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no clue newbies with weeks system

auntiepen

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We bought a timeshare in costa rica by not thinking clearly. We have no clue how it works . These are the information we know.
1. We have to exchange with RCI
2. We have to call our resort to reserve our weeks. I think we must have floating weeks from what I read in this thread.
I need guide on how to reserve or use our weeks. We do not want to go back to Costa Rica every year.My questions are
1. How do we figure out the best time to reserve our weeks.
2. After reserve our weeks we need to deposti our weeks with RCI and what will happend if we could not find place we want to go.
3. I read that RCI has tools that can help you to plan vacation. How do you use them.

Please guide me thru these steps
Thank you
 

DeniseM

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Hi and welcome to TUG!

What is the name of your timeshare?

How long ago did you buy?
 

auntiepen

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The name is Villas Sol in Guanacaste. We bought it in April 2011 and paid off in July. We would like to exchange for the stay in Thailand around Dec-Feb of every year. Or maybe try to rent it out
Pen
 

Passepartout

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Welcome to TUG. Now let me see if I've got this.... You bought something you don't understand. Are not sure how or when to book your use. And don't want to use what you bought.

If you want to go at a fixed time to Thailand, why didn't you buy a fixed week in Thailand?

The general TUG wisdom is to buy where you want to vacation at least half the time. Buy resale. Hopefully you can drive to your 'home' TS in case airfares get too expensive to fly.

The instructions for how to book should be in the packet of material you got when you bought. You don't have to join any exchange company to use your own TS. If you want to exchange it, do you have an RCI account? If not, get one. Go to www.RCI.com Find out how many Trading Point Units your TS unit/week is worth. These TPUs trade like currency to exchange into other timeshares. Holiday weeks generally are worth more than off season- whatever that may be in Costa Rica. Once you know what your week is worth, you can look for timeshares to exchange into. Both RCI membership and exchanging cost money.

Read the stickies for newbies. When you know what you have and have specific questions, c'mon back and ask. Also try the search function up in that blue stripe near the top of each TUG page. I can't imagine any timeshare question that hasn't been asked.

Good luck with your new timeshare.

Jim Ricks
 

auntiepen

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Hi Jim,
We we were ignorance I guess. You understood me right. When we bought it the sales person told us that we can rent our unit via the global resort service,and use the holiday systems international to buy our stay at our resort or any places at cheap price. The Global resort call us few days after we came back from our costa rica trip to help us renting our unit. Yes, we fell for it since it was recommended by sale person at the resort we bought. I never heard about TUG until we got into the scam. I called the resort and was told that the sale guy was no longer work for the company. We stuck with this resort and instead of getting anger or sorry about it we just want to make the best use of the timeshare we got. The reason we mentioned Thailand because we travel to Thailand yearly but it is very hard to get the timeshare week during the winter time. We normally stay in the guesthouse or find reasonable hotel around the area. I am RCI member both point (2 years now) and week(for costa rica timeshare). There is no instruction for us and we have tried to cancel with the resort but no luck. I was told to call the resort to book our stay that's it. How do I find out about TPU on my resort? How do I find out the best season on my resort?
Thank you again.
Pen
 

Passepartout

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Hi Pen,
I am not sure how much help I can be on this. You will have to do some of the leg-work. First, what size is your Villa Sol TS? I understand the it trades in RCI because you say that it's the basis of your weeks membership. RCI is down this weekend, but when they open, sign on to your weeks account. You should be able to see your resort. It should tell you what it's trading value is. This is usually higher farther out- say a year or more will have higher value than 120 days from move in. Holiday weeks (Spring Break, Thanksgiving, Easter etc) will have higher value. Play with it. Put in different dates to see how your trade value changes.

By knowing what value your trade has, you will get an idea what weeks to reserve. Reserve as high value week as you can, and deposit it into RCI. Then you can do a search and reserve the resort you want. The most desirable weeks/resorts don't make it to the online catalog to choose from. Reservations are filled first. Again, the further out you place an order, the better chance of getting the resort you want.

Read the RCI reviews, and spend $15 to join TUG. That gives you access to reviews by other TUGgers of thousands of resorts. I haven't looked, but there are probably reviews of resorts in Thailand, too.

Exchanging isn't easy. That's why we say, if you want a particular week/season at a particular place, buy that. No exchanging required.

