REDWEEKS NEW TIMESHARE EXHANGE PROGRAM

Has anyone used this exchange yet? I'd like to know what some sample points values are. Also, how much extra could a person have to pay anyway?

I really like the idea of this new program, as I don't really like RCI or II, however they have lots to offer in their inventory and they also have special deals directly with the resorts.

I wouldn't mind losing one of my weeks for something less than ideal, just to be a pioneer and help this site get off the ground, but if you ask me, I think $125 plus whatever value is over for your exchange is a bit much to ask at first. $50 straight across would be good for starting up.

Also does anyone now how many Redweek subscribers there are and can/will Redweek email them to solicit their trading as well?

Re: >>....does anyone now how many Redweek subscribers there are and can/will Redweek email them to solicit their trading as well? <<

I'd like to respond with two points / personal opinions:

1. Not all RedWeek subscribers even own timeshares, so the total subscriber number (likely regarded as "in house" info to RedWeek anyhow) might not actually be that informative.

2. Personally, I would hope that RedWeek would NOT undertake to solicit (i.e., pester?) its subscribers. They've posted and publicized their new exchange program on the site and those interested can/will certainly inquire further. Who needs more unsolicited mail? Certainly not me, speaking ONLY for myself.......

ditto, hopefully the private exchange system here at Redweek will be simplified in the future.

ken1193 wrote:

Re: >>....does anyone now how many Redweek subscribers there are and can/will Redweek email them to solicit their trading as well? <<

I'd like to respond with two points / personal opinions:

1. Not all RedWeek subscribers even own timeshares, so the total subscriber number (likely regarded as "in house" info to RedWeek anyhow) might not actually be that informative.

2. Personally, I would hope that RedWeek would NOT undertake to solicit (i.e., pester?) its subscribers. They've posted and publicized their new exchange program on the site and those interested can/will certainly inquire further. Who needs more unsolicited mail? Certainly not me, speaking ONLY for myself.......

I own a 3BR 3BA ski week at The Christie Lodge Resort.

I have had decent luck renting my week here on Redweek. A good week rents for about $1600-$1800.

I have traded into a VERY nice 3BR in Williamsburg, a nice 2BR Sheraton in Orlando and a local 2BR Piney Shores Resort. All of these units were in prime season and ALL were Gold Crown with RCI.

REDWEEK EXCHANGE is something very new. It appears that they place a value on your resort based on their (Redweek's) rental histories on a 1 point for $1 value. I have just deposited my 3BR Christie Lodge ski week with them. They gave me 1800 points!!

I also own a 2BR Marriott Waiohai. They offered me about 3000 points for it. I have yet to take the points and deposit this one. For what its worth, each offer was on the upper end of what I could have received in rent.

I think this program does what people have been wanting. It gives you an offer up front and you instantly know the exchange value of your property. RCI has too many hidden things that make people upset. You never know if your resort is even capable of getting you too where you want to go.

Redweek also gives you 3 years to use your points. I can use my 1800 for two smaller 1000 point trades and buy the difference ($200) in points if needed. OR, I can pay $1200 along with my points to go to someone else's Marriott Waiohai or Westin St. Johns property (if available).

I could wait until next year and take all 3600 points to go somewhere VERY nice. This is not possible at RCI.

Hopefully I will be able to make a trade. We will see!!

Gosh, now Redweek IS an exchange company also .... kudos to Redweek. They are always offering something new and exciting.

Terry stated: >> RCI has too many hidden things that make people upset. You never know if your resort is even capable of getting you too where you want to go........

OR, I could wait until next year and take all 3600 points to go somewhere VERY nice. This is not possible at RCI. <<

I hope that the RedWeek exchange program succeeds and I sincerely wish it luck. Quite unlike RCI, they are at least being "open and upfront" about their assessment of trade value. In the final analysis, however, the limiting factor is (and will ALWAYS be) the availability of anything to trade INTO that's of any interest or value to you --- regardless of the "valuation" of what you deposit, or the points your deposits may accumulate.....

The availability is a the biggest question. My other worry is about the ability to buy points.

Where do the points come from? If everyone buys points, the availability will surely not be there, as the number of deposits would remain the same.

It's sort of like printing money and selling it. Maybe the unused points that expire are to offset the points purchased.

1) When someone recieves a point value for their week, will that point value remain the same upon future banking? (ie...will 1500 points stay the same if same resort and week is deposited the following year?)

2) Will the amount of points needed to exchange into a unit change during the period allowed to find your exchange? (Will the week I saw for 800 points today still be 800 points in two months, if the place & time is still available?)

3) Will Redweek guarantee weeks or points deposited will only be used for exchange, and not rented or gifted to others? (Ie like II and RCI does) Don't care about developer or HOA weeks Redweek somehow obtains.

Most likely the points value changes on a continuous basis. The earlier you deposit your week, the more points you get.

Same on a trade. I bet you can get a week about to expire for less points.

I have been emailing Kylie at Redweek some of the same questions. She responds back quickly.

Send your questions, just as written above, to her at: support@redweek.com

Make sure you post the answers.

Good Luck!

Since finding the exchange inventory seems to be the #1 problem with exchange so far, we are working on a solution. Within a few days, we should have a list that shows all the resorts where we have exchange inventory available, and the corresponding point ranges. This will make it much easier for people to find. We are planning on sending an e-mail with a link to the new list to everyone who has submitted a valuation, as soon as it is ready. We do have several thousand weeks available for exchange, but they are widely spread among resorts in various states and countries. So, it's best, when doing a search, to do a location search for a broad region. You can even do "United States", but it will take awhile to load the list.

