WEEKS owners - FACTS/QUESTIONS - new RCI Program

[crazyhorse]

"ARe weeks already spacebanked going to be switched to the new system?"

Yes.

RCI could not hope to manage two systems for weeks exchange at the same time.

What is slightly puzzling is why RCI don`t clear the air and say precisely how the new system will operate.

If they are not going to lose out by releasing the data before it switches on, why are they allowing speculation to be created as to its possible benefits or drawbacks?

Such speculation would tend to make members more nervous about making deposits now, rather than later.

 

[Stricky]

I logged in today and saw no information or notices about the change on my weeks page. I read the link provided in this thread but it seems to be odd that they would make such big changes without some advanced warning of a change over date. Are we sure the 15th is the date or could this be another 6 months out?

 

[rapmarks]

How about a week that has an ongoing search attached to it? what happens with that?

 

[beejaybee]

Pre-existing Condition?

How about a week that has an ongoing search attached to it? what happens with that?

I've got the same question, Rapmarks. Will we be 'grandfathered' so that the new fees associated with upgrades are waived? Will we be matched sooner with the new system? I have a feeling that RCI was holding back on matches til after 11/15.

I suspect the days of snagging a larger unit via random or ongoing searching will be gone. If RCI's pricing isn't exorbitant, I'm ok with paying a bit extra but I fear we'll be gouged.

 

[Dave599]

How about a week that has an ongoing search attached to it? what happens with that?

Your kind of missing the point here, the underlying system by which rci runs is not changing all they are doing is showing you a numerical value for your trading power it was always there before you just couldn't see it, it will have no effect on on going searches (barring the fact you will now be able to see you haven't got a prayer in getting what your searching for.......) it also will make no difference in banking now or later the trading power is just being reveled (except for date of deposit differences) and there giving some added features (combining weeks, credits back etc).........Bottom line the numbers or some kind of numbers have always been in the system, they don't have to add numbers they have always been there..... all there doing is showing them to you......

Dave

 

[krmlaw]

thats what i was thinking too ... nothing is changing as far as i can tell, but im my opinion getting better. you will be able to see everything with the possibility of extra left over for another exchange ...

 

[Carolinian]

How many times has RCI sworn that they haven't monkeyed with the exchange system (5/30, Black Sunday . . .) when it has been very clear that they in fact have? Now they expect us to believe that tired old line, yet again?

 

[DeniseM]

A gentle reminder - please post opinions in the other thread set up for that purpose.

 

[MichaelColey]

Downtime and rollout announced on RCI.com:

"Due to new product and service enhancements being made over the upcoming weekend, RCI.com will be unavailable to process transactions from 12:01am Eastern Standard Time Friday, November 12th through 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time Sunday, November 14th."

 

[Steve@BWV]

2 questions

Is there any information regarding depositing a lock-off? Will a 2-bedroom lock-off always equal twice the value of two 1-bedrooms? I wonder what this would do to inventory. Perhaps an increase of 2-bedrooms in the system since there will no longer be a need to split the lock out.

The second question is what is the affect on Club memberships such as DVC, if any?

Thanks!

 

[bnoble]

For the first part, we don't know.

I doubt it will change the dedicated portal systems with fixed crossover grids (HGVC, DVC, and I think WM), because they already were "outside" the normal trade power computation mechanism.

 

[bellesgirl]

Ongoing search

Regarding new ongoing search requests entered after Nov. 15: Trading down would not be an issue but how would you trade up and combine deposits? Do you have to combine first or would RCI let you use the total of all your deposits to do the search? Once a match is made you could decide whether it was worth that number and release or confirm.

 

["Roger"]

Is there any information regarding depositing a lock-off? Will a 2-bedroom lock-off always equal twice the value of two 1-bedrooms? ...

This is not a definitive answer as to how it will work in the new system, but this is how it works within the existing Points system.

In general, a one bedroom is worth about 70% the value of a two-bedroom at the same resort. The one bedroom portion of a lockout gets about the same value as one bedrooms units at nearby resorts. (There can be complicating factors making comparisons a bit iffy, but this seems right.) A two bedroom lockout (or a three bedroom lockout) always gets the same value as the point value of the individual portions of the lockout added together.

So, using a set of numbers purely for the sake of illustration, if two bedroom units in an area are getting about 43,000 points, one bedrooms would be getting about 30,000. So, if someone owned a two-bedroom lockout, they could deposit the units separately and get 30,000 points each, or, deposit the entire unit and get 60,000 points.

