I am both a user (that finds some value) and a critic of RCI.
I want them to modernize, have more affordable exchanges, and to have an all digital option.
Unlike
@Carolinian, I generally like the idea of points (where you have transparency into the value of what you give up and what you trade into) and having TPUs to indicate such on the weeks side.
I wish all exchanges offered that level of transparency in exchanging.
However, I wish RCI would focus more on affordable exchanges. DEX offers all digital exchanges for $150 a pop and uses RCI on the back in for many of the changes … why can RCI not manage to do the same for their own loyal customers?
RCI has the worst possible take on transparency. The number of points may be transparent, but the important thing, the method of determining them is NOT. In the old days, their was no incentive for resorts to politick RCI for more trading power than they deserved and the fact that trading power was not published meant there would be no such incentive. Therefore trading power was generally pretty honest based on supply and demand. The important piece of transparency, the formula for determining trading power has never been published for RCI Points.
With published trading power, developers push RCI to increase their assigned points beyond what supply and demand would justify. The areas overbuilt in timeshare, for example, get way too much trading power. Also, as a general rule, sold out resorts get screwed and resorts still in developer sales get overpointed.
Having served a number of years as an HOA board member and as HOA president of a sold out resort on the NC Outer Banks, I will give you a case in point from the OBX. When RCI Points came in, the only timeshare developer still in developer sales was Barrier Island Station. Their two oceanfront resorts in Duck were sold out and they were selling their newest resort at Kitty Hawk which was not even in walking distance of the beach. On the rental market, their Kitty Hawk resort was the second lowest demand on the OBX, while the larger of their Duck resorts was second most in demand. Observations of exchange availability on RCI tracked that precisely. I talked to an exec of BIS about the time the rumors about RCI going to points were circulating and he told me in so many words that "if RCI goes to points, we are moving to II." When they later went RCI Points, I inquired of someone else familiar with the workings of BIS. What happened is that BIS very early had inquired how many points their Kitty Hawk resort would get and were not satisfied at all. Later, they negotiated further with RCI and arranged to get the points they wanted for Kitty Hawk by putting the other two resorts which they managed and controlled the HOA boards of, into points also but at absurdly low levels. Their sold out resorts were "sold out" on point allocations to help the developer sell their new resort which was overpointed in comparison. It was absurd for the low demand Kitty Hawk resort to carry more points than the high demand Duck resorts. (BTW, the highest demand resort on the OBX is Outer Banks Beach Club, and the lowest is the other off-the-beach resort, Seascape).
This is one example of the corruption is assigning point values in RCI that I am familiar with but looking at point values, it is hardly the only one. I did some old posts here on TUG when I got a hold of a points book showing some of the less than honest relative values.
If any non-developer points system sets up a published and verifiable methodology for assigning points, then I would consider using their system. As long as they are not transparent about how they do that, then corruption of the system will be endemic.
A points system within one developer's own resorts is likely to be more honest and there is less need to see the methodology. I would not hesitate to buy into Hapimag's point system for example, if I ever found a good deal on a resale (which is unlikely, however, due to the developer's buy-back program).
Many forget that the first exchange company to offer online exchanges was Timelinx, an independent exchange company based in Sweden. Timelinx was started by a group of business school grad students who put together the concept as a project in one of their courses and decided to actually pull the trigger and create it in real life. Timelinx also developed a timeshare resort at a chateau in France and opened a branch office in Asia (Singapore if memory serves). Unfortunately, the founders of the company sold it for a nice profit and the new owners thought they could make more money on timeshare scams and largely got out of the exchange business.
