TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #96 Nov/Dec, 2007 | Page 35

TimeSharing Today

Page 37

2) The lack of transparency regarding the status of my pending request, in
comparison with the other requests outstanding for specific exchange locations.
Obviously, other people have transmitted
requests for those locations, and every
request has a ranking, based on date of
request, ranking of unit exchanged, etc.
If one does not know where they stand
with their exchange, how can they be able
to maximize their exchange benefits? Are
they ranked 1st, 10th, 50th, or 1000th? This
information is available inside II computers, but apparently they refuse to make it
available to II members.
I believe another factor is the apparent current practice of owners renting their
weeks vs. turning them in for exchange.
This has always been an option, but not
taken very often by individual week owners. The apparent growth of this practice
will make it far more difficult to exchange
into hot areas like Hawaii, even if you transmit your request more than 1 year in advance If weeks are not being turned in,
your exchange has no value, as it is not
convertible into the week you have requested.
Does this mean the potential demise
of ownership weeks, with replacement by
points, as you no longer can afford to own
a week, because of poor exchange availability options, and/or exchanges within
management groups (Marriott, Fairfield,
Shell, etc.)? I guess only time will tell.
Terry R Kutz
****
However, not all timeshare owners
are disappointed when they cannot get
their requested exchange because they
wer H