RCI - does the system still make sense?

" ... that according to his recent research, in 1974 when RCI first started their exchange system the fee was a whopping $7.00 for an entire week! If true, then adjusted for inflation that same exchange fee today for owners/members should be around $34.41 (for the week) – which is far lower than RCI’s current call-in exchange rate of $219.00 for a week or their $209.00 online rate.

And he asks this question: Why is it that ‘John, Q Public’ (JQP) or anyone else can get online or make a toll free call to ‘W’ and at no cost to them they can check for availability, book and secure a reservation for the accommodations of their choosing and then receive an instant verification for one or more nights at most Wyndham Hotel Group properties w/o any additional costs; yet a timeshare owner has to pay hundreds of dollars extra to reserve their ‘time’ through RCI?

source: insidethegate.com

RuralEngineer said:

" ...
And he asks this question: Why is it that ‘John, Q Public’ (JQP) or anyone else can get online or make a toll free call to ‘W’ and at no cost to them they can check for availability, book and secure a reservation for the accommodations of their choosing and then receive an instant verification for one or more nights at most Wyndham Hotel Group properties w/o any additional costs; yet a timeshare owner has to pay hundreds of dollars extra to reserve their ‘time’ through RCI?

...

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It's interesting that anyone would think that there is no cost involved in providing any type of internet service let alone one that involves people depositing weeks, getting them verified then providing them to customers for exchange.

I believe that RCI and II prices are high for what's provided but they are in business to make money and as long as peeps are willing to pay the fees they will continue to go up.

Even the toll free call has to be paid by someone and that will be the customer somewhere in the fees paid.

The System Is What It Is.

RuralEngineer said:

RCI - does the system still make sense?

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As much as it ever did -- with the possible exception of the early days when the exchange fee was $49 or so.

csxjohn said:

RCI and II prices are high for what's provided but they are in business to make money and as long as peeps are willing to pay the fees they will continue to go up.

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You are correct, sir.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

an RCI exchange costs what it does, because thats what it costs, I see it as a penalty for owning a week that I dont want to use

For the folks that enjoy trading, or buy a timeshare for the purpose of trading, Its just one of the costs associated with their vacations; but they have figured out how to get vacations for less than the cost of maintenance fees even including the RCI charge....for them the exchange fee is just another cost of vacationing, but they get bargains anyway.

I had quit RCI seeing no real value in it due to the high costs, but just responded to take advantage of a special promotion through one of my ownerships to get a two year platinum membership for $49. They have thrown in an Extra Vacation for good measure as well, so who knows - maybe targeted promos is their new strategy.

it makes sense if you have a TS and don't use it every year and don't want to hassle with renting it out. It works for those who are on the hunt for high value trades, like DVC or the Carib. And, it works for the average Joe who just wants to try out some new places, like my Mom, who has traded into the NC mountains for 5 years. The new system of TPUS works very well for those who can travel in shoulder seasons. My Mom can get 3 trips out of her prime week, which she used to traded 1-1 for the same places. I factor in the $200 trade fee, but am still way ahead on any DVC trade.

It makes sense for me, but I know it is not for everyone.

Full Article

http://insidethegate.com/2014/12/sc...ampaign=Feed:+InsideTheGate+(Inside+the+Gate)

Certainly RCI (weeks) has positives and negatives. For me:

Positives:
- Access to some higher end resorts, often at a reasonable price (e.g., Disney, Hilton, some Starwood)
- Access to inexpensive Extra Vacations
- Access to TPU "change back" or credit, allowing multiple exchanges for a deposit
- Potential discounted exchange fees for "internal" system resorts (i.e., Vacation Village resorts for Grandview owners)
- On the whole, significant inventory for exchanges
- Ability to combine/extend usage period for TPU

Negatives:
- High (and seemingly ever increasing) exchange and combine fees
- Deposits not always treated fairly (TPU provided doesn't always reflect associated supply/demand, some favoritism involved for certain companies)
- 1 in 4 (or 3 or 5) rules limit ability to return to same resort frequently, and number of resorts with these rules seems to be increasing
- TPU shifts over time provide uncertainty (e.g., TPU value for my one week continues to go down)
- RCI seems OK with allowing resorts to increase number of "tack-on" fees for RCI exchangers
- Excessive amount of RCI website outages
- Many resorts are mediocre (at best?)
- RCI does not seem to always enforce stated rules (i.e., regarding renting exchanges)

I have 2 units that I generally deposit to RCI, and a 3rd I could (but it also trades with II where I get better value normally). Had 3 good exchanges in 2014, but nothing confirmed in 2015 currently. For time being, I'm tolerating RCI despite the negatives.

