Is RCI slowly becoming irrelevant?

[squierjosh]

It seems there's fewer and fewer options available when I'm searching on RCI. Resorts I used to be able to get into easily, now rarely have more than a couple units open over a 6 or 9 month period. Are the resorts just not dumping units into RCI as much as they used to?

 

[Sandy VDH]

The more locations that build their own intermal points system, the more RCI becomes just a collection of independents.

I own HGVC, Wyndham, Worldmark and Holiday Inn points. I only go to RCI if that is the cheaper source, which it is occassionally but usually only if I do a full week stay, and if one of the above systems has done a bulk deposit.

 

[easyrider]

I think companies like RCI make more money renting units than exchanging units. RCI is owned by Wyndham Destinations and anything involving Wyndham is only good for Wyndham, imo.

Bill

 

[bnoble]

It's not as though there are a ton of interesting timeshare-based rentals that aren't also available for exchange---at least, not in the destinations/times that I tend to look at.

I think there are a bunch of things happening all at once, and some of them have been going on for at least a decade.

1. An increasing fraction of RCI inventory has been under the control of mini-systems. Over time, those mini-systems have become much more aggressive at retaining the best inventory for their members to book internally, depositing only the less-interesting stuff. As just one example, Wyndham hasn't deposited Bonnet Creek in horribly overbuilt Orlando for any check-ins after February '22. Cypress Palms or Star Island? Name your week, it's yours.
2. There are more and more options for an owner who doesn't want to use their time. Independent exchanges continue to grow, fracturing the exchange market. It is easier to rent than ever before, removing units from exchange in the first place.
3. A lot of people have cabin fever from the pandemic, a bunch of extra deposits from the pandemic years, and they are ready to get their travel on. This is a more recent development, but it probably has more impact on the spacebank than the other two right now. For example, I burned enough assets to get three DVC weeks this past March instead of the one I usually get. I booked an extra Hawaii week for family-to-be-named-later for next summer.

Over time, I expect #3 to become less of a factor, but the other two aren't going away and will probably only get worse.

 

[fatlard]

I do not want to hear this. Just bought two contracts to RCI.

 

[DeniseM]

I don't think [RCI is becoming irrelevant:]

* There is huge pent up demand for travel, so people are snatching up exchanges, and they don't sit around.

• People are using the timeshares they own, instead of depositing them.

I think things will settle down in 2-3 years.

 

[silentg]

I still use RCI.

 

[chapjim]

I don't think so:

* There is huge pent up demand for travel, so people are snatching up exchanges, and they don't sit around.

• People are using the timeshares they own, instead of depositing them.

I think things will settle down in 2-3 years.

Not saying the other points are wrong but I think this is the right take. It will take a couple of years to recover from the effects of Covid.

 

[squierjosh]

I sure hope this is the case.

Not saying the other points are wrong but I think this is the right take. It will take a couple of years to recover from the effects of Covid.

 

[kanerf]

Sometimes they have some really good trades. I was able to get two weeks at Wyndham Old Town Alexandria which I have never even seen in RCI before.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Ongoing searches certainly work well even today. Points is different inventory and can be tough.

There are resorts in RCI Points that you will never get via exchange because they are in RCI Points, like Sands of Kahana, a favorite of mine for Maui on RCI. If you can grab right at ten months, midnight Eastern Time, you can get a 2 or 3 bedroom even during whale season. Even you need a very specific date, you may not get it even at 10 months. Be flexible! That resort will never match an ongoing search as an RCI Points resort. Neither will Kahana Beach and Kahana Villas and a bunch of others that are on Maui.

bnoble's #3 is spot on for what is going on lately. People are traveling again. If you want something, and you just kind of know where you want to be in two years, go that far out for an ongoing search. It's very nearly a guarantee for inventory in weeks, unless you want Disney Vacation Club resorts in October. I only mention that because my searches have not matched for October, not in II and not in RCI. I watch for Points inventory at least four times a day. I am determined.

 

[easyrider]

Ongoing searches certainly work well even today. Points is different inventory and can be tough.

There are resorts in RCI Points that you will never get via exchange because they are in RCI Points, like Sands of Kahana, a favorite of mine for Maui on RCI. If you can grab right at ten months, midnight Eastern Time, you can get a 2 or 3 bedroom even during whale season. Even you need a very specific date, you may not get it even at 10 months. Be flexible! That resort will never match an ongoing search as an RCI Points resort. Neither will Kahana Beach and Kahana Villas and a bunch of others that are on Maui.

bnoble's #3 is spot on for what is going on lately. People are traveling again. If you want something, and you just kind of know where you want to be in two years, go that far out for an ongoing search. It's very nearly a guarantee for inventory in weeks, unless you want Disney Vacation Club resorts in October. I only mention that because my searches have not matched for October, not in II and not in RCI. I watch for Points inventory at least four times a day. I am determined.

