Explanation of Trading for RCI Resorts

[Krause]

I noticed that DVC is affiliated with many resorts around the country and the world that are not actual Disney resorts. How easy is it to reserve/book these hotels? Does everything just go through the regular reservation process as if you were booking your home resort?

 

[Dean]

It depends. The Concierge collection, DCL, ABD, Disney Collection and BVTC are booked directly more or less. RCI are exchanges and it's a much different process normally requiring flexibility. The chances of anything desirable just sitting there for what you want is slim but does happen.

 

[Deb & Bill]

You are hoping that an RCI member at the resort you want has decided they want to go on a Disney vacation. So they have given their resort availability to RCI to trade into Disney. At the same time, you are trading your availability at your resort into RCI. It you get what you want, you hit the lottery. Otherwise, you can book into RCI and wait for something to show up, if it ever does.

 

[Dean]

You are hoping that an RCI member at the resort you want has decided they want to go on a Disney vacation. So they have given their resort availability to RCI to trade into Disney. At the same time, you are trading your availability at your resort into RCI. It you get what you want, you hit the lottery. Otherwise, you can book into RCI and wait for something to show up, if it ever does.

Actually where the member at the destination wants to travel makes no difference, the only issue is that they give their time to RCI. It's essentially a barter system.

 

[JimMIA]

Another thing you should understand is that with DVC you only have access to a small percentage of RCI. RCI claims 6,500+ resorts (I think the real number is a little less than 4,000 once you take duplicates out), but with DVC you only have access to less than 600 of those.

You also do not have a full membership in RCI; you're just trying to exchange through the DVC connection. That means you can't research or book exchanges online -- you have to call MS.

It also means you do not have access to some pretty nice RCI perks like Extra Vacations and Last Calls (both deeply discounted cash offerings). One of our regular posters here -- who has RCI through another timeshare they own -- recently booked at Wyndham Bonnet Creek, in a two-bedroom for SEVEN nights, for less than $500 on an RCI Extra Vacation offer.

 

[JimMIA]

As far as the actual DVC-RCI exchange process, there are two options, both of which involve a call to Member Services.

As Dean mentioned, you can do a search without depositing points. If you find an exchange you want, you deposit your points and pay the $95 exchange fee, and MS books the exchange for you.

If you don't find what you want, you have the option of doing an "ongoing search." You deposit the points and pay the $95 fee -- and that deposit is irreversible. I believe your points are available for use for two years from the date of your deposit. If you do NOT get an exhcnage with those points within the time period, you lose them.

The ongoing search is set up using the resort(s) you specified and the timeframe(s) you specified. If availability pops up that matches, RCI automatically books it for you. MOST exchange inventory is gotten by "ongoing searches."

I'm not an expert on RCI exchanges, but two things you should be very clear on are how long your points remain valid in RCI, and RCI's policies in the event you arrange an exchange and then have to cancel.