Plus partners and rci points hotels

[Xcalibur]

Hi,

Trying to figure out plus partners... I read in an earlier post that using pp for rci points hotel is a good use of points. Is that the same as moving points to rci for points bookings? Or is it something different? I get the sense that it is different but don't know how or what that means...

 

[tschwa2]

They are different. The one being discussed is about using rci points (not wyndham points deposited into rci) to use for points partners. The 3rd party that facilitated the transactions and rci parted company completely as of December 31 so at this point, there is no using rci points to book car, air or hotel.
They do have a hotel program now that lets you use 4 tpu's or 2000 rci points for a small discount per night for up to 4 nights. So far it doesn't seem like an impressive benefit.

So the question back to Wyndham points owners is has anyone used Wyndham points (or called to inquire about it) to book hotel or air. Yes I know the conversion has always been terrible but is it still an option?

 

[Xcalibur]

They are different. The one being discussed is about using rci points (not wyndham points deposited into rci) to use for points partners. The 3rd party that facilitated the transactions and rci parted company completely as of December 31 so at this point, there is no using rci points to book car, air or hotel.
They do have a hotel program now that lets you use 4 tpu's or 2000 rci points for a small discount per night for up to 4 nights. So far it doesn't seem like an impressive benefit.

So the question back to Wyndham points owners is has anyone used Wyndham points (or called to inquire about it) to book hotel or air. Yes I know the conversion has always been terrible but is it still an option?

Thanks. Confusing because the names are so similar.

So... It seems rci nightly stays uses wyn-rci points, and that this is a part of he plus partners? I just did some reading on the directory from nxtbook and that seems to be it...

Wyn-rci points seem much better than the rci weeks system or inventory. I've found the rci weeks to be poor in terms of inventory and availability... Is that usually the case?

 

[ecwinch]

It can be easy to overstate the availability when trying to compare RCI Nightly Stays with RCI weeks availability.

But yes, their will be more options in RCI Nightly stays... in part because by definition you see every night that you could possibly check-in to a resort, even if they only have 1 night of availability. So in theory... a resort with a Thursday checkin and a room open for 7 days will show 7 checkins on the RCI Nightly stay side, but only one checkin on the weeks side. Same amount of inventory, just more flexibility on the Nightly stays side.

But that flexibility can come with a price in the form of additional housekeeping fees for stays less than 1 week.

But yes, in general... RCI weeks is a subset of the inventory in RCI Nightly stays.

 

[Xcalibur]

It can be easy to overstate the availability when trying to compare RCI Nightly Stays with RCI weeks availability.

But yes, their will be more options in RCI Nightly stays... in part because by definition you see every night that you could possibly check-in to a resort, even if they only have 1 night of availability. So in theory... a resort with a Thursday checkin and a room open for 7 days will show 7 checkins on the RCI Nightly stay side, but only one checkin on the weeks side. Same amount of inventory, just more flexibility on the Nightly stays side.

But that flexibility can come with a price in the form of additional housekeeping fees for stays less than 1 week.

But yes, in general... RCI weeks is a subset of the inventory in RCI Nightly stays.

Thats interesting cuz the rci Rep I spoke said that some hotels / resorts are points only. In fact, I lot of the resorts I was looking at didn't have weeks inventory but had points... Hawaii, California, Arizona and Orlando... I was looking at Hiltons and other branded ones...

 

[tschwa2]

Thats interesting cuz the rci Rep I spoke said that some hotels / resorts are points only. In fact, I lot of the resorts I was looking at didn't have weeks inventory but had points... Hawaii, California, Arizona and Orlando... I was looking at Hiltons and other branded ones...

I actually think there are very few resorts that are points only. One thing that makes booking points easier is that for independent resorts (and resorts where the developer doesn't bulk deposit), points auto deposit for rci point owners at 12 months and become available for all members at 10 months (unless the member specifically reserves their home week prior to 12 months). On the other hand weeks members actually have to deposit in order for availability to go to RCI. They could do this at 24 months or at a few days prior. Because there is no rhyme or reason, inventory doesn't predictably show up especially during popular times at smaller resorts where owners may never deposit vs points owners at the same resort who might have reserved their home week but forgot and let it auto deposit.

 

[paxsarah]

One thing that makes booking points easier

Another thing that makes booking points easier is that ongoing searches only match weeks inventory, not points - so only a subset of weeks deposits make it into open inventory, but as I understand it, all points deposits would be available.

 

[Xcalibur]

Another thing that makes booking points easier is that ongoing searches only match weeks inventory, not points - so only a subset of weeks deposits make it into open inventory, but as I understand it, all points deposits would be available.

Hmmm... Never knew that an ongoing search is only for weeks inventory! Where did you learn that? Learn something new every day.