RCI to acquire DAE....

[Carolinian]

Former DAE USA employee here. DAE Europe is a franchise. The other DAEs are subsidiaries owned by corporate. All the IT and back end coding for all DAE is done in Australia and the only control the local offices have is cosmetic changes to the website (images and verbiage). The entire exchange platform and website infrastructure is all run out of Australia, which made things interested if we had to discuss something. Lots of email exchanges and late afternoon local calls to speak to people in Australia just getting in to work.

One thing DAE is doing is running the exchanges for smaller timeshare groups. This started with redweek.com as the DAE exchange platform was always the engine behind the exchange. I don't know the number now, but DAE had a few resorts and was negotiating with a few more to white brand the exchange platform, and allow a resort group to brand it with all exchanges actually being run out of the "local" DAE office. Might be a reason why RCI isn't taking over and shutting down DAE instantly, as those contracts state, I believe, that DAE will be the behind-the-scenes company for a set number of years.

Another reason why RCI may hold off on dissolving the DAE brand is DAE is the largest exchange company in Australia/New Zealand. I believe RCI is going to want to move slowly as to not alienate exchanger in the region. Short term, this is where RCI will find their quickest return on investment. Not to mention, keeping the Australia office open with former DAE founder F. Taylor in charge means less likely to have turnover in the IT Department.

Eventually, I don't see DAE surviving as a separate brand long term. Once RCI gets the IT and coding it needs from DAE, feels comfortable rebranding in Australia, and let the white brand contracts run out, there will be no reason to keep DAE around. My guess, and this is just a guess with no inside info, is DAE will cease to be in the next 3-5 years.

 

[Carolinian]

So what happens to the UK office? It seems to be coding is not that difficult. Other independent exchange companies do it. They could change their name and go out on their own.

As to all coding being done in Australia, I wonder about the inventory the the UK office had kept back for European members. I would often see good stuff on the UK site that did not appear on the USA site according to USA members.

It seems that the main hurdle that RCI has to cross is the regulatory authorities in Australia. Who are they? We should be asking them to deny this deal.

 

[gypsygirl1]

Haven't used DAE but I'm sorry to see any loss of competition. RCI's fees are just getting too high to make them valuable to me any more and generally II has more of what I'm looking for.

I'm glad you mentioned the increase in RCI fees! I thought I was the only one that thought that they were getting too high.

 

[Panina]

I'm glad you mentioned the increase in RCI fees! I thought I was the only one that thought that they were getting too high.

You are definitely not alone. RCI just keeps going up and up in price. Value of having a membership with them keeps diminishing. Of all the timeshares I own, only one is just a member with RCI. Board is meeting in October to decide if we will join II too. I wrote a letter to them telling them why I prefer II over RCI. Hoping, I would like to be done with RCI.

 

[dmm9]

I don't know what will happen to the England office. I'm not a lawyer and certainly don't know British/Australian law. I'd imagine the contract is binding and RCI must let the England DAE office exist as DAE for as long as the British office wants to. Of course, RCI can make things difficult by raising prices and restricting non-European properties to the British office and force the UK office to make some sort of change. My guess is the UK office will eventually sell their franchise back to RCI and either cash out or rebrand as something other than DAE. But this is pure speculation on my part.

Only time will tell, and in the US, for the time being, RCI is going to have to honor contracts resort and resort systems had with DAE to be their whitebranded exchange company. And until those contracts run out and RCI tells the resorts either return to the RCI fold or find another exchange company, DAE will likely remain a subsidiary and separate business. But after those contracts run out, again, I see no reason for DAE to duplicate what RCI already does.

 

[barto]

Too bad... I have used DAE for many years - in fact when I started using them, it was Donita's. Then it became DAE. I started using them because RCI's exchange fee became unreasonable and I rarely got the exchanges I requested. I have had very good exchanges through DAE and although their exchange fee has increased over the years (now up to $179 which you don't pay until an exchange has been confirmed), they are still cheaper than RCI (now $289 which you have to pay when requesting a search). I hardly think RCI/Wyndham will let procedures favorable to the TS user continue.

Pretty much identical to our experience. I grabbed one of the last SA timeshare purchases (Dikhololo) that came with a 10-year RCI membership way back, but ended up using DAE long before our RCI membership ran out. Didn't get exchanges that we liked, customer service wasn't great, etc. etc., but did very well with DAE over the last 10-15 years.

Sad to see this happen, but will hope that DAE stays "as is" for as long as possible.

(not holding my breath)

 

[ronandjoan]

It is very telling that no one has asked if RCI will adopt DAE's free membership policy.

HAHAHAHAHA...I think there's a reason no one has asked

 

[Vacalulu]

DAE has gone DOA. No weeks in trade, just hard-sell on AI's. Reps promise to return calls and then don't. We have a banked week with DAE, and can't get anything in trade. Needless to say, we're looking into other alternatives for trading our upcoming prime week!

 

[ronandjoan]

DAE has gone DOA. No weeks in trade, just hard-sell on AI's. Reps promise to return calls and then don't. We have a banked week with DAE, and can't get anything in trade. Needless to say, we're looking into other alternatives for trading our upcoming prime week!

I'm sorry you have had a bad experience. thankfully, we gave been able to successfully exchange often into places we want to go with DAE. In fact right now we have Southen California in April, northern Idaho in June, and WA State coast in November. We've gotten other great exchanges with them too over the years.
I did get these for 2018 with on-going searches since the pacific Northwest and southern CA are very difficult to get...from anyone. They called me to get these exchanges soon after I called them in.
They now have a special this month: free exchange fees for prime time deposits, so I am depositing two.

 

[Carol C]

I'm sorry you have had a bad experience. thankfully, we gave been able to successfully exchange often into places we want to go with DAE. In fact right now we have Southen California in April, northern Idaho in June, and WA State coast in November. We've gotten other great exchanges with them too over the years.
I did get these for 2018 with on-going searches since the pacific Northwest and southern CA are very difficult to get...from anyone. They called me to get these exchanges soon after I called them in.
They now have a special this month: free exchange fees for prime time deposits, so I am depositing two.

Joan hi! I don't understand what makes you still want to deposit if RCI aka Wyndham is doing a hostile takeover of DAE. The post right before yours says they're already getting the runaround and only being offered AI resorts. I ditched Wyndham since the value-added perks like free upgrades went away. The money grubbing WYN is only concerned with shareholder value. Joan if you and Ron can stand to stay in a studio you can piggyback my two So Cal weeks and have them at cost. In fact i have 2019 available for end of July into August which is a grear time to go. I have to stay put for now...not exchanging much and just gave away another timeshare. Happy Easter!

 

[JeffC]

I'm sorry you have had a bad experience. thankfully, we gave been able to successfully exchange often into places we want to go with DAE. In fact right now we have Southen California in April, northern Idaho in June, and WA State coast in November. We've gotten other great exchanges with them too over the years.
I did get these for 2018 with on-going searches since the pacific Northwest and southern CA are very difficult to get...from anyone. They called me to get these exchanges soon after I called them in.
They now have a special this month: free exchange fees for prime time deposits, so I am depositing two.

Joan, do you place your requests by phone or online. I've multiple online requests for 2019 but have had little feedback. In the past I've gotten exchanges just off the website.

Jeff C