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Spring 2007 Points Feedback

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#1 Resort for Families - SKI Magazine Reader Survey 2024

Feedback From Our New Points Members!


We wanted to share some of the experiences of our first Points Owners who have just begun to utilize their new Points memberships. We have included both the successes as well as some of the problems that have been encountered.

So far, Smugglers' Owners appear to be experiencing the same level of satisfaction as
RCI is seeing nationally, 92% for points members vs 75% for weeks members. Please stay
tuned as we will be adding addtional stories as we receive them!

Just click on the topics listed below, to see the full details of their experience.






Enhanced Ownership Value with RCI Points

“...since Sept 2004 I have been enrolled in the Points system... when Smugglers allowed us to be a Points partner, I deposited 24 Smugglers fall and spring weeks into RCI...the point value of our weeks increased by about 33%. My...deposit provides me with 1,250,000 points per annum. I estimate the trading value for air tickets, car rentals and hotels to be $0.01 a point and my cost, including housekeeping, electricity and wear and tear, is about $0.003 a point. I earn travel value of $8,750.00...not counting the fact that condo trades have even greater value...all our Air, car rentals, and hotels have been acquired by using points. We have traveled to 21 countries over the years using RCI... The flexibility in the length of condo trades has enabled us to be flexible in our travel plans.”

Dave Kenley,
Hakone 20

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Christmas & New Years in Hawaii

Just received your e-mail newsletter and we are pleased to see the commitment from RCI on this revision to the exchange system. Having converted this past fall to the points system we were able to realize benefits from it almost immediately!



We have been planning to celebrate the coming Christmas and New Year 2007 with our adult daughters with a trip to Hawaii for some time. Having been owners at Smuggs for over 13 years now, we were well versed in using the Weeks Exchange system and had organized an exchange for the New Year week in a Gold Crown resort on the big island by this past summer (2006). We were absolutely delighted to discover how simple and easy the exchange was for the Christmas week using the "new" Points system. By beginning to look foravailable inventory early we were able to book into a 2 bedroom unit at a Gold Crown resort on Kauai and quickly understood the advantage of points by taking the unit for 10 days rather than our usual seven. The flexibility ofthe points will allow us a few extra days of holiday at the start of this major holiday, giving us a bit more time to enjoy the islands and our family. As well, we were able to book the end of the first 10 day stay to allow a one day layover in Honolulu as we island hopped before going on toour second week to allow us all to visit the Pearl Harbour memorial,something which would not have been as easily planned in the old Weeks system.


We are Club Owners who have been extremely impressed over the years by thequality of our ownership at Smugglers Notch and enjoyed many a ski holiday with our daughters there, both our ownership week and exchanges back into Smugglers. We have also regularly exchanged elsewhere with our float weekand purchased extra weeks to Florida, Arizona, Virginia, Mexico, Tennessee and other venues. Now with two girls in university and a third headed off next year we were wondering how we would continue to enjoy the wonderfulvacation experiences we have come to take for granted. It seems theflexibility and fair trade of the point system in booking holidays of varying duration and in different unit sizes will give us maximum value as we visit both Smugglers and the many venues we still look forward to visiting through RCI.



Best regards,



Cathie and Bill Sischek

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Presidents Week at Steamboat

Hi, I have been a points member for about 5 years before Smuggs went to points. I recently returned from a ski vacation in Colorado at Celebrity Resorts in Steamboat Colorado. We were not even looking for President's week but got two - two bedroom units and had a wonderful time. Next year we are headed for Brenkenridge in Jan. Our daughter has moved to Denver so we are using our points to visit her out west. We will be going to St Martin for two weeks in June and have exchanged for a 2 bedroom ocean front villa. We love the points systems.

Rick and Natalie Flanigan

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Costa Rica for Christmas

Smuggs --

So far I am thrilled with the points system. I recently booked a trip to Costa Rica for next Christmas and just the other day booked Smuggs for next March. Both of these trips would have been impossible had I been using weeks. (In fact, I was just about ready to call it quits on
timeshare ownership because I couldn't go anywhere good with my float week and NEVER got back into Smuggs after 9 years of trying.) The key to using points is to book your vacation as soon as your desired travel time becomes available (10-11 months in advance depending on whether
you want your home resort or somewhere else). I did this for my Costa Rica trip and when I checked back just a few hours later there were no more rooms available in the entire country!

