One plus for the new RCI regime is that they now have made similar availibility tables as have been provided in the European version of the RCI Directory availible for all resort areas, split into 4 categories, but divided a bit different than by month. They also have an average of trading power needed for each segment.
Orlando is shown with high availibility all year, but experience would indicate some seasons would be different. South Africa does show a variance but in flipping through the regions in the country it would appear that all time periods in all SA regions are in the two lowest categoies of availibility. The Outer Banks shows to be in the second lowest category all year long, which does not make sense as the summer months should be lower and the dead of winter (weeks 48-50 and 1-6) should be the highest availibility level.
These graphs are based on availability, not supply and demand - and not by percentages, but but the number of units available. As such, Orlando will by definition be high avaialability at all times, and and area with few resorts (like CT with only two very small resorts) will always have low availability.
Lots of the average trading power numbers also did not make sense, such as the Charleston, SC area being lower than the Outer Banks. Charleston is one of the highest demand compared to supply areas in the US. The London numbers, particularly April and May also made no sense at all.
Since I have no RCI deposits I cannot check on availiibility although I did try to use their trading power calculator but it is broken. There is no way to enter the week number, although it would take all of the other information.
Those trading power numbers may have been "actual" trading power when the trade was made, rather than maximum or what you get if you deposit more than 9 months out. Thus it would be a more true reflection of the real cost of exchanging in. We don't know what percentage of RCI members pay their maintenance fees early, but we always see a spike in availability after the beginning of the year (when most fees are due, and many members make their deposits). It that is the case, trade power required to trade in will be lower.
I had to switch back from Google Chrome to Internet Explorer to get proper functionality (I didn't try Firefox). The toggle between view-all and view-your-deposits doesn't work in Chrome.
I had to switch from IE to Chrome - couldn't open the calculator with IE, probably something about my popup settings.
Weighting on resort status is a big negative for their valuation system as it is an almost irrelevent factor. On the OBX, the highest demand resorts are OBBC I and II (GC and SC) and right behind it BIS-Duck (standard). Those are the resorts that should have roughly equal numbers at the top end. The lowest demand resorts (because they are off the beach) are BIS-Kitty Hawk (former GC, now Hospitality) and Seascape. If they are basing this on supply and demand, as they should, the beachfront resorts should be on top and the off the beach resorts lower.
When I looked at availability on the outer banks this morning, Duck had many more units available than Kitty Hawk, suggesting that it is not in fact more popular.
Duck currently has 244 units available - with a trade power range of 3-23, 132 of them are 2BR or better. Kitty Hawk has 110 units available, TP 4-36, 33 of them 2BR or larger (and includes a few 4BR units). While there are Thanksgiving units available at Duck, there are none at Kitty Hawk.
So I check my deposit value for a Dec. 2011 week via the calculator; then I check available units for the same date and size. Lo and behold, it takes one additional trading power point/credit beyond the value they will provide me to trade back into the same unit.
That's unusual, almost everything I have checked in less than what RCI will give for a deposit. But I did notice a handful of strange situations:
Christmas week (more than 30 days out, less than 45) at a couple of resorts. #3660 in Leads SD, 30 credits to check into a studio on Dec 17, but only 14 credits (18 max) if you deposit it today. 30 Credits for a 1BR at #1965 in Portugal checking in on Dec 19 or 26th, 30 credits to exchange in, only 12 (15 max) to deposit today. Very strange indeed.
What resort & week do you own, maybe someone else can verify
So far, I see two things we've lost:
1) Exchange Priority. For one of my deposits, I had exchange priority into the same resort group. My lower value deposit was able to see stuff that a higher trading value deposit couldn't see. That's no longer the case. Hopefully this is just a temporary oversight.
2) Trading Value Disregarded at 45 Days. The worst blue week studio could exchange into anything that was still available at 45 days. This appears to no longer be the case. All of my deposits used to be able to see essentially the same inventory within 45 days, but now the lower traders don't see the best units (and even my best trader doesn't see everything). Trading values appear to drop at 90 days, 30 days and 14 days. This is actually a more fair way to do things, IMHO.
The deposit trading power drops at those dates, but look closely at a few areas, and you will see something entirely different.
Take one of Carolinian's "favorites" for example, Vacation Village at Parkway:
Just looking at 2BR units, you can trade in now for 7 credits... or in mid-May of 2011 for the same 7 credits. It will cost you 18 credits the first 2 weeks of August (and presumably all of July except there are 2BR units available), then back down to 7 credits except Thanksgiving (16 credits) or Christmas (18) or New Year (16). Then 12 Credits or more from January 2012 on.
Those drops for deposit amounts don't seem to correlate with the cost of exchanges which drop quicker in some cases, though there are also some units that are not dropping so fast.
:whoopie:
