posted 02-17-2005 21:19            

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It's been 89 minutes where's my free gift
dcw_ts@yahoo.com

posted 02-18-2005 09:16               

quote:

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Originally posted by Hoc:
I personally think that 15,000, not 30,000, is the minimum.

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Not to be one who corrects everyone, but I just noticed one up for auction on eBay .... for the phenomenally low $250 starting bid for a .... 9,999 annual points use.

posted 02-18-2005 09:18               

quote:

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Originally posted by rsonc:
Hoc,

How do you go about borrowing from the back end and is 10k the least/most that you can take or does it depend on how many points you have?

I have a 30k membership and my m/f are $540.00, but If I added 5k then the m/f would go up to $700.00.

Do you know how often they raise the m/f this is my first year with them.

thanks,
susan

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RHC permits you to borrow from the back end future points to current year's use if you are over the age of 50. I guess they figure you won't be able to live long enough to use them all up if you're 50 and just bought a 30 year RTU. LOL.

posted 02-18-2005 13:32            

quote:

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Originally posted by RonaldCol:
Not to be one who corrects everyone, but I just noticed one up for auction on eBay .... for the phenomenally low $250 starting bid for a .... 9,999 annual points use.

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Actually, the starting bid is $99. $250 is the "buy it now" price. However, you have to add $745 in closing costs on top of that because Royal Holiday Club charges a $350 transfer fee, and the seller, Holiday Group Timeshares, is charging an extortionate $395 in "closing charges" (read that to mean: "extortion profits that we call 'closing charges'").

posted 02-19-2005 07:15               

quote:

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Originally posted by Hoc:
Actually, the starting bid is $99. $250 is the "buy it now" price. However, you have to add $745 in closing costs on top of that because Royal Holiday Club charges a $350 transfer fee, and the seller, Holiday Group Timeshares, is charging an extortionate $395 in "closing charges" (read that to mean: "extortion profits that we call 'closing charges'").

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I stand corrected on the pricing of the eBay auction. The cost of transactions with Holiday Group is their costs. I dont' bicker about their costs, but do "vote" with my dollars. I make offers of the timeshares to reflect their higher cost of operations. I don't get the deals but then again I try to reflect their total cost to me.

I am one who will pay for services performed. There are things that cannot be "commoditized" yet.

posted 02-24-2005 20:10               

I have not noticed much in the way of points getting jacked up, but I can't say that I eye it very closely. Affinia Dumont changed management and coinciding with the change you now have to pay state room taxes which never had to be paid before...the points used are the same and it is still a great deal for NY, but a little less of one than it used to be.

previous confirmations elswhere that I had on hand to do a quick compare:
Jockey Club 12/2001-3 nights (it looks like they only do full weeks now) but works out to roughly same assuming a full week

Paris Napoleon -- 4/2000...looks the same I can't find the confirm, but we had a studio and I know it was 45k because that is a full year of my points.

I'll try to compare more later, but have to run. My impression is that they have been quite good about not inflating the points and maint fees have gone up only once in about 8-10 years.

posted 02-24-2005 20:13               

Assuming things have not changed,you should be able to combine easily. I did it several years ago and it was just a fax and $375 (about).
I was thrilled about the ease of doing so, but not the fee, but they also didn't charge the transfer fee back then, so I guess it's a wash....

It does make things easier.God Luck.

posted 02-25-2005 15:52               

I'm including a cut & paste of the missing emails that were lost.

Richard

Hoc

TUG Member
Posts: 4676
From: Huntington Beach, CA Owner: Club La Pension, New Orleans; Nob Hill Inn, S. F.; Pueblo Bonito, Mazatlan; Allen House, London; Custom House, Boston
Registered: Jan 2001
posted 02-22-2005 23:25
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OK, I bit the bullet and decided to add another 15,000 annual points to my membership. So, I got them for $406 on ebay this evening. Closing costs are only $150, and the resort transfer fee of $350 means I bought the additional points for a total of $906.
Of course, that's 10,000 more points annually than I actually want, and it raises my annual maintenance fees, but at least I now have enough points to book a week in Paris or Rome during prime season every other year.

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Those are my principles. And if you don't like them, well, I have others.

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bhurley902

TUG Member
Posts: 801
From: hoboken, nj, usa
Registered: May 2003
posted 02-23-2005 03:40
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Hoc --
I'm curious as to why you think a points membership is better for this purpose. My weeks' membership gets me a annual week, including July and August (I have to work around school vacaations for a couple more years), for maintenance fees of about $600.

I researched both before I bought, and concluded that the weeks' membership worked better for me. What am I missing?

Betsy

IP: Logged

Hoc

TUG Member
Posts: 4676
From: Huntington Beach, CA Owner: Club La Pension, New Orleans; Nob Hill Inn, S. F.; Pueblo Bonito, Mazatlan; Allen House, London; Custom House, Boston
Registered: Jan 2001
posted 02-23-2005 07:05
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quote:
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Originally posted by bhurley902:
I'm curious as to why you think a points membership is better for this purpose.
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Primarily because I use this membership for an extended weekend at a place, rather than for a whole week.

Secondarily because sometimes I want studios, sometimes 1-brs. and sometimes 2-brs. The points membership gets me that, where a weeks membership would tie me either to the smaller unit, or to a larger unit with a larger maintenance fee.

Finally, I have never seen a weeks membership in RHC sell for less than $200, which is what I paid for my initial points membership.

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Those are my principles. And if you don't like them, well, I have others.

IP: Logged

christsh

TUG Member
Posts: 2
From: Stillwater, MN...Purgatory Village Resort, Sandcreek Club, Villas of Palm Springs,Williamsburg Powhatan
Registered: Jan 2005
posted 02-23-2005 12:31
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Hello.. I have been "lurking" on the board for a few weeks now and I have learned so much. At first, I thought you were speaking another language, but now I am getting familiar with points, fees, weeks, and a ton of acronyms( MF RHC ...)
I do, however, still have some( about a million) questions about points. I have bought a couple of weeks at points resorts. Does that mean I am a points member? What do I do to change weeks to points? I know this has probably been discussed but it has not gotten through my slightly past middle aged skull. Will some patient and kind person please explain? Thanks...I have had fun reading the posts (when I understand them)

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michelle christensen

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Judy321

TUG Member
Posts: 868
From:
Registered: Mar 2004
posted 02-23-2005 13:12
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quote:
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Originally posted by Hoc:
OK, I bit the bullet and decided to add another 15,000 annual points to my membership. So, I got them for $406 on ebay this evening. Closing costs are only $150, and the resort transfer fee of $350 means I bought the additional points for a total of $906.
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Hoc, I was thinking of bidding on that auction! I'm glad I didn't bid against you! So, will you try to combine your two memberships, to lower the MF?

I started another thread on this, but didn't get an answer -- Can RHC devalue points? That is, can they engage in "points inflation" and arbitrarily raise the umber of points needed to book a room? Or, is there a guarantee that the number of points needed to book a particular room will stay the same?

IP: Logged

Hoc

TUG Member
Posts: 4676
From: Huntington Beach, CA Owner: Club La Pension, New Orleans; Nob Hill Inn, S. F.; Pueblo Bonito, Mazatlan; Allen House, London; Custom House, Boston
Registered: Jan 2001
posted 02-23-2005 14:51
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quote:
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Originally posted by Judy321:
Hoc, I was thinking of bidding on that auction! I'm glad I didn't bid against you! So, will you try to combine your two memberships, to lower the MF?
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Yes, I'm going to try to combine the memberships. If I can't do that, I suspect I'll sell the 10,000 point membership.

If you had bid against me on the auction, it wouldn't have been much of a contest. I bid a maximum bid of $450, placed 3 seconds before the close of the auction. I don't get mired in bidding wars. I just figure out what the maximum price is that I am willing to pay, and then I snipe with that price at the last second.

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Those are my principles. And if you don't like them, well, I have others.

