RCI Fees Going Up AGAIN!

[Timeshare Von]

Effective 12/1/23

It just keeps getting worse and worse!

 

[escanoe]

A one week exchange is going from $289 to $299. A minor increase to a fee that was already too high. My impression of what RCI is doing is moving to a bit more of a dynamic pricing system. A high exchange fee for booking something you really want. But having to have major discount deals all the time to keep the inventory moving. [While I say this in general, I got a $30 discount on my HHI July 20225 vacation I booked this past week.]

I have vented the criticisms I have of RCI (and to a lesser degree II) on TUG a lot in the last few years. It is what it is unless something makes the duopoly more competitive. I am not holding by breath for things to suddenly get better, but I am also not expecting it to get much worse.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Plus ever increasing resort fees that approach $70/day. I am now actively downgrading resort reviews when there is a substantial resort fee involved. Everyone should do this.

This creates incentive to just use what I own in mini systems like HGVC and Vistana/Abound which do not incur such fees.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Plus ever increasing resort fees that approach $70/day. I am now actively downgrading resort reviews when there is a substantial resort fee involved. Everyone should do this.

This creates incentive to just use what I own in mini systems like HGVC and Vistana/Abound which do not incur such fees.

I agree! The fees are affecting everything I do with RCI. The $299 exchange fee is outrageous.

 

[Timeshare Von]

Plus ever increasing resort fees that approach $70/day. I am now actively downgrading resort reviews when there is a substantial resort fee involved. Everyone should do this.

This creates incentive to just use what I own in mini systems like HGVC and Vistana/Abound which do not incur such fees.

My upcoming exchange stay at Makai Club in Princeville will cost a whopping $262 extra at check in thanks in part to the highway robbery of "resort fees" ($25.96/day) at a resort that has only a swimming pool and parking . . . this according to the front desk person who was explaining/justifying to me the added resort fees they charge. The remaining extra is the mandatory Hawaii occupancy tax, which is applicable throughout Hawaii.

I look forward to joining you in downgrading my resort review when I return home from this stay.

P.S. Congrats to Paniolo Greens for NOT charging a resort fee! We're staying there the second week of our December holiday in Hawaii. Expect them to feel my aloha spirit on my review.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

duplicate

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Agree. Everyone should cite the high resort fee in the reviews and downgrade because of it. Only then the resorts will take notice. Otherwise, this is free money.

Maintenance fees are also rising significantly, some as much as 20% so the cost of an exchange is becoming economically unfeasible.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Hilton is one of the biggest offenders, and Diamond has been doing it for a while, so the two companies have a huge presence in RCI.

Does Orange Lake/ Holiday Inn Club have fees?

Hyatt, Marriott and Vistana are sure to take notice.

 

[TheHolleys87]

All I can say is that I’m glad I renewed our membership already. I have until next October to determine whether we’re staying in or not.

 

[dsmrp]

Wow, I'm sure II will follow with an increase.
Or maybe RCI is increasing fee cause they're losing revenue to internal club trading,

I feel pretty good now with the flat $275 ish club fee I pay to Marriott for unlimited reserve, cancels.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Wow, I'm sure II will follow with an increase.
Or maybe RCI is increasing fee cause they're losing revenue to internal club trading,

I feel pretty good now with the flat $275 ish club fee I pay to Marriott for unlimited reserve, cancels.

They should be losing revenue because people refuse to stay at the resorts with the exorbitant fees.

That's a good deal for exchanges, but do you use exchange much? I use exchange through RCI and II a lot.

 

[escanoe]

All I can say is that I’m glad I renewed our membership already. I have until next October to determine whether we’re staying in or not.

Membership fee is not increasing. Heavy exchangers is who gets hit with the increases they have had in recent years.

 

[escanoe]

Agree. Everyone should cite the high resort fee in the reviews and downgrade because of it. Only then the resorts will take notice. Otherwise, this is free money.

Maintenance fees are also rising significantly, some as much as 20% so the cost of an exchange is becoming economically unfeasible.

Should we also hit HGVC with negative views when we own there, but they are charging exchangers coming in high fees?

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Reviewers should only write about their own experiences so the answer is no.

 

[PamMo]

The costs of ownership and exchanging for those of us who have been doing this for a long time, seems crazy. Am I really THAT out of touch with what it “normally” costs to vacation these days? Perhaps newer timeshare owners are OK with these prices? I am not so sure anymore.

Like @rickandcindy23 (but I own no where near her number of timeshares!), I’m culling what we own to the bare minimum. I’m actually starting to think about getting completely out of the obligations of ownership and just rent what I need.

 

[Luanne]

The costs of ownership and exchanging for those of us who have been doing this for a long time, seems crazy. Am I really THAT out of touch with what it “normally” costs to vacation these days? Perhaps newer timeshare owners are OK with these prices? I am not so sure anymore.

Like @rickandcindy23 (but I own no where near her number of timeshares!), I’m culling what we own to the bare minimum. I’m actually starting to think about getting completely out of the obligations of ownership and just rent what I need.

Hotel prices are going sky high in many cities. I'm sure there are less expensive places to visit but unfortunately the places we like aren't among them.

 

[montygz]

The costs of ownership and exchanging for those of us who have been doing this for a long time, seems crazy. Am I really THAT out of touch with what it “normally” costs to vacation these days? Perhaps newer timeshare owners are OK with these prices? I am not so sure anymore.

