REDWEEKS NEW TIMESHARE EXHANGE PROGRAM

jayjay wrote:

adahiscout wrote:

Personally, I think Ocean Front units are overrated. At night, it is just BLACK out there! Ocean View units (in Fairfield/Wyndham speak at least) are not directly facing the ocean but you can see it from an angle. Or maybe from the balcony. Cities look pretty great at night. MD

Oh, but the ocean/beach/gulfront views during the day are absolutely wonderful !!!

We owned an oceanfront timeshare in Daytona Beach Shores (along with 2 gulfront timeshares in Panama City Beach) and it was lots of fun to sit on our balcony in the mornings drinking our coffee watching the vehicles drive by on Daytona Beach (it's a drive-on beach) and to just people watch on our balcony at Panama City Beach. That was our greatest joy in the mornings and late afternoons and was so relaxing

You are right that the ocean/gulf is black at night, but many times we would see freighters and fishing boat lights crossing the horizon and the sunsets were to die for.

Hi RCI exchanges get the poorer rooms in the Fairfield system. The better view rooms are reserved for the Fairfield owners who use their points. Stan.

stanleyf5 wrote:

In the Fairfield system. The better view rooms are reserved for the Fairfield owners who use their points. Stan.

=========

This tends to be true in most systems, unless they care more about snaring RCI exchangers as buyers than they care about their current owners once they have bought. MD

We digress. Sorry. Back to Redweeks Exchange Program!

It is probably very difficult for owners to let go of their week when there is really nothing they would trade for currently listed. Or in my case, when I find out that a 2bdrm/2bath lockout at Mayan Palace Riviera Maya during Valentines week would not be worth a 2bdrm Sea Garden Acapulco the week after Thanksgiving? Hmmm, like many others with provisional weeks, I feel it may be better to use, give away, or reschedule for a time I can use it.

Maybe there is someway that owners can list acceptable trades. I would accept even a lessor valued week if it was somewhere I wanted to go. Also, many of my weeks can be scheduled to meet others needs just as theirs probably are.

Seems to me Redweek needs some kind of linking software to match up prospective trades or perhaps a go between person to help. Maybe even a place to list what I own and what I'd like to have, that could be viewed by others and visa versa. The points and extra money sound alright, unless Redweek doesn't value my week well and then I keep it - to the possible loss of someone else that might put a greater value on it.

orvillef2

Seems what your calling for is what Redweek had before! A exchange setup that I stated was like hitting the lottery! You needed to find owner of resort and weeks and size you want that also wants your week and resort and size unit. This is why there are trading companies!

I see someone on this site asked about some kind of wish list to help with these Provisional units but Redweek has a wishlist already that again seems to work for a few but mostly people who want to rent at some resort on a date they have their vacations. This is like a reverse rent ad in that the owner can see people wanting to rent.

So far it seems this Redweek exchange system is just getting very little done when it comes to top tier or med tier (FIVE STAR) resorts!

People want this to work but owners of good resorts are only going to wait so long before moving on and back to their regular trading company.

I would think many owners that are with RCI are the ones that really want to use this if it works! I doubt many owners with II are really going to run here for trades if they own five star resort!

I thought about making deposit first week this exchange program started for my two bedroom Fourth of July week but didn't care for the points offered. I set back couple weeks and watched and then dealt with II and now have my Hawaii 2008 vacation set!

Only way most five star resort owners would make trade is if they get fair exchange and that just doesn't seem like it could happen here! There will be a few that might trade down but not many because if they wanted cheaper resort they would have bought and spent less money!

We belong with II and have for years because they have high rated resorts and they already have Request First and have for years and it works well!

Here you have high amount of units on the Provisional List which means nothing except Redweek gets to showcase these to others who will make deposits hoping to trade up to better resorts in many cases.

Today they have 32 units listed in Nevada and only 6 are available and 26 are on that great Provisional list and none of the six are a big deal.

Many owners of lower tier resorts are hoping to trade up,something they have no chance of doing with their regular trading company unless they make deposit and then wait and watch 45 days or less resorts available list.

It does look like Redweek exchange will be loaded with timeshares out of the country and for people that want to go out of the United States for vacation this might work well for you!

Still hope they get this exchange system up and running because it could be good for many timeshare owners!

phill12 wrote:

So far it seems this whole exchange system is just getting very little done when it comes to top tier resorts!

Believe it or not, not everyone desires top tier resorts. Many people just want a clean unit in a nice resort, not necessarily a Marriott, Westin, Four Seasons etc. There are literally thousands of very nice non top tier resorts to choose from.

jayjay wrote:

phill12 wrote:

So far it seems this whole exchange system is just getting very little done when it comes to top tier resorts!

Believe it or not, not everyone desires top tier resorts. Many people just want a clean unit in a nice resort, not necessarily a Marriott, Westin, Four Seasons etc. There are literally thousands of very nice non top tier resorts to choose from.

A family that spent $20,000 to $40,000 to own a high tier resort does care where they vacation! This was reason for paying out this kind of money and not just buying a $3000 timeshare.

Owners of these top tier condo's are not looking to trade down to some cheap timeshare,they would probably stay in a hotel first!

Why would a owner of a high rated timeshare make a bad trade when they could rent their unit for more and buy these cheaper units if that is what they wanted!

Owners don't buy high to trade cheap! Owners of cheap resorts are the ones that want to trade up not other way around!

phill12 wrote:

A family that spent $20,000 to $40,000 to own a high tier resort does care where they vacation! This was reason for paying out this kind of money and not just buying a $3000 timeshare.

The vast majority of timeshares owners don't own at top tier resorts ..... they own at regular rated resorts. That's my point. There are many Gold Crown resorts that would NOT be classified top tier resorts by self proclaimed eliteists who brag about their Westins, Four Seasons, Hiltons, or Marriotts. In their minds they would be stepping down to stay in a regular Gold Crown resort.

Just because someone paid an overpriced amount for a timeshare (20-40K as you stated) doesn't mean they bought into a top tier resort.

I believe you own at Ridge Tahoe. That's not a top tier resort. It's a nice, gold crown resort but not top tier.

I guess I have to admit it. I'm one of those people. Although I have a couple luxury units, I also own some not so fancy, like Polo Towers and Palm Canyon Resort. I am just as happy with them as I am with the more expensive. Hawaii and Mexico are a long trip, plus I don't have relatives there and I've grown sick of Hawaii, there's nothing new to do and it's very boring, plus the beaches are either crowded or bad.

You see I would be one of those people to trade down for a place that may offer me a NASCAR race, a new view or a little history. And if you figured in some relatives, then were really talking.

People travel for many reasons, sure I want the nicest I can get, but the location is more important than the name, besides that, those mentioned above with the exception of Four Seasons Aviara are really not such a big deal.

Then again we've stayed in some very quaint little adobes that we adored and our too-good friends stuck their noses up at them. I guess it takes all kinds.

phill12 wrote:

Owners of these top tier condo's are not looking to trade down to some cheap timeshare,they would probably stay in a hotel first!

What does cheap have to do with it? I bought many cheap timeshares that were gold crowns. We owned three different, 2 bedroom, gold crown ocean/gulf front timeshares that I paid very little money for due to endless research before I bought. One had a 100 ft. wrap around balcony facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Cheap is in the eye of the beholder .... one man's trash is another man's treasure ... it just depends on the individual. Not everyone seeks top tier timeshares ..... they seek clean, nicely maintained accomodations with amenities.

orvillef2 wrote:

I guess I have to admit it. I'm one of those people. Although I have a couple luxury units, I also own some not so fancy, like Polo Towers and Palm Canyon Resort. I am just as happy with them as I am with the more expensive. Hawaii and Mexico are a long trip, plus I don't have relatives there and I've grown sick of Hawaii, there's nothing new to do and it's very boring, plus the beaches are either crowded or bad.

You see I would be one of those people to trade down for a place that may offer me a NASCAR race, a new view or a little history. And if you figured in some relatives, then were really talking.

People travel for many reasons, sure I want the nicest I can get, but the location is more important than the name, besides that, those mentioned above with the exception of Four Seasons Aviara are really not such a big deal.

Then again we've stayed in some very quaint little adobes that we adored and our too-good friends stuck their noses up at them. I guess it takes all kinds.

Orville, you don't sound like an eliteist to me. An elitesist wouldn't dream of staying in a non rated resort. Kudos to you as you seem to own the best of both worlds. There's definitely nothing wrong with owning a top tier resort, it's the eliteist attitude of many that own at such resorts that turn me off.

orvillef2 wrote:

People travel for many reasons, sure I want the nicest I can get, but the location is more important than the name, besides that, those mentioned above with the exception of Four Seasons Aviara are really not such a big deal.

I agree there. We attended a niece's wedding a few years ago and rooms for the wedding party were reserved at a Marriott hotel. I was shocked when I saw the place. I've stayed in Holiday Inns that were nicer than that Marriott.

I think Gold Crown is RCI !

The Ridge Tahoe Resort are with II and this resort is listed as 5 Star resort! Of coarse now II is getting rid of the 5 Star ratings and we have to wait to see how they list their resorts now!

There are still a few owners of the Naegles that belong to Rci but not many. Years ago when the Naegles were opened the exchange worked with both II and Rci. Few years later they built the Tower building which was only with II and the resort to this day are with II. The Ridge Tahoe is II only now with small exception of these few owners of the Naegle buildings.

I'm sure of your point(one of your little digs to me) and yes the Ridge Tahoe is very nice resort and is second tier compared to Marriotts and Westins, Four Seasons,Disney because the big companies are the top of the line timeshare resorts for many reasons. But at least we own a timeshare and that is more than you can say on here!

As nice as our resort is we could probably never get a two bedroom trade in Westin in Maui. There are not to many resorts we can not trade into on a two bedroom for two bedroom unit!

We are already traded into Maui for 2008 so our trade works very well but as you stated our resort is not top tier resorts!

We were thinking of buying the new unit at the Westin in 2008 while there and looking at the $50,000 and up we decided to buy Tower at the Ridge Tahoe as second unit so we can trade every other year if we want.

In 2008 we will be in Maui for our vacation and had no trouble getting our choice of resorts there!

Everyone is different in taste and money they can afford to spend on a timeshare. I stick to my opinion that the owners of these high priced resorts are not looking to trade down,everyone with lower resorts like to trade up including us and in most cases this can not be done!

This would be like buying into Disney and then trading down to Blue Tree resort in Orlando,just doesn't make sense!Spend $25,000 to buy Disney and I have seen Blue Tree selling for $1000.00. Owners are not doing this.

Last minute units can be found some times if your lucky trading a lower rated resort to higher rated resorts.

This is just my opinion and even on Redweek I think I'm intitled to have one.{IMHO} I stick with my opinion that most owners do not spend big bucks to buy good resort and trade down!

Owners buy cheap and try and trade up and this really is just common sense!

jayjay wrote:

phill12 wrote:

Owners of these top tier condo's are not looking to trade down to some cheap timeshare,they would probably stay in a hotel first!

What does cheap have to do with it? I bought many cheap timeshares that were gold crowns. We owned three different, 2 bedroom, gold crown ocean/gulf front timeshares that I paid very little money for due to endless research before I bought. One had a 100 ft. wrap around balcony facing the Atlantic Ocean.

Cheap is in the eye of the beholder .... one man's trash is another man's treasure ... it just depends on the individual. Not everyone seeks top tier timeshares ..... they seek clean, nicely maintained accomodations with amenities.

======= I hate to ask under this rather unrelated Topic, but how did you sell your own timeshares? ( And why !) If I remember rightly, you said somewhere that you sold them all. Did you come out somewhere near even? MD

adahiscout wrote:

I hate to ask under this rather unrelated Topic, but how did you sell your own timeshares? ( And why !) If I remember rightly, you said somewhere that you sold them all. Did you come out somewhere near even? MD

No problem, ask away :o). We owned 9 timeshare weeks at one time and had many nice timeshare vacations in many areas of this great country. We belonged to both RCI and II.

Via one particular timeshare vacation we passed through one of the most beautiful areas of this country that we had ever seen (Blue Ridge Mountains) and we rented a cabin in that area a couple of years later.

After looking over several real estate sales brochures we found a builder we could finally afford (real estate is very expensive in this area). We chose our lot, put a deposit down, went back home, put our house on the market, and eventually moved to this area.

After moving we no longer cared to stay anywhere an entire week so that's when we sold all of our timeshares. Several of our timeshares were in this area and we no longer needed them. The rest were gulf or oceanfront, except for one in Orlando (the developer purchased one) and one in New Orleans (before Katrina).

All of the timeshares I sold, I sold for what I paid for resale, except a developer purchased one that we lost bigtime on (1/3 of purchase price which is typical.)

I posted ads on Redweek, MyResortNetwork and Bidshares. I had a link to my picturetrail.com photos showing all of the resorts and units we owned, both inside and outside, and eventually I sold all nine. I believe the photos helped tremendously as people knew exactly what they were getting.

We still travel but for short periods only. We've rented 3 days in Charleston from a Redweek owner for next month and we're going to New York City for 4 days with a tour group later this year.

phill12 wrote:

We were planning on buying the new unit at the Westin in 2008 while there and looking at the $50,000 and up we decided to buy Tower at the Ridge Tahoe as second unit so we can trade every other year if we want.

There's not a timeshare anywhere on planet earth that I would pay 50K for one week even if I was a millionaire. It just doesn't make sense and no telling what the maintenance fees would be.

Jajay again this is one of those times I totally agree with you and why we bought a Tower unit to go with our Naegle!

I have had my head chopped off few times for stating my opinion that anyone that spends $25,000 or more for a timeshare to use one week or every other year are out of their minds!

I don't care how much money someone has but to pay out that kind of money for timeshare seems a waste of money to me!

I paid about $13,000 and own two top units at the Ridge Tahoe and love it there and this has caused problem because we have not been trading until next year to Maui! This was another reason for us buying the Tower again so we still go to Lake Tahoe for July 4th 2008 week.

We decided to pay half that price of the new Westin we put 36'x22' swimming pool in and added hot tub to our home! We use all these more than seven days a year!

Up date this year we had so much use out of our new pool and hot tub and glad the boss put her foot down on wasting money. We also went up and spent time in our new Tower unit and loved it.

All this and still only spent $35,000 compared to over $50,000 for the Westin in Maui.

jayjay wrote:

phill12 wrote:

We were planning on buying the new unit at the Westin in 2008 while there and looking at the $50,000 and up we decided to buy Tower at the Ridge Tahoe as second unit so we can trade every other year if we want.

There's not a timeshare anywhere on planet earth that I would pay 50K for one week even if I was a millionaire. It just doesn't make sense and no telling what the maintenance fees would be.

Sometimes it hard to tell what's top tier even here on Red Week. We own at Shawnee Ridge Top week 8 which is a red week and The Royal Haciendas Week 48 in Mexico which is a brand new 5 star resort and also a red week by Cozemel and is a Royal resort which means quality and service. The Shawnee resort is falling apart not 5 star and offers nothing in the winter but skiing and half the time there's no snow at all but trades very high with II and redweek. The Royal resort has no trading power at all. Redweek gave it lowish points and when searching on II almost nothing comes up when 30 + resorts will show up using shawnee ridge top. So on here and II I would be considered trading up by giving up my Royal week for a shawnee week when in fact it's a huge trade down. I know skiing is popular but trust me there's better exchanges out there.

kathleenc103 wrote:

jayjay wrote:

phill12 wrote:

We were planning on buying the new unit at the Westin in 2008 while there and looking at the $50,000 and up we decided to buy Tower at the Ridge Tahoe as second unit so we can trade every other year if we want.

There's not a timeshare anywhere on planet earth that I would pay 50K for one week even if I was a millionaire. It just doesn't make sense and no telling what the maintenance fees would be.

Sometimes it hard to tell what's top tier even here on Red Week. We own at Shawnee Ridge Top week 8 which is a red week and The Royal Haciendas Week 48 in Mexico which is a brand new 5 star resort and also a red week by Cozemel and is a Royal resort which means quality and service. The Shawnee resort is falling apart not 5 star and offers nothing in the winter but skiing and half the time there's no snow at all but trades very high with II and redweek. The Royal resort has no trading power at all. Redweek gave it lowish points and when searching on II almost nothing comes up when 30 + resorts will show up using shawnee ridge top. So on here and II I would be considered trading up by giving up my Royal week for a shawnee week when in fact it's a huge trade down. I know skiing is popular but trust me there's better exchanges out there.

====== Many posters complain that RCI and II do not give out their secret formula for "trading power". To the Redweek exchange staff...how are you determining how many points a unit is worth? You offered me approx 1800 points for a summer NH week, but I've seen early March weeks in new costing over 1700 for exchange. While this is still ski season (spring skiing?) in NH, it's not the prime ski season in NH.

You know. I'm a bit disappointed in the way things are progressing with the Redweeks Exchange System. I did my part and deposited a week, which has already been claimed.

When are we going to start seeing some more deposits, specifically United States region? I'm not referring to provisional deposits, but actual deposits.

I've read in a past newsletter about all the nice incentives for early depositers, but have yet to see this. Plus, what is RW doing to promote their exchange system? Curious minds want to know.

I still have a while to search for my 2009 needs, but I was hoping for some more action by now.