I haven't ever gone two years out yet. I haven't even considered it but I probably will just to see what happens.

Bill

 

[escanoe]

In my view it continues to slowly become less relevant due to long term, gradual structural changes and its failure to innovate. On days like the one that DVC left, the glacier moves down the mountain a bit faster than usual. It really needs to modernize and be more a creature of the digital era if it wants to remain relevant with time. More competition to the effective RCI and II duopoly would be a good thing overall for timesharing.

The comments above are a deeply held truth to me. That said value can be had from trading in RCI and my RCI portfolio is currently “hold” and not “sell.”

If someone wants to get more into timesharing now, I think RCI still makes sense for many. (My view of II overall is not significantly different from that of RCI.) I know less about II.

 

[escanoe]

There are resorts in RCI Points that you will never get via exchange because they are in RCI Points, like Sands of Kahana, a favorite of mine for Maui on RCI. If you can grab right at ten months, midnight Eastern Time, you can get a 2 or 3 bedroom even during whale season. Even you need a very specific date, you may not get it even at 10 months. Be flexible! That resort will never match an ongoing search as an RCI Points resort.

Uhm, see below. There is RCI Weeks inventory for Sands of Kahana that can be had by OGS. I have been cyberstalking availability there. Below is an HGVC portal match. I have also matched via RCI Points. However, this is one where you need a little age (priority) on the search in order to match.

 

[Lovetovacation2]

I've noticed there are less and less Wyndham resorts available in RCI. Some of my favorite resorts that always had something have had zero availability anytime and I have been checking these for months. Interesting that these units are available to rent at these resorts on RCI extra Vacations:-( I asked RCI agent about it, she said people were not depositing units rather using them instead. Still I would think one or two people cannot travel and would deposit a unit even in the off time. I think there is something going on with RCI and Wyndham? Anyone know of any changes?

 

[Ty1on]

What kills RCI more than anything for me is the trend of resorts packing on ever increasing resort fees. I'm not trading my maintenance fees, club fees, and exchange fees for a discounted stay.

 

[Eric B]

I've noticed there are less and less Wyndham resorts available in RCI. Some of my favorite resorts that always had something have had zero availability anytime and I have been checking these for months. Interesting that these units are available to rent at these resorts on RCI extra Vacations:-( I asked RCI agent about it, she said people were not depositing units rather using them instead. Still I would think one or two people cannot travel and would deposit a unit even in the off time. I think there is something going on with RCI and Wyndham? Anyone know of any changes?

There's a lot of posts pandemic travel demand and Club Wyndham allowed owners to move points to future years fairly generously last year, so there are likely fewer owners banking points in RCI. That would depress the supply side a bit and is likely coupled with lower demand for what RCI has to offer now, which seems to be lower desirability weeks since this affected everyone. There have been a few exchanges I picked up on RCI using points I had deposited previously and had to cancel the exchanges for, but nothing that drove me to deposit more into RCI because they were fabulous opportunities. I would expect a return to the mean in a year or two.

 

[bnoble]

I think there is something going on with RCI and Wyndham? Anyone know of any changes?

Wyndham owners do not deposit weeks directly; Wyndham chooses what to deposit. It appears they've been more careful about not depositing the more in-demand resorts and times. For example, I've seen less peak-season Smoky Mountains and almost no Bonnet Creek.

 

[Carolinian]

The big problem is that RCI is renting a lot of its inventory to non-members and that means less exchange inventory for members. That started in a big way when they created RCI Points but it had been going on to some degree before that.

When I was an HOA president on the NC Outer Banks of an independent resort, our manager noticed some very odd codes for home resorts on RCI Inbound reports. One of them on checking in mentioned they had rented from RCI and further that they had never been to a timeshare before, so our manager then started casually asking those with the odd codes on check-in what their home resort was, and it turned out everyone with the odd codes were RCI rentals. I asked her to analyze what weeks were being rented and it was mostly prime summer weeks that exchangers would be eager for. Every one of those weeks had been deposited by our owners into the RCI pool for exchange, but RCI was taking them out and renting them instead.

Also, when I exchanged into a London resort, Sloane Garden Court, through SFX, I talked with the manager there who told me that after RCI went to points, they found that RCI was renting out most of their members deposits instead of offering them for exchange. The resort found that renters did not take care of the units like exchangers did, so they dumped RCI as their exchange company and started exchanging exclusively through SFX.

