven by the general timeshare public. I run the same search for holiday ski weeks several times a day, but I am sure every skiing member of RCI or II has ongoing searches for the same times and places. I doubt my manual searches are signficant in the total volume.

The only way to test this would be to bombard the system with searches for something no one wants and see if, over time, availability dropped even though it was safe to assume no one was booking. Any suggestions for a place and week no one would ever exchange for normally?

 

[svwoude]

JMHO, But I think JLB has way too much free time.

Steve

 

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I can't imagine that searches actually register. I know on II I usually do search all available destinations, so it's not even specific.
Liz

 

[caribbean]

I can see how a GOOD software program cold be designed to take searching into consideration when calculating demand, but we are talking about the RCI program...... give me a break. No way their programmers are that good. Thanks for the laugh.

 

[Bruce W]

JLB over on TS4Ms seems to think so. (He said I could post this here.)

How come he does not post here anymore? Miss his wit and comments

 

[jimbiggs]

How come he does not post here anymore? Miss his wit and comments

I agree. I always read his posts, just because it was him posting. Hopefully he comes back soon.