rci question

[emmababy]

ok, I am sure this might have already been talked about. Anywho, my sister's timeshare also trades into RCI, so I have been on there looking for a place to vacation in 2010 and I am extremely underwelmed. All of the resorts in the USA look like pieces of junk.

We wanted to go to Hilton Head and there is not a single resort available from May-August. So we looked at Florida, they are all junk. I would expect that if I am going to give up 150 points that the place be better quality than say a Motel 6.

The resorts that are in the Caribbean and Mexico are nice, but not really suitable to little kids. Anyone else experience this?

I was expecting Marriott, Hyatt level places, not cockroach motel!

 

[taholden]

I found a few nice Hilton places, but none of them are available in 2009 at all. A word to the wise once you trade your points to RCI if something changes you can't get them back to use at any disney properties. They have to be used at RCI.

 

[Brian Noble]

I would not use your sister's deposit to determine what you would see with DVC. It sounds like she has poor trade power. With a strong trader, I see seven different HHI resorts from Memorial Day through July 2010, including a Memorial Day week at Waterside, which is supposed to be a pretty nice place. A DVC search would turn up fewer units, because not all of those are on The List.

That said, using points for RCI exchanges is rarely a good value---okay if you do it once in a very great while, but I would not make a habit of it.

 

[littlestar]

Don't give up on Hilton Head through RCI. These are rated good:

Waterside By Spinnaker
Marriott's Monarch
Marriott's Harbour Club at Harbour Town
Harbourside III (located near Disney's resort at Shelter Cove)
Island Club Seawatch
Island Links (Coral Resorts)
Royal Dunes

There are a few Marriott's still with RCI, you just won't see the Marriott name on RCI.

 

[MissMousey]

You are not alone! Since the switch was in effect I've been trying to find a place nice enought to trade for DVC points. We wanted to go north in August when it's just too steamy in FL. Nothing was available at all. And that was 8 mos out. I have to say I'm disappointed in RCI resorts and availability. Hopefully it will get better, but I don't know. I have a friend who owns with RCI and she told me "I'm not surprised, there's never anything available"

 

[spiceycat]

most of RCI allows you to start looking at 2 years - so do that if you can.

also sometimes the last minute stuff can be nice - but if you really need to go then - you need to do RCI more in advance than II

 

[Dean]

I would agree that this is more likely a trade power issue and not necessarily a reflection on RCI even though I feel II is better than RCI overall. If you sign in and select the deposit to search with, it should show how many matches there are in the system. If you get something like 89-90K or similar, you have a trade power and/or resort quality issue, more likely the former. If you get 160K choices or more, you should be OK.

 

[emmababy]

I would agree that this is more likely a trade power issue and not necessarily a reflection on RCI even though I feel II is better than RCI overall. If you sign in and select the deposit to search with, it should show how many matches there are in the system. If you get something like 89-90K or similar, you have a trade power and/or resort quality issue, more likely the former. If you get 160K choices or more, you should be OK.

She has palace resorts from Mexico, which are fabulous! Anywho, how do we sign in? I know how to look at the resort directory, but do we get sign in's so we can actually see what's available before depositing our points?

 

[Dean]

She has palace resorts from Mexico, which are fabulous! Anywho, how do we sign in? I know how to look at the resort directory, but do we get sign in's so we can actually see what's available before depositing our points?

You would have to sign in through your sister's account to see this information and she would have to have a unit on deposit. There are NO All Inclusive resorts with good trading power no matter how nice the resorts are. Still, looking at HH or similar this summer is an unreasonable benchmark at 4 months out. For things like that you've got to look at exactly 10 months out for points and preferably 2 years out for resorts in the weeks system.

 

[emmababy]

You would have to sign in through your sister's account to see this information and she would have to have a unit on deposit. There are NO All Inclusive resorts with good trading power no matter how nice the resorts are. Still, looking at HH or similar this summer is an unreasonable benchmark at 4 months out. For things like that you've got to look at exactly 10 months out for points and preferably 2 years out for resorts in the weeks system.

