# Is Marriott going to RCI in 2017



## vacationcrazy (Jul 31, 2016)

I attended an RCI update recently and I was told that Marriott was going to RCI in 2017. It was an interesting update. They wanted to take my two Marriott timeshares and sell me RCI points for them. I was not interested in that at all. They would give me 250,000 RCI points for $30,000. OUCH! Has anyone else been to one of these updates and has anyone heard about Marriott going to RCI.


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## SueDonJ (Jul 31, 2016)

Anything is possible but for what it's worth, the current contract between MVC and II was renewed in 2010 shortly before the DC roll-out, and previous contracts ran for ten years.  Over the years there have been other unofficial reports about the affiliation changing/ending that never came to fruition.


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## tschwa2 (Jul 31, 2016)

You were obviously at an RCI points resort.  A salesperson at a non marriott resort has no insider info and is going to be the last person to know if Marriott is changing affiliation. He was just saying what he thought might make you buy from him.


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## kds4 (Aug 1, 2016)

Where would MVCI owners prefer to exchange externally? I believe RCI includes DVC properties? Would owners prefer to remain with II or would RCI be more desirable? Interesting survey question.

What say ye?


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## l0410z (Aug 1, 2016)

I owned at Resort World of Orlando (changed names a few times over the year) that first started trading II but moved to RCI.  I was grandfathered in to II.  I got rid of it but before I did, I joined both II and RCI.  I do not know if it was because I knew II better but I never was able to effectively use RCI.  I stopped joining RCI  before I got rid of the resort.


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## hangloose (Aug 1, 2016)

Interesting post and question.  While I enjoy using II for my MVC exchanges, I rarely exchange outside of an MVC resort.  Most of mine (80-90%) are MVC internal exchanges via II, which I am happy with at this point especially given the MVC to MVC priority within II.   I still haven't made it to all MVC resorts, but do know which ones I like and want to return to consistently and which I don't.  I'm not as familiar with RCI as I have no timeshares outside of MVC, but am curious on others opinions for those who own multiple timeshares which use both systems.  I wonder if we'll see MVC do a similar future survey question asking owners if they would like additional options for exchange.

Side note.  

While the MVC/II timeshare landscape evolves (MVC markets pricey DC pts for flexibility, II adds upgrade fees, potential of RCI, etc), it's a reminder to me of the certainty that legacy weeks ownership provides and the importance of buying legacy weeks where you will vacation.   You have a week at your chosen timeshare resort in the given season and view for a defined annual maintenance fee. It's easy to see the future on what that looks like, but harder to predict how our current use/exchange patterns and costs change as the MVI/II timeshare landscape evolves.  I will keep this in mind as a key factor in any of my future MVC purchases.


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## DeniseM (Aug 1, 2016)

You really can't believe anything you hear from a sales person.


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## Pompey Family (Aug 1, 2016)

We've only traded outside of MVC via II once and we were not impressed with the resort despite it being 'Gold' rated. We have another trade at Kings Creek Plantation in Williamsburg in two weeks time which I'm hoping will exceed our expectations.

Most of the non Marriott resorts that I've seen available in II, especially in Europe, appear to be of a lower quality and standard than what we expect at a Marriott and for that reason we're often reluctant to trade outside Marriott.

Whilst I accept that some Starwood properties are available via II they are often unavailable for exchange when I've searched.


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## Quimby4 (Aug 1, 2016)

I would love to try RCI. I am tired of II
RCI would give Marriott owners access to Hilton, Grand Pacific, Westin, Disney and Marriotts! Sounds good to me.
As long as we maintained the Marriott Priority in RCI, I say lets move


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## ughus888 (Aug 1, 2016)

*RCI vs II*

I have exchanged with both II and RCI for years.  I much prefer II. Disney is a difficult exchange usually only 1 bedrooms and not prime time available in my experience and not many other prime weeks from other resorts available in RCI either.


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## rpk113 (Aug 1, 2016)

ughus888 said:


> I have exchanged with both II and RCI for years.  I much prefer II. Disney is a difficult exchange usually only 1 bedrooms and not prime time available in my experience and not many other prime weeks from other resorts available in RCI either.



Don't forget Interval just bought Hyatt's TS biz..  #readingtealeaves


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## tynian16 (Aug 1, 2016)

rpk113 said:


> Don't forget Interval just bought Hyatt's TS biz..  #readingtealeaves



I thought Interval recently bought Starwood's, not Hyatt.  Hyatt was bought in 2014?


