RCI website for weeks won't allow me to set up any additional searches

[WaikikiFirst]

Do they?

LOL. In a growing market for travel, their membership is shrinking. If it were a company, it'd be a $5 stock. Anyone in sales at RCI who doesn't get that, should be fired.
Once again,
They are like the cable companies. They will charge higher & higher prices to fewer & fewer customers, namely the ones who can't figure out how to CUT THE CORD.

 

[jp10558]

aren't all the big systems under the same corporate umbrella as one of those (Disney being an outlier). The smaller ones are like herding cats.
Think broadly, the competitor is Redwk, Airbnb and any other way for owners to rent to travelers.

These aren't competing with an exchange though - which seems to be your main complaint. They're competing with Last Call and Extra Vacations. And they tend to fail IME for being a lot more expensive, and having way less locations / inventory available. Though I have no idea in AirB&B how to tell what's a TS and what's not. Of course, redweek is fine if you want to pay that much and pick from a lesser pool of options - they do tend to have higher end (and therefor higher priced) options.

And they ahve the same issue: scale. Til a "competitor" has enough inventory or spends a ton on google, why would travelers want to deal with them? Koala, anyone?

The other issue with renting is while HGVC and Wyndham etc let you exchange or do an Extra Vacation through RCI all you want, they most certainly do not make it very easy / at all possible to rent out your TS so you can then pay cash on Koala or Redweek, and if you think that's a lower barrier to entry than using RCI... well I just vehemently disagree. Have you ever dealt with the general public to try and sell something? It's hell if anyone even bothers to sniff at what you're trying to sell. Plus there's all sorts of reasons the rental may never happen. With RCI you pay your $299 for the exchange and if you get the option at all you have the exchange.

 

[jp10558]

LOL. In a growing market for travel, their membership is shrinking. If it were a company, it'd be a $5 stock. Anyone in sales at RCI who doesn't get that, should be fired.
Once again,
They are like the cable companies. They will charge higher & higher prices to fewer & fewer customers, namely the ones who can't figure out how to CUT THE CORD.

OK, so you're saying people just won't exchange their TS anymore. This may be true for many of the minisystem owners. I wonder if they don't make enough money on the cash options, because I see that as being quite valuable. Personally, I'd suggest to them they figure out the IT infrastructure needed so that their exchange fees can go down a lot - but I wonder if they pay some amount to the resort they're exchanging into, plus don't want their yearly fees to go up so are using the exchange fee costs to make up for it? I do think getting the exchange costs down makes the exchange part more likely to be useful and therefore might well bring in more customers. I just keep coming back to the fact that almost all of the time other options cost more than even RCI exchanges, so they still make a lot of financial sense for members - whether they are marketed well is another issue.

 

[timeshare trader]

I would love to see the evidence that there are member numbers and transactions that are rapidly declining. Are there numbers to back that up in a financial statement or report filing? Please share.

I have assumed (perhaps incorrectly) those were going up with time (especially on the portal side of the business). And that the loss of DVC was a significant but one-time hit.

We would be getting a better product if they were managing to attract market share and to keep up with competitors versus maintain revenue in a stagnant duopoly.

google travel and leisure investor relations. There is a 5 year spreadsheet with numbers for the timeshare and the exchange. Transactions were down almost 15% in RCI for q1 2025 vs q1 2024. This stuff is not rocket science. You can also google Marriot investor relations to view interval. Hilton Grand Investor relations to view their numbers. Amazing amount of transparency if you want to look for it.

 

[jp10558]

google travel and leisure investor relations. There is a 5 year spreadsheet with numbers for the timeshare and the exchange. Transactions were down almost 15% in RCI for q1 2025 vs q1 2024. This stuff is not rocket science. You can also google Marriot investor relations to view interval. Hilton Grand Investor relations to view their numbers. Amazing amount of transparency if you want to look for it.

I do wonder how much T&L actually cares about RCI though. I wasn't around and haven't heard "why they bought it", but it seems to me that RCI may be more of a sales pitch for developer sales of Wyndham than needing to make a lot of money on their own.

 

[escanoe]

I do wonder how much T&L actually cares about RCI though. I wasn't around and haven't heard "why they bought it", but it seems to me that RCI may be more of a sales pitch for developer sales of Wyndham than needing to make a lot of money on their own.