 

[dioxide45]

The big problem is that RCI is renting a lot of its inventory to non-members and that means less exchange inventory for members. That started in a big way when they created RCI Points but it had been going on to some degree before that.

When I was an HOA president on the NC Outer Banks of an independent resort, our manager noticed some very odd codes for home resorts on RCI Inbound reports. One of them on checking in mentioned they had rented from RCI and further that they had never been to a timeshare before, so our manager then started casually asking those with the odd codes on check-in what their home resort was, and it turned out everyone with the odd codes were RCI rentals. I asked her to analyze what weeks were being rented and it was mostly prime summer weeks that exchangers would be eager for. Every one of those weeks had been deposited by our owners into the RCI pool for exchange, but RCI was taking them out and renting them instead.

Also, when I exchanged into a London resort, Sloane Garden Court, through SFX, I talked with the manager there who told me that after RCI went to points, they found that RCI was renting out most of their members deposits instead of offering them for exchange. The resort found that renters did not take care of the units like exchangers did, so they dumped RCI as their exchange company and started exchanging exclusively through SFX.

It's okay, RCI was sued for that and lost. So they don't do it anymore

 

[tschwa2]

It's okay, RCI was sued for that and lost. So they don't do it anymore

No they were sued and settled and part of the settlement was that they were allowed to rent out exchanges, they just had to have some minor restrictions. Like if the deposit was made more than 10 months in advance it had to be made available for exchange only for 2 months before it could be moved into the rental and exchange lists simultaneously. Even if deposited less than 10 months, a deposit had to be matched with an ongoing search before it could be placed immediately into the rental pool. Restrictions sort of like those. It completely legalized rci to rent out exchanges in most cases. Any owner deposit that is placed in rental inventory only has to be replaced with an equivalent non owner deposit to be made available for exchange. This means after checking that no one has an ongoing search for a prime, lets say ocean front summer deposit that rci would award a tpu of about 50, rci can place it directly into the extra vacation only pool but they have to put at least 50 tpu's from their own inventory back into the exchange pool, but theoretically this could mean placing 10 five tpu's and an AI resort that rci is given to rci by the resort to rent or use for exchanges.

 

[timsi]

No they were sued and settled and part of the settlement was that they were allowed to rent out exchanges, they just had to have some minor restrictions. Like if the deposit was made more than 10 months in advance it had to be made available for exchange only for 2 months before it could be moved into the rental and exchange lists simultaneously. Even if deposited less than 10 months, a deposit had to be matched with an ongoing search before it could be placed immediately into the rental pool. Restrictions sort of like those. It completely legalized rci to rent out exchanges in most cases. Any owner deposit that is placed in rental inventory only has to be replaced with an equivalent non owner deposit to be made available for exchange. This means after checking that no one has an ongoing search for a prime, lets say ocean front summer deposit that rci would award a tpu of about 50, rci can place it directly into the extra vacation only pool but they have to put at least 50 tpu's from their own inventory back into the exchange pool, but theoretically this could mean placing 10 five tpu's and an AI resort that rci is given to rci by the resort to rent or use for exchanges.

Does Interval do the same? Marriot controls the inventory for so many resorts and who knows what happens behind the scene.

 

[dioxide45]

Does Interval do the same? Marriot controls the inventory for so many resorts and who knows what happens behind the scene.

I don't get that impression with II. It isn't common to see expensive rentals available in II getaways. It is usually leftover stuff with the odd peak season week. Marriott does try to rent out their unsold inventory and based on some anecdotal reports, some are suspicious that they skim good views off of II deposits and give the exchanger a lesser view. I don't really buy into the theory all that much.

 

[LisaH]

I left RCI after almost 25 years of being a member. It had got too expensive, with the annual dues and exchange fees. Plus, I sold off most of my timeshares except Marriott and WorldMark, both can exchange in II.

 

[tschwa2]

II's rules make it clear that they do rent out deposits, when they feel it may be excess inventory but generally they make it available simultaneously as a getaway and an exchange. II's policy also absolutely allows resorts to skim the view and give exchanges any view they want. Some resorts like many of the Vistana ones almost always put exchangers in island view. In fact most points systems allow the developer to choose what is deposited vs the resort that the owner used to get the points. It isn't that there are years at a time that no Westin St John owner deposited a unit into II, it's just that vistana chooses to deposit other inventory for those deposits. So there is back end non transparency but overall II is considered a little more ethical in that regard than rci.