 

[MichaelColey]

That's similar to how it works with RCI Points For Deposit, too. For instance, at one of my resorts a 1BR is 39.5k, a 2BR is 52.5k or a 3BR is 68k. If I split my 3BR lockout (which I do), I get 92k instead of 68k.

 

[krmlaw]

GREAT - we have a 3 bed, and would like to split still and do a 2 bed and 1 bed.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I talked to someone at RCI, who relieved my anxieties about the system with one sentence:
"Trading power is different from trading value."

So if your week is valued at 10 or 15, you may still see weeks available that the owner received more points, like 20 or 25. So your deposit may see and be able to book into some weeks without adding any points. You will see "this much" inventory, and some may have higher values that the owner got, but your week of lesser value can still get. So the values might be different as a deposit vs. exchange.

Does that make sense?

80% of the inventory will be at 20, so if you get 40 points for a week, you can get two weeks. Orlando most any time shouldn't be more than 20 points. So two off-season Orlando for one good deposit, that sounds good to me.

 

[krmlaw]

ive been getting so stressed about this ... but ive decided not to worry til i see what happens. im thinking my 3 bedroom summer myrtle beach week will still pull great trades.

 

[bnoble]

"Trading power is different from trading value."

Wow.

Okay, that's pretty interesting, and (I admit) a little surprising. It's also a *dis-incentive* to combine in some situations. I await Monday and our new RCI Overlords with anticipation!

 

[Carolinian]

While the final translation of ''RCI Speak'' will have to await their roll out, the most obvious interpretation of what they told you is that trading within bands would appear to be preserved, which is a far better situation than an exact number system.

I talked to someone at RCI, who relieved my anxieties about the system with one sentence:
"Trading power is different from trading value."

So if your week is valued at 10 or 15, you may still see weeks available that the owner received more points, like 20 or 25. So your deposit may see and be able to book into some weeks without adding any points. You will see "this much" inventory, and some may have higher values that the owner got, but your week of lesser value can still get. So the values might be different as a deposit vs. exchange.

Does that make sense?

80% of the inventory will be at 20, so if you get 40 points for a week, you can get two weeks. Orlando most any time shouldn't be more than 20 points. So two off-season Orlando for one good deposit, that sounds good to me.

 

[crazyhorse]

Rci Shutdown

In case some of you don`t receive this notice from RCI, I have received this email. Note that the shutdown applies to the call centre as well as the online facility.

"RCI will be temporarily closed for business over this coming weekend, as we launch more exciting new benefits for our RCI Weeks members.

We will be implementing enhancements to the RCI Weeks program which will bring you more value, improved flexibility and greater transparency.

In order to do this, we need to make upgrades to our technology systems that will require RCI.com and our call centre to be closed temporarily over the weekend to minimise any possible disruption to the service we provide to you.

Our call centre will be closed on the following days;

Friday 12th November 2010
Saturday 13th November 2010

Also, RCI.com will be unavailable between the following times:

From: 5:00am - Friday 12th November 2010
To: 5:00am - Monday 15th November

Should you have an immediate need, please try to complete this before the above dates. This will enable us to service your request as efficiently as possible. When we re-open, we are expecting to see higher than usual volume in our call centre as well as RCI.com."

 

[Steve@BWV]

So, using a set of numbers purely for the sake of illustration, if two bedroom units in an area are getting about 43,000 points, one bedrooms would be getting about 30,000. So, if someone owned a two-bedroom lockout, they could deposit the units separately and get 30,000 points each, or, deposit the entire unit and get 60,000 points.

If I understand correctly and if RCI maintains the same values as they have claimed, it will no longer benefit me to deposit my my lock-off as a single unit. Michael was able to increase his value by nearly 50%. If I can recombine those values post deposit I will be able to book a week never before available to me.

This seems too good to be true unless there is really a ~50% greater value to the split unit.

 

["Roger"]

Michael's comment completely confused me. He said that what I described is the same as what happens within Points for Deposit and then gave numbers that did not match what I had just described.

Within Points itself (I am not talking about Points for Deposit), you get the same number of points whether you deposit your unit as a whole or the individual parts separately. This will be more than what you get for similar sized units at nearby resorts that are not lockouts. That is because RCI gives you the full value of the separate units.

Points for deposit is an entirely different animal entirely. I actually agreed with Carolinian that the PFD charts are very crude. All GC's in a wide area get the same number of points regardless of differences in location, quality, number of bathrooms, size of kitchens; no bonus for lockouts; etc. I always said that I would accept charts that were resort specific. I would guess that with the changeover that is coming.