For now read up on exchanging. Find out what you have and what it's worth as an exchange.

Many TUGgers bought timeshares without knowing what/how to use it. You are not alone.

Good Luck!

Jim
 

auntiepen

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Hi Pen,
I am not sure how much help I can be on this. You will have to do some of the leg-work. First, what size is your Villa Sol TS? I understand the it trades in RCI because you say that it's the basis of your weeks membership. RCI is down this weekend, but when they open, sign on to your weeks account. You should be able to see your resort. It should tell you what it's trading value is. This is usually higher farther out- say a year or more will have higher value than 120 days from move in. Holiday weeks (Spring Break, Thanksgiving, Easter etc) will have higher value. Play with it. Put in different dates to see how your trade value changes.

By knowing what value your trade has, you will get an idea what weeks to reserve. Reserve as high value week as you can, and deposit it into RCI. Then you can do a search and reserve the resort you want. The most desirable weeks/resorts don't make it to the online catalog to choose from. Reservations are filled first. Again, the further out you place an order, the better chance of getting the resort you want.

Read the RCI reviews, and spend $15 to join TUG. That gives you access to reviews by other TUGgers of thousands of resorts. I haven't looked, but there are probably reviews of resorts in Thailand, too.

Exchanging isn't easy. That's why we say, if you want a particular week/season at a particular place, buy that. No exchanging required.

For now read up on exchanging. Find out what you have and what it's worth as an exchange.

Many TUGgers bought timeshares without knowing what/how to use it. You are not alone.

Good Luck!

Jim
Hi Jim,
It's one bedroom unit. I have signed up with RCI but do not know how it works yet. How do I find my resort after I login? Where do I go to find the value of the resort.? Must i use the same week (resort) for the exchange?
Pen
 

Passepartout

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Hi Jim,
It's one bedroom unit. I have signed up with RCI but do not know how it works yet. How do I find my resort after I login? Where do I go to find the value of the resort.? Must i use the same week (resort) for the exchange?
Pen

Hopefully someone brighter than me will be able to explain how to find one's TPU. I have only been a weeks owner for a short time and don't plan to exchange. It may also change after this weekend's 'enhancements.'

As to using the same week to exchange, if it's the only week resort you have, I guess that's what you'll exchange. But if you have others, multiple ones can be deposited, TPUs can be combined. Lock-off units can be deposited separately- or one side deposited and one side used. This new system seems quite flexible. You even get to keep the 'change'. Say you deposit 25 TPUs and the exchange you want just costs 20, you will still have 5 trading power units to use for a short stay or last minute exchange- or carry over to combine with your next year's deposit.

Jim
 

glypnirsgirl

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Hi Pen - I have an out of country timeshare that I deposit into RCI.

What Jim is describing is this:

1. Go to RCI weeks trading calculator
2 Input the name of your resort and the size of the unit
*there are spaces for each one;
3. Then, using the calculator, choose the week. Because your timeshare is out of country, you will need to do the same thing that I do which is start with week 1 and input it, make note of the trading units;
4. Then do it again using week 2 and make note of the trading units.

After a few weeks, you will find out what the average number of trading units for your resort and size. Then you will only need to note the high weeks (desirable) and the low weeks (undesirable).

5, Once you have determined which week you want to deposit to maximize your trading units, call your resort and make your reservation starting with the request for the highest weeks first and working your way down. Once you have made your reservation, you are ready to deposit your week with RCI.

6. Call RCI and tell them you want to deposit your week and give them the specifics: name of resort, size of unit, week that you have reserved. RCI will then deposit the trading units for your week into your RCI account.

7. Now that you have the trading units to trade, you can start either an on-going search for the range of weeks that you are interested in going to Thailand at the resorts that you would find acceptable OR you can do an instant search.

8. Because the on-going searched are (theoretically) supposed to be filled first, it is better to start an on-going search. Many people find that some units slip through to instant exchange so they check for instant exchanges regularly, also.

Hope this helps. Once you have done this a time or two, it will become fun. At first, I found it nerve racking.

Best of luck to you!
elaine
 

auntiepen

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Hi Elaine
Thank you very much for the clarification. This is the information I need . I will do the research tomorrow. do you mind if I email you directly to ask questions I might have.
Pen
 
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