Rci

[hmire]

We are going to be buying a DVC resale. How does RCI work??? I don't understand this part of DVC at all. We will mainly go to Disney, but would like to see how this works too.

 

[Brian Noble]

Think of RCI as a big barter system. You trade your "time" for someone else's. It requires a significant degree of flexibility to make the best use of it, and it's not a particularly good value for DVCers most of the time. You'd be better off planning to use your points only at DVC resorts.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Lots of timeshares "trade out". It's just RCI is much bigger than what DVC members have available to them. And it's not an owner membership like other timeshares. DVC owns the membership and you have to make your reservations through them. But what you want is not always available when you want it.

 

[chalee94]

How does RCI work???

as brian says, RCI runs a barter system...a network of timeshare owners. so if you give up the pts for the equivalent of a week at DVC, that means someone who owns another timeshare can trade into DVC and stay in the villa that your pts would have booked.

at the same time, depositing your "week" into RCI means that you can try to find a week that another timeshare owner has given up for trade.

a lot of the best weeks are never put up for trade, though...their owners rent them out (like DVC owners who rent their pts for cash.)

also, the really good weeks tend to be snapped up quickly by timeshare owners who request them well in advance (sometimes 2 years ahead of time.)

so it's hard to call up on short notice and find much of anything. but if you plan ahead and do some research (many of the timeshares in the RCI network are not up to DVC quality standards), you may find something suitable.

 

[backyardponder]

My only attempt to trade into RCI was a failure...and I expressed my dissatisfaction with DVC MS.

I wanted to go in January or February to southern Florida, Gulf Side or Keys. I wanted a studio or 1BR. There are only 2 properties on the DVC RCI site which meet these requirements. All other properties were 2BR. Even though I was on the wait list a year before I wanted to go, nothing opened up.

I'm sure that someday I'll try a non-Florida property and I guess I might get it...we'll see.

 

[Dean]

We are going to be buying a DVC resale. How does RCI work??? I don't understand this part of DVC at all. We will mainly go to Disney, but would like to see how this works too.

It's nice to have options but please don't buy DVC points you plan to use for RCI, DCL, other Disney hotels, etc. The costs and restrictions are simply too high to make that a reasonable choice. As noted, RCI is a barter system just like those systems where people trade houses for a week for vacation. The chances of getting what you want out of RCI is fairly low, esp for the good stuff and you have to plan far in advance, preferably 1-2 years out. You'll be FAR better off just buying the number of points you need with DVC and using other means for non DVC options which might include cash, other timeshares, etc. Depending on what resort, unit size, length of stay and time of year you're looking at, you may or may not want to buy a small cushion of up to around 10%. I do think the cushion is less important with the current points charts and higher end resorts than it was 5-10 years ago.