The question doesn't make sense to someone like me who purchased their TS's resale with the sole indent of exchanging and "never" staying at my home resort, unless it's thru an exchange. So for me, I need RCI, II, and HGVClub. :whoopie:

I wish exchanges were not so expensive, but I like Ron98GT purchased to exchange and never to occupy. I will never even so much as ever occupy my home resort. I need the exchange companies. Considering that my upcoming concurrent 2BR Hawaii premium exchanges cost me a grand total all in of around $2k in maintenance, membership and exchange fees, there is no way other than exchanging that I could really make that possible.

So many weeks are under 10 points. If your cost per point is $20, and you pay $219 for exchange fee, that's a pretty cheap exchange. I love to exchange and love RCI best for cheap weeks. Their sales are amazing too. 4 points for off-season Myrtle Beach Gold Crown. How can a person resist SC over Colorado when the snow is flying here.

Ron98GT said:

The question doesn't make sense to someone like me who purchased their TS's resale with the sole indent of exchanging and "never" staying at my home resort, unless it's thru an exchange. So for me, I need RCI, II, and HGVClub. :whoopie:

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+1.

Probably a third of my RCI exchanges have been to trade into HGVC, which I already own, but at a fraction of the cost. That even includes the $252 per exchange for Canadians. I don't like it, but it's cheaper than owning or renting.

gnorth16 said:

+1.

Probably a third of my RCI exchanges have been to trade into HGVC, which I already own, but at a fraction of the cost. That even includes the $252 per exchange for Canadians. I don't like it, but it's cheaper than owning or renting.

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This seems to be true for many of the mini systems.
I get great deals on DVC, HGVC, Bluegreen and even Wyndhams.
Way cheaper than owning in all these systems which I do. :annoyed:

Over the years, I've decided that chasing the very last dollar isn't worth the hassle---my time has value, too. Instead, I look at things this way: I spend $X per year in MFs. I spend another $Y plus-or-minus in various fees. The total buys me Z weeks of vacation each year in pretty darn nice places, and (X+Y)/Z is still very reasonable vs. what it would cost me to rent this conventionally. Yes, I could sometimes rent from an owner for a few dollars less, but that's even more hassle. More often, because I am traveling in peak season, the rental would cost more and still be more hassle.

In fact, I'm typing this from a 2BR at Wyndham Bonnet Creek right now. We slept in, ducked over to Olivia's at Old Key West for lunch (a favorite of ours), enjoyed the pools for a bit, and then spent the evening in the Magic Kingdom where we closed the place. I did this as an exchange via RCI. That turns out to be more expensive than just booking with my Wyndham points, but I'd rather use my Wyndham points for other things and I had some extra TPU laying around that I needed to use.

We have been RCI members for 20+ years. RCI's algorithms for exchanging have changed over the years to reflect changes in the timeshare industry. Now RCI gives priority to depositors of resort group affiliated properties such as HGVC etc. We own a non-affiliated property, Banyon Harbor in Kauai. We are now offered the dregs from the exchange pool of available weeks.

For example, when I search today for a Kauai exchange, RCI returns no weeks available. When I search for a Kauai extra vacation, RCI returns 282 available units to rent.

The only areas we see decent high season availability are Orlando, Las Vegas and Mexico. So for us, the RCI system no longer makes sense. In short, RCI depositors exchange availability is allocated based on resort affiliation. In our experience, if your resort is non-affiliated, you are likely to receive poor exchange availability.

I was just on the RCI website making a reservation to use points that would otherwise be lost. The exchange fee for a week was $209 but I reserved a 6 night stay instead for $149. If you can get a reservation for 6 nights, the $60 difference is not worth it.

Czahara1 said:

In our experience, if your resort is non-affiliated, you are likely to receive poor exchange availability.

