I think this is the primary disconnect you and I are having.
my understanding of HGVC is that there is no "owner/member" reserved inventory. It is an exchange system with a giant pile of points. As soon as you enroll and want to use anything other than your deeded week, you are using an exchange with multiple parties owning points (HGVC being the developer of thousands of time intervals, the owner of the exchange, and the one who purchases points from people to provide club perks is the largest individual point owner).
I guess the question that we need to clarify, is do you view HGVC as an owner and participant on the exchange or simply the entity that facilitates exchanges?
If you view them as only a facilitator, then I fully understand your frustration.
The reality is very different, HGVC is not a facilitator, they are a participant, but a participant who ties their own hands by not reserving "hot weeks" and always willing to give up one of their own reservations for a points reservation by another member. By that same token, they attempt to monetize whatever they have left over as best they can by renting rooms out to other members or renting them out to third parties.
Now put yourself in HGVC shoes
If you pay MF of $1,000/year on your week, would you be willing to rent it to a friend for $700?
Should Hilton rent out these room to members at a loss? Breakeven? or a small profit?
HGVC is currently renting out the rooms to members at a loss, and you are frustrated that they are not willing to continue to absorb those loses.
If HGVC raised prices by $1, you would be mad.
If HGVC raised prices to break even, you would be mad.
If HGVC raised price to break even + a small profit, you would be mad.
You are rightfully mad that HGVC is making sound business decisions that determent you to the benefit of the owners of Hilton (who will now lose less money on the open season).
I have a whole list of price items that make me mad. Airlines no longer give food, almost all of them charge to check bags, pretty soon I will have to pump quarters into the john door to take a leak in privacy onboard, and for some reason the guy sitting next to me paid 10-20% less.
My cell phone company now wants me to "finance" a new cell phone instead of giving me a 2 year contract and a discounted phone price.
I used to get more juice in my carton, more cereal in my box, more ice cream in my container, and more toilet paper in a packet, and they kept the prices the same. When they made those decisions, companies used the excuse that expenses had gone up because of gas prices, but now that prices have dropped, I don't see the size of my packages increasing to old levels or the prices of my groceries going down.
There is a reprieve for 3 months in which HGVC will more publically start discussing the changes to the open season program rather than sneaking it in like the less juice in the carton, but in the scheme of things, that is meaningless. I would be much happier if HGVC came up with a transparent way that open season was calculated and instead of annually changing the rates or coming up with confusing ranges, have a solid meathodology that we can all understand and that stays consistent over time (E.G., it rises with CPI, or is the publically available rental rate - X percent)
