DVC trade into RCI

[Diva120]

Can anyone share their experience with using DVC points to trade in for something with RCI? I find this process scary, and well some members have been able to ease my anxiety with renting points. Figured, this would be a good question to put out there. Thanks!

 

[Minthorne]

I've never done it - I think the common wisdom is that adding the transfer fee of $95 and the cost of the MF on the traded points to RCI (and other non DVC resorts) is less advantageous than just renting your points and using the cash to book what you want.

 

[Diva120]

What is "MF"?

So, what is the real benefit to having the relationship with RCI? I'm really asking, no sarcasm. On a surface glance, the trade looked legit - 120 points for a week somewhere, $95 fee, - seemed ok. Further looking - WHAMO! $2,000 for the all inclusive part of the resort.

 

[Minthorne]

Maintenance Fees - or annual dues on points.

I suppose RCI gives you flexibility to use your DVC membership different ways. It just isn't the most cost effective use of points

 

[Diva120]

Mmmm, got it. Thank you kindly for your input!

 

[LuvtheGoof]

It's really more for the flexibility factor. Most of the time, the rate to pay cash for a stay is less than the conversion of points. To convert your points to dollars, we added total buy-in cost plus lifetime maintenance fees - adding in 3% per year increase and dividing by the total number of points over the lifetime of your contract. For us, that comes out to about $10/point over the lifetime of our contracts.

I priced a stay on the Concierge Collection at the Fairmont in San Fransisco (we stayed there a few years ago on a short trip). For a one week stay, it would be about $4500 cash, or about 520 points. So for us, using points would be about $5200. Now saying that, if you have the points, and don't have the cash, then it can be worth it to you if you want to stay there.

 

[Diva120]

It's really more for the flexibility factor. Most of the time, the rate to pay cash for a stay is less than the conversion of points. To convert your points to dollars, we added total buy-in cost plus lifetime maintenance fees - adding in 3% per year increase and dividing by the total number of points over the lifetime of your contract. For us, that comes out to about $10/point over the lifetime of our contracts.

I priced a stay on the Concierge Collection at the Fairmont in San Fransisco (we stayed there a few years ago on a short trip). For a one week stay, it would be about $4500 cash, or about 520 points. So for us, using points would be about $5200. Now saying that, if you have the points, and don't have the cash, then it can be worth it to you if you want to stay there.

EGADS! The higher math makes my head hurt, LOL! 520 points is a lawt of WDW trips or a full cruise for a week for 3 ppl on certain sailings!

 

[dreamfinder]

RCI does bring some value to the table by letting you travel where your DVC points are useless. Not everyone is savvy or comfortable with renting points, so being able to trade into RCI is a benefit. There are people who have large amounts of points, so being able to simply go elsewhere instead of say renting yet another 3BR Grand Villa is attractive.

 

[Diva120]

RCI does bring some value to the table by letting you travel where your DVC points are useless. Not everyone is savvy or comfortable with renting points, so being able to trade into RCI is a benefit. There are people who have large amounts of points, so being able to simply go elsewhere instead of say renting yet another 3BR Grand Villa is attractive.

Yep, I really wanted to swap out to go to Anguilla or St. Maarten, but the exchange did not make sense for us to do. Additional hesitation comes from knowing friends who have other time-share programs and the ability to swap within RCI - have said it's not always an even or beneficial enough of a swap. It just seems like a benefit that is not utilized for a number of reasons - mainly the exchange and/or not enough data from other users.

Thank for the info!

 

[dreamfinder]

Yep, I really wanted to swap out to go to Anguilla or St. Maarten, but the exchange did not make sense for us to do. Additional hesitation comes from knowing friends who have other time-share programs and the ability to swap within RCI - have said it's not always an even or beneficial enough of a swap. It just seems like a benefit that is not utilized for a number of reasons - mainly the exchange and/or not enough data from other users.!

Our family has owned RCI for years. Speaking from experience, the quality of resorts in the portfolio is very uneven. Some are great, others are obviously run down and well past their prime. As with any timeshare/hotel decision, always make sure to get current information from an unbiased source.

 

[Diva120]

Our family has owned RCI for years. Speaking from experience, the quality of resorts in the portfolio is very uneven. Some are great, others are obviously run down and well past their prime. As with any timeshare/hotel decision, always make sure to get current information from an unbiased source.

