glenn1000: did you get any news from TUG feedback re Castleburn?

[michelle]

If so, and if you are willing to share, do you mind telling us what they said? I am curious, because this is a Gold Crown resort, and it should be trading better than before BS...

Thanks!

 

[glenn1000]

I am awaiting an answer from Madge about Castleburn. Since another person recently posted on my "Ask RCI" thread, it put me at the back of Madge's line since she answers the oldest posts first. I have not sent an e-mail about my own weeks to RCI yet since it seems to be a "resort in general" type of issue (i.e. not specific to my deposits). I can only speculate at this point so.....

I have to believe that the Castleburn valuation represents a simple, unique error in the RCI system. It is a GC resort and we own 2-bedroom peak weeks. This resort used to trade well and after BS it should trade even better, like all other SA GC resorts that have been mentioned. None of the other SA GC resorts were devalued.

Unfortunately the current Castleburn post-BS trading power is awful. I am inclined to think that this was some sort of coding mistake since it makes no sense. I have never gone along with the RCI conspiracy line of thinking and do not think that anyone is trying to purposely do something negative. I imagine that RCI will look into this and, hopefully, my next deposits (and maybe the current one that I have left) will receive the appropriate trade value. I can still deposit this week with RCI Points and get some value in that manner, though I prefer to use the weeks system.

 

[philemer]

Glenn,
Have you ever written feedback@rci.com and asked them to take a look at the specific TP of your weeks and why they are worse than other SA GC?

Phil

 

[JustPlainBill]

I am more paranoid about this. Not only has the value of my Castleburn unit been squashed by RCI, so has the value of Kruger Park Lodge. These are two of the finest resorts in the world. I think RCI may well be responding to the infamous N.Y. Times travel expose, which outed the S.A. timeshare buyers. Don't forget that RCI is intimately tied to U.S. timeshare developers, who use the RCI catalog to show what a swell deal a timeshare is. I imagine that RCI was under considerable pressure from some of those developers to prevent cheapo buyers from entering the system.

 

[Aldo]

Bill,

I hardly think that the owners of Castleburn and Kruger Park Lodges, reputably two of the finest resorts in the world, should be classified as "Cheapo." Just because, for a variety of reasons, a person could pick up a week there cheaper than they might in the United States really shouldn't enter into the discussion.
What is actually happening is that the same people who are supposedly running the exchange system are also trying to sell Blue weeks in the U.S. for $10,000 a pop, and pushing you to spend thousands to get onto their "points" system. Pretty simple to figure out what is happening here.

To say that someone who merely made a good deal on a timeshare was "outed" by the New York Times is ridiculous...and so is the New York Times itself...consider Jayson Blair and Judith Miller, if you would...

Glenn-
Sorry, but what you are experiencing IS NOT a simple and unique error in the system. Lots of us SA owners have had their trading value reduced to practically zero, just like you. I called RCI and they told me that our Peak Weeks there were not being taken up by anyone. Hard to believe as they are during the SA holiday break.

 

[Janie]

Isn't it also possible that...

the SA resorts that have lost trading power are located in less-than-desirable destinations, or destinations where supply outweighs demand? There are plenty of high quality GC resorts in Orlando and Branson that don't trade well in RCI.

Madge says that RCI now uses the same trading power formula for SA weeks as it does for everything else. Not all peak red week, GC resorts in the US trade well.

For the record, my Wilderness Dunes week 26 was a winner in the trade power shakeup. I was prepared for it not to be: week 26 is peak, but it's a winter school holiday break week at a beach resort. Similar US weeks do not trade well (think Myrtle Beach in the winter). However, I have noticed that Wilderness Dunes weeks are quite scarce in RCI: They are rarely available online compared to Castleburn and KPL and there appears to be an internal resort group preference at work also which prevents them from being visible to non-Legacy resort owners.

 

[glenn1000]

Janie,

You could be right. That's my fear, though it is hard to believe that these particular weeks are not in high demand. I wonder if RCI has the supply/demand ratio fully figured out for SA yet. Something tells me that this may be a work in progress, but perhaps I am the proud owner of dud weeks.

 

[Emily]

I had the same problem with my red peak GC Peninsula. I wrote RCI SA and the RCI feedback to no avail. It pulled less than my Dik and it was a major coding issue within the RCI system. This was before BS. All I got was the standard pat answers. I eventually got rid of it. RCI tried to say that it had a high VEP but why was DIK pulling the same weeks? Once in awhile it would pull something Dik couldn't (FF Oceanwalk) but not often. Cape Escapes (who I didn't buy it from/sell it to) stated that it should have traded incredibly well (as far as SA resorts go) because it is a high demand resort in a high demand location.