 

[Mel]

This is not a definitive answer as to how it will work in the new system, but this is how it works within the existing Points system.

In general, a one bedroom is worth about 70% the value of a two-bedroom at the same resort. The one bedroom portion of a lockout gets about the same value as one bedrooms units at nearby resorts. (There can be complicating factors making comparisons a bit iffy, but this seems right.) A two bedroom lockout (or a three bedroom lockout) always gets the same value as the point value of the individual portions of the lockout added together.

So, using a set of numbers purely for the sake of illustration, if two bedroom units in an area are getting about 43,000 points, one bedrooms would be getting about 30,000. So, if someone owned a two-bedroom lockout, they could deposit the units separately and get 30,000 points each, or, deposit the entire unit and get 60,000 points.

But Roger, that's assuming that a 2BR lockout splits into to full 1BR units. While there are a few areas where that is the case, many 2BR lockouts split into a 1BR unit and a Studio, and would not qualify for the equivalent of two 1BR. Of those units where a 2BR lockout converts to two 1BR units, the resulting 2BR unit is often huge - bigger than a typical regular 2BR unit. I would expect such a unit to be worth more.

Now that we're moving to the new system, perhap RCI will assign values in such a way that two sides add up to the same credits as the individual sides added together. We will know soon enough.

I talked to someone at RCI, who relieved my anxieties about the system with one sentence:
"Trading power is different from trading value."

So if your week is valued at 10 or 15, you may still see weeks available that the owner received more points, like 20 or 25. So your deposit may see and be able to book into some weeks without adding any points. You will see "this much" inventory, and some may have higher values that the owner got, but your week of lesser value can still get. So the values might be different as a deposit vs. exchange.

Does that make sense?

80% of the inventory will be at 20, so if you get 40 points for a week, you can get two weeks. Orlando most any time shouldn't be more than 20 points. So two off-season Orlando for one good deposit, that sounds good to me.

This makes complete sense

Perhaps your week has a "trading value" of 15, and you deposit it more than 9 months out, so you get your full 15 points. You want to go exchange into a week with a "trading value" of 25. If you try to book that week a full year out, it would cost 25 credits, and the member who deposited it would have recieved 25 credits. We don't know the exact percentages, but we know closer than 9 months out, the credits give go down, and I would expect the cost to go down too - so say at 6 months there is a reduction of 40%, and that member is given 15 credits of "trade power" on his week with a "trade value" of 25. You are now able to book that same unit for 15 credits.

This might also explain how bulk banking has worked in the past, assuming there is another factor based on the number of weeks already on deposit from your resort.

In other words, if there is an oversupply of one resort with a high "trading value" compared to a neighbor resort, the resulting "trading power" at the first resort may end up lower, providing an incentive for people to exchange in and reduce that oversupply.

 

[MichaelColey]

Michael's comment completely confused me. He said that what I described is the same as what happens within Points for Deposit and then gave numbers that did not match what I had just described.

Within Points itself (I am not talking about Points for Deposit), you get the same number of points whether you deposit your unit as a whole or the individual parts separately. This will be more than what you get for similar sized units at nearby resorts that are not lockouts. That is because RCI gives you the full value of the separate units.

I read back through your post and I see both similarities and difference between RCI Points and PFD. You pointed out that with RCI Points a 1BR is worth about 70% of a 2BR. That matches pretty close to PFD values. The difference is that PFD doesn't differentiate between lockouts and reguar units, while RCI Points does. To get maximum value out of a lockout with PFD, you must split it.

Based on what I've seen about trading values within RCI Weeks, and taking RCI at their word about trading values not changing, I would excpect the new system to more closely resemble PFD values. Conventional wisdom says that the trading value in RCI Weeks between a 1BR, 2BR and 3BR is not much different. I know when I split and deposit my lockouts, my 1BR and 2BR sides typically just see 10k difference (115k vs. 125k, 125k vs. 135k, and 135k vs. 145k is what I've seen, depending on the resort and week). Looking at which deposits can see 2BR units vs. 3BR units, I think the difference there is minimal as well. So splitting is definitely better right now in RCI Weeks and should continue to be.

 

[jjking42]

Hopefully this will cut down on lock off deposits
We always want 2 bedroom units and only own 2 bedroom units.

We often find units where we want to go but always one bedrooms. lack of two bedroom units has always bothered me. Its the worst with Marriott in II.

If the points values are the same more two bedroom units should get deposited. Because you can still get two weeks of vacation with the bigger point value and you want have to pay lock off fees.