Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - RCI timeshare. Anybody have experience with this company or concept?

Kjesse · 07-05-2010, 04:58 PM

I could relay some horror stories but they'd take too long to tell.

There are a pile of potential problems with "owning" a timeshare, the first of which is, in most set-ups, you don't actually own anything. A separate company will own the title to the property and they can mortgage it all they want. So don't take the value of the property you are buying, and think the timeshare right is worth 1/52 of that.

Also, the timeshare is not owned by RCI. RCI is simply the network trade mechanism for timeshares. It always gets pushed as the selling point because they say, "go look at RCI's site and look, you give us money, and you can go stay anywhere else in the world." Sometimes it works out, sometimes it does not. RCI has strict policies which include obligations owed to them by your home resort. If your home resort doesn't meet those obligations you can't use your "points" anywhere.

I know of one "good" timeshare story, where things have worked out for a friend. I also have a colleague who has bought one in the last few months, but with an organization backed by a well known international hotel chain, so he should be OK, but he hasn't used anything yet. Beyond that I know of about a dozen bad stories.

07-05-2010, 04:58 PM	#9
Kjesse Retired Join Date: Oct 2003 Exp:	I could relay some horror stories but they'd take too long to tell. There are a pile of potential problems with "owning" a timeshare, the first of which is, in most set-ups, you don't actually own anything. A separate company will own the title to the property and they can mortgage it all they want. So don't take the value of the property you are buying, and think the timeshare right is worth 1/52 of that. Also, the timeshare is not owned by RCI. RCI is simply the network trade mechanism for timeshares. It always gets pushed as the selling point because they say, "go look at RCI's site and look, you give us money, and you can go stay anywhere else in the world." Sometimes it works out, sometimes it does not. RCI has strict policies which include obligations owed to them by your home resort. If your home resort doesn't meet those obligations you can't use your "points" anywhere. I know of one "good" timeshare story, where things have worked out for a friend. I also have a colleague who has bought one in the last few months, but with an organization backed by a well known international hotel chain, so he should be OK, but he hasn't used anything yet. Beyond that I know of about a dozen bad stories.