What does it mean if my resort no longer has a contract with RCI

[spthomas]

We just got notified that our resort will no longer have a contract with RCI starting next year. I'm not sure exactly what that means for us. All the letter we got says is
"The Board of Directors has decided to terminate the affiliation agreement effective immediately. This will not affect your ability to utilize RCI in the future, should you choose to do so at your own expense. "

I'm not sure what the resort's affiliation with RCI has to do with us. We as individuals pay our dues to be RCI members every year, and we bank our weeks and book exchanges. Any thoughts on what this might mean for us as owners?

 

[Eric B]

There's a lot of parts of a resorts affiliation agreement with the different exchange systems (RCI, II, etc.) that doesn't greatly effect how you interact with the exchanges. One of the bigger things is what the resort does with excess inventory of weeks that aren't owned by someone; typically that inventory gets deposited in bulk with the exchanges under the terms of the affiliation agreements and used for satisfying exchanges or rented out. I couldn't speculate as to what the terms for your resort were, but believe for many there is some remuneration for the rentals and some exchange credits (hence the Massanutten trading power boost program and the Vacation Village extra vacation certificates). I will speculate that your board of directors determined that the payment they were getting wasn't enough to compensate for the value of the weeks they could get using them elsewhere, perhaps at another exchange system or perhaps through renting them out themselves or through a third party. If that's the case, it could effect the cash flow and therefore your MFs. Another effect might be less availability of RCI exchanges into your resort, which could improve your trading power. It might be worth asking the board or your HOA why they made the decision.

 

[silentg]

Was your RCI membership included in maintenance fee? Or did you have your own.?We have had our own RCI membership for our weeks. We also have a points account that is paid thru the resort. Only Orange Lake is a points account. Are they affiliated with any other exchange company? II or VRI, DAE?

 

[spthomas]

Was your RCI membership included in maintenance fee? Or did you have your own.?We have had our own RCI membership for our weeks. We also have a points account that is paid thru the resort. Only Orange Lake is a points account. Are they affiliated with any other exchange company? II or VRI, DAE?

No, we didn't have an RCI membership included. We've always had to pay for our own RCI membership. And we still have, so this hasn't affected that relationship I think.

And I can see why they might have done this now; LaTour is owned by Festiva, and they also own their own exchange service RTX. So it sounds like this might just be them moving to their own exchange company. They have already been selling their own excess inventory via RTX for several years (we went to another of their resorts last year for $98 for a week in a last minute deal through RTX). We had actually bailed on RCI several years ago, but rejoined and banked a week with them because we weren't sure that RTX would have what we needed for exchanges outside Festiva. But we were wrong, they got us exchanges for a terrific resort in SanDestin that we'd never heard of, and another in Hawaii. But again it sounds like this doesn't affect our RCI relationship at all.

Thanks all!

 

[TamaraQT]

There's a lot of parts of a resorts affiliation agreement with the different exchange systems (RCI, II, etc.) that doesn't greatly effect how you interact with the exchanges. One of the bigger things is what the resort does with excess inventory of weeks that aren't owned by someone; typically that inventory gets deposited in bulk with the exchanges under the terms of the affiliation agreements and used for satisfying exchanges or rented out. I couldn't speculate as to what the terms for your resort were, but believe for many there is some remuneration for the rentals and some exchange credits (hence the Massanutten trading power boost program and the Vacation Village extra vacation certificates). I will speculate that your board of directors determined that the payment they were getting wasn't enough to compensate for the value of the weeks they could get using them elsewhere, perhaps at another exchange system or perhaps through renting them out themselves or through a third party. If that's the case, it could effect the cash flow and therefore your MFs. Another effect might be less availability of RCI exchanges into your resort, which could improve your trading power. It might be worth asking the board or your HOA why they made the decision.

Wait...Wait....Wait... @Eric B, you are such a WEALTH of info that you make my head spin This seems like useful info to understand. So if a resort no longer has a contract with RCI, how can RCI still be used for exchanges??

So are you saying an owner can still make a deposit/exchange of their week into RCI? Will the home resort accept a trade from RCI? Wait...did I say that right? OMG!! I am so confused . And then you mentioned Massanutten my ears went up automatically. So of course I realized I need to look at Vacation Village affiliations just in case VV decides to not contract with RCI anymore. Oh geez, I guess this is part of my "due diligence" I missed. I should paid attention to the resorts associated with VV properties to be sure I would be content with internal trading.

 

[TamaraQT]

No, we didn't have an RCI membership included. We've always had to pay for our own RCI membership. And we still have, so this hasn't affected that relationship I think.

And I can see why they might have done this now; LaTour is owned by Festiva, and they also own their own exchange service RTX. So it sounds like this might just be them moving to their own exchange company. They have already been selling their own excess inventory via RTX for several years (we went to another of their resorts last year for $98 for a week in a last minute deal through RTX). We had actually bailed on RCI several years ago, but rejoined and banked a week with them because we weren't sure that RTX would have what we needed for exchanges outside Festiva. But we were wrong, they got us exchanges for a terrific resort in SanDestin that we'd never heard of, and another in Hawaii. But again it sounds like this doesn't affect our RCI relationship at all.

Thanks all!

I sure like the sound of $98 for a week !!!!! I am glad you were happy with the resorts you had to choose from. That is what would scare me about a resort not being associated with RCI anymore. I would be afraid that I wouldn't be able to go to resorts I enjoy anymore. I don't mind trying something new, I just want good quality comforts and amenities.