Original Message:
Re: Renting exchanged RCI weeks is expressly prohibited (by Roger M.):
Needless to say, most of us paid too much for a timeshare week, then found out that our week(s) may rent and they may not. So, we did into our pocket a little more and join places like R.C.I. Joining was pretty easy, just give them a couple of hundred bucks. After all, now you have the world at your fingertips. The sales personnel lead you to believe that your week(s) can be exchanged with ease since there are thousands of units in their inventory. Most times there are thousands, but the one that you are looking for is amongst the missing.
So now you try to rent your unit, wait it out a little bit, then check with your home resort to find that unfortunately it didn't get rented. Now you contact R.C.I. to place your week in the bank so as not to lose all of the value of your week. However, since it is so close to the check-in date, R.C.I. gives you about a third of its' initial value.
Now, if you did bank the week early enough, you have the full trading value. So, you spend an additional $229 and exchange your week for another one. Taking into account your annual R.C.I. membership, your exchange fee, your maintenance fee, and your taxes, this exchange cost you around $1100-$1200 dollars.
If you have a change in plans due to an illness etc. you could gift this to a relative or a friend. But if your relative or friend gave you a few bucks to offset your losses, they could be evicted even if you paid the additional $55 guest certificate fee.????
I am a disabled American Veteran and I know that these large corporations could care less about that "affordable vacation" that you purchased for you and your family. So here is what you do..... write to the CEO of R.C.I. and explain to him that there is a need to modify their rules. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be fair. Timeshare has never been a good investment, or a fair investment. If anything, they should have given every owner a jar of vaseline so as to place the concept of timeshare in it's appropriate place........