Success with booking RCI?

[giowop]

I’ve been researching different HGVC resale opportunities but have not taken the plunge yet. One aspect that intrigued me is the possibility of booking RCI reservations, pending availability. If I recall, it must be a “last-minute” booking (45 days maybe?). Any TUGgers out there make use of this, and to what level of success? My parents are RCI owners so I’m super curious


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[dayooper]

I’ve been researching different HGVC resale opportunities but have not taken the plunge yet. One aspect that intrigued me is the possibility of booking RCI reservations, pending availability. If I recall, it must be a “last-minute” booking (45 days maybe?). Any TUGgers out there make use of this, and to what level of success? My parents are RCI owners so I’m super curious


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You can use your points to book RCI, but you have to go through the HGVC portal to exchange. There are the Last Call bookings that you can use cash with. You can also get to the sale bookings using cash, but it’s more difficult to find. One of us on here found a way to get to the sale reservations, but usually you have to go through HGVC and, from what I understand, is a pain.

 

[terces]

You can book normal RCI reservations using your HGVC points, not just the last minute.

 

[pianodinosaur]

An RCI exchange is a very efficient use of HGVC points. A one week stay at a two bedroom peak season HGVC resort usually costs 7000 HGVC points. A typical RCI exchange would only cost 4800 points for a two bedroom unit during peak season. Furthermore, depositing your points into RCI gives you an extra 2 years to play with them. This is very helpful if you want to travel to locations other than where HGVC has resorts. This would also be the time to check out the TUG reviews prior to making such an exchange.

 

[Janann]

I've done two or three RCI exchanges per year via HGVC for the last 15+ years. The points requirement is less than an HGVC booking, but the RCI exchange fee is around $279. And then there are more and more of the dreaded "resort fees" that are starting to appear on RCI exchanges. The fees are always disclosed on the RCI resort pages, so you will know about these before you book.

Don't use your HGVC points to trade into an RCI all-inclusive resort. The all-inclusive fees are separate, and by the time you add together the points, exchange fee, and all-inclusive fee, you are going to be better off just booking the resort through a regular travel agency for ordinary cash. The only exception to this guidance that I'm aware of is Fiesta Americana, through either HGVC or RCI.

Keep asking questions before you buy! There are plenty of helpful people here and a lot of good information.

 

[Talent312]

HGVC gives you access to both points resorts (up to 10 months out) and weeks resorts (up to two years out), and you can book like reserving a hotel room - no advance deposit of points/weeks or anything. They charge the exchange fee and deduct HGVC points from your account after you confirm the booking.

As others have said, do not try to equate HGVC points with RCI points. They are not similar. You will save points booking RCI, but booking fees are higher and often resort quality is lower. You can also avoid HGVC point-banking fees when booking RCI for future years, as the system draws current years first.
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[alwysonvac]

Are you referring to something you saw or heard at a sales presentation?
This was recently shared from someone who came back from a sales presentation

Here’s what I wrote in that thread regarding the low cost getaways reserved 45 days or less which are highlighted in yellow in the image above.

(see link for the full response - https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/rescind-or-not.287154/#post-2257374)

RCI Last Call (available to all owners)
These weeks are normally the leftovers (the lowest demand weeks). You generally won’t find a top resort or a high demand week under Last Call. For example, you’ll won’t find ski resort during ski season or beach resorts during the summer. You can find last call in overbuilt timeshare areas such as Orlando and Las Vegas.

Here’s what folks have to say about RCI’s Last Call:

• “Last Call Perk” - https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/last-call-perk.225807/
• “Would you buy a TS just to have access to RCI?” -https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/would-you-buy-a-ts-just-to-have-access-to-rci.267245/
• “RCI last call - prices for 2017?” - https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/rci-last-call-prices-for-2107.251898/

Here’s what I currently see in Las Vegas and Orlando via RCI’s Last Call.

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[terces]

We own our RCI points at a Mexican all inclusive where we bought at retail and because they get their pound of flesh when we pay the all-inclusive fee, the annual fee we pay for 84,000 RCI points is $199. Even at that price we are not too excited to use RCI for the one major reason that the reservations are not changeable and if you cancel you loose the entire booking fee of approximately $299. They offer you points protection up to 30 days out for another fee - I think around $80, but if you cancel or change both cash fees are gone. So we would never waste our HGVC points booking into an RCI. There is a good variety of HGVC resorts so that is where we are going with the points.

TS works if you are flexible and travel to where and when you can get a reservation. If you get hung up on going to a specific part of the world on a specific date it will be much more difficult and expensive.