RCI and AM Resorts (Unlimited Vacation Club)

[sgoodsell Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sgoodsell]

Hi - we are thinking of joining the AM Resorts Unlimited Vacation Club as a way to get into the RCI Network. We apparently get "weeks" to use at any RCI property, any room, with no blackout dates for a $450 per week fee in exchange for weeks at the AM Resorts (Dreams, Secrets, Now, Zoetry). As this would be our first Timeshare, can some of you veterans shed some light on the process (and real life availabilty) of trading Am Resort weeks for RCI weeks? IS it really a trade for "ANY" room? I find it hard to believe that we could trade a week at the AM Resorts junior suite for a 3Bedroom condo in Hawaii at Christmas!

Also, any experience with the AM Resorts Unlimited Vacation Club? I think it is a fairly new program.

Appreciate any insight that's out there.

Cheers,

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

Hi - we are thinking of joining the AM Resorts Unlimited Vacation Club as a way to get into the RCI Network. We apparently get "weeks" to use at any RCI property, any room, with no blackout dates for a $450 per week fee in exchange for weeks at the AM Resorts (Dreams, Secrets, Now, Zoetry). As this would be our first Timeshare, can some of you veterans shed some light on the process (and real life availabilty) of trading Am Resort weeks for RCI weeks? IS it really a trade for "ANY" room? I find it hard to believe that we could trade a week at the AM Resorts junior suite for a 3Bedroom condo in Hawaii at Christmas!Also, any experience with the AM Resorts Unlimited Vacation Club? I think it is a fairly new program.

Appreciate any insight that's out there.

Cheers,

I think the saying "if it's too good to be true, then it probably is" fits this situation.

Forget the fact that you would be trying to exchange a junior suite, sleeping maybe 4 for a 3 bedroom Christmas week in Hawaii sleeping maybe 8-10. I don't think there are many timeshare units on any of the Hawaiian Islands with 3 bedrooms.

I just looked and saw some space available for Christmas 2011, but nothing as large as you are seeking and I am using a huge amout of TPU whereas I don't think you would have anywhere enough from the Vacation Club to see what you seek.

Joy

[SallyHoover Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SallyHoover]

It's not a good deal and if you have already signed something read the contract and rescind ASAP while you still can. The resorts mentioned while nice are mandatory all inclusives in Mexico and Dominican Republic, some of the worst traders in RCI. On a scale from 2-60 all the weeks at these resorts look like they have trading power of 4-10. A nice resort in Hawaii if available at Christmas time would require trading power of 30-40 or more unless you are trading in about 14 days before check-in time with the leftover last minute hawaii deposits. If you take your time and research you can buy something that gives you 2-4 times the trading power for $1.00-$500 on ebay with similar fees.

Good luck.

[sgoodsell Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sgoodsell]

It's not a good deal and if you have already signed something read the contract and rescind ASAP while you still can. The resorts mentioned while nice are mandatory all inclusives in Mexico and Dominican Republic, some of the worst traders in RCI. On a scale from 2-60 all the weeks at these resorts look like they have trading power of 4-10. A nice resort in Hawaii if available at Christmas time would require trading power of 30-40 or more unless you are trading in about 14 days before check-in time with the leftover last minute hawaii deposits. If you take your time and research you can buy something that gives you 2-4 times the trading power for $1.00-$500 on ebay with similar fees.

Good luck.

Thanks Sally. We have not signed anything yet. Just looking for some feedback on what exactly our trading power would be, as the AM Resorts vendor has only given us a "Tremendous Trading Power" statement. If we truly are unable to actually trade the AM Resorts for places in our preferred locations (Fiji, Turks and Caicos, Caymans, St. Lucia) then maybe we are better off just purchasing hotel nights for our trips rather than the Time Share route. The frustrating part is not being able to login to RCI and get a true picture of what is available, and what the trading power really is.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

There are a lot of vacation clubs out there and some have decent reputations.

The basic premise is you "join" for a lump sum let's use $10k here. In exchange you get x number of years of x vacations a year at discounted rates. You are not typically buying a timeshare in a Vacation Club you are buying discounted vacation rates.

Let's say 5 years for illustrative purposes 2 weeks of vacations/year.

Most of them will give you your weeks pricing for a unit size. $400/studio, $500/studio, $600/one bedroom, etc. There will generally be some language in the agreement somewhere stating a city like New York, San Fancisco, etc will cost more.

Once you pay you can call into the center for your vacations and their job is to FIND you something with as minimal loss or maximum profit to the company as possible. They showed you the RCI book because it is the largest index of properties and most if not all of those resorts can be generally obtained and not necessarily through RCI.

and they aren't all bad companies...but it isn't necessary to spend that lump payment to get these kinds of rates.

ETA That there is typically an annual fee of a couple or three hundred bucks.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

This is the TPU for One of the Dreams resort that currently is available at RCI, since it is all-inclusive, so its trading power is at low end ( trading power is the last column.

