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Re: Against RCI/II Rules to Rent out Exchanges (by Melinda T.):

Much as it seems unfair for RCI and II to prohibit rentals, when they themselves do it, I can see their point. You are taking a risk in terms of liability, whether it is against their policy or not.

Someone previously mentioned the example of poor behavior by a rental guest. Not all renters are bad, in fact most are pretty decent people, but there are always some bad apples.

What happens when a renter does damage to your property? Well, the resort took a credit card imprint when they checked in (or a security deposit of some sort). Presumably when your guest does serious damage to your unit, the resort will charge that credit card, and try to collect from your renter. Not only are they going to want to recover the cost of any repairs, but also for any "lost business." If your unit couldn't be used for 4 weeks during repair, they had to house somebody elsewhere. Their insurance will cover it, hopefully, but the insurance company will then try to recover their money from whoever was at fault.

When the resort can't recover the money from your renter, you are next in line. When it's an RCI rental, RCI is next in line. Who has bigger pockets? Who can more afford the liability? When you rent an exchange, you are liable BEFORE RCI.

If you become liable to your home resort, they can keep you from using and future weeks until you pay what you own - they can even forclose on your week.

If you become liable to someone else's resort, what can they do to you? Not much! There is no contract between you and the resort, only between you and RCI. RCI knows you will be more careful about who you give a gift to, vs who you might rent to. Yo're also more likely to care about someone damaging your own property, as opposed to something owned by someone else.

From a moral standpoint, maybe rentals shold be allowed. From a legal standpoint, not allowing them makes sense.