 

[Aldo]

Stop Blaming Yourselves

None of you bought "Cheapo" or "Dud" weeks, and none of you bought weeks that nobody else wants.

All that any of you ever did was purchase very high quality timeshare units, in peak travel seasons, in one the world's fastest growing tourist destinations.

I recognize the human tendency not to admit that someone or something is doing them wrong, and to attempt to blame themselves, but there is no need for that.

The reason you cannot make the trade you want with you units is simply because those trades have been skimmed off the exchange pool. RCI will rent them you to through any of a myriad of sites, but will not let you exchange into them.

Rest assured that YOUR own week has plenty of value, despite what the VC says...because if you look at the RCI rental sites, you will often find your OWN supposedly worthless week up for rent for a $1000 or so.

So...you haven't done anything wrong, and your weeks are quite valuable.

 

[michelle]

None of you bought "Cheapo" or "Dud" weeks, and none of you bought weeks that nobody else wants.

All that any of you ever did was purchase very high quality timeshare units, in peak travel seasons, in one the world's fastest growing tourist destinations.

I recognize the human tendency not to admit that someone or something is doing them wrong, and to attempt to blame themselves, but there is no need for that.

The reason you cannot make the trade you want with you units is simply because those trades have been skimmed off the exchange pool. RCI will rent them you to through any of a myriad of sites, but will not let you exchange into them.

Rest assured that YOUR own week has plenty of value, despite what the VC says...because if you look at the RCI rental sites, you will often find your OWN supposedly worthless week up for rent for a $1000 or so.

So...you haven't done anything wrong, and your weeks are quite valuable.

Aldo, I know you have no love for RCI, but I am sorry: this is simply just too broad of a statement! And it might confuse the issues at hand.

Some resorts have proven themselves to trade much better after BS, Strand Pavilion and Wilderness Dunes have been mentioned. The Cape Town area (where Strand is) is popular year round - probably the top destination in SA. Wilderness Dunes is on the Garden Route, and on the beach, in an area where there are few top resorts. So, no real surprises there.

Some of the other SA resorts are trading much worse after BS, and this is to be expected. We always knew that if RCI ever looked into this, those of us with studio, white, standard resorts were going to have problems. So, no fault of RCI - this was a risk that has been mentioned here for years.

What we really need to do now, hence trade tests, and questions for Madge/feedback etc., is to determine the trade values of the more "unknown" resorts/areas, to know what we can expect in future, or to find out if there was maybe a mistake made on RCI's part.

In my mind Kruger Park Lodge should trade like a star. Castleburn, however, is (unfortunately) in a remote area, nowhere near a major airport. However, it is a top resort. So, lower trade value, or did RCI make a mistake? Asking them to double check should be no big deal.

We did a trade test a few months ago. Too few participated. Is it time now to do it again? It would be good to have a list of resorts, top to bottom, so people can compare their own results, ask RCI to check if needed, and know what to expect in future.

 

[king1]

Michelle,
A new trade test would be a wonderful idea, and the resulting info would be invaluable to all of us. Right now there are three SA weeks in my account that I'd report on--one tiger and two dead cats. I'm in the process of a complete portfolio change, or a total departure from timesharing, and would love to have accurate up to date info.
I'm one of the cheap white week owners, and have no complaints about my 50 some trades over the last several years. I've said many times that the ride was too good to last, and it was. Wasn't it lots of fun, though?

Aldo,
You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but perhaps you are letting your prejudice color some of your perceptions. There IS a great deal of truth in what you are saying about the changes in RCI exchange opportunities. It's only anecdotal, but I've seen significant changes in RCI availability not attributable to trade power, and I've only been in this game since '01. With that said, there are still many good trades to be made, but we all will have to constantly re-evaluate and roll with the punches. I'm not ready to declare timesharing dead, and if I stay in, RCI is the only game in town for me due to my travel habits. I've made 4 or 5 nice RCI exchanges just in the last couple of months, at prices that are not attainable for me in any other way.

 

[ndonovan]

Trade tests

Just a reminder, trade tests should be done privately or the results should be posted on sightings. If you post them here I will need to move them to sightings.