Caution - renting out exchanged weeks ...

Another word of caution, it's against RCI and II's rules to rent out exchanged weeks. You can rent your "owned" week(s) all you want, but not exchanged week(s). Some people do it and get away with it, but if RCI or II catches you your membership privileges can be revoked forever.

thanks for the tip. i have not done that but was wondering if was allowed or not.

Can't you request a guest certificate when renting? It's a mall fee to transfer the fee into someone elses name.

It is a violation of RCI's Terms and Conditions of Membership (Section 8) to rent, sell, barter, or auction, a deposited week or confirmed exchange, even if a Guest Certificate is purchased. Violation of this guideline could result in the termination of your RCI membership.

You may give a vacation to a friend or family member via the RCI Guest Certificate; however, you may not receive any compensation beyond the price of the exchange and Guest Certificate fees. Compensation includes anything of value, even another exchange vacation.

Following are a few of the reasons RCI prohibits deposited weeks and exchange vacations from being sold:

1) Accurate representation of Trading Power value -- RCI has contracts with its affiliated resorts and is in a better position to influence information provided about its program.

2) Fair exchange policy - RCI's program strives to provide a vacation that is comparable to the one you own. If members buy a deposited week from a resort they've never visited, RCI has no way to gauge their expectations.

3) Support for timeshare sales and purchases -- Most people who want higher quality vacation exchanges invest in the purchase of higher quality weeks. When these weeks are deposited with RCI, they in turn provide exchange families with a better selection and quality of inventory from which to choose. Travelers would not be incented to upgrade their purchases if they could simply buy the "interest" for a fraction of the purchase price per year.

4) The demand among RCI members for certain areas and times of year is overwhelming (school breaks, holidays, etc.) This is magnified when non-members can compete for the same space.

If you can't use a confimed exchange, cancel it and make the unit available to other RCI members who may be requesting it. When members rent or swap confirmed exchanges, they undermine RCI's program to the detriment of other members. If a member is waiting for a vacation, he would indeed be upset to think that prime exchange units were being offered to the general public or traded among friends instead of being released.

RCI works hard to keep its exchange program viable and to satisfy its subscribing members. Maintaining control of our inventory is crucial to our ability to do this.

Thanks for the feedback.

jayjay, must work for RCI or II.......its nice of you to point out the quouted term above "owned" after all, it is "your" "time" that you bought or traded....I would imagine that IF rci /II would poll their "paying" members that the rules would change or membership would dwindle....bottom line is yoou own it. you should be able to rent it....and i beleive jayjay, that the policy is there to prevent owners from purchasing for the purpose of renting to begin with????? PUT YOUR WEEK IN THE BANK AT YOUR HOME RESORT THEY DON'T HAVE THESE RULES however they also charge for the assignment of the week

zimmer1 wrote:

jayjay, must work for RCI or II.......its nice of you to point out the quouted term above "owned" after all, it is "your" "time" that you bought or traded....I would imagine that IF rci /II would poll their "paying" members that the rules would change or membership would dwindle....bottom line is yoou own it. you should be able to rent it....and i beleive jayjay, that the policy is there to prevent owners from purchasing for the purpose of renting to begin with????? PUT YOUR WEEK IN THE BANK AT YOUR HOME RESORT THEY DON'T HAVE THESE RULES however they also charge for the assignment of the week

You can have your membership to RCI or II taken away from you if you are caught renting exchange weeks. You can rent your own weeks, the ones you purchased for your own use, but the exchanges are not yours, they belong to RCI. A guest certificate and an exchange fee are all you may collect from a friend or family member. These are the rules and you agree to them when you sign up with RCI. It is in the small print.

The reasons for such rules are obvious. If some people grab the good weeks and rent them on redweek or any other rental site, these are weeks that are not available for the rest of us. You cannot benefit from renting another person's property. You would not borrow your friend's car and then rent it to another person, would you? It is the same thing.

So rent out your owned weeks and do not rent exchanges. Resorts will notice when your renter is complaining about the unit location or other such reasons, When that renter says he/she rented the exchanged week on redweek, your exchange privileges will be revoked.