Beth Friedman

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Disney Tickets with RCI Points Partners

So far we are very pleased with the points program. We had a vacation planned at an Orlando resort (traded a week) so we had many points available for this year. We decided to use our points for Disney tickets and to rent a car for the week saving us a great deal of money. The Disney tickets offered through RCI points partners include the park hopper and no expiration option. We only had to pay the one transaction fee. After pricing the value of the tickets through Disney, I was amazed at the value of our points. We also used the points to rent a car for the week. It was a holiday week (April) so when I priced the car it would have cost us at minimum $350. We payed the $49 transaction fee and $47 in taxes, saving us at least $200. I really appreciate being able to use our points in a way that benefits the unique needs of my family and our travel plans. With weeks I often felt as though we lost out on the value of the trade. Also, for the first time we will be staying at smuggs for a long weekend which we are very excited about in addition to our fixed winter week. Since we are not able to fit in 2 week long vacations in the winter the points have allowed us to reserve for just three nights! As I said, so far we are very happy with our use of points. Now that I am more familiar with the program and the timing, I am sure we will continue to benefit from the flexibility points offers. I would be happy to respond further if necessary!

MaryAnn Ambrosini


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Short Stays in Sycamores

So far we have been very satisfied with our points conversion experience. It has allowed us to use a shorter stay vacation, one that better fit our crazy schedule. We just spent a wonderful 5 days of skiing at Smuggs!

I am looking forward to the new enhancements! Thanks!

Damon and Lauire
Sycamores Unit 41


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Success Exchanging with Float Points

So far so good .. we've been able to come back into Smuggs this summer with our float week points (RED Week time frame) ...all you have to do is plan ahead. Being able to see the available inventory allows you to make an informed decision. Though we do not know what building unit we'll be staying in yet, would be a nice adder to see what units your selecting with your points?

We still have a fixed week in trade and still are waiting to hear back from RCI if we'll get what were looking for ... and probably won't hear till 30 days before the date .. the points system takes care of this completely. Which makes us feel we made the correct change to the points system.

Though there seem to be fewer points properties in New England. We look forward to 2009 .. when we will be taking our fixed week points plus our float points for a big one..not sure what location ..heck we may come back to Smuggs for 2 weeks or up grade to a 3 bedroom and invite friends ... one thing that we found out the value of Smuggs compared to other resorts .. that is point value for our units is quite high and gives us flexibility

Peter Walczak
TA23-8

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February Vacation

Just wanted to let you know that we just did our first RCI points exchange. We wanted to travel on that very, very busy February school vacation week. We tried first in RCI weeks and didn't get anything that we were interested in. We then tried points and came up with several options. Bravo!! I am sure that part of our success was requesting the exchange far in advance (on the first day the inventory was available).

I would like to make one suggestion for Smuggs. Given that the date of the request is so important in points, it would be helpful if Smugglers Notch would include a calendar on the website listing the earliest date for RCI exchanges (For example today was the first day for 4/17/08 exchanges). This would make it easier for Smuggs owners to keep track of when they need to make requests and save us the hassle of counting backwards on the calendar or calling RCI. Just a thought.....

Ellen Morrison

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Westward-Ho for Presidents Week

I received with interest a recent letter from Scott Tobin regarding enhancements to the points system that will begin rolling out this summer.

Since moving from the weeks to points system I have just had success at booking a ski vacation out west on President’s week with much greater ease than my past unsuccessful attempts under the weeks system. It is gratifying to be able to leverage the high value of our Smuggs ownership- using only a portion of those points for a second vacation - having some points left over! We will, of course, see you at Smuggs in Feb.


My one negative comment is that the transition from weeks to points wasn’t as smooth as I might have hoped but that there is a learning curve with everything. I thank Frank McCarthy for sticking by us to work out the kinks and for patiently helping me learn the system. One persistent issue is that twice we have been charged an “outsiders” rate for our flex ski week at Smuggs — 2007 and 2008 — that is, we were charged 104,000 points instead of 87,200. I mention this because I fear many others are in the same boat, perhaps other flex owners? However, with Frank’s help, I believe that this, too, is being resolved.


My feedback to RCI is that it would be very helpful for them to show member’s “points” transactions online rather than just the balance. It would save much time spent on the phone with RCI managing points and learning the system.

Thanks for making the leap into Points. The benefits are already obvious.


— Missy Elfers


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Sun & Ski

Hi,

Since changing to points this year, we have come to Smuggs for a ski week first week of March, staying in Tamaracks -never offered that before!, and we sent friends to Smuggs 3rd week of March in Sycamores - again, never offered that before, and last week we made a last minute request for April school vacation in Orlando, and got into Silver Lake for 5 days. Good deals so far, but we also had better experiences with RCI when we first joined many years ago, and the opportunities eroded quickly after the initial period. So the jury is still out on whether this improvment will be durable, but at present, we are having a very good experience.

