How does RCI rate?

[dairyou]

Hi,

My sister in law is always challenging us with RCI. She thinks RCI is better than DVC. She is always bringing up how we should have bought with RCI instead.

I guess her well to do uncle bought there and she did to. She paid for 1 week to be used every other year, but mentioned when she bought she got two free weeks and will also get more free weeks in the future.

Just checking to see what the differences are. Any bites?

Thanks!
Deb

 

[HookdonWDW]

RCI isn't a timeshare per se... it is a trading company that timeshare owners can join. DVC trades into II (Interval International), whose major competitor is RCI. DVC only trades into specific II resorts... ones that have passed DVC's trading standards, and are nice, but still possible to trade into.

Whether RCI or II is better just opens up a can of worms that I'm not going to get into here (my flame retardent suit is in the cleaners).

Here is a little something to use the next time your sil gets into the DVC v. RCI debate: Ask her how much she paid for her RCI timeshare. Then tell her that RCI will now let you join for $89/ year (same as the cost of a timeshare owner), and purchase leftover rooms for as little as $259/week. So, that means that you could stay at an RCI trade resort (including some pretty decent resorts during the off seasons), for 1 week/year for $348/yr. Not a bad deal! Oh, and better yet... since she's an owner, and she loves you so much, you can have her purchase guest certificates for you on HER membership, and it will only cost you $259/yr.

 

[Diznut84]

While RCI has some great resorts, they offer no on-site Disney resorts. Nor do they provide you with access to most of the Marriott, Hyatt, or Royal resorts. Some of my personal conclusions are:

1) If you like to stay on Disney grounds, DVC is the only way to go.
2) If name brand means a great deal to you (i.e. you prefer Marriott, Hyatt, and Royal resorts), buy at an II resort and exchange through them.
3) If you are willing to research about potential exchanges (RCI has some really bad resorts), and are not as concerned about name brands, you can get some exceptional values through RCI.

To each their own!

 

[MAC3]

Originally posted by HookdonWDW
Oh, and better yet... since she's an owner, and she loves you so much, you can have her purchase guest certificates for you on HER membership, and it will only cost you $259/yr.

Too funny!

 

[JudyS]

I've been hanging out lately on www.tug2.net , which is a general timesharing forum. Many of the members there have been unhappy with RCI lately. RCI has made some major changes some mebers feel makes it more difficult to trade into the more desirable resorts.

My opinion is that you can get some *excellant* deals through RCI if you work at it. As others here have mentioned, they have many low-end resorts as well, so you need to be careful with them.

If you are savvy, RCI can get you into many fairly nice Orlando resorts quite cheaply (Hilton Grand Vacations Club, for example) but *not* into the DVC.

I just joined RCI two days ago. And, just two *minutes* ago, I had a call from the Timeshare Store asking if I want to stay on their notification list when a Boardwalk property comes up. I said yes -- because I want to stay at Boardwalk when I got to Disney World!

So, it's not necessarily a choice between RCI and DVC. It may make sense to join both, if you stay both at the DVC and also travel to non-DVC locations.