Original Message:
Renting exchanged RCI weeks is expressly prohibited (by KC):
sd204 wrote:This policy is exactly why I cancelled my account with RCI. I think it's totally bogus. If I can stay there myself, then I should be able to have someone else stay there, the same way a renter in an apartment is able to sublet their apartment to someone else. If I clearly tell them that I don't own at that resort but I exchanged the unit I do own somewhere else, then there's nothing dishonest about it.
I don't like (or belong to) greedy RCI, but I respectfully submit that this is not a matter of "honesty", but is instead a simple matter of compliance with clearly stated, written terms and conditions of exchange company membership. You could allow someone to USE your exchange (by obtaining a guest certificate from RCI), but you cannot RENT OUT a week provided to you as an exchange for your personal use --- not for your own personal profit. And by the way, most apartment rental contracts also very specifically prohibit sub-leasing, so your apartment analogy is frankly weak.
Looking at this objectively, once you choose to deposit what you actually OWN with RCI, you voluntarily relinquish your access to that particular deposit. If you then manage to successfully obtain an "exchange" for your "deposit" to RCI, you have the right to USE that exchange, but you plainly do not OWN that week. Since you don't OWN that week, it's simply NOT YOURS to rent out to someone else. These terms and conditions of membership are very clearly spelled out in writing by RCI (and also by Interval International, another exchange company).
I greatly dislike greedy RCI, but I still do not agree with your viewpoint. As Tracey S. correctly noted above, the (prohibited) rental of "exchanges" subverts and undermines the intent and objective of the entire exchange system. Exchange programs do not exist for people to manipulate for their own financial gain after acquiring good exchanges. Exchanges are provided for USE, not for manipulation for personal gain. Sorry, but with all due respect personal financial gain simply is NOT what the whole "exchange game" is supposed to be about.