FAQ & Links for Timeshare Point and Hotel Based ownerships

[TootToot]

What do you need?

OK, let the comments begin.

Also anyone who want to help with this, I really like the help.

Like a Bluegree FAQ or Advice and a Raintree or advice.

PS I'll be taking your advice and edit the earlier posts to keep this thing clean

Hi, Bill.

I'm a total newbie but a Bluegreen owner. What do you need to know?

 

[Daduke]

RCI trying to get me to convert to points

RCI has been trying to sell me on the idea of converting my week to points. During the past 10 years, we have been able to exchange our week from hour home TS to other ones around the country. But this year RCI called us to see if we would convert our week to points. After spending an hour on the phone, they told us the cost, which was between $3000 to $4000. We decided not to do it. What is your opinion?

 

[aliikai2]

Don't this would be a waste of your money.

You can buy an RCI points ownership for under $500 all in, in fact there are some for free here on the bargain board.

Greg

RCI has been trying to sell me on the idea of converting my week to points. During the past 10 years, we have been able to exchange our week from hour home TS to other ones around the country. But this year RCI called us to see if we would convert our week to points. After spending an hour on the phone, they told us the cost, which was between $3000 to $4000. We decided not to do it. What is your opinion?

 

[lestertravel]

Weeks converted to Points

[IMGL][/IMGL]

Any information about RCI Points and how that system stacks up to other points systems? What about the (dis)advantages aginst the RCI Weeks system?

We are currently on RCI Weeks but are contemplating converting to RCI Points.

Any advice or input?

I have a similar question. I am currently an RCI weeks member and have been offered the option to convert to points (at a price). Is this a good idea?

 

[aliikai2]

Like I just told the last poster

No, this is not a good idea, RCI already uses a points system in weeks, why would you spend extra money to use something so similar to what you already have???

Greg

[IMGL][/IMGL]

I have a similar question. I am currently an RCI weeks member and have been offered the option to convert to points (at a price). Is this a good idea?

 

[susieginger]

Points Rental Liquidators...will change points into cash???

This is probably going to be a really stupid question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway If you don't own a deed at a single resort, how to you go about buying the points? I'm curious as to what I should be looking for, for example, on eBay.

Obviously, I have zero experience with points.

Second question. I'm assuming that if you own WM points and you want to stay in a non-WM property, you'd deposit your points with with RCI? Is that right? Would it be possible to get Bonnet Creek?

Has anyone had any experience with PRL? I was coerced into signing up to pay $10,000 to buy a Sunset Harbor Resort TS with the promise that the RCI (and my Wyndham ) points would be converted into cash (to help pay my maintenance fees). The charge was put on an RCI credit card, opened without my permission. Nonone ever returned my call when I called to cancel. Then my 6 days of recission was up. Input, please!

 

[wilcoxracing]

Ok first of all Im not a timeshare owner. Ive been on numerous presentations. Westgate, Blue Green and Wyndam just to name a few. I love the idea of the timeshare ownership and who wouldnt love the resorts themselves but my question is what is the best type to buy into. I have no interest in going to the exact same place year after year or owning a certain time period somewhere. The points system sounds cool. We have no desire to leave the United States for one and most of the time our vacations are extra long weekends. Problem i saw with westgate was they didnt have that many resorts..Wyndam i was concerned with because alot of thier resorts i was told "could be" hotels/motels that Wyndam has bought and ive seen some of these and wasnt impressed. My sister in law bought into westgate and let it get forclosed on because anytime she tried to use it there was always an issue. I live near Daytona Beach and Orlando so theres a boatload of companies and programs. Id like to find something that fits our travel needs if we are just going away for a weekend, a long weekend or a full week vacation. Any suggestions?

 

[csalter2]

Sounds like points for you...

Ok first of all Im not a timeshare owner. Ive been on numerous presentations. Westgate, Blue Green and Wyndam just to name a few. I love the idea of the timeshare ownership and who wouldnt love the resorts themselves but my question is what is the best type to buy into. I have no interest in going to the exact same place year after year or owning a certain time period somewhere. The points system sounds cool. We have no desire to leave the United States for one and most of the time our vacations are extra long weekends. Problem i saw with westgate was they didnt have that many resorts..Wyndam i was concerned with because alot of thier resorts i was told "could be" hotels/motels that Wyndam has bought and ive seen some of these and wasnt impressed. My sister in law bought into westgate and let it get forclosed on because anytime she tried to use it there was always an issue. I live near Daytona Beach and Orlando so theres a boatload of companies and programs. Id like to find something that fits our travel needs if we are just going away for a weekend, a long weekend or a full week vacation. Any suggestions?

