Wyndham RCI Portal --- designed so poorly!

[levatino]

hello all,

As many of you may remember, I am extremely frustrated with the Wyndham RCI portal. When I compare the usability and user experience of HGVC and Wydham's club specific RCI points portal, the contrast is profound. I realize the fact that i can contrast Wyndham and HGVC's RCI portal is something many of you may not have luxury to do.

With only a few clicks, HGVC users can see ALL RCI availability over 24 months.

With the Wyndham portal, one must start with a narrow geographic range, and then enter a specific 90 day period to search. The result is a tedious, frustrating user experience that requires far more effort to see vacation availability. IT is horrible!

I urge you to contact Franz Hanning at Wyndham and let him know our frustrations. While I enjoy spending my Wyndham points within the Wyndham system, I believe that a user friendly RCI portal is an essential part of timeshare ownership in 2012. If Wyndham wishes to frustrate and obfuscate owners into using Wyndham points on the Wyndham exchange system through making it difficult to engage in online RCI exchanges, I wonder if such action warrants a class action lawsuit. (I hate even thinking that way.)

Below is a copy of a letter I sent today. I don't know if this will help, but I feel compelled to do something. I hope you will join me.


Mr. Franz Hanning
8427 South Park Circle Ste. 500
Orlando FL 32819

I have an urgent request:

Please make the Wyndham RCI portal user friendly and usable. I belong to two vacation clubs that use a club-specific RCI portal.

When I am transferred to one club's web site (not Wyndham's), I immediately see ALL available RCI inventory for the next 24 months and can select and view resorts to see specific availability--easy, user friendly and welcoming!

With Wyndham's portal, before a user can see any degree of resort availability, one must select a narrow range of geographic area, then a restricted 90 day time-frame, and then I can see only the resorts that match that specific criteria. The Wyndham site is extremely UN user-friendly it almost looks as if Wyndham has purposefully implemented it to discourage members from using points via RCI. I would like to think that one would not have to engage in class action litigation to get a user friendly exchange portal in the year 2012!

When one contrasts the user experience through HGVC's RCI portal and Wyndham's, one sees a disregard for user experience on Wyndham's part. I would hope Wyndham would aspire for better. I look forward to hearing from you about this matter at your earliest convenience.


Sincerely,

Paul Levatino

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

I rarely use the Wyndham RCI portal to find resorts. I use the Internet site to find the location (outside the US for example) then look on RCI's site. For the last 6-8 months, the Wyndham portal has been buggy, prone to crashing, etc. So, for the most part, everyone who uses Wyndham's RCI portal sees an unreliable site.

TS

 

[bnoble]

Does the HGVC portal see only Weeks inventory, or also Points? I've been under the impression that the Wyndham portal has the RCI Points interface (which does admittedly stink) because PlusPartners owners can search both Weeks and Points---and everyone gets the Points interface even if they don't have PlusPartners.

I've found the following work-around to be useful for at least seeing all US resorts: search by Keyword, and use the keyword "USA". Don't enter any date range. When I do this, I pull in a handful of Caribbean and Mexico resorts, but also seem to get more or less the full set of US resorts, when comparing to a search of RCI Weeks at the same time. I don't have Plus Partners, so I can't say whether this also gets the full set of Points resorts, and I haven't tried it for other World Regions---it may or may not work there.

For the last 6-8 months, the Wyndham portal has been buggy, prone to crashing, etc. So, for the most part, everyone who uses Wyndham's RCI portal sees an unreliable site.

It appears to have gotten better in the last month or two, in terms of the inventory lining up with what is in Weeks.

 

[slum808]

HGVC can see weeks and points inventory.

For what its worth, the Worldmark portal stinks as well.

 

[massvacationer]

Work Around

I just go into my stand-alone RCI account and search for "all available trades". If I find something that I want - and if i want to trade for it with Wyndham points, then I go into the RCI-Wyndham Portal and confirm it.

So:
search in regular RCI;

and, then confirm it in the RCI-Wyndham Portal

 

[levatino]

I have tried to use the hgvc points portal to find then go to the Wyndham to ascertain similar availability.. alas,sometimes availability is different.

also, why not demand a usable system? Is that unreasonable?

why turn around and LET them abuse you?

when i spoke with a senior RCI Supervisor, she explained Wyndham wanted the system this way and hypothesized that it was to make it less likely wyndham users would exchange via rci. she went on to tell me she and others were ready to hear the complaints come in, yet mine was the first to reach her ear. when i read the complacency with the status quo here, i am as amazed as she is.

 

[rrlongwell]

Does the HGVC portal see only Weeks inventory, or also Points? I've been under the impression that the Wyndham portal has the RCI Points interface (which does admittedly stink) because PlusPartners owners can search both Weeks and Points---and everyone gets the Points interface even if they don't have PlusPartners.