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## rpk113 (Aug 1, 2016)

tynian16 said:


> I thought Interval recently bought Starwood's, not Hyatt.  Hyatt was bought in 2014?



you are correct..  so 2 of the major names in the TS biz are owned by II.  If I was Marriott, I'd take a meeting from RCI.


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## JIMinNC (Aug 1, 2016)

Been an RCI member since 1999. I've never been impressed with the RCI resort network. Except for HGVC, there is little of value within RCI. I don't put much weight on DVC since they are mostly for Orlando/Disney trips. Since II has Westin/VSE and Hyatt, I think II may have more quality exchange opportunities than RCI. But having said that, our main interest is internal travel within the MVC network through the Destination Club or Marriott priority II exchanges, so the exchange company itself is less important - but my impression is II has more Marriott-quality trade options than RCI.


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## taterhed (Aug 1, 2016)

I routinely poll the RCI (weeks) vs II instant exchanges and, hard as I try, I can't find any decent gold/silver availability on RCI. (occasional bulk-deposits and Big-Island excepted)  I do routinely see great inventory on II; just less of it.

 Perhaps the points side is much better, or perhaps the OGS pulls magical trades.  I admit, the Hilton access is worth the price of admission and the variety and number of world-wide properties is much better (at lower quality).  But, I would be extremely displeased to see Marriott switch to RCI.

 Of course, if Marriott did switch to RCI, that would eviscerate II and reduce the 4-5 star trades on II to a very expensive trickle.

 Maybe I'll just drop a request-first on RCI and see what gets filled in Hawaii first.....


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## Beverley (Aug 1, 2016)

ughus888 said:


> I have exchanged with both II and RCI for years.  I much prefer II. Disney is a difficult exchange usually only 1 bedrooms and not prime time available in my experience and not many other prime weeks from other resorts available in RCI either.



Me too.  I like the resorts in II better and II is cheaper on exchange fees.   When I exchange into RCI I have also had to pay a housekeeping?? I don't think I had to do this with II.

Beverley


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## klpca (Aug 1, 2016)

Oh my gosh. Personal nightmare. I really struggle to find good trades in rci. I'm trying to burn through my remaining TPU's and moving everything to II,  supplemented by some of the independents. Other than HGVC, it's tough to find the higher quality resorts, and I'm honestly not that picky. And most of the high quality resorts are subject to the 1-in-4 rules. I think that most Marriott owners would not be happy at all.


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## ilene13 (Aug 1, 2016)

We own at the Royal Resorts in Mexico.  They moved to RCI a few years ago.  As an owner I and most others stayed with II.  RCI devalued the worth of our RR units and therefore it is impossible to get good exchanges.  Using my RR weeks I get great exchanges in II. I hope Marriott never leaves II.


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## uflows01 (Aug 5, 2016)

*My thoughts on II and RCI*

My thoughts is that customer service has declined across the board.  I used to praise customer service.  

Marriott is going through change, although I have escalated my issues many times and they really try to make things right. 

II is horrible.  I own an Asia Pacific property because I fell in love with property and the worst mistake I ever made. It's a nightmare getting support for it. Any hue, I have to trade my weeks into interval on some occasions.  The constant reply from II is that every single property I choose that's nice, there is a waiting list for it. 

So going forward I'm taking points for my Asia Pacific Property until the transition is totally made into the US org.

My parents use RCI with their timeshare and they seem to like it thus far and you can trade your points for cash in RCI.  That's a new one.


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## vikingsholm (Aug 5, 2016)

Why the hell doesn't Marriott just sign agreements with both II and RCI to allow deposits, like other sane companies do (Worldmark, for example)? This exclusivity is nonsense. Owners would be MUCH happier with multiple options. I can deposit Marriotts to 3rd party exchange companies and II, but not RCI. 

RCI has far more inventory than those 3rd party companies in most places, but also in several areas where you can't get much from II.

Why limit ourselves to debating that it has to be II or RCI exclusively? Madness. Very aggravating business model.


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## SueDonJ (Aug 5, 2016)

vikingsholm said:


> Why the hell doesn't Marriott just sign agreements with both II and RCI to allow deposits, like other sane companies do (Worldmark, for example)? This exclusivity is nonsense. Owners would be MUCH happier with multiple options. I can deposit Marriotts to 3rd party exchange companies and II, but not RCI.
> 
> RCI has far more inventory than those 3rd party companies in most places, but also several areas you can't get much from II.
> 
> Why limit ourselves to debating that it has to be II or RCI exclusively? Madness. Very aggravating business model.



