TATOC The Timeshare Association

TATOC would like to acknowledge the support provided by the twelve platinum affiliates. All platinum affiliates are leaders in their field, including resort development, timeshare re-sales, management and publications, and have an auditable track record of working in the industry. As part of the affiliation process, companies must comply with the TATOC’s code of ethics, explain their customer services handling process and adhere to all data protection laws.

About RCI and RCI Innovation

RCI is the global leader in the provision of holiday exchange services, having pioneered the concept of a timeshare weeks exchange programme in 1974.

After establishing itself as the provider of the world’s largest weeks holiday exchange network, RCI launched the first global points-based holiday exchange system – the RCI Points programme – in 2001.

The company, which is part of the Wyndham Worldwide Group, celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2009. It now has 3.8 million members who have access to RCI’s portfolio of more than 4,000 affiliated timeshare resorts in over 100 countries worldwide. RCI now has nearly twice as many affiliated timeshare resorts as its nearest holiday exchange competitor and the largest points-based programme for exchange holidays in the world.

Revolutionising Holiday Exchange

RCI continues to invest and innovate to enhance the complete holiday experience for its members, from planning to the return home.

In one of the company’s biggest and most exciting innovations in its 37-year history, RCI has reinvented its weeks exchange programme, increasing the benefits available to its members and giving them what they told RCI they wanted.

During the last two years, RCI has been delivering new tools and member website features to make holiday planning easier and a lot more fun for its members. This was in preparation for the launch of a series of enhancements to its weeks exchange product that would revolutionise the exchange experience.

In addition to the traditional RCI one-for-one exchanges its members have long enjoyed, members can now use their deposited weeks and the RCI exchange system in new and exciting ways designed to give them many more RCI holiday options.

RCI weeks enhancements bring its members greater flexibility, transparency, value and choice in their RCI holiday planning.

Importantly, RCI weeks enhancements allow members to see the exact trading power of their deposited weeks and to make direct comparisons with the trading power of the resorts they want to exchange into. Members can search for holidays of greater or lesser trading power than their own deposits, or search for all available holidays, regardless of their own trading power.

Members have also been given the ability to trade down and receive a deposit credit which can be banked and used for a future exchange. Building on the value and flexibility of this option, members can now combine those deposit credits with another deposit – and combine multiple deposited weeks – to access an exchange holiday that has a higher trading power and which would not have been available to them using the traditional one-for-one exchange system. Quite simply, RCI has made a good thing even better!

Bells and Whistles

In the last year RCI has worked hard to make the whole holiday journey and experience more fun for its members and has added a selection of ‘bells and whistles’ designed to both entertain and let its members know what great things are happening in the RCI holiday world.

One of the most exciting developments is RCI TV, a dedicated internet TV channel accessible through RCI’s member website – www.rci.com. The channel brings RCI’s affiliated resorts to life, using professional video footage to capture the real experience of holidaying at the featured resorts. With tips on where to eat, play and stay on holiday, it’s hardly surprising RCI TV recently passed the one million viewing figure. It can also be viewed on the ever popular YouTube (www.youtube.com/rcitimeshare).

Other recent RCI innovations include two new RCI Apps for the iPhone, iPad and iTouch, which had more than 13,000 downloads in their launch month. Using the new Apps – an RCI TV App and the RCI Snapbook – holiday planning, photographs and memorable moments can all now be shared with friends and family across the online community.

Quality

As part of its policy to offer the highest quality and best possible holiday experiences to its members, RCI operates the RCI Resort Recognition Programme to identify and reward those affiliated resorts offering high standards of product quality and service. Resorts that consistently maintain these high standards, meet the set criteria for each award level, and provide exceptional holiday experiences can earn three distinguished awards – the RCI Gold Crown, RCI Silver Crown and RCI Hospitality awards.

The award scores are derived from a selection of criteria including customer service levels, and the variety and quality of on-resort guest amenities. Crucially, RCI listens to its member feedback obtained from RCI member Comment Card scores and this, together with the findings of RCI resort inspections, is also influential in a resort’s qualification for an RCI award.

Passion and experience

For RCI, its member satisfaction levels are a top priority. With passion, integrity, intelligence and almost four decades’ experience, the holiday exchange company works closely with its affiliated resorts to ensure its members get everything they want from