IP: Logged

Janie
Moderator
TUG Volunteer
Posts: 2616
From:
Registered: Dec 2000
posted 02-23-2005 14:58
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Judy, I've been looking at their website for some time. I haven't really noticed that point values change, but their affiliated properties seem to change fairly frequently. I'm not sure you could be on them being available from year to year. For example, when I first started looking at RHC, they had several choices in Florence. Now they have only one, and it costs many, many points to stay there: You might as well stay at a hotel or rent an apartment.
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Janie

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bhurley902

TUG Member
Posts: 801
From: hoboken, nj, usa
Registered: May 2003
posted 02-23-2005 15:58
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quote:
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Originally posted by Hoc:
Primarily because I use this membership for an extended weekend at a place, rather than for a whole week.
Secondarily because sometimes I want studios, sometimes 1-brs. and sometimes 2-brs. The points membership gets me that, where a weeks membership would tie me either to the smaller unit, or to a larger unit with a larger maintenance fee.

Finally, I have never seen a weeks membership in RHC sell for less than $200, which is what I paid for my initial points membership.

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Ah ... makes sense. I tend to use hotel points when I do long weekends, so I hadn't thought about that aspect/flexibility. Re Price -- they're out there. I'm on the hunt for a Presidential unit ... I let one go recently because I just couldn't bring myself to pay Resort Closing's fees on top of the transfer fee. Probably should have bit the bullet, but I just couldn't do it!

IP: Logged

Hoc

TUG Member
Posts: 4676
From: Huntington Beach, CA Owner: Club La Pension, New Orleans; Nob Hill Inn, S. F.; Pueblo Bonito, Mazatlan; Allen House, London; Custom House, Boston
Registered: Jan 2001
posted 02-23-2005 23:03
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quote:
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Originally posted by bhurley902:
Re Price -- they're out there.
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I do have to say that I really appreciate the crybabies out there who are always whining and threatening to file class action suits against RHC based on the same behavior of virtually every timeshare salesperson and developer of every resort out there.

They keep potential buyers away and keep the price of these units artificially low compared to what you get. That's what lets us buy a timeshare interest that gets you a week in London, Rome, Madrid, Paris, New York, Cairo, etc., etc., for less than $500.

And when you really look at their complaints, look at what they are saying: They said I could trade this unit for any resort, anywhere, any time. They said that I could reserve this unit, and rent it at a profit. I decided I had paid too much so, after a year, I tried to back out and they wouldn't let me. I realized that this interest cost too much, so I stopped paying, and then they sent a collections agency after me! And so on, and so on. Sometimes I want to interject myself into the conversation and yell (virtually, of course) STOP WHINING!

But, of course, it is their whining that let us buy this thing so far below what the market should be. I guess the only time I'll really get ticked at them is if I ever try to sell, and their whining continues to depress the price at which I ultimately can sell my interest.

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Those are my principles. And if you don't like them, well, I have others.

IP: Logged

RonaldCol

TUG Member
Posts: 976
From: Chicago, IL USA; owner at Bluegreen's Christmas Mountain Village; Shell Anaheim and Fairfield's Dolphin's Cove in Anaheim.
Registered: May 2002
posted 02-24-2005 07:35
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Adding to HOC's comments ...
The implied premise on which the TUGgers operate is this: We are able to take advantage of those who were "ripped" off at the retail pricing of timeshares. The resale buyers will always have an advantage over the retail buyers. The retail buyers create an umbrella under which the resale buyers operate.

This being said, let's go on ... what's the next deal?

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"Stop me before I buy again!"

posted 05-09-2005 08:29               

quote:

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Originally posted by wvanly:
I am a new RHC points owner. I purchased 30,000 annual points and the purchase went through in about a month. (I was very impressed!) I received 36,000 rollover points ....
Mine was not an ebay purchase. Thanks to the help of fellow Tuggers I found a great deal through a resale company. I was keeping an eye on ebay purchases which at the time where going for around $1500 for 30,000 pts + transfer + maint fee. I think if you look hard at different resale companies you will be able to find a better deal. Good Luck - there are some great deals out there!

Wendi

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1)for the memebership you've purchased, how many more years does it have left on there? this is NOT a brand new 30-year membership, right?
2)which company did you use?

thanks

[This message has been edited by jimbo44 (edited 05-09-2005).]