Will I lose too much trade power with RCI?

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

Still haven't deposited my summer Gaslamp, not sure what I really want to do I guess. Would I lose a lot of trade power deposting now with RCI for late July, 09?
Liz

 

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

Bump, still looking for advice. I haven't used RCI for a while and I know I get better trade power depositing early, but is this still worth doing or should I wait and see if I can rent it? We already have 3 weeks planned this summer, so I want some down time at home as well.
Liz

 

[bnoble]

I think the answer is "you won't know for sure until you try."

I deposited a summer '09 week about 8 months in advance of travel with no ill effect---at least as far as I can tell.

 

[ausman]

Since few responses, I haven't seen a depositing late discussion for some time now.

A few years ago when I was interested in the topic, the answer seemed to be that low to medium traders benefited more from early deposit. Superior deposits seemed to lose little if any when deposited closer to the date.

Whether that is still true or not I don't know, but would suspect so.

 

[Laurie]

As others have said, you'll probably be fine to deposit now.

 

[Judy]

I deposited my 2009 President's week two-bedroom in Heavenly Valley Ski resort into RCI in May 2008 (nine months in advance of check-in). It trades like an August studio in Death Valley. I can only see very off-season weeks mostly everywhere. I've compared what it pulls with another week from a different resort that was deposited a year in advance, so I know better weeks are available - even as Extra Vacations!

I was surprised at my deposit's poor trading power, so I called an RCI supervisor to ask what the problem was. She told me that if she paid her credit card one day late, it was still late :annoyed:

 

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

OK,I guess we'll hold and hope to rent or use ourselves. We just have a lot planned for this summer, 2 weeks in Hawaii and a week in San Francisco as well.
Liz

 

[skimble]

In terms of the old RCI system, you'd still retain decent trading power up to the 3 month mark with a summer Gaslamp. I'm not too sure about the new system.
However, keep in mind, since you have a VRI resort, if you choose to exchange back into another VRI, you'll have priority exchange status, Thus, you could deposit later and still get decent trades. Of course, have you thought about trying VRIety?

 

[wauhob3]

It goes more by demand than anything. I deposited a summer week 6 months out and the next year at the same time and they each pulled the same. My resort has high demand in the summer.

 

[wackymother]

Honestly, my gut feeling is that six months is enough to give you decent power, especially with a high-demand week. I feel like that whole "deposit early" thing is exaggerated by RCI just to get members to plan way way in advance.

 

[Judy]

Honestly, my gut feeling is that six months is enough to give you decent power, especially with a high-demand week. I feel like that whole "deposit early" thing is exaggerated by RCI just to get members to plan way way in advance.

I thought so too, until my recent experience (see my post #6). Have you or anyone else had a good experience depositing into RCI 6-9 months in advance of check-in RECENTLY?

 

[Kozman]

Honestly, my gut feeling is that six months is enough to give you decent power, especially with a high-demand week. I feel like that whole "deposit early" thing is exaggerated by RCI just to get members to plan way way in advance.

I tend to agree. I've deposited identical units one year out and one month out and have not noticed any significant difference in trade power. Unless you deposit a special holiday week or a special high demand low supply unit (one RCI can use to rent out for a huge profit), the trade power seems to be almost identical. Actually, I think RCI has about 3 or 4 levels of trade power and it's very difficult to get to the highest level.

 

[wackymother]

Actually, I think RCI has about 3 or 4 levels of trade power and it's very difficult to get to the highest level.

That's exactly what I've started thinking--that there are not nearly as many shades of "trade power" as I had thought.

 

[bnoble]

Have you or anyone else had a good experience depositing into RCI 6-9 months in advance of check-in RECENTLY?

Yes, post #3 was for a deposit made in early December 2008, for a week with early August 2009 usage.

That's exactly what I've started thinking--that there are not nearly as many shades of "trade power" as I had thought.

The numbers reported down on the sightings board certainly suggest this is so.

 

[Laurie]

I thought so too, until my recent experience (see my post #6). Have you or anyone else had a good experience depositing into RCI 6-9 months in advance of check-in RECENTLY?

Yes, I did - just this past November: 7 months in advance, and trades *exactly* the same as the same week/ same resort deposited 19 months out (for the time periods that overlap), plus exactly the same as a different resort deposited 13 months in advance, and exactly the same as a different one deposited 24 months out (again, for the time periods that overlap, and it's now easy to see at a glance with RCI's website). They're all still in my spacebank so I see the results often, and one is the same category as your Gaslamp, Liz - a summer SoCal. That's why I really think you would be fine to deposit now.

 

[Judy]

Yes, post #3 was for a deposit made in early December 2008, for a week with early August 2009 usage.

Yes, I did - just this past November: 7 months in advance, and trades *exactly* the same as the same week/ same resort deposited 19 months out (for the time periods that overlap), plus exactly the same as a different resort deposited 13 months in advance, and exactly the same as a different one deposited 24 months out (again, for the time periods that overlap, and it's now easy to see at a glance with RCI's website). They're all still in my spacebank so I see the results often...

Thanks for the examples. Very enlightening.
There must be something else wrong with my deposit then. I expected my 2-bedroom, Presidents' week in Heavenly ski resort to have excellent trading power as it has in the past, so I believed the RCI VC supervisor when she told me the problem was my "late" (9 months in advance of check-in) deposit. Well, I suppose her lips were moving. RCI will not be getting more of those deposits from me :annoyed:

 

[JudyS]

Bump, still looking for advice. I haven't used RCI for a while and I know I get better trade power depositing early, but is this still worth doing or should I wait and see if I can rent it? We already have 3 weeks planned this summer, so I want some down time at home as well.
Liz

In my experience, urban timeshares work FAR better as exchanges than as rentals. With an urban rental, you are competing against thousands of hotels, and your listing tends to get lost. Plus, renters for urban areas often want to spend just a few days, not a whole week, and often don't book until the last minute. I would trade, not rent.

In terms of the old RCI system, you'd still retain decent trading power up to the 3 month mark with a summer Gaslamp. I'm not too sure about the new system.
However, keep in mind, since you have a VRI resort, if you choose to exchange back into another VRI, you'll have priority exchange status, Thus, you could deposit later and still get decent trades. Of course, have you thought about trying VRIety?

I was thinking about this, too. For a summer Gaslamp, though, I would go with RCI (w/VRI priority) instead of VRI*ety. VRI*ety values all red weeks of equal size the same, so you aren't getting the full value of summer in San Diego.

Thanks for the examples. Very enlightening.
There must be something else wrong with my deposit then. I expected my 2-bedroom, Presidents' week in Heavenly ski resort to have excellent trading power as it has in the past, so I believed the RCI VC supervisor when she told me the problem was my "late" (9 months in advance of check-in) deposit. Well, I suppose her lips were moving. RCI will not be getting more of those deposits from me :annoyed:

I would guess the week was valued wrong. I would call back, and complain -- I don't know if it will work, but it can't hurt.

 

[Laurie]

In my experience, RCI hasn't been as consistent w/trade power of ski weeks - there seems to have been a slight degradation of those over the years - and it hasn't ever worked for me to complain about trade power (on occasion I've tried). It's possible that with ski weeks, depositing more than a year out makes a noticeable difference these days. And/or maybe w/the economy, fewer folks are committing to spend $ on ski vacations, reducing demand.