RCI member renting DVC

[montyz81]

Hello all, I am currently an RCI member with access to all DVC resorts. I am curious if there are other RCI members on here that have rented the DVC resort they wont through an RCI search? What dates did you get it for? When did your DVC resort come up in the search?. I am very much struggling to get access to a resort and would like to know what the trick is to get that DVC resort through RCI? Thank you for any input anyone can give me!

For the rest of you DVC members, have you ever used RCI to rent out your DVC resort and how frequently do you do it?

 

[NYwdwfan]

My sister has RCI and has put in date ranges many times for DVC resorts and has not been able to book anything. There's something with the translation from points to weeks (or vice versa?) that makes the trade (in her case) very difficult to do. She is yet to be successful - I'd be curious to know if anyone else was able to book this way.

 

[Rob562]

I've been successful at trading in through RCI twice using my parents' timeshare week on Cape Cod. Their timeshare trades through the Weeks side of RCI vs the Points side. While I've heard that available trades into DVC tend to post to the Points side first, I don't think Points can set up an "Ongoing Search" (OGS) like you can in Weeks. The OGS is often key to getting a trade through RCI.

The first trade was into a 1-bedroom at Beach Club in June of 2011, soon after DVC switched to RCI as their exchange network. That trade was fairly easy to get (and cheap too, since they didn't have the trading history yet to get the "desireablity factor" in assigning the exchange power of the DVC resorts), apart from having to accept a 1-bedroom unit when we'd used a 2-bedroom to deposit.

The second trade we will actually check in to next week. We were able to trade into a 2-bedroom at Saratoga Springs. We set up the OGS back in mid-February and it sat until we got an exchange in mid-May (so 5 1/2 months out from checkin). The key is to be flexible on the resort choice. We were *hoping* for anything other than OKW or SSR, but we were fine if that's what we got.

If you're on Weeks, getting an OGS set up and running is key to getting the trade, since deposited weeks are matched in the order peoples' OGS'es were started. (Earlier start date means the closer to the front of the line)
And in Weeks you'll want to deposit your week as early as possible to maximize the trading power it's assigned.

If you're serious about trading in, I suggest looking into the TUG BBS forum
http://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php
Especially consider singing up for a 1-year paid membership (I think it's $15) which gives you access to the members-only Sightings part of the forum where people post exchanges and bulk deposits of popular resorts like the DVC properties, as well as the points required through RCI Points or the "Trading Power" required through RCI Weeks.
(I found out through that forum that my parents' timeshare would never have enough trading-power to snag a week in the peak seasons of summer or the holidays.)

Also note that DVC charges a $95 fee upon checkin to all RCI exchanges.
And DVC does not accept exchanges from timeshare properties within 50 miles of Orlando.

-Rob

 

[NYwdwfan]

I've been successful at trading in through RCI twice using my parents' timeshare week on Cape Cod. Their timeshare trades through the Weeks side of RCI vs the Points side. While I've heard that available trades into DVC tend to post to the Points side first, I don't think Points can set up an "Ongoing Search" (OGS) like you can in Weeks. The OGS is often key to getting a trade through RCI.

The first trade was into a 1-bedroom at Beach Club in June of 2011, soon after DVC switched to RCI as their exchange network. That trade was fairly easy to get (and cheap too, since they didn't have the trading history yet to get the "desireablity factor" in assigning the exchange power of the DVC resorts), apart from having to accept a 1-bedroom unit when we'd used a 2-bedroom to deposit.

The second trade we will actually check in to next week. We were able to trade into a 2-bedroom at Saratoga Springs. We set up the OGS back in mid-February and it sat until we got an exchange in mid-May (so 5 1/2 months out from checkin). The key is to be flexible on the resort choice. We were *hoping* for anything other than OKW or SSR, but we were fine if that's what we got.

If you're on Weeks, getting an OGS set up and running is key to getting the trade, since deposited weeks are matched in the order peoples' OGS'es were started. (Earlier start date means the closer to the front of the line)
And in Weeks you'll want to deposit your week as early as possible to maximize the trading power it's assigned.

If you're serious about trading in, I suggest looking into the TUG BBS forum
http://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php
Especially consider singing up for a 1-year paid membership (I think it's $15) which gives you access to the members-only Sightings part of the forum where people post exchanges and bulk deposits of popular resorts like the DVC properties, as well as the points required through RCI Points or the "Trading Power" required through RCI Weeks.
(I found out through that forum that my parents' timeshare would never have enough trading-power to snag a week in the peak seasons of summer or the holidays.)

Also note that DVC charges a $95 fee upon checkin to all RCI exchanges.
And DVC does not accept exchanges from timeshare properties within 50 miles of Orlando.

-Rob

Thank you! This is the best detailed information I have been given on the topic and I look forward to trying your suggestions and seeing what they get!

