The less the DVC owners see in RCI, the less they deposit.... Someone who never had success trading would probably abandon looking for a trade for many years.
Consider that DVC members may "Request First" and have access to The Registry Collection of RCI resorts. This may mitigate such concern.
RCI lacks good inventory in part because the top resort developers like DVC, HGVC, Wyndham etc have internal exchange systems both for retail and resale owners. Interval on the other hand has Marriott and Vistana that have a large number of owners that are not enrolled in their points systems so a much larger number of owners have to exchange through Interval.
Owners with companies like Marriott, Hyatt, and Sheraton are offered internal preference when exchanging into their home system via II. So prime deposited inventory from those companies is less readily available to II members with top tier independent resorts. Both II and RCI have special programs to boost exchanging satisfaction for some brand depositors above the experience of the general member body.
The RCI rental business is also more spread out than one may think. ... there are other channels as well.
Absolutely agree. Besides individuals on a tiny scale and points manager businesses on a moderate scale, the largest timeshare rental businesses of all are offered by the exchange companies themselves. While RCI and II (and other smaller competitors) offer rentals, getaways, bonus weeks, etc. to their exchange members, they also have authorized online outlets for the general public, such as CondoDirect and SkyAuction. There is no way for any of us to know
with certainty that prime rental weeks don't ever come from exchange inventory. We also cannot know
with certainty whether either of the two major exchange companies have negotiated any kind of business deal with any smaller rental businesses. The travel industry is complex.
I suspect that these small LLCs are simply not making a noticeable dent in RCI's business or significantly impacting RCI's member satisfaction. If they do, RCI would (or will) get involved. Meanwhile, nothing has changed in terms of sightings that cannot be explained by a change in deposit patterns by the resort systems. Prime deposits continue to match to waiting OGS requests before appearing to sit available online, for the most part. Some people are happy with trades, others are not. Not much new, really, IMO.