Conflict of interest: Wyndham/RCI?

Until I stayed at a wyndham resort over the weekend, I didn't know that they owned RCI. My experience, though, makes me wonder if there is some kind of illegal conflict of interest in the relationship.

After cheking in at the Kingsgate reort near Williamsburg, VA this weeknd, we accpeted $75 in gift cards to attend a 21-question "Wyndham evaluation." I knew enough to expect that the “evaluation” was going to be more than 21 questions, but what actually happened really turned me off to Wyndham. For a half hour or so, we chatted with the sales rep about our current property and how we use it, building up to his pitch on Wyndham’s point system. Then he said “I’m going to pull up you RCI account to see if it’s configured correctly.” I told him I was not comfortable with that and he replied “Since Wyndham now owns RCI, I can do it whether you give me permission or not.” That, to me, is totally unfair (information is power in negotiation), so I called an end to the meeting and walked out. My wife stayed behind long enough to find out that we needed to do an evaluation of the session to avoid being charged for the cards we received. We did, and when the second rep doing the evaluation asked, I told him why I was unhappy and that it made me wary of doing any business with Wyndham. He then replied “Since Wyndham now owns RCI and the most properties in the business, you don’t have much choice.” Maybe that kind of arrogance works for some customers (maybe it’s how they get people to pay full price for properties that can be had a resale for a fraction of their price), but it was a total turn-off to me.

Don't be forced into buying Wyndham points .... just keep using your week like you've always used it ... the selling of points is just another way to separate you from your money.

I would really like to challange Wyndham and their policies. We Own at Bali Hi on Kauai. It was then partially built and owned by PaHio, a private co. They sold the property to Wyndham and now all the buildings built since the purchase are not going to be available to us to use even though what we bought was understood to be part of the whole development. We are now limited to just those buildings in the initial phase. We bought with the intention that from the schematic we were buying into the whole development. We will be excluded from any new pool or activity club in newer phases. Wyndham is acting like "bullies" - Buy the conversion to Wyndham points or suffer the consequences. We are seething!!!!!

Actually, it isn't all that unusual for more than one company to share what looks (to us on the outside) like a single resort. Wyndham Tamarack is on the same grounds as Mirror Lake Resort in Wisconsin Dells, but only one building on the property belongs to Wyndham. We Wyndham/Fairfield owners can not stay in the others. However, we can all use the activity building with the indoor pool, etc.

RCI and Fairfield were owned by the same parent company for years before Fairfield became Wyndham. Nothing new about it. MD

I recently underwent a Wyndham "educational presentation," which I knew was a sales pitch for their points. They spent considerable time running down RCI which they pointed out is owned by Wyndham or the same company that owns Wyndham. It's odd that they dog their own company, but its so that people who own time at other companies will feel less confident (and for good reason) in RCI and get spooked into buying Wyndham points. They need another class action suite.

I would like to know if Wyndham bought RCI. I was told this at a Wyndham presentation. I was also told that buying a timeshare through redweek.com was not the best way to go for in a few years the purchase would be worthless. I was also told that purchasing timeshares just to rent and make money is not a good choice. I noticed that on redweek.com timeshares can be bought at auction prices that are really cheap. It appears that buying timeshares to rent out is a good deal. I do not quite understand the concept of buying, selling, or renting a timeshare. I also went to a presentation offered by Interval International. Is redweek.com affiliated with RCI and Interval International? Which company is better? Email address ralphlsr@embarqmail.com

ralphlc wrote:

I would like to know if Wyndham bought RCI. I was told this at a Wyndham presentation. I was also told that buying a timeshare through redweek.com was not the best way to go for in a few years the purchase would be worthless.

Depending on supply and demand of any given timeshare resort and time owned, buying a timeshare from ANY source can be worthless in a few years ... just look at all the 1 cent to $1 timeshares on Ebay with zero bids .... purchasing a timeshare to rent out is not worth it as there is no assurance that it will be rentable at all.

ralphlc wrote:

Is redweek.com affiliated with RCI and Interval International? Which company is better? Email address ralphlsr@embarqmail.com

No, Redweek is not affiliated with RCI or II .... which company is better (RCI or II) is in the eye of the beholder .... some resorts are affiliated with both RCI and II.

ralphlc wrote:

I would like to know if Wyndham bought RCI.

Wyndham has indeed owned RCI outright for some time now, but it is certainly not a particularly new or recent development...

ralphlc wrote:

I also went to a presentation offered by Interval International.

Are you sure it was Interval International --- and not one of those "clubs" (e.g. Vacation Internationale) with a slightly similar name???

After all, Interval Internatnl. is merely a timeshare "exchange" company. I am not aware of II ever conducting "presentations", since II has nothing to sell in the first place (except II memberships --and even then you must first ALREADY OWN at a II affiliated resort before even being eligible to purchase a II membership at all).

How are we defining "worthless"? It certainly can be hard to resell a timeshare ownership package at anything like what it costs when bought from the company but if you bought it to use for vacations it can be every bit as valuable as you expected. Just don't buy expecting to make a big profit on rentals (possible but not always easy) or resale. There are continuing costs for maintenance and other occasional fees. Making the best use of your purchase requires putting some effort into learning how your particular timeshare works and planning accordingly. Don't yell " scam" or "lawsuit" every five minutes. Just do your homework. MD

This is the way it is or was,

There was Cendant a large multinational with several divisions all under the same parent including timeshare, hotels, car rental, real estate, insurance etc about 4 years ago the broke apart Cendant into separate companies about the same time they purchased Wyndham hotels. One of the new companies was centered on hospitality, timeshare, hotels etc another around car rental etc. The Hospitality company they named Wyndham after the hotel brand which includes RCI, Wyndham hotels and the other 9 hotel brands (days inn, super 8, Hojo, Ramada etc) Then they started renaming sections to Wyndham, they changed Fairfield to Wyndham, they renamed Trip rewards to Wyndham rewards etc they always owned them they just changed their names.........It has made it look like they purchased companies they didn’t, they always owed them they just renamed them. So RCI didn't buy Wyndham and Wyndham didn't by RCI they both came from the same parent....