Just from the post you made one would believe that a points timeshare would be good for you. However, I am not sure how much research you have done to truly consider buying a timeshare. You will still have to pay maintenance fees which will probably be a week's worth of points not a weekend's worth. Those fees go up every year. Do you vacation every year? How large of a unit will you need? A one or 2 bedroom? What time of year do you travel? What part of the country do you wish to have most of your resorts? How far in advance can you make reservations? Is the resort suitable for kids? What kinds of acitivities does it offer for kids? etc., etc., etc.

These are just some of the questions you should be asking yourself before purchasing. I would suggest you go on a sampler for some ot the timeshares companies. You basically will pay a small fee to stay at the resort for 3 or 4 days. Some even offer a week. This way you will get to see what the resort is like. They will require you to go to timeshare presentation. So you know to go but DO NOT BUY. Since you have done it already then you should be fine.

Then comeback and ask this us again. If you are going to buy then make sure you do it RESALE!!!!

I belong to Diamond Resorts and Marriott Vacation Club. I love them both, but there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Both have points systems too. However, they offer me great vacations.

 

[Quilter]

Two things:

1) I was looking up what information is available for Wyndham after a friend told me she bought into the points system when she was in Kauai. She had already owned Marriott and enjoyed it so much she was swept up with the details in a sales presentation and now regrets the purchase.

Any suggestions for making the best of the situation would be appreciated.

2) When I clicked on the Wyndham/FF link it comes up a bit distorted with ads falling into the main body of the page. Can someone fix this?

Thanks,
Quilter

 

[susieginger]

Wyndham Points

I have been on the Wyndham Points system for years and find it very user-friendly for my 5 children to use. And yes, these points can be converted into RCI weeks but the exhange fee is almost $200 and then there is the guest fee on top of that for my children to use the TS. So we have decided to stay within the Wyndham family. I have found Wyndham properties to be of high quality, which is what you want when you pay maintenance fees. This year my maintenance fees were $1677 for 308,000 Wyndham points. Wonder how this compares to other TS Companies?

There are a bunch of RCI Points fraudulant companies going around tricking people into buying yet another TS (with another maintenance fee every year) telling you this is the way to get into the RCI points program. My experience was it was a rundown TS "resort" that they couldn't sell any other way. The slick TS salesman (all of them are) tricked me into the sale, promising me he would convert my points into cash money to help pay my maintenance fees. Then when I called the numbers he gave me, he refused to return my calls until my 5 days of recission were over. He had opened up an RCI credit card in my name and put the $10,000 charge for the rundown TS on it and I fought it for 8 months to get it off my credit,etc. I still get phone calls every 2 weeks from similar companies. There must be a lot of people like me that fall for these "slick" salesmen. They are VERY GOOD at charming the public. BEWARE!!!!

 

[susieginger]

RCI Points System

RCI points isn't a TS system but a product that any TS can offer if the resort system signs up for it. THEREFORE this thread doesn't contain any info about RCI points.

I keep getting phone calls baiting me to come to a restaurant and they will tell me how to lower my maintenance fees. When I get there, it is simply RCI Points people trying to sell me yet another Timeshare in the RCI system. They say this is the only way to be in the RCI Points system.

Yet you say any TS could get into the RCI Points System "if the resort system signs up for it". My question is "Is there a RCI Points System catalogue out there so I can tell if the 3 TS's I already own are eligible for the RCI points? (What is wrong with the RCI Points TS's that they have to use such fraudulant means to sell them?)

 

[Bill4728]

I keep getting phone calls baiting me to come to a restaurant and they will tell me how to lower my maintenance fees. When I get there, it is simply RCI Points people trying to sell me yet another Timeshare in the RCI system. They say this is the only way to be in the RCI Points system.

Yet you say any TS could get into the RCI Points System "if the resort system signs up for it". My question is "Is there a RCI Points System catalogue out there so I can tell if the 3 TS's I already own are eligible for the RCI points? (What is wrong with the RCI Points TS's that they have to use such fraudulant means to sell them?)

If you look on RCI at your three resorts it should tell you if they are RCI point resorts. BUT that generally is not a good thing. Because most of the time the resort gets into RCI points because a "company" has gone to them with a money making offer. The resort joins RCI points then the said "company" will try to get the owners to join points at a cost that is 5 - 20 times the true cost. So instead of charging the owners the $300 fee that RCI charges plus a small charge for doing the change, the resort will charge something like $3,000 - $5,000. The "company" get a couple thousand and the resort the rest. BIG TIME SCAM!!

Most people find that the simplest way to get a TS in RCI points is to buy a TS which the current owners are in points and the resort allows a buyer to continue in points. Since many TS resorts are now basically worthless, you can easily find a RCI pts TS owner who wants to sell/give away his TS and for almost no money you are a RCI points owner.