They care enough about how it does to have bought some of its smaller competitors … picked up on that from TUG. Not much evidence they care about improving user experience.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

These aren't competing with an exchange though

You're so narrow. First of all, all you can think of is the TS owner ... as an owner. Beyond that, Redwk, Airbnb, etc in no way compete with exchanges?
Try re-reading cindy's posts in this thread, think hard, and you may realize that you're wrong.
Beyond that, Redwk, Airbnb, compete with RCI, since Last Call and Extra Vacations are inside RCI, aren't they? If a traveler is satisfied with Redwk, Airbnb, etc, what motive is there to join and then spend time on RCI? Pretty sure someone has to be a RCI "member" (whether they can get that free or not) to even see the LC's & EV's, never mind book one. True?

 

[WaikikiFirst]

Amazing amount of transparency if you want to look for it.

HELLO!!!!!!!!!! Exactly what I wrote in the dreaded "OMG, The Travel Slowdown" thread. They don't want to look. SOAP is good enough.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

wonder how much T&L actually cares about RCI

RCI is a capital-efficient appendage to the core business. RCI is nicely profitable. What do you think happens to all those high fees? Here you go, for everyone who can't bother to look at the #s, iirc, Round #s:
RCI has 20% as many $s of Assets as the core biz has.
RCI produces 50% as many $s of Profit as the core biz does.
iirc. Look it up.
Of course, RCI is a SHRINKING capital-efficient appendage to the core business.

 

[jp10558]

You're so narrow. First of all, all you can think of is the TX owner. Beyond that, Redwk, Airbnb, etc in no way compete with exchanges?

I just think that you're being too broad. There are different markets. Look, in one sense I agree they compete, in the same sense that hotels compete. It's just that you have to scope the comparisons and discussions to be relevant. I don't see what advantage RCI brings to a broad temporary lodging market - what could they possibly do to compete? They're entirely a service on top of timeshares.

The other part that I find so confusing is - if you're a non-timeshare owner, then I agree - how would RCI (or any exchange company) entice you to join? Just like how a lawn mowing service is somewhat reliant on you owning a lawn. Talking about their competition with IDK living in an apartment is just strange.

On the flip side of the TS Owner - I talked about how the competition from Redweek or AirB&B is a much poorer experience compared to an exchange company. Remember, I've got this week I paid MFs on, I want to convert it to a week somewhere else. With RCI the process is rather straightforward. With Redweek or AirB&B - as far as I know - I need to be both renting out my week to convert to cash, and then rent from someone else to get the other week. What I gather you're suggesting is the competition is not actually to an exchange, but to owning a TS at all.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

RCI may be more of a sales pitch for developer sales of Wyndham than needing to make a lot of money on their own.

It is AMAZING. In a recent thread about HGV, someone wrote that the Club & Operations business was barely profitable, and HGV couldn't care about it.
In fact, the opposite is true.
And here, we have you doing the same thing with TNL's membership business.

 

[rickandcindy23]

The first thing RCI can do to improve members' experience is tell Hilton to drop the per-day fees. TAT is one thing. $25 per day fee for the privilege of exchanging into the best resorts, just because they are "the best," is hurting timeshare exchange in general. It's definitely hurting RCI. I used to love RCI. We exchanged into Hilton SeaWorld years ago and had three units for 2 weeks, which I got through RCI exchange. No $25 per day fees.

We used to exchange into Four Seasons Aviara regularly. Now it's $50 per day for exchangers. I was willing to pay, booked a week, and Rick said Marriott's Newport Coast doesn't charge that fee, so we booked the Marriott. Marriott's closer to the ocean and we often get ocean view.

Grand Timber, Grand Peak 7 and Peak 8, or whatever they are called, The Grand Breckenridge resorts have increased their per-day fees. I can stay at Marriott/ Hyatt/ Westin without fees and with preference. The owners of those resorts can trade into Marriott resorts without fees. How is that fair?

The trend toward daily fees could move to Marriott/ Westin/ Sheraton/ Hyatt. When that happens, I will start buying exactly where we want to stay and will stop exchanging entirely. Those Abound/ Destination Club points (what are they actually called?) will get used, I'll tell you that. I will be buying more Disney points for our stays, if Marriott charges fees.