I've found the following work-around to be useful for at least seeing all US resorts: search by Keyword, and use the keyword "USA". Don't enter any date range. When I do this, I pull in a handful of Caribbean and Mexico resorts, but also seem to get more or less the full set of US resorts, when comparing to a search of RCI Weeks at the same time. I don't have Plus Partners, so I can't say whether this also gets the full set of Points resorts, and I haven't tried it for other World Regions---it may or may not work there.



It appears to have gotten better in the last month or two, in terms of the inventory lining up with what is in Weeks.

Not everybody, I have Plus Partners and do not have this capability through the Wyndham/RCI Portal. Please see the following thread.

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174007

 

[SOS8260456]

You may be thinking that owners are just satisfied with the status quo when it may be that a lot of owners don't use RCI with their Wyndham points. Since the portals have been introduced, I haven't seen any benefit in using RCI for our vacation needs and just have not used either RCI or II with either of our Wyndham accounts.

 

[mshatty]

I recently used the RCI portal for an exchange which when very smoothly.

I agree with the OP that the initial date search range is limited. However, after the first search, then you can do a much longer date range search. Inconvenient and it could be improved.

There is no doubt in my mind that having the new portal that shows absolutely every possible exchange is a great improvement over the old RCI exchanges when Wyndham was at best a middlin' trader.

 

[bnoble]

I have Plus Partners and do not have this capability through the Wyndham/RCI Portal.

Yes, I've read that thread. You know my opinion of it.

 

[rrlongwell]

... "when i spoke with a senior RCI Supervisor, she explained Wyndham wanted the system this way and hypothesized that it was to make it less likely wyndham users would exchange via rci ..."

This is not inconsistant with what I have heard from Wyndham sales. RCI advised me a while ago that they do what the sales staff says.

 

[alwysonvac]

HGVC can see weeks and points inventory.

For what its worth, the Worldmark portal stinks as well.

I don't understand.

Yes, WorldMark also displays the initial page which narrows the geographic range however you're only required to complete the first drop down text box for World Region and then it will present you with the full two years of availability for that World Region.

For example, I select "USA" from the dropdown list for World Region and then I click on the SEARCH button. From that point on it looks similar to HGVC's RCI portal.

NOTE: When you select your World Region dropdown value, the system automatically responses with a dropdown value list for Region but you are not required to select this option. Just click on the SEARCH button bypassing all of the other filters.

 

[alwysonvac]

I have tried to use the hgvc points portal to find then go to the Wyndham to ascertain similar availability.. alas,sometimes availability is different.

Since there have been TUG reports of RCI phantom weeks from time to time, I'm assuming there must be delays on what is truly still available in RCI. This might be one of the reasons for the difference if the different portals are not updated real time.

I can also tell you that the HGVC RCI Portal may not show all available inventory which might be another reason for the difference.

HGVC members are suppose to have access to both RCI Points and RCI Weeks but I think we're only seeing inventory from one (not both). It seems that if the RCI resort participate in RCI Points, RCI may only be displaying inventory from RCI Points (not both).

I talked about this issue recently on the HGVC forum - http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173943

 

[bnoble]

Since there have been TUG reports of RCI phantom weeks from time to time, I'm assuming there must be delays on what is truly still available in RCI.

This has gotten a lot better recently---within the past year, and maybe even six months. When I compare Wyndham (as a non-PP owner) with RCI Weeks these days, the resulting set of inventory is almost entirely identical.

 

[slum808]

HGVC can see weeks and points inventory.

For what its worth, the Worldmark portal stinks as well.

My beef with the WM portal is the fact that you have to run a search before you can access your saved searches. That and the fact that you can't start a request online, forcing you to call and pay more.

 

[alwysonvac]

My beef with the WM portal is the fact that you have to run a search before you can access your saved searches. That and the fact that you can't start a request online, forcing you to call and pay more.

NOTE: HGVC members also can't start a request online and are forced to call and pay more and they don't have online access to RCI Extra Vacations.

 

[bnoble]

I believe that is true of Wyndham's RCI portal as well.

 

[markb53]

Does the HGVC portal see only Weeks inventory, or also Points? I've been under the impression that the Wyndham portal has the RCI Points interface (which does admittedly stink) because PlusPartners owners can search both Weeks and Points---and everyone gets the Points interface even if they don't have PlusPartners.

I've found the following work-around to be useful for at least seeing all US resorts: search by Keyword, and use the keyword "USA". Don't enter any date range. When I do this, I pull in a handful of Caribbean and Mexico resorts, but also seem to get more or less the full set of US resorts, when comparing to a search of RCI Weeks at the same time. I don't have Plus Partners, so I can't say whether this also gets the full set of Points resorts, and I haven't tried it for other World Regions---it may or may not work there.



It appears to have gotten better in the last month or two, in terms of the inventory lining up with what is in Weeks.

Wow, putting USA in as a keyword search works. I don't have to put any regions in or dates and I get all of the US and all of the dates at one time. Great tip. It is great to be able to go to several regions, states, and cities without having to do a new search.

 

[levatino]

OMG. They actually made it usable!

Its just like Hilton's site now. Except no RCI nights, but alas. Praise jesus!