Any of us can choose to join RCI - or any other exchange company - with an individual membership, at our cost, and use our Marriott Weeks for exchanges.  Several of the oldest Marriott resorts are dual-affiliated with both RCI and II (because years ago Marriott was in an exclusive arrangement with RCI) and those owners can choose whether to be members and/or exchange in either or both.

I don't mind the exclusivity terms of the Marriott/II arrangement - it's what gives us the Marriott preference period and, for those of us who are DC Members, the ability to pay one annual Club Dues fee and not have to pay basic exchange fees for our enrolled Weeks.  If MVW entered into contractual agreements with any and all exchange companies those exclusive advantages would probably disappear.


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## dioxide45 (Aug 5, 2016)

SueDonJ said:


> Any of us can choose to join RCI - or any other exchange company - with an individual membership, at our cost, and use our Marriott Weeks for exchanges.



I can't. Only those owners at the older resorts can do this.


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## mav (Aug 6, 2016)

ilene13 said:


> We own at the Royal Resorts in Mexico.  They moved to RCI a few years ago.  As an owner I and most others stayed with II.  RCI devalued the worth of our RR units and therefore it is impossible to get good exchanges.  Using my RR weeks I get great exchanges in II. I hope Marriott never leaves II.



    I own at the Royals also. Oddly enough, for 2 or 3 years before they went to RCI they kept telling me they were moving to RCI. I just blew it off as sales office bull.  Oddly enough, it did happen. I ALWAYS deposit my Royal with II.


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## vikingsholm (Aug 6, 2016)

SueDonJ, we also have Marriotts that are not the older ones allowed in RCI.  There are numerous locales in RCI that we like and find hard to come by in II. So we had to buy a few traders that can be deposited to RCI -- but it would be simpler to be able to deposit Marriotts in RCI also, and I presume get pretty good TPUs if we could do that.

Most of the others like DAE, Platinum Interchange, Trading Places allow us to deposit our Marriotts too. We use those to fill in gaps for trading to places harder to come by in II and RCI. 

RCI and GPX are the main ones that don't allow us to deposit our particular Marriotts.  We trade quite a bit, so having more exchange company choices may be more important to us than to others who don't exchange so much.

I'm not sure that the Marriott preference or DC terms would have to go away in II if Marriott also had RCI access, but I suppose that's a contract matter whose terms are confidential to II and Marriott?


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## Born2Travel (Aug 6, 2016)

Beverley said:


> Me too.  I like the resorts in II better and II is cheaper on exchange fees.   When I exchange into RCI I have also had to pay a housekeeping?? I don't think I had to do this with II.
> 
> Beverley



Me too.  RCI is Wyndham.  That's why you see Worldmark properties in RCI.  Wyndham deposits Worldmark units in RCI.  I don't care for  RCI or their always increasing fees and have a difficult time finding anything I want to trade for.


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## Dean (Aug 11, 2016)

SueDonJ said:


> Any of us can choose to join RCI - or any other exchange company - with an individual membership, at our cost, and use our Marriott Weeks for exchanges.  Several of the oldest Marriott resorts are dual-affiliated with both RCI and II (because years ago Marriott was in an exclusive arrangement with RCI) and those owners can choose whether to be members and/or exchange in either or both.
> 
> I don't mind the exclusivity terms of the Marriott/II arrangement - it's what gives us the Marriott preference period and, for those of us who are DC Members, the ability to pay one annual Club Dues fee and not have to pay basic exchange fees for our enrolled Weeks.  If MVW entered into contractual agreements with any and all exchange companies those exclusive advantages would probably disappear.


One has to own an RCI affiliated property to join and use RCI unless something has changed.  

As for dual affiliation, Marriott would likely lose some of the benefits if they did like the hold time on deposits and $$$.


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## SueDonJ (Aug 11, 2016)

SueDonJ said:


> Any of us can choose to join RCI - or any other exchange company - with an individual membership, at our cost, and use our Marriott Weeks for exchanges.  Several of the oldest Marriott resorts are dual-affiliated with both RCI and II (because years ago Marriott was in an exclusive arrangement with RCI) and those owners can choose whether to be members and/or exchange in either or both.
> 
> I don't mind the exclusivity terms of the Marriott/II arrangement - it's what gives us the Marriott preference period and, for those of us who are DC Members, the ability to pay one annual Club Dues fee and not have to pay basic exchange fees for our enrolled Weeks.  If MVW entered into contractual agreements with any and all exchange companies those exclusive advantages would probably disappear.





dioxide45 said:


> I can't. Only those owners at the older resorts can do this.





vikingsholm said:


> SueDonJ, we also have Marriotts that are not the older ones allowed in RCI.  There are numerous locales in RCI that we like and find hard to come by in II. So we had to buy a few traders that can be deposited to RCI -- but it would be simpler to be able to deposit Marriotts in RCI also, and I presume get pretty good TPUs if we could do that.
> 
> Most of the others like DAE, Platinum Interchange, Trading Places allow us to deposit our Marriotts too. We use those to fill in gaps for trading to places harder to come by in II and RCI.
> 
> ...