Thanks

Becky Dunk


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4 Days in Utah with Points to Spare

I've reserved a 4 day long-weekend to Wolf Creek Resort in Utah. I really like not having to use a whole week's worth of points for a 4 day getaway. I spent 28,000 points, so I'll have some left over so I'll be able to schedule more than one short getaway per year in some years. The point trading power of Smuggler's is much appreciated. I also like being able to book and confirm instantly.

I am a web developer so I have a suggestion for the RCI site.

I'd like to see the Search process improved. When you make a State criteria selection , say Arizona - then the resorts that you can choose from in the resort field should be limited to those within Arizona. This kind of context sensitive searching has come to be expected on good web sites and RCI should be up to this standard. Right now it's kind of an either/OR thing either you search by state or you pick a resort. The Search page should assist you in narrowing down your search by having each field selection restrict the scope of the one following (whenever possible).


Robert Balcerzak

Greetings from Smuggs

Thanks for writing. It is great to hear stories like this from ourowners who are able to get the kinds of vacations that fit their family's lifestyles. You are not the first person to make similar suggestions for their website. I can tell you RCI's IT staff is aware of this, and they are working on a number of enhancements. Knowing a bit about how they work,I would suggest you use the 'contact us' email on rci.com and pass your suggestions on directly to them. I too will forward them. Thanks again.

Frank McCarthy


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Instant Confirmation

Having points w/ you guys is great! I have already been able to use my 'off' weekas points and come back in the summer. No guess work: 'Am I going to get the week I
want'; 'How long should I wait' etc.. I immediately knew what was available andbooked it! It is FANTASTIC.

And if that wasn't enough I was able to book for 5 nights which is exactly what I needed. In previous years I would have wasted 2 days by swapping my 'week'.

Very glad you made this available.

thx

The Organs.

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Airline Tickets with Points Partners

Thus fas I have been able to use points to secure airline tickets to Denver for a previous swapped week and I have secured an Orlando unit for a four day vacation over the Thanksgiving Day week-end. I am pleased with points so far.

Paul

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Weekend at Sunapee

Hi -

I am really happy with the points system but have had some disappointments.The system fits our family lifestyle as we change. We can't go up for seven straight days any more. We went to Sunapee for a weekend and we are going to Smuggs next weekend (think snow!). We are also going to Smuggs x-mas week in 2007 for five days.


There have been some extra costs that I was not anticipating. First, the cost of housekeeping is steep. Second, it costs to book each time - $100+. Third, RCI charged us another membership fee on top of the one that was provided with you guys. I feel like everyone is trying to charge us at every turn and it doesn't feel good.


But I do really like the points system and the improvements sound like they will be great.

Chris


Hello Chris

Thanks for writing. It really is nice to hear you are able to get thekinds of vacations you and your family are looking for.As to your other comments - shorter stays do entail more housekeeping costs, and the industry does not want to charge the owner extra maintenance fees for something they have no control over. Six and seven day stays do not have any additional costs. I also took a look at your weeks account, and it looks like you have prepaid that for several years in advance. As part of the conversion, that was supposed to have been rolled over to your points account, and I think they missed it. You can call RCI and request that they roll those prepaid dues over, I understand it takes about two weeks to complete that process. That should take a little bit of the sting out of the fees. Let us know if there is anything we can do to help. Thanks again.

Frank McCarthy


Dear Frank,

Wow! Thank you! Now that's what I call good customer service!

Seriously - we were hoping for points for a while and when the opportunitycame up we jumped on. It really is a lot more flexible.

Namaste,
Chris


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4 Weeks of Vacation with 2 Weeks of Ownership

We haven't had our points for very long but long enough that we knew that time was closing in our summer reservations. Between going on line and plugging in dates and locations and speaking with RCI guides, I was able to use points (and one leftover week) to get two weeks back to back in Colorado in August '07. That used up 38,000 of our 165,500. A couple of days later, I was able to make reservations for a week in Virginia and a week in Vermont (unfortunately not Smuggs) for my son's honeymoon in July '07 using 27,000 and 29,500 points respectively. Next (and this is all within four days) I was able to get a week in St. Maarten in Feb. '08 for 58,000 pts. So for our two weeks of ownership at Smuggs I got 4 weeks(because one was a week exchange) and still have 12,500 points! The points we got for our Smuggs ownership really paid off. Next year we're back at Smuggs!!!

Mary Conti

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