There is lots of info here on RCI points read it before buying anything.

Good Luck

 

[KGOOSE]

so in general, after reading this thread, I am completely confused as to the point system and their value

it seems the fees and costs of trading and booking and exchanging is just like taking your money, buying tokens, and then doing the exact same thing you could have done with your money except at a more limited and expensive manor....

if you want to travel and have different times and locations, why buy points or a timeshare at all, seems like there are far better deals and less hassle just booking condos or hotels through traditional means vs. the points hocus-pocus......

the entire points thing seems like a scam, pyramid scheme that has limited value... how/why has the timeshare concept evolved into this convoluted confusing system (I know, developer profit).

owing a deeded week at a place just seems to make more sense and actually have value

 

[ronparise]

so in general, after reading this thread, I am completely confused as to the point system and their value

it seems the fees and costs of trading and booking and exchanging is just like taking your money, buying tokens, and then doing the exact same thing you could have done with your money except at a more limited and expensive manor....

if you want to travel and have different times and locations, why buy points or a timeshare at all, seems like there are far better deals and less hassle just booking condos or hotels through traditional means vs. the points hocus-pocus......

the entire points thing seems like a scam, pyramid scheme that has limited value... how/why has the timeshare concept evolved into this convoluted confusing system (I know, developer profit).

owing a deeded week at a place just seems to make more sense and actually have value

Heres my take on the evolution of the points systems

1) Fixed Weeks

Timeshares developed as a fixed weeks model. Take a condo in a resort location and sell 52 shares, that entitle each owner to use it during their one week.. you own week 1, I own week 2 and 50 other people own each of the other 50 weeks of the year. and we all share the maintenance and operations costs associated with the place equally

Heres the problem with the weeks model: Very few resorts are true 4 season resorts, with equally enjoyable activities for the vacationer all year. A resort in a ski area might have 12 good weeks of skiing, several so-so and the rest are whats described as mud weeks. And yet all 52 owners share equally in the expenses. Similarly a resort at the beach might have 13 good summer weeks, but whats the point of owning here in the winter, especially when you have to pay the same fees as the guy that owns July 4th

2) Floating Weeks

Savvy developers and their salesman saw the problem. (probably when they realized they had to practically give away the mud weeks) and came up with the idea of floating weeks. Each owner would own a 1/52 share but what they own wouldnt be tied to a certain fixed week. Rather the weeks were assigned each year on a first come first served basis.. Some times you win, sometimes you lose, but everyone gets an equal shot at the best times

There are problems here too. because some one always loses. and the losers still pay exactly the same maintenance fees. as the winners. and if you lose too many times you are going to be one unhappy owner

3) Points..

So developers took the next natural step, they combined several resorts into one large system. Every owner is granted a certain number of points based on what they own. And every week at every resort is given a point value based on the location and time of year. The system acts like a group of hotels with locations at the beach, at ski resorts near golf courses and near theme parks, even in the big cities, like New Orleans and San Francisco that draw a lot of tourists. And points are the "money" used to pay for your reservations. The best weeks will cost more in points to reserve than the bad weeks.

So problems solved, everyone is happy...at least that was the plan. The fact is you cant please everyone. But points systems work for me. and its the best thing that developers have come up with so far

 

[KGOOSE]

thanks for an explanation...

with points, what stops the developer from just selling and selling and selling points? with weeks, you have a fixed number that is finite... when a developer first offers 1,000,000 points on the market, what stops him 2 years from later to just offer another 1,000,000?

and, as I've read before.... what stops the developer from just keeping some of the units as "unavailable" and offering them for rent to the general public, with the points people calling and requesting and the developer saying there is nothing available?

 

[Bill4728]

thanks for an explanation...

with points, what stops the developer from just selling and selling and selling points? with weeks, you have a fixed number that is finite... when a developer first offers 1,000,000 points on the market, what stops him 2 years from later to just offer another 1,000,000?

and, as I've read before.... what stops the developer from just keeping some of the units as "unavailable" and offering them for rent to the general public, with the points people calling and requesting and the developer saying there is nothing available?

There are laws which makes the selling of points that are not backed by real weeks illegal. BUT!! There are ways around it. A developer could open a bad resort at a bad location and add that resort's weeks to a large TS system in order to get more week backed points into their system for them to sell.

"what stops the developer from just keeping some of the units as "unavailable" and offering them for rent to the general public?"
Generally, once "week based point" is sold it then gets transferred out of the developers control and into the control of the management company which the owners hire to run the resort but since most developers are in control of the company which manages most resorts that really isn't true.

That is why many TS owners buy into TS systems which are backed by big, brand name companies like Marriott, Westin (starwood), Hilton & Hyatt. It is also why some companies call themselves things like "Holiday Inn Vacations"