No, I a do not work for RCI, II, Redweek or any other timeshare related company. I have merely owned many timeshare weeks over the years and pretty much know the rules. I am the messenger ... I didn't write RCI's or II's terms and conditions. Renting out exchanges is against their rules as is selling spacebanked weeks. It's as simple or as complicated as that, however feel free to break their rules all you choose if you wish to possibly have your membership revoked and your renters turned away at check-in. I would also make sure that your renters are aware that you are renting an exchange and not a week that you own. This is the fair thing to do.

zimmer1 wrote:

jayjay, must work for RCI or II.......its nice of you to point out the quouted term above "owned" after all, it is "your" "time" that you bought or traded....I would imagine that IF rci /II would poll their "paying" members that the rules would change or membership would dwindle....bottom line is yoou own it. you should be able to rent it....and i beleive jayjay, that the policy is there to prevent owners from purchasing for the purpose of renting to begin with????? PUT YOUR WEEK IN THE BANK AT YOUR HOME RESORT THEY DON'T HAVE THESE RULES however they also charge for the assignment of the week

I think the rules are created to give RCI and II an advantage in renting them out themselves -- to eliminate competition. The RCI gobbledygook you quoted above is almost unintelligble, but what undermines the entire set of rules above is that RCI quietly sells traded weeks to brokers to rent out for them. Why would they do that if renting traded weeks really harms owners?

I don't agree with these rules. If I have traded a valuable week and do all the work to find a suitable week to exchange it for, I don't see any difference in renting the traded week just as I would rent my owned week. I didn't obtain the traded week in any way that gave me some advantage over others in the network -- they could have obtained it just as I did. But when RCI sells them to wholesale brokers to rent out, THEY are undermining the value of the network because those weeks weren't made available to other members.

By the way, I have myself rented a week from one of those brokers who told me that RCI sold it to them at wholesale. I haven't ever rented out one that I traded for, but I would like to.

steve2045 wrote:

I think the rules are created to give RCI and II an advantage in renting them out themselves -- to eliminate competition. The RCI gobbledygook you quoted above is almost unintelligble, but what undermines the entire set of rules above is that RCI quietly sells traded weeks to brokers to rent out for them. Why would they do that if renting traded weeks really harms owners?

I don't agree with these rules. If I have traded a valuable week and do all the work to find a suitable week to exchange it for, I don't see any difference in renting the traded week just as I would rent my owned week. I didn't obtain the traded week in any way that gave me some advantage over others in the network -- they could have obtained it just as I did. But when RCI sells them to wholesale brokers to rent out, THEY are undermining the value of the network because those weeks weren't made available to other members.

By the way, I have myself rented a week from one of those brokers who told me that RCI sold it to them at wholesale. I haven't ever rented out one that I traded for, but I would like to.

Steve, Couldn't have said it better myself! Just as you quote, it is 'OK' for RCI and II to do it, so can we! And, as you state, everyone has the same chance to rent out any week, not just those 'bad, capitalistic, anti-fairness, anti-RCI rule' people! What a joke!!!

I think we should all get together and petition to have RCI and II to retract these RIDICULOUS rules, or risk a Class Action lawsuit, or should I say ANOTHER Class Action lawsuit against them.!

Another thing I just thought of. Since you say it is in the fine print of the agreement, which by the way was added after most of were already members, none of us would have read this and found it ourselves. Since this is the case in 99% of the time it should be a question an RCI or II Associate should ask you when placing an order ($60, cha-ching) for a Guest Reservation. If, in fact, it is that big of a deal to RCI and II then why in all of my Guest Reservations have they NEVER asked if I was renting this out, and if so, is it for more than the price of the Guest Reservation and Transfer Fee??. Don't you think if it was that big of a deal they would ask you that? I once again believe they don't for ONE reason... $$$$$$. They know that if they would try to inact this riduculous rule they would lose MAJOR $$$$$ from MANY members that would no longer deposit THEIR weeks into RCI, and the corresponding fees they receive from you AND the other person whose week you are using... CHA-CHING!!!

From what I gather RCI and II flag members that purchase an unusual amount of guest certificates. Evidently you haven't been in that category (yet).

If you think a Class Action suit would help - hop on board. News from a Resort Manager who gets the Manager's Resort Magazines, there is already a class action suit against RCI - has it gone anywhere? Who knows about this and how long have you known? Where do you join in?

How does this apply to an RCI Extra Vacation that I have purchased? Can I use a Guest Certificate to allow someone else to use the purchased week? Can I sell that week or simply "give" it to someone?

Under RCI's Terms and Conditions for extra vacations:

"You can even purchase Guest Certificates and GIVE an Extra Vacation to relatives and friends"

tima28 wrote:

How does this apply to an RCI Extra Vacation that I have purchased? Can I use a Guest Certificate to allow someone else to use the purchased week? Can I sell that week or simply "give" it to someone?