 

[dreamfinder]

I also traded in twice through RCI prior to making the DVC plunge. It's been a few years, but we did a week for a week. The unit we were trading in did have high trade power, so I'm not sure if that helped or not. However, I do remember that nothing came up using search terms that made sense to me. I can't remember if it was the town we were searching under, or the name, but it took some trying of things to find the results. Like for instance, AKL is technically located in Bay Lake, so searching Orlando was useless. Or something like that. I would suggest not trying dates, or being very open with the dates until you figure out the search process.

We also found units to seem to pop up 10 and 6 months out. I'm guessing to give owners preference. I saw them come online randomly at other times, but more seemed to show up at that point. As @Rob562 said, be flexible. I never saw more than one or two units for a given time period, with most being at OKW and SSR. On a week trade, since there didn't seem to be an extra cost to a larger unit, don't be afraid to get one bigger than you want if it is the dates you need (we traded in a 1 BR). The week trades should also start Fri, Sat or Sun. We traded in in early Dec and also early Jan, a 1 BR at SSR and 2 BR at OKW respectively.

Not sure how the point trade works, never did that.

 

[Rob562]

The DVC units are listed under "Walt Disney World" when you get to the area listings. But @dreamfinder reminded me of one other tip when looking for a DVC unit... If you're setting up an Ongoing Search online, look for the specific property codes in the RCI resort directory. The DVC properties' codes for Weeks trades are in the format DV**. When setting up the OGS, do *not include any country/region/city selections. Instead, only fill in the specific property codes at the bottom.

When we set up our OGS, we gave the system a range of three weeks of checkin dates that we'd accept. We ended up getting a Friday check-in for the last weekend in our date range.

-Rob

 

[dreamfinder]

So it sounds like they have cleaned up/improved the search process since I last used it back in 2010.

 

[weird]

I've been successful at trading in through RCI twice using my parents' timeshare week on Cape Cod. Their timeshare trades through the Weeks side of RCI vs the Points side. While I've heard that available trades into DVC tend to post to the Points side first, I don't think Points can set up an "Ongoing Search" (OGS) like you can in Weeks. The OGS is often key to getting a trade through RCI.

The first trade was into a 1-bedroom at Beach Club in June of 2011, soon after DVC switched to RCI as their exchange network. That trade was fairly easy to get (and cheap too, since they didn't have the trading history yet to get the "desireablity factor" in assigning the exchange power of the DVC resorts), apart from having to accept a 1-bedroom unit when we'd used a 2-bedroom to deposit.

The second trade we will actually check in to next week. We were able to trade into a 2-bedroom at Saratoga Springs. We set up the OGS back in mid-February and it sat until we got an exchange in mid-May (so 5 1/2 months out from checkin). The key is to be flexible on the resort choice. We were *hoping* for anything other than OKW or SSR, but we were fine if that's what we got.

If you're on Weeks, getting an OGS set up and running is key to getting the trade, since deposited weeks are matched in the order peoples' OGS'es were started. (Earlier start date means the closer to the front of the line)
And in Weeks you'll want to deposit your week as early as possible to maximize the trading power it's assigned.

If you're serious about trading in, I suggest looking into the TUG BBS forum
http://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php
Especially consider singing up for a 1-year paid membership (I think it's $15) which gives you access to the members-only Sightings part of the forum where people post exchanges and bulk deposits of popular resorts like the DVC properties, as well as the points required through RCI Points or the "Trading Power" required through RCI Weeks.
(I found out through that forum that my parents' timeshare would never have enough trading-power to snag a week in the peak seasons of summer or the holidays.)

Also note that DVC charges a $95 fee upon checkin to all RCI exchanges.
And DVC does not accept exchanges from timeshare properties within 50 miles of Orlando.

-Rob

It looks like Disney has just recently raised the usage fee from $95 to $190 for RCI exchanges.

 

[Rob562]

It looks like Disney has just recently raised the usage fee from $95 to $190 for RCI exchanges.

They have. It went up the first week of August. Luckily my latest exchange was confirmed before that and they grandfathered it in.

And from what I've heard, they eliminated the $95 fee for DVC Members to trade out of DVC (and thus that $95 fee got shuffled over to the inbound RCI exchange user). So they're extending a benefit to DVC members at the expense of the incoming RCI members...
This may be my last RCI-to-DVC exchange for a while. (It also doesn't help that 2-bedroom exchanges through RCI never happen anymore)

-Rob

 

[weird]

They have. It went up the first week of August. Luckily my latest exchange was confirmed before that and they grandfathered it in.

And from what I've heard, they eliminated the $95 fee for DVC Members to trade out of DVC (and thus that $95 fee got shuffled over to the inbound RCI exchange user). So they're extending a benefit to DVC members at the expense of the incoming RCI members...
This may be my last RCI-to-DVC exchange for a while. (It also doesn't help that 2-bedroom exchanges through RCI never happen anymore)

-Rob

Same here. I did the exchange prior to the fee change, so I lucked out with just $95.

This may also be my last RCI to DVC exchange for a while.