1 Bedroom 6 (4) Partial Sat 05-Mar-2011 Sat 12-Mar-2011 Exchange Fee 7
2 Bedrooms 8 (6) Partial Sat 12-Mar-2011 Sat 19-Mar-2011 Exchange Fee 7
Studio 4 (2) Partial Sat 19-Mar-2011 Sat 26-Mar-2011 Exchange Fee 8
Studio 4 (2) Partial Sat 02-Apr-2011 Sat 09-Apr-2011 Exchange Fee 8
1 Bedroom 6 (4) Partial Sat 02-Apr-2011 Sat 09-Apr-2011 Exchange Fee 9
Studio 4 (2) Partial Sat 09-Apr-2011 Sat 16-Apr-2011 Exchange Fee 9
1 Bedroom 6 (4) Partial Sat 09-Apr-2011 Sat 16-Apr-2011 Exchange Fee 10
1 Bedroom 6 (4) Partial Sat 13-Aug-2011 Sat 20-Aug-2011 Exchange Fee 9
Studio 2 (2) Partial Sat 17-Sep-2011 Sat 24-Sep-2011 Exchange Fee 5
Studio 2 (2) Partial Sat 24-Sep-2011 Sat 01-Oct-2011 Exchange Fee 5

In this case, it is from 5 to 10. Hawaii is usually above 20 unless it is at the last min deal.

Dreams Tulum is 5 to 8. (MANDATORY ALL INCLUSIVE PROGRAM. Fees are per person, per day. 2010 Fees are: APR11-DEC23 US$99 & DEC24-JAN02 US$230; Children 3-12 years old are US$45. Program includes all meals, beverages, activities and non motorized water sports. Resort is now called Club Tulum Vacation Club. *Resort does not have 1BR units available now, so members exchanging to a 1BR unit will get 2 Hotel units instead. 3% Additional State Lodging Tax will be charged upon check out. A new visitor entry fee of US$15 per person will apply. )



The deposit value sometimes is very different from the excahnge required amount, but usually they will not be that far off.

If your ownership gives you some discount on its inclusive fee, it may mean something.

[sgoodsell Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sgoodsell]

So, If I understand the process correctly, we would only be able to exchange for a resort with a similar TPU? Which effectivley eliminates the majority of the properties we are likely want to exchange for?

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

You can exchange to TPU equal or less than you have.

So, yes, you have very limited choice if they give you that as deposit.

Jya-Ning

[sgoodsell Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sgoodsell]

You can exchange to TPU equal or less than you have.

So, yes, you have very limited choice if they give you that as deposit.

Jya-Ning

Wow. So much for the "6500+ resort trading Power". If 90% of the resorts have TPU above what we have, it really doesn't look very appealing for us. Is there any way of seeing what the TPU's of the different properties in RCI are, without being a member and logging in to the members portion of the website?

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Is there any way of seeing what the TPU's of the different properties in RCI are, without being a member and logging in to the members portion of the website?

Not really, in fact, it should constant changed. Although it should basically around certain range.

You will have to be an RCI member to see the value.

However, I am not sure if you have to be a Timeshare owner to be able to be RCI member. I once read that there are resorts willing to rent their inventories out temp. But it maybe hard to find.

Jya-Ning

[sgoodsell Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sgoodsell]

Nice to see there is some transparency in the system. The more I look at it, the less appealing this option is for us to meet our travel needs.

[sgoodsell Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sgoodsell]

We ended up going for the purchase. Our contract states we get a trading power of 12 per week, with Unlimited VAcation Club depositing a maximum of 24 TPU's if needed. I'm guessing that the 12 TPU's won't get us too much within RCI, how about the 24? We typically travel in March and November to the Caribbean.

No RCI membership number (60 days), so we can't go in and check any availability. Looking at Jamaica in March, Grand Cayman or Turks and Caicos in November, and Hawaii at X-mas in 1B's.

[sgoodsell Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sgoodsell]

Confirmed UVC exchange with RCI

After much prodding, we have finally been able to exchange into an RCI property with UVC deposits. In exchage for 2 of UVC weeks we received 1 week at Kona Coast II in Hawaii (TPU of 24) and 1 week in a 2b unit at Morritts Grand in October (TPU of 15).

UVC has some issues still to work out with respect to customer service, and exchanges with RCI, but it looks like they are getting them resolved.

[Unlimited Vacation Club Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Unlimited Vacation Club]

To our members:

We ask that you please feel free to contact one of our Quality Assurance Supervisors at qualityanalyst1@unlimitedvc.com, qualityanalyst2@unlimitedvc.com, or qualityanalyst3@unlimitedvc.com to clarify any questions, concerns or doubts. We will be more than happy to discuss them and work with you to find the best possible solution.


For more information about your TP you can visit RCI

Thank You

Best Regards,

[hmmmcatt Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close hmmmcatt]

Joined and happy ... so far

Hi, I've read the posts concerning trade value of weeks deposited with RCI from vacation clubs. We recently joined Unlimited Vacation Club with AM Resorts. The contract that we signed states clearly that the minimum trade value of a week deposited with RCI is 20 points, and further states that if the 20 points is not sufficient to carry out our desired trade then the Club will increase this value to a maximum of 40 points at their cost. We will be conducting our first trade in July/2011 so I'll post again after the trade and the vacation are completed.