Dean said:


> One has to own an RCI affiliated property to join and use RCI unless something has changed.
> 
> As for dual affiliation, Marriott would likely lose some of the benefits if they did like the hold time on deposits and $$$.



Thanks all for the correction.  I thought it was possible to join any exchange company on an individual basis, obviously I was wrong.  I'm heading to the corner with my Dunce Hat on.  

At least we seem to be in agreement that if Marriott entered into arrangements to allow their owners to exchange with other companies, it would probably come at the expense of us losing the preference period and reduced exchange fees that we now get with II.


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## Dean (Aug 11, 2016)

SueDonJ said:


> Thanks all for the correction.  I thought it was possible to join any exchange company on an individual basis, obviously I was wrong.  I'm heading to the corner with my Dunce Hat on.
> 
> At least we seem to be in agreement that if Marriott entered into arrangements to allow their owners to exchange with other companies, it would probably come at the expense of us losing the preference period and reduced exchange fees that we now get with II.


There's no reason to feel bad, this is how we ALL learn with timeshares.  If one owns at one of the properties that were with RCI when Marriott did change years ago, they can join RCI and can exchange with RCI though I can't think of why one would want to given the preferential treatment II gives for Marriott internal exchanges.


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## tschwa2 (Aug 11, 2016)

I can think of a reason or two to belong to RCI rather than II.  Let's say you own 2 or 3 other RCI affiliated properties that you occasionally exchange and already have the RCI membership and you have an older Marriott that you rarely exchange and usually use and no other reason for a II account.  Rather than pay for an II account that you might use every 3rd or 4th year, you use the RCI account that you already have.  Or again if you mainly use your week but want access to RCI's last calls and extra vacations and got a good 2 or 3 for 1 membership offer.


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## Dean (Aug 11, 2016)

tschwa2 said:


> I can think of a reason or two to belong to RCI rather than II.  Let's say you own 2 or 3 other RCI affiliated properties that you occasionally exchange and already have the RCI membership and you have an older Marriott that you rarely exchange and usually use and no other reason for a II account.  Rather than pay for an II account that you might use every 3rd or 4th year, you use the RCI account that you already have.  Or again if you mainly use your week but want access to RCI's last calls and extra vacations and got a good 2 or 3 for 1 membership offer.


Yea, I realized there were exceptions and almost included that in my post though they should be very rare.  I can think of a few others as well.


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## SueDonJ (Aug 11, 2016)

Dean said:


> There's no reason to feel bad, this is how we ALL learn with timeshares.  If one owns at one of the properties that were with RCI when Marriott did change years ago, they can join RCI and can exchange with RCI though I can't think of why one would want to given the preferential treatment II gives for Marriott internal exchanges.



I've been singing A Song of Sorrow ever since the day that Disney Vacation Club left II and entered into their current affiliation with RCI.  All these years I've been thinking that if I wanted a DVC exchange that badly then I could open an individual RCI account.  (Instead we've done private rentals and cash stays.)  Now I'm going to have to add a new verse about further lost opportunity even though it was never an option.

By the time DVC is done breaking my heart I'll have a whole songbook of dirges. And believe me, I am NOT a good singer at all!


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## Dean (Aug 11, 2016)

SueDonJ said:


> I've been singing A Song of Sorrow ever since the day that Disney Vacation Club left II and entered into their current affiliation with RCI.  All these years I've been thinking that if I wanted a DVC exchange that badly then I could open an individual RCI account.  (Instead we've done private rentals and cash stays.)  Now I'm going to have to add a new verse about further lost opportunity even though it was never an option.
> 
> By the time DVC is done breaking my heart I'll have a whole songbook of dirges. And believe me, I am NOT a good singer at all!


RCI is a much better fit for DVC than is II currently and DVC members are treated a little better with RCI than II.  I don't think it's by design but rather the emphasis that one puts on location compared to individual resortsmore than the other.


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