 

[jp10558]

The first thing RCI can do to improve members' experience is tell Hilton to drop the per-day fees. TAT is one thing. $25 per day fee for the privilege of exchanging into the best resorts, just because they are "the best," is hurting timeshare exchange in general. It's definitely hurting RCI. I used to love RCI. We exchanged into Hilton SeaWorld years ago and had three units for 2 weeks, which I got through RCI exchange. No $25 per day fees.

We used to exchange into Four Seasons Aviara regularly. Now it's $50 per day for exchangers. I was willing to pay, booked a week, and Rick said Marriott's Newport Coast doesn't charge that fee, so we booked the Marriott. Marriott's closer to the ocean and we often get ocean view.

Grand Timber, Grand Peak 7 and Peak 8, or whatever they are called, The Grand Breckenridge resorts have increased their per-day fees. I can stay at Marriott/ Hyatt/ Westin without fees and with preference. The owners of those resorts can trade into Marriott resorts without fees. How is that fair?

The trend toward daily fees could move to Marriott/ Westin/ Sheraton/ Hyatt. When that happens, I will start buying exactly where we want to stay and will stop exchanging entirely. Those Abound/ Destination Club points (what are they actually called?) will get used, I'll tell you that. I will be buying more Disney points for our stays, if Marriott charges fees.

I'd agree with stopping these resort fees - they're literally junk fees and I'd love to see them stopped. For cash stays too - put it in the darn cost to book. Down with drip pricing. That said, I think it seems like everyone is getting in on it. I saw it on II some, I see it at pretty much every RCI cash stay - including VV. IDK if RCI has the pull (nor if Wyndham wants to give up their fees) to say "No resort or other junk fees or you're out of RCI."

HGVC might just go DEX all the way at that point. I do doubt they'd go over to II given they own DEX, but maybe - I just don't know the contract term they have with RCI.

The problem is - RCI has literally 0 reason to want to change things on drip pricing. Even taking a IMHO stupidly broad POV of comparing hotels or hotel site bookings - they also drip in resort fees. And their retail price is high enough that again, RCI may well still be cheaper even adding $200 of junk fees a week. I think we'd basically have to pass a law, and good luck with that! If I had my druthers, whatever price was advertised on the search result is the price you pay. Taxes, fees, credit card charges - whatever, all included in that advertised price.

I do think your complaint that HGVC charges resort fees when you exchange and Marriott doesn't is potentially a little misleading. My understanding is Marriott uses II as their internal exchange too (although IDK how Abound works) - if you use HGVC internal exchange I don't recall there being any resort fees, just the booking fee (basically a small exchange fee).

I just try and figure out the total cost of staying, and compare that - and so far it still works out to be a pretty good deal in many cases, though I'll see how I feel once I try some actual RCI exchanges again next year.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I can trade my Foxrun week into a Marriott week and not pay additional fees.

 

[jp10558]

I can trade my Foxrun week into a Marriott week and not pay additional fees.

Yes, but this is a Marriott choice and they could change it (given that some resorts in II do charge fees). It's not enforced by II.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Yes, but this is a Marriott choice and they could change it (given that some resorts in II do charge fees). It's not enforced by II.

Marriott owns II. You are correct that they could start charging fees at any time. That was my point, of course, and I know you are just reiterating that.

Westin Riverfront in Avon is the nicest resort I have ever experienced in the mountains. I am just fond of everything Westin over Marriott. I cannot get anything via exchange for prime summer dates, let alone ski dates. I can get off-season weeks with my Sheraton preference. I will do it any time it works out for our schedule.

The only problem is Rick is a tough sell with trips to the mountains. He sees no real point in going 90 minutes for a full week. He is such a homebody. I love that about him, but he needs a rest from the yardwork, the gazebo building, and the exterior painting of the house.

 

[hurnik]

The first thing RCI can do to improve members' experience is tell Hilton to drop the per-day fees. TAT is one thing. $25 per day fee for the privilege of exchanging into the best resorts, just because they are "the best," is hurting timeshare exchange in general. It's definitely hurting RCI. I used to love RCI. We exchanged into Hilton SeaWorld years ago and had three units for 2 weeks, which I got through RCI exchange. No $25 per day fees.

We used to exchange into Four Seasons Aviara regularly. Now it's $50 per day for exchangers. I was willing to pay, booked a week, and Rick said Marriott's Newport Coast doesn't charge that fee, so we booked the Marriott. Marriott's closer to the ocean and we often get ocean view.

