If only my income increased as fast as RCI and II fees
We dropped our personal RCI account several years ago. We only had one week associated with RCI and we have never exchanged, nor do we ever intend to exchange that resort, so it was a very easy decision. We still have a corporate account through our HGVC ownership. We only made one exchange thru RCI. Because it was expensive and because it’s difficult for us to get like for like quality in our opinion (for places we would travel not covered by HGVC), we’ve never completed, or intend to ever complete, another exchange thru them.
It’s become the same story with II. We’re down to one resort in our personal II account, and once again it’s difficult to get a fare like for like exchange based on quality and MF expense in our opinion. Rising fees and increasing difficulty to get anything we want will chase us away from keeping the personal II account. My intention is to not renew our II account when it comes due next year. I had intended to non-renew this year, but a job change and the need to deposit/exchange one week required we stay one more year. The fees II charges for membership plus the exchange fees plus my MF’s make it a poor value to us. Once again we still own weeks with a corporate account, so we won’t be complete shed of either exchange company, but we don’t have plans to use either at the moment outside of internal weeks exchanges between MVC and SVN, at least until Marriott fully integrates Starwood into their internal points reservations program, if that ever happens (I’m not holding my breath).
I suppose if we had multiple weeks outside internal exchange programs we’d still be interested in either RCI or II. However, this last decade has shown how resorts have merged, combined and developed internal trade systems designed to attract new members and lock out exchanges into the systems, making it more difficult to buy cheap and exchange into more expensive resorts, thus encouraging people to buy into the resort systems that fit their budgets and travel needs. A smart business model IMHO as it keeps the money with the managing company and encourages additional sales of those who have already bought into that system.