Yup. I wished they would call the timeshare division "Fairwynd". "Fairfield" always confused people because of Marriott's Fairfield Inns, so some change was a good idea. However, calling the whole ball of wax Wyndham has caused this same type of confusion with the Wyndham hotels which are only loosely relevant to the timeshare division. There is nothing unusual, however, in one parent company owning multiple enterprises in different divisions which may even compete with one another. Consider Olive Gardens and Red Lobster. MD

Not a good idea to rent for profit. (investment) Purchase to use, trade. I rent mine to cover some dues. Only a red week will bring in good Rent.(4th of July, etc.) If it does not rent, we just use the weekend if not a red week. Thanks, I also did not know Wyndham bought RCI.

Sigh. RCI and the Fairfield (now Wyndham) resorts were under the same ownership even before Cendant. Nevertheless, some of the Fairfield/Wyndham resorts exchange through Interval. Go figure. MD

jamess524 wrote:

Until I stayed at a wyndham resort over the weekend, I didn't know that they owned RCI. My experience, though, makes me wonder if there is some kind of illegal conflict of interest in the relationship.

After cheking in at the Kingsgate reort near Williamsburg, VA this weeknd, we accpeted $75 in gift cards to attend a 21-question "Wyndham evaluation." I knew enough to expect that the “evaluation” was going to be more than 21 questions, but what actually happened really turned me off to Wyndham. For a half hour or so, we chatted with the sales rep about our current property and how we use it, building up to his pitch on Wyndham’s point system. Then he said “I’m going to pull up you RCI account to see if it’s configured correctly.” I told him I was not comfortable with that and he replied “Since Wyndham now owns RCI, I can do it whether you give me permission or not.” That, to me, is totally unfair (information is power in negotiation), so I called an end to the meeting and walked out. My wife stayed behind long enough to find out that we needed to do an evaluation of the session to avoid being charged for the cards we received. We did, and when the second rep doing the evaluation asked, I told him why I was unhappy and that it made me wary of doing any business with Wyndham. He then replied “Since Wyndham now owns RCI and the most properties in the business, you don’t have much choice.” Maybe that kind of arrogance works for some customers (maybe it’s how they get people to pay full price for properties that can be had a resale for a fraction of their price), but it was a total turn-off to me.

Just came back from a Wyndham meeting in Myrtle Beach,S.C. I was told at check-in that it would be a Group meeting with lots of people; not a time share sale presentation. We were to be told about the resent change from RCI to Wyndham. Resent made me think six months, not three years. We never received any notification at our home about this change. Anyway, we arrived at the meeting and it was not a group meeting, but an individual meeting. As above, it was a very friendy, get to know you and what you own conversation. Also, our reoresentative wanted us to say something negative about RCI. I have nothing to say negative. RCI has always been very helpful to me. Of course, then comes the big sales pitch and how we would not be able to exchange with RCI in the future, or if we did, we would have less than 900 under places to choose from instead of the 4500 plus units that we have become use to having. In otherwords, as long as we were content to go to our home resort for the rest of our life and our children and grandchildrens life, we could stay status quo; but if we wanted to ever exchange to a good location we needed to convert to points and buy more timeshare. We own the equivalent of three weeks....i only get three weeks vacation every year....i can't use anymore timeshare and i can't really afford to pay and send family members and friends on vacation. So, obviously I don't need or want more timeshare ownership. Like the other person, he went in back and pulled up all our information ; said we had a block on our account (whatever that means) and wanted to run a credit report on us so he could see if we were eligible to purchase more timeshare. We told them we did not want to purchase and were basically treated like we were stupid and this was our last chance to remedy that. We left and my husband was very mad. I ususally likd to go to these things because i always come away with some useful information. Not this time. I came away very depressed, but still have my money. I hate it when they lie to you about what the "meeting" is going to be about. The only thing that was true, was that we did have to fill out a questionere. Guess we will wait and see what is going on with RCI.

Simply use your 3 owned weeks as you have in the past and don't be depressed over anything a timeshare salesperson tells you .... they'll tell you ANYTHING to make a sale .... kudos to you and your husband for not falling for their spiel ... continue to enjoy your timeshares.

Oh, and stay away from any meetings they invite you to .... usually those meetings are to sell you something.

Just booked a Wyndham resort, with RCI weeks. Works for me :)

We just stayed at a Wyndham resort and experienced basically the same treatment as those above. We were told "It's a meeting to explain the relationship of RCI and Wyndham, since W now owns R. We see you already own a timeshare so it will not be a sales pitch." Ha!!

The presentation was basically: 1.) Wyndham now owns RCI 2.) Your timeshare is not a Wyndham property 3.) You're Screwed. You move to the bottom of the list for vacation exchanges. 4.) We can help, but it will cost you.

We will keep using RCI (or whatever) until our current membership expires, then evaluate. We own three units, all red-week in popular areas. We may start renting some and using the $ to stay in hotels. In the meantime, I'll be asking our state attorney general's office to look into the high-pressure techniques Wyndham appears to be using.