Please be patient while we work out the kinks.

Thanks, Marty

Hi Kekouri,

I'll save you the trip of e-mailing our support address :)

kekouri wrote:

1) When someone recieves a point value for their week, will that point value remain the same upon future banking? (ie...will 1500 points stay the same if same resort and week is deposited the following year?)

Not necessarily. We have a dynamic valuation system that will change point offers based on a variety of factors. One of those factors is when you deposit it. The more time we have to find someone to take your week, the higher the points value we'll give you because it minimizes the risk that we'll have to "burn" your week if no one is interested in taking it.

We also take changes at the resort and region into account. If your resort undergoes improvements, changes management companies, or gets hit by a large storm... those things will all influence whether people will want to go there. We adjust the points valuation accordingly.

kekouri wrote:

2) Will the amount of points needed to exchange into a unit change during the period allowed to find your exchange? (Will the week I saw for 800 points today still be 800 points in two months, if the place & time is still available?)

It is possible that the points value could change. As with the valuations, we may drop the asking price as the week nears to avoid the week going to waste. That being said, there is no guarantee the week will be available long enough for the price to drop. We would always recommend reserving your exchange as soon as you see something that interests you, to avoid losing it to another exchanger.

kekouri wrote:

3) Will Redweek guarantee weeks or points deposited will only be used for exchange, and not rented or gifted to others? (Ie like II and RCI does) Don't care about developer or HOA weeks Redweek somehow obtains.

We will not gift weeks, nor do we plan to offer exchange weeks as rentals. We will always give our members access to these weeks first as exchanges. We do reserve the right to move a week as a rental ONLY as a last resort if we are unable to get anyone to take it as an exchange. Any rental funds received from such a transaction would be cycled back into the exchange program, allowing us to buy new inventory to offer our exchangers.

Kylie

Kylie, I wish you could keep your promise. If so, you will suceed. Momentum is critical for your survival and success.

I will give you my Myrtle Beach 2 bedroom July 2008 as soon as I pay the maintenance fee tomorrow.

Wish it is a win win to you and us.

FYI, we just added this new inventory list to make it easier to find exchanges:

http://www.redweek.com/exchange/browse More to come...

Kylie

Kylie -

I was happy with the evaluation of my ski weeks, but I didn't find what I was looking for in exchange - spring of 2008 in the south of Spain. In fact I had not found anything past Jan 2008. Inventory will be a big limiting factor. Any plans to "prime" the system with some good red weeks?

Anna

Anna asked >> Any plans to "prime" the system with some good red weeks? <<

"Good" is subjective and relative, but the fact will always remain that ANY weeks first have to be deposited in order to become available for exchange. Offerings from resorts or developers (if any) are likely to be of only limited value or interest, or they wouldn't "give them up" in the first place.........

On Friday. I paid my maintenance fee for 2008 in order to deposit to Redweek. I chose the July 4 week 2 bedroom in Myrtle Beach.

This morning, I would like to accept the offer of 2015 points, which is fine. I proceeded to accept the offer to book a hotel unit in San Francisco. The system required me to put in the confirmation/reservation number.

I never had to provide RCI with any confirmation/reservation number. I told them my resort and my week, and they will contact my resort to verify the details.

I have left my TS info at work, so can't do anything over the weekend.

On Monday, if the California week is gone, I might change my mind not to deposit.

Kylie, It appears you guys are working hard to make this system work..

As you know, I deposited my spring break CO week and now have 1800 points to spend. It is a bit difficault to search all the properties.

I have a suggestion. Is it possible to set up something that will allow us to search by dates or date ranges?

Otherwise, you have to click each property and see available dates - on a daily basis to find what you are looking for.

Thanks for all the quick responses to the emails and this forum.

If you just booked and deposited your Myrtle Beach week, give it some time. Redweek has to confirm that your week is indeed your week. They have to take ownership of your week from Myrtle first.

Good luck, and let us all know how this works out from you.

Hi taty3,

To avoid losing your hold on the July 4 week, just enter a confirmation code of "I don't know" -- and you can e-mail it to us on Monday when you know what it is.

Thanks, Kylie

taty3 wrote:

On Friday. I paid my maintenance fee for 2008 in order to deposit to Redweek. I chose the July 4 week 2 bedroom in Myrtle Beach.

This morning, I would like to accept the offer of 2015 points, which is fine. I proceeded to accept the offer to book a hotel unit in San Francisco. The system required me to put in the confirmation/reservation number.

I never had to provide RCI with any confirmation/reservation number. I told them my resort and my week, and they will contact my resort to verify the details.

I have left my TS info at work, so can't do anything over the weekend.

On Monday, if the California week is gone, I might change my mind not to deposit.

Terry,

Yes. Right now, if you do an "advanced search" at: http://www.redweek.com/search, you can choose to show only exchanges for certain months, or week number ranges. For the best results, try searching by "Location" and enter as broad of a location name as possible (i.e. "United States" or "California" instead of a specific city).

We will soon be adding more details to the exchange summaries you see when you pull up all resorts in a city. Instead of just showing "2 exchanges" - that will soon show a points range and available dates, much like what is currently in place for rentals.

Kylie

terry314 wrote:

Kylie, It appears you guys are working hard to make this system work..

As you know, I deposited my spring break CO week and now have 1800 points to spend. It is a bit difficault to search all the properties.

I have a suggestion. Is it possible to set up something that will allow us to search by dates or date ranges?

Otherwise, you have to click each property and see available dates - on a daily basis to find what you are looking for.

Thanks for all the quick responses to the emails and this forum.