When I look at a specific place, like Palm Desert via RCI (not HGV), then I see Hilton Hotels where you do not get Hilton Hotels via the HGV RCI website. As a matter of fact, I get nothing for Palm Desert via the HGV RCI website.
Some of that is because the mini-system portals never show "Exchange Plus" inventory--exchanges that are not timeshares, and have significantly larger exchange fees required in addition to some trade power relinquishment. For example, the 7-night Embassy Suites exchanges start at $1,000 for an "exchange fee." My Wyndham RCI portal account also does not show any of those, but it does show the two Desert Breezes-based timeshare resorts (RCI ID #1142, #2512)
To sum up, here are the differences as I understand them:
- No mini-system portal ever shows Exchange Plus options, and this includes the HGVC portal
- The HGVC portal screens some "low-quality" resorts, but makes available some "high-quality" resorts compared to (some) other mini-systems/straight weeks.
- The HGVC portal will not allow you to book HGVC resorts via RCI exchange outside the Club booking window.
#1 is not a problem at all--those are rarely good deals. In fact, I'm grumpy about the fact that straight weeks accounts are not able to filter those out of searches. #2 is probably also not a big deal. Most people would consider the "missing" resorts poor values, and the added resorts might well make up for that.
#3 is probably the most important difference, as HGVC tends to deposit many months at a time, almost a year in advance. For example, I've gotten several exchanges into various Hawaiian HGVCs using either my Weeks or Wyndham accounts well in advance of the Club window, and that inventory is generally long gone by the time we get to the club window opening.
However, even that probably doesn't matter. I never find it useful to ask "what am I missing," because there is
always something missing. Instead I ask whether I'm happy with my options as they exist. If so, there is no need to do anything different.