We were trying for 2010. I have her login. I was curious as dvc members, do we get a login? When I login for her I can see exactly what is available. With our link from dvc, it provides resorts but doesn't tell me if anything is available. A pp said he could see some things available for next year. I was curious as to how he knew that.

When signed in under her login, there are a lot more resorts to choose from than when I use the link from dvc. For example there are no resorts in the bahamas under our link but with hers there are.

So, can we deposit points 2 years in advance or 10 months? Thanks for helping me out with this!

 

[spiceycat]

2 years

you can't even log on to RCI - DVC has a corporate ownership. So we only pay $95 for exchanges (not the $164 your sister has to made). plus DVC members are NOT members of RCI - but DVC is. so we don't pay the membership fee either.

 

[emmababy]

I would not use your sister's deposit to determine what you would see with DVC. It sounds like she has poor trade power. With a strong trader, I see seven different HHI resorts from Memorial Day through July 2010, including a Memorial Day week at Waterside, which is supposed to be a pretty nice place. A DVC search would turn up fewer units, because not all of those are on The List.

That said, using points for RCI exchanges is rarely a good value---okay if you do it once in a very great while, but I would not make a habit of it.

How do you see these?? I can't see availability on any of them?

 

[emmababy]

I would not use your sister's deposit to determine what you would see with DVC. It sounds like she has poor trade power. With a strong trader, I see seven different HHI resorts from Memorial Day through July 2010, including a Memorial Day week at Waterside, which is supposed to be a pretty nice place. A DVC search would turn up fewer units, because not all of those are on The List.

That said, using points for RCI exchanges is rarely a good value---okay if you do it once in a very great while, but I would not make a habit of it.

When I looked up Waterside under her login, there isn't anything past Feb. 2010 and nothing in the summer. Are you a red week or a white week?

 

[Brian Noble]

Bright, searing, burn-out-your-eyeballs red. It has a travel window through August 2011, and sees a tad over 163K units right this second. There's nothing for summer '09, but here are the weeks I see for Summer '10, being liberal with the definition of "summer":

Waterside by Spinnaker (#5366)
Be the first to write a review
c/o Southwind Management
Hilton Head Island, SC 29938
USA
843/785-3355
www.spinnakerresorts.com


2 BR 6 (6) Full Saturday, May 15, 2010 Saturday, May 22, 2010
2 BR 6 (6) Full Saturday, May 22, 2010 Saturday, May 29, 2010
2 BR 6 (6) Full Saturday, August 28, 2010 Saturday, September 04, 2010
2 BR 6 (6) Full Saturday, September 11, 2010 Saturday, September 18, 2010
3 BR 8 (8) Full Saturday, September 11, 2010 Saturday, September 18, 2010

Edited to add: Memorial day is 5/31 in 2010, so the week I thought was Memorial is actually the week before.

 

[emmababy]

Bright, searing, burn-out-your-eyeballs red. It has a travel window through August 2011, and sees a tad over 163K units right this second. There's nothing for summer '09, but here are the weeks I see for Summer '10, being liberal with the definition of "summer":

Waterside by Spinnaker (#5366)
Be the first to write a review
c/o Southwind Management
Hilton Head Island, SC 29938
USA
843/785-3355
www.spinnakerresorts.com


2 BR 6 (6) Full Saturday, May 15, 2010 Saturday, May 22, 2010
2 BR 6 (6) Full Saturday, May 22, 2010 Saturday, May 29, 2010
2 BR 6 (6) Full Saturday, August 28, 2010 Saturday, September 04, 2010
2 BR 6 (6) Full Saturday, September 11, 2010 Saturday, September 18, 2010
3 BR 8 (8) Full Saturday, September 11, 2010 Saturday, September 18, 2010

Edited to add: Memorial day is 5/31 in 2010, so the week I thought was Memorial is actually the week before.

When I am logged in under my sister's id, how do I see what color she is??

 

[Brian Noble]

Don't get hung up in color. Color only vaguely relates to trade power, as not all "red" weeks are created equal.

There's an off chance that you don't see anything past Feb 2010 because that's when the travel window ends on the depost. But, if the travel window of the week extends into the summer, well, if you don't see them, you don't see them, and that's a trade power issue with the deposit.

