Opinions on RCI Exchange Plus

[timeshare trader]

It appears that RCI is attempting (not that they are doing a great job of messaging) to options outside of traditional timeshare inventory to fill holes where they do not have inventory. I believe this is supposed to be a compliment to the exchange and not replace their core business. At times visually it appears that they are trying to replace exchange with exchange plus because of the sheer volume. What is your opinion?

 

[CalGalTraveler]

What is Exchange Plus?

 

[timeshare trader]

What is Exchange Plus?

a program where they bring non timeshare inventory into the system and charge a combination of $$ and points/tpu. I have found some with significant savings and some with not so much. If you go on RCI.com you can not miss the invenotory

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Thanks for explaining. I have RCI via HGVC portal so cannot see this AFAIK. Where would one find this in the RCI portal?

 

[moonstone]

I will not pay the high rates for an exchange plus. I always click on the size of unit filter to make it a 1 bedroom or larger which eliminates almost all of the exchange plus units since they are just hotel rooms. The 2 times we have wanted to stay in a particular area that had no proper timeshare resorts we booked an extended stay hotel room so we still had a partial or full kitchen. Last time I checked the cost for that was slightly lower than the exchange plus through RCI.

~Diane

 

[escanoe]

What is Exchange Plus?

It is an option (albeit an unappealing one) for those of us that have direct accounts with RCI. As far as I know it is not available through minisystem portals such as HGVC.

 

[montygz]

It appears that RCI is attempting (not that they are doing a great job of messaging) to options outside of traditional timeshare inventory to fill holes where they do not have inventory. I believe this is supposed to be a compliment to the exchange and not replace their core business. At times visually it appears that they are trying to replace exchange with exchange plus because of the sheer volume. What is your opinion?

Many people who go on RCI are just trying to plan their vacation because they believe it holds all the answers for their travel needs. After all, that is what they were told at the timeshare presentation.

They hop on RCI looking for cruises, airline reservations, rental cars. Disney tickets and hotel stays. Of course, some of those are not available but the more of that stuff that is, the better for RCI's customers.

RCI is helping those people out by offering "Exchange Plus." RCI is in business to make money. Why send customers to Expedia or Travelocity? Why shouldn't RCI cash in?

RCI options like Exchange Plus are also a great tool for the timeshare sales department. Owning a timeshare will meet all your travel needs. Just check out RCI.com! You can do it all! Its an exclusive website that only owners can access to get these travel services.

Now, I find Exchange Plus as just clutter that should be ignored. I know that RCI is best used for timeshares and not all that other stuff. Those other items are generally a poor value.

However, I am not the customer RCI has in mind with all these extras.

 

[vikingsholm]

I just stumbled into my first Exchange Plus during a search for an exchange.

Are you kidding me? What a joke at these prices PLUS giving up an unreasonable number of TPUs.

Looks like it's going into the ignore bin for me.

 

[tschwa2]

I would like a filter by exchange fee. Most of the time I would use it to filter out exchange plus completely but sometimes I wouldn't mind seeing the $399-$599 exchange plus without having to wade through the $799-$1599 ones too.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I would like to see those filtered out. I need to use my trading power that I have built up over the years with my Grand Palms (formerly Presidential Villas at Plantation Resort). I never thought of searching for one bedroom or larger to filter them out, so that works for me.

This is off topic: What I would like to see is a reduction in exchange fees for platinum members by $30-50 per exchange. I could really save some cash with that option. I think RCI is biting itself in the butt iwth the high fees and of course the fees at the resorts, which I harp on constantly. I am not talking TOT/TAT. I am talking about "parking" and "concierge" and "activity" fees. Every resort is going to start doing it, and it's going to be expensive for exchangers, changing the game for many of us. But that is my opinion as a member of RCI for 40+ years.
years.

 

[jp10558]

I have to agree - if they don't charge those fees to owners, then clearly they can operate on the MFs their paid, and they're getting that from the owner even if they deposit their week for exchange. If they also charge those to owners, it seems to me like those costs should actually just be part of the MFs to go for the week. And if there actually is some extra cost for the resort (that I honestly cannot fathom what it is) to taking an RCI exchange, then it ought to be able to come out of the RCI exchange fee - which would be really the only legitimate reason for $300 exchange fees I could see - that they encompass all fees to stay, and RCI is passing that along for us.

TBH, with the less and less that RCI has to be doing (running a website? with a database? some contracts with resorts?), I think the real sort of price for this service ought to be around $70 bucks at most, and I think that (HGVC booking fee) is basically scamming money.