Former RCI Employee Willing to CANDIDLY Help

[Sunshine Seeker]

Hello everyone,

I'm a veteran RCI employee, no longer with the company. I'm willing to answer any and all questions you may have about exchanging your timeshare.

Much of how the system works is simply not disclosed to consumers, and I'd like to be instrumental in changing that.

I'm going to start a YouTube channel on this topic, and your questions will help me focus on issues most relevant to you.

I never signed a non-disclosure agreement with RCI, and own no stock in any timeshare developer or exchange.

My one and only goal is giving you the most accurate, helpful, and honest information possible.

Ask away, and you will be answered.

EDIT TO ADD: I know most about weeks, and my explanations of value and trading power are likely to be based on RW value, reflected in weeksexchanges and aftermarket purchases. A 90k timeshare may sell for 1k or less aftermarket. It's the nature of the beast.

RCI has become more difficult to navigate than it was since Wyndham acquired it and made so many changes to the website. It has become very frustrating for me to just perform a simple search. Is there a way I can still get a listing of all availability units regardless of the time frame or the size of unit, like I used to do?

 

[jwalk03]

Is there a way to add a child to my RCI account to avoid paying the $79 guest certificate fee? Currently There is only 1 name on the account.

 

[basl99]

my vistana time share has a tpu of 21
is that good?

 

[DeniseM]

TPU is very average - the TPU scale is 0-60.

 

[basl99]

with interval, if i deposit a sheraton i can trade for a sheraton elsewhere?

 

[DeniseM]

Is there a way to add a child to my RCI account to avoid paying the $79 guest certificate fee? Currently There is only 1 name on the account.

You would have to add your child to your deed, (register a new deed) which would cost around $200, depending on the location, and would make your child responsible for the maintenance fee, etc. if you did not pay it, or you went to that big resort in the sky.

 

[DeniseM]

with interval, if i deposit a sheraton i can trade for a sheraton elsewhere?

You can trade for anything that is available, (not just Sheraton) that you have enough TPU for.

 

[basl99]

what is the difference between interval and rci membership?

 

[K2Quick]

What's the best way to get a discounted RCI membership fee? When I joined I got a 5 years for the price of 3 membership deal (which isn't as good as the offers I get from Interval International). Anything better than that and how would I get it?

 

[DeniseM]

what is the difference between interval and rci membership?

-They are completely different exchange companies with different inventory and different resorts.

-Some resorts are affiliated with both, but most are only affiliated with one or the other.

-Which exchange company works best for you depends on what you are depositing and what resort you want to exchange into.

 

[basl99]

ok i have a week at the vistana sheraton week 4 floating for 2019
i want to deposit then trade
tpu is 21
may try hawaii or mexico for next year or another sheraton
does sheraton trade mainly with ii?

 

[HudsHut]

ok i have a week at the vistana sheraton week 4 floating for 2019
i want to deposit then trade
tpu is 21
may try hawaii or mexico for next year or another sheraton
does sheraton trade mainly with ii?

You will do better trading your Sheraton in II.

21 TPU is not strong enough to get you most nice resorts. Stay away from RCI with this week.

 

[basl99]

i need help with a deposit
i own 25,000 credits/ year with worldmark
i own 1 week sheraton vistana
i want to deposit vistana with interval
how do i do this
i am getting a huge run around

 

[tschwa2]

If you don't have an interval account you will need to pay to set one up. Let them know you have Worldmark and Sheraton Vistana and see if they have any 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 new membership deals. Membership in II typically costs $89 per year but you may get multiple years for the price of one when first setting it up. Once the account is set up you should be able to deposit with Interval.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

my vistana time share has a tpu of 21
is that good?

"GOOD" is all relative to the MF .

If your MF were $ 200 then 21 TPU would be at a cost below $10 per TPU .
If your MF is $1000 then your cost is close to $ 50 per ( not good at all ) Combine fees and yearly cost of RCI membership add some $ BUT the big
question is always cost per TPU . Lockoffs deposited separately , generally get more TPU's then if done as a single deposit .

 

[Panina]

"GOOD" is all relative to the MF .

If your MF were $ 200 then 21 TPU would be at a cost below $10 per TPU .
If your MF is $1000 then your cost is close to $ 50 per ( not good at all ) Combine fees and yearly cost of RCI membership add some $ BUT the big
question is always cost per TPU . Lockoffs deposited separately , generally get more TPU's then if done as a single deposit .

my vistana time share has a tpu of 21
is that good?

I would say if you use you unit most of the time then 21 tpu’s would be good. Better to have a place you like to go and a lower tpu value when you trade. Of course, better to have both.

 

[Caligirlfrtx]

I believe you mean Sheraton Vistana. Since you have a fixed week, I'm going to guess it is Sheraton Vistana Resort. (As opposed to Sheraton Vistana Villages.)

