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Points Programs

The Typical Points Program is similar to a Vacation Club where both have a membership to be a part of the program. With a Points Program you get a certain amount of points every year. You can then exchange these points each year for accommodation in resorts that participate in the program. You also have to pay annual maintenance fees with these programs for upkeep and maintenance. The amount you have to pay is usually directly tied to the amount of points you own in the program.

Points programs are great because it allows you to go to a list of resorts. However the amount of points you own in the program will determine what resorts you can and can not go to. There are many factors that influence the amount of points needed to get accommodations in a particular resort some of those include.

• Popularity of Resort
• Size of the accommodation
• The length of stay at the resort
• The specific nights requested. (weekends and holidays usually require more points)
• Season of the year

There are points programs out there that actually sell more valuable points having higher priority in reserving accommodations during peak demand periods. Most point programs allow you to save your points over a 2 year period of time, this allows you to acquire larger accommodations or stay at more popular resorts. Some programs also allow you to stay for a fraction of a week at a reduced amount of points.

Point programs have recently started to allow members to exchange points toward travel related services, such as airline tickets and automobile rentals. Over time more Point programs will add similar features.

Point Programs work on either a deeded ownership or a direct “buy-in” not linked to ownership of a specific week. If your program is linked to a week, the amount of point will depend on the week, size of unit, season, resort popularity, and supply/demand balance. One major concern with point programs is the long-term value of your points. If the program operator is able to increase the number of points required to reserve units at participating resorts or to obtain other services the value of your points will erode. This would force you to purchase more points at the resort to continue your use at the resort. You should check your program documents to determine what protection you might have against such losses in exchange power.

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