This is awesome info - besides having to really do your homework on the property itself - is the process of exchanging easy? What is the recourse if property isn't as advertised?

I use to do all the US based reservations for a small hotel in Anguilla. I know first hand what a nice glossy photo can portray when the actual place is "tired".

 

[dreamfinder]

This is awesome info - besides having to really do your homework on the property itself - is the process of exchanging easy? What is the recourse if property isn't as advertised?

My personal experience is a few years dated, but I'll try to recount how it worked then. At that point, most properties were still a weeks based system, with some weeks having more "value" than others. For instance, mid-Feb at a slopeside resort at Vail had more "value" than on in August at that same property. The "value" initially only came into play when multiple people were trying to get the same week, someone who traded in a higher "value" week got precedence. Now that some places are points, others are weeks, it's a totally different animal. I believe "red season" costs more, or still has higher "value", I'm not 100% as what my family owns is still weeks based. So trying to figure out weeks to points and stuff is a bit tougher. But they basically have a nice thick phone book sized catalog with all the properties, or you can look online here -> http://www.rci.com/resort-directory/landing. The online listing has a lot more details, the catalog gave one picture, and listed things like if it had a pool, AC, etc. But to trade you basically desposit your week into the pool, saying you didn't want to stay there. You could then select where/what you wanted. Either specific resort, or general area, and they would show you what was available. If you had a high demand resort, desposited your week in early, and were looking early, you had a good shot at getting something you liked. If you had a low demand resort, despoited your week in a month before you wanted to travel, you might get nothing good. I don't think there was much recourse as they didn't give all that much detail, but that may have changed. They have a nice 14 page document that goes into alot of detail on their terms here -> http://www.rci.com/static/docs/namer/en_US/TermsandConditionsofRCIWeeks.pdf

I did trade from RCI into DVC a few times before buying into DVC, it wasn't terribly hard. Our deposited week was a high demand week, and was deposited almost a year out, but we got a 1BR at SSR and a 2BR at OKW. Trading into DVC the options were somewhat limited, I think I never saw more than 12 weeks available when looking (and those weeks were scattered through all the DVC resorts over the the span of a month or two) but they did change every day or two, I'd assume as inventory changed.

Doing an exchange was fairly easy, the only hard part was getting specifics. In either case you have much better odds if you simply "want to go to Aruba during December" than if you "must stay at resort ABC for Dec 1-7".

 

[Diva120]

My personal experience is a few years dated, but I'll try to recount how it worked then. At that point, most properties were still a weeks based system, with some weeks having more "value" than others. For instance, mid-Feb at a slopeside resort at Vail had more "value" than on in August at that same property. The "value" initially only came into play when multiple people were trying to get the same week, someone who traded in a higher "value" week got precedence. Now that some places are points, others are weeks, it's a totally different animal. I believe "red season" costs more, or still has higher "value", I'm not 100% as what my family owns is still weeks based. So trying to figure out weeks to points and stuff is a bit tougher. But they basically have a nice thick phone book sized catalog with all the properties, or you can look online here -> http://www.rci.com/resort-directory/landing. The online listing has a lot more details, the catalog gave one picture, and listed things like if it had a pool, AC, etc. But to trade you basically desposit your week into the pool, saying you didn't want to stay there. You could then select where/what you wanted. Either specific resort, or general area, and they would show you what was available. If you had a high demand resort, desposited your week in early, and were looking early, you had a good shot at getting something you liked. If you had a low demand resort, despoited your week in a month before you wanted to travel, you might get nothing good. I don't think there was much recourse as they didn't give all that much detail, but that may have changed. They have a nice 14 page document that goes into alot of detail on their terms here -> http://www.rci.com/static/docs/namer/en_US/TermsandConditionsofRCIWeeks.pdf

I did trade from RCI into DVC a few times before buying into DVC, it wasn't terribly hard. Our deposited week was a high demand week, and was deposited almost a year out, but we got a 1BR at SSR and a 2BR at OKW. Trading into DVC the options were somewhat limited, I think I never saw more than 12 weeks available when looking (and those weeks were scattered through all the DVC resorts over the the span of a month or two) but they did change every day or two, I'd assume as inventory changed.

Doing an exchange was fairly easy, the only hard part was getting specifics. In either case you have much better odds if you simply "want to go to Aruba during December" than if you "must stay at resort ABC for Dec 1-7".

THANK YOU so much - this is nice to read up on and I really appreciate you taking time to respond.