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Re: WHY YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO RENT AN EXHCANGE (by stanleyf5):

jennie wrote:

jayjay wrote:

The reason the exchange companies implemented the 'no rental of exchanges' is actually to protect their members. In the old days people would snap up the best/most popular exchanges and then turn around and rent them out making a huge profit. The exchange companies had to put a stop to this. It's the bad apples in the barrel that caused these rules to be implemented.

Many experienced timeshare owners have a different slant on this. They believe that RCI saw a way to make more profit for their company by eliminating the competition i.e. the timeshare owner, and then renting valuable space-banked weeks themselves to the general (non timeshare owning) public. Through the years I rented many prime weeks from RCI's distribution sources at a far lower price than I would have paid if I had owned the week and had paid the annual maintenance fees.

In the beginning RCI denied engaging in this activity. When people proved they were doing it, they then claimed that they were only renting "excess inventory" i.e. low demand weeks that would go unrequested by their exchange members. When this was proven false, they had by then established the RCI Points system. They came up with the excuse that sometimes they had to rent out a deposited week to raise money to secure airline tickets, cruises, or other things requested by their Points members (instead of nights or weeks at a timeshare property).

It is all of this rental activity that has caused a huge class action lawsuit to be filed against RCI's parent company Cendant. Since the lawsuit was filed, I no longer see the hundreds of prime weeks being offered for rent to the general public. I miss the bargains I used to get but will be very happy if RCI is permanently stopped from engaging in this practise. Then maybe we will resume getting the fair exchanges so many of us used to enjoy in the years before RCI was acquired by Cendant.

Hi, thanks for the info. Stan.