You can deposit your 2019 week now, if you pay your maintenance fee. You can dermine the TPU by using the deposit calculator on the RCI website.

One thing to consider - this may be a better deposit for Interval, because with Interval you get the Vistana to Vistana priority. In other words, you have priority to trade into other Vistana resorts. The best practice is to put in an ongoing search on Interval, because ongoing searches are filled before anything goes online. The inventory you see online is the left-overs.

Very good info. I just closed on a Vistana. So even though I cannot trade internally, I can trade Vistana/Vistana on II? Is this correct?

 

[DeniseM]

Yes, that is correct.

 

[krj9999]

Regardless of whether behind the scenes there are internal boosts to TPUs, no one will know that at this point if it (still?) exists. If my summer east coast beach resort only gets 21 TPU, I'm not going to put in an ongoing search for HGVC in Hawaii when I see the few deposits that do show up listed in the 40s or 50s (and for which I can't instantly confirm using a 21 TPU deposit). I will say prior to the TPU system, it was a much stronger trader in what it could pull - including HGVC Hawaii for example.

@tschwa2I'm not sure I should speculate on why there are so many hidden things. I know no two resorts are told the same thing by RCI... there are so many contractual differences it's impossible to remember them all. Some places can search first, for instance. Most can't. Some contracts prevent searching for larger units than owned even though they will pull them all day long (resort wants to upsell). Other contracts specifically state the smaller units at XYZ oceanfront resorts can trade for much larger units elsewhere.

 

[Mosescan]

I think I understand what cynic is getting at. Some resorts, because of an inter resort agreement will allow your 21 TPU to match their otherwise 30 TPU unit. I imagine that’s the only way some of the independent resorts can get traded.

 

[ottawasquaw]

It's got to be all relative to both supply and demand. I took a quick look at RCI availability in Sedona; right now there are 1,544 check in nights available. In Hawaii there are only 411 check in nights available. I'm not sure how the volume of tourists visiting compares between the two, but it might be that Sedona has more supply available to meet its demand as compared to Hawaii. In Las Vegas, RCI is showing 6,792 availabilities now. Those numbers are on the points side; on the weeks side there are 1,042 in Sedona, 138 in Hawaii, and 1,717 in Las Vegas. So there is also some market segmentation with more supply in Hawaii available to RCI points owners rather than weeks owners; it looks like ~68% of the availability in Sedona is in weeks while it's ~34% in Hawaii and ~25% in Las Vegas. This is just my single data point snapshot of the situation; .

Available in what timeframe? If you mean February, I'm not so sure this is an equal comparison. I know plenty of people who would want to go to Hawaii in February, while it may be the only month I've not visited Sedona. There are definitely higher demand months.
I would think the other Sedona owner may be feeling the effects of VEP which the OP has described. There is at least one regular TUG poster who brags about the RCI trading power of his Sedona T/S.

 

[ottawasquaw]

Not all GC are created equal. Not at all. Some are VEP down and out of range for others. Others will be trading value issues. The measures you guys see are ... like maybe half the picture at best.

Clearly this is a fair statement based on the responses you have rec'd here. I'm curious too, when were your employment dates with RCI? I thought Crystal has been gone for years. You sound a lot like a very nice employee who helped me years ago.
Your statements about the furniture is spot on. I've read those sorts of comments for years about units. And space banking early has always been true. Hopefully this has been a help to members.

 

[Eric B]

Available in what timeframe? If you mean February, I'm not so sure this is an equal comparison. I know plenty of people who would want to go to Hawaii in February, while it may be the only month I've not visited Sedona. There are definitely higher demand months.
I would think the other Sedona owner may be feeling the effects of VEP which the OP has described. There is at least one regular TUG poster who brags about the RCI trading power of his Sedona T/S.

I counted up all available weeks that showed up in RCI at the time I searched. You could do a more focused search on time of year, but no info on that was posted by the Sedona TS owner, so I didn’t.

 

[theo]

Cynic, how long ago did you leave RCI?

Did I miss something, or has there been "crickets" from Cynic on this question since it was posed about a month ago?

A time frame (even if only rough approximation) would go a long way toward putting Cynic's input into context, particularly in view of changing RCI practices in recent years (the post-lawsuit creation of "TPU's" being a noteworthy example).

 

[Mosescan]

Did I miss something, or has there been "crickets" from Cynic on this question since it was posed about a month ago?

A time frame (even if only rough approximation) would go a long way toward putting Cynic's input into context, particularly in view of changing RCI practices in recent years (the post-lawsuit creation of "TPU's" being a noteworthy example).

Cynics pattern seems to be to check the board every so often and then reply to the last batch of questions all at the same time in consecutive posts.