Grand Timber, Grand Peak 7 and Peak 8, or whatever they are called, The Grand Breckenridge resorts have increased their per-day fees. I can stay at Marriott/ Hyatt/ Westin without fees and with preference. The owners of those resorts can trade into Marriott resorts without fees. How is that fair?

The trend toward daily fees could move to Marriott/ Westin/ Sheraton/ Hyatt. When that happens, I will start buying exactly where we want to stay and will stop exchanging entirely. Those Abound/ Destination Club points (what are they actually called?) will get used, I'll tell you that. I will be buying more Disney points for our stays, if Marriott charges fees.

I believe, but could be wrong, that Hilton was the one who decided to toss in the fees. I have a sneaking suspicion (no factual basis) that this was to dissuade us HGV owners from exchanging into another HIlton via RCI (there were quite a few resorts it was cheaper to do so at 4,800 RCI points vs. HGV 7,200+ points).

But perhaps not.

Although didn't Disney start tacking on a bunch of fee-fees if you exchanged? (like daily parking, etc.)?

But I digest.
Fee-fees abound and I do agree it's very annoying and expensive.

IMO it's just an extra money grab, but seems to be the way a lot of companies (not just timeshare/exchange companies) are going.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Hilton wanted the fees, RCI probably would rather they didn't charge fees. If Hilton wanted to charge Hilton owners only, Hilton could have had RCI do it through the portal. I have to say, the Wyndham portal looks vastly different from my RCI weeks and points accounts. I am surprised every time I use the Wyndham portal, which used to be rarely, now it's got to be more often to use the millions of points I have in that account. Geesh.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

Rick is a tough sell with trips to the mountains

LOL. How do you know when you've lived in the shadows of the Rockies for a LONG time?

 

[jp10558]

Hilton wanted the fees, RCI probably would rather they didn't charge fees. If Hilton wanted to charge Hilton owners only, Hilton could have had RCI do it through the portal. I have to say, the Wyndham portal looks vastly different from my RCI weeks and points accounts. I am surprised every time I use the Wyndham portal, which used to be rarely, now it's got to be more often to use the millions of points I have in that account. Geesh.

Does it look better or worse?

 

[rickandcindy23]

Does it look better or worse?

MUCH better. Easier to navigate, resorts are not in a list but are pictures like this search, which I just put Maui for my search criteria:

 

[rickandcindy23]

I can search Hilton Vacation Club and get a similar layout of every resort in the system. I like it a lot. That's a Wyndham thing, but Wyndham owns RCI, so that's maybe a clue. I wish the exchange fees were lower, but they are generally not lower. Bummer. I just paid a pittance to extend our points another full year to May of 2027. I hope I can extend again after 2027. It's going to be difficult to use the points we have built up, and we will likely lose most of them.

 

[jp10558]

MUCH better. Easier to navigate, resorts are not in a list but are pictures like this search, which I just put Maui for my search criteria:

View attachment 112701

I swear mine looks like that for my Wyndham RCI account as I look in it all the time, and it looks the same for HGVC account too.

Could you either have changed some setting somewhere, or could Wyndham be "punishing" you more with a bad RCI view?

 

[rickandcindy23]

I swear mine looks like that for my Wyndham RCI account as I look in it all the time, and it looks the same for HGVC account too.

Could you either have changed some setting somewhere, or could Wyndham be "punishing" you more with a bad RCI view?

RCI weeks and points doesn't show resorts in this manner. It's a different system. I am not being punished. RCI calls me all of the time to offer me other opportunities for using my weeks/ trading power.

A TUG member that works for RCI (a higher up RCI person) has contacted me a few times about various complaints I have had here on TUG about RCI. Maybe this person can help me set up ongoing searches.

Totally separate issues: the way the resorts look in searching inventory and Wyndham's portal.

 

[timeshare trader]

RCI is a capital-efficient appendage to the core business. RCI is nicely profitable. What do you think happens to all those high fees? Here you go, for everyone who can't bother to look at the #s, iirc, Round #s:
RCI has 20% as many $s of Assets as the core biz has.
RCI produces 50% as many $s of Profit as the core biz does.
iirc. Look it up.
Of course, RCI is a SHRINKING capital-efficient appendage to the core business.

Hi, full year 2024 Wyndham Destinations produced $764,000,000 in Ebitda. RCI produced $251,000,000. Q1 timeshare produced $159,000,000 ebitda and RCI produced $68,000,000