 

[emmababy]

I looked at waterside and it doesn't show any availability past Feb 2010. Her trade is a gold crown, isn't that good?

 

[Brian Noble]

What is the deposit's "travel window"? (It's as the top of the exchange tool window.)

RCI works on a like-for-like system, where each week is assigned a value, called "trade power", based on a variety of factors---the most important of these is the relative supply of and demand for weeks at that time, at that resort, and in that area generally. Weeks with very high trade power can only be obtained by others who deposit weeks with similarly high trade power.

Crown status is a measure of resort quality, and only indirectly affects trade power All things being equal, a rated resort will be more in-demand than a non-rated one, but all things are rarely equal. Even a week during "red time" at a "gold crown" resort may end up trading poorly if there is more supply than demand for those weeks.

This is an oversimplification---there's a lot that goes into it. It's also a Big Secret. RCI does not publish any details as to how trade power is computed.

In any event, if you want one of these Waterside weeks, I can pretty much guarantee you that your DVC points will have sufficient trade power to get one, as long as it's on DVC's "approved list". But, it will cost you, because I'm pretty sure they'll all end up in high season. You can probably rent a unit from an owner for a lower effective cost, particularly in this economy.

 

[Dean]

We were trying for 2010. I have her login. I was curious as dvc members, do we get a login? When I login for her I can see exactly what is available. With our link from dvc, it provides resorts but doesn't tell me if anything is available. A pp said he could see some things available for next year. I was curious as to how he knew that.

When signed in under her login, there are a lot more resorts to choose from than when I use the link from dvc. For example there are no resorts in the bahamas under our link but with hers there are.

So, can we deposit points 2 years in advance or 10 months? Thanks for helping me out with this!

I think what's confusing you is many of us are RCI members outside DVC and we are sharing info we get that way that DVC members cannot see directly. Usually with DVC, you'd do request first so the time that gets deposited doesn't matter much to you. If you do deposit first, you don't pick the deposit date with DVC but in general it will be around 10 months out or less for the weeks DVC deposits on your behalf. You can then request anything with travel up until 2 years from the start date of the week that is deposited, say 2.5 years roughly from say todays date. DVC members can't sign in to see what's available. Under available units should be a number (once it quits searching). This number represents the number of units currently available for that deposit to match with. Mine currently shows 163,647, mediocre deposits should show around 89-90K roughly.

Sign in under her name, select the exchange your week tab and you should see any active deposits.

I looked at waterside and it doesn't show any availability past Feb 2010. Her trade is a gold crown, isn't that good?

I think you're oversimplifying trade power and making the assumption that resort quality is basically the same and this is incorrect. They are two separate issues. GC is sort of a resort quality rating (to over simplify) and has only a little to do with trade power. As I alluded to earlier, the Palace resorts actually have a very poor trade power due in large part to their All Inclusive nature which is not a popular option from a trade standpoint likely due to the fees associated. MX resorts in general tend to have diminished trade power compared to what the same resort might command from the Caribbean or MX. I currently see Waterside from Dec, 2009 through Dec 2010. I see late May and late August 2010 but nothing for mid summer. The only way to have a chance for mid summer is to put in an ongoing request and/or to try short notice inside the 45 day window. It's possible the date on your sisters deposit was Feb, 2008 and thus she would not be able to see or trade for anything after 2 years from the deposit date.

When I looked up Waterside under her login, there isn't anything past Feb. 2010 and nothing in the summer. Are you a red week or a white week?

Again, you've got to forget the simplified ratings of resort quality or colors and think of the relative demand of each. One red weeks is not the same as another, no way, no how. A good way to think of it is what might the relative rental rate be for that week, resort and area.

 

[jamstew]

I can see Harborside III, with a late August bonus week in Arkansas that only pulls 88,500 results, but only for December 2009. I can see lots of gold and silver crowns, but nothing for summer.

My slightly better week 31 at the same resort pulls a little over 105K, and I get November and December 2009 at Harborside III. Go figure...