Like @rickandcindy23 (but I own no where near her number of timeshares!), I’m culling what we own to the bare minimum. I’m actually starting to think about getting completely out of the obligations of ownership and just renting what I need.

I looked at the cash rate for the last three places we stayed and they were more than $400 a night, more than $600 a night and more than $1,000 a night.

If we want to pack into a hotel room, we generally pay $250 to $300 a night.

While no one wants to see an increase in fees, if you look at what it costs to travel, the $10 increase in exchange fees doesn't seem so bad.

 

[klpca]

The costs of ownership and exchanging for those of us who have been doing this for a long time, seems crazy. Am I really THAT out of touch with what it “normally” costs to vacation these days? Perhaps newer timeshare owners are OK with these prices? I am not so sure anymore.

Like @rickandcindy23 (but I own no where near her number of timeshares!), I’m culling what we own to the bare minimum. I’m actually starting to think about getting completely out of the obligations of ownership and just rent what I need.

Before you do that, spend some time on VRBO & Airbnb. I was looking at 2 bedroom condos with A/C in Princeville for a week next year. Most were well north of $2700 - and that was on the low end. I saw quite a few that were between $3500 and $4000, and they were just condos - no resort amenities of any kind. I am as annoyed as anyone with the rising prices but it is across the board unfortunately.

We are staying in a Best Western tomorrow night in the small town of Lone Pine, Ca. One night, one room, view of the parking lot, $130. If I pay ~ $200/nt for a 2 bedroom timeshare in Hawaii, I am going to count my lucky stars.

 

[PamMo]

Unfortunately(?), I own expensive Westin, Marriott, and Hilton timeshares, and exchanging doesn’t seem to give me any advantage at all these days. All the additional fees are killing me. I just paid $80/day for an exchange into Cabo. It was not disclosed when I made the exchange. Thus my frustration.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I looked at the cash rate for the last three places we stayed and they were more than $400 a night, more than $600 a night and more than $1,000 a night.

If we want to pack into a hotel room, we generally pay $250 to $300 a night.

While no one wants to see an increase in fees, if you look at what it costs to travel, the $10 increase in exchange fees doesn't seem so bad.

You are being boiled, $10 at a time.

 

[dioxide45]

You are being boiled, $10 at a time.

Is this now the fourth $10 increase in less than three years?

 

[escanoe]

There has been a $20 increase or two in recent years as well. I am pretty sure an exchange was $239 when I started at this in 2018.

I think pre-COVID RCI went a while without an exchange fee increase, and post 2020 fees have really jumped up. My guess is with $10 dollar a year increases they are trying to keep things more steady. I would have bet there wasn’t an increase this year as much as they have been discounting exchanges lately … but I guess they’d rather slow and steady increase the high exchange fee and then discount when and what they must.

While I subscribe to the theory of knowing what your total costs are to timesharing and making a decision based on that, I think the folks looking at how much hotel rooms are and comparing that to exchange fees are missing a point.

The exchange companies are middlemen that facilitate transactions. With computerization, fees have largely gone down for similar transaction providers. In my view, to some extent they are a duopoly of vampires free to suck more blood out of the system than should be tolerated. HGVC recently entering an exclusive contract with RCI … where owners are not allowed to exchange anywhere else adds further insult to injury.

Is this now the fourth $10 increase in less than three years?

 

[gggllm]

I also agree with the theory that we should only compare total cost to hotel room.

However I am having trouble to compare apple to apple. For example, King's land is much cheaper than Waikoloa village hotel room, with basic hotel room more expensive than 2br in King's land which also provides free parking. Are king's land 2br-room inferior than hotel room? In what way?

At least for HGVC we can compare points cost vs booking directly on hilton.com. There are other resorts without presence for booking through booking.com, which makes it so hard to compare.

Can we say worldmark/Wyndham are equal to 3-star and HGVC are 4 stars?

 

[escanoe]

RE total costs:

Even if total costs of timesharing is a bargain (in my view it is a good deal), that doesn’t mean an exchange company (provider of an electronic transaction) should have big increases every time hotel rooms go up.

If RCI exchange fees suddenly were cut in 1/2 and lowered by $150, in my view they would be getting closer to the amount they deserve. That does not mean, however, that every exchange will be $150 cheaper. I fully expect trading power needed for many exchanges would increase a fair amount. I would expect much of the flood of 2 TPU RCI inventory to suddenly be 6 TPU or more.

RCI is currently using its market concentration and exclusive deals to be sucking up more of the total transaction costs the value it brings to the table. I do not even know that RCI is that profitable. But it seems terribly out of date and inefficient in how it does transaction to me. They spend a bunch of money that must be spent on a call center and people calling you to make exchanges. And despite requiring a customer to opt in or out of their text messaging system with each transaction for years — there is no workable system if one does opt in.

 

[rboesl]

It appears to me these increases will eventually bite RCI & II in the butt. It will push timeshare owners to do what we have been saying for a while: "Buy where you want to go."

Once owners start doing that revenues will drop to the point where RCI & II will be forced to reduce pricing just to stay afloat.

We will not avoid resort fees, that will take attending annual meetings and raising Cain, but we will have taken a bite out of our costs.