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Maybe for instant online exchanges the availability is poor, I dunno. But my resort is not affiliated, and I did an ongoing search that netted me a 2BR at Disney Aulani back in August (for Jan check in). Maybe try setting up ongoing searches for what you want.

annep71 said:

I was just on the RCI website making a reservation to use points that would otherwise be lost. The exchange fee for a week was $209 but I reserved a 6 night stay instead for $149. If you can get a reservation for 6 nights, the $60 difference is not worth it.

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Perhaps, unless you really would prefer to stay one week.

annep71 said:

I was just on the RCI website making a reservation to use points that would otherwise be lost. The exchange fee for a week was $209 but I reserved a 6 night stay instead for $149. If you can get a reservation for 6 nights, the $60 difference is not worth it.

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is this only available with RCI points? and are you going to have to pay the resort a cleaning fee?

Czahara1 said:

We have been RCI members for 20+ years. RCI's algorithms for exchanging have changed over the years to reflect changes in the timeshare industry. Now RCI gives priority to depositors of resort group affiliated properties such as HGVC etc. We own a non-affiliated property, Banyon Harbor in Kauai. We are now offered the dregs from the exchange pool of available weeks.

For example, when I search today for a Kauai exchange, RCI returns no weeks available. When I search for a Kauai extra vacation, RCI returns 282 available units to rent.

The only areas we see decent high season availability are Orlando, Las Vegas and Mexico. So for us, the RCI system no longer makes sense. In short, RCI depositors exchange availability is allocated based on resort affiliation. In our experience, if your resort is non-affiliated, you are likely to receive poor exchange availability.

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I don't think your search has anything to do with resort affiliation (HGVC, Marriott (II), Weston (II & RCI), or Hyatt). With HGVC, you have to use their HGVC/RCI portal, and I haven't seen anything better thru the portal than when using my personal RCI account.

First, there isn't that many RCI TS's on Kauai. Second, the quality of the Kauai RCI resorts do not match the quality of the Kauai II resorts (Marriott & Weston).

The problem, as you stated, is that RCI is selling the TS inventory off as extra vacations, instead of using the inventory for exchanges.

Two suggested solutions, at least for Hawaii:
1. Start a RCI OGS 2 years before you want to go to Hawaii/Kauai. I've gotten many OGS exchanges, although I never saw the TS's doing instant searches. In fact, I've gotten exchanges even after RCI called me to tell me that I would never get the exchange, that it would never happen and I should select something else, but yet I did eventually get the exchange that I wanted.
2. Get a good II trader to trade into Westin's & Marriott's and use RCI for the Big Island & HHV.

annep71 said:

I was just on the RCI website making a reservation to use points that would otherwise be lost. The exchange fee for a week was $209 but I reserved a 6 night stay instead for $149. If you can get a reservation for 6 nights, the $60 difference is not worth it.

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A full week using points inventory is only $159 in fact you can reserve up to 14 consecutive days from points inventory for the single $159 exchange fee. Many resorts won't charge the housekeeping fee on a 6 day as it isn't likely they will rent to someone for the one night but they do reserve the right and it is possible that you will be hit with a $30-$80 clean fee on reservations of less than 7 nights or ones that require a change of room at some point (for example if you reserve a Tuesday-Tuesday and the normal check in/out day is Saturday).

Czahara1 said:

We have been RCI members for 20+ years. RCI's algorithms for exchanging have changed over the years to reflect changes in the timeshare industry. Now RCI gives priority to depositors of resort group affiliated properties such as HGVC etc. We own a non-affiliated property, Banyon Harbor in Kauai. We are now offered the dregs from the exchange pool of available weeks.

For example, when I search today for a Kauai exchange, RCI returns no weeks available. When I search for a Kauai extra vacation, RCI returns 282 available units to rent.

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I think you must only have a deposit that is expiring very soon or there is something wrong with your account. I just checked Kaui and I see 9 resorts and 447 units. Of those only Pono Kai Resort (#2491)
Kapaa, HI which has 165 units showing has some that are available for extra vacations only and not exchange. It looks like about 50 are available for exchange and the rest are rentals only. At the other 8 resorts all the deposits are available either for exchange only or exchange and rental concurrently.