At one point I owned 33 timeshares. I was using them to retire (most all in a row at same resort). Many were with Interval, most with RCI. I'm down to 5 now of which only 1 do I always use. They're RCI. I found many (but not most) of Interval units were way better (Marriott's, Westin, etc). Many were only so so. RCI didn't have the cream units but most were pretty good. RCI's fees are outrageous. Intervals are too high also. But what I really feel is the big insult, RCI CLEARLY takes the good units and rents them themselves for $$$$. Members don't get a fair shot at them. I owned Paris and if I banked it, it would NEVER appear. It was always up for rent. That's why most units on RCI (and likely Interval too) are crap. They appear to skim the good ones for themselves to rent. (I wonder if that would be a good class action lawsuit?)
Personally...I've found that Royal-Holiday points work best for us. I have 4 contracts of these. They expire (a monster plus because at the end they just end and you don't have to fight to get out), there's no fee at all to use your points or push them forward one year, maintenance fees are reasonable (not low but ok), and they have hotels and apartment hotels in cities that don't have timeshares at all (like Rome, NYC, etc), and they have many of the same timeshares that appear on RCI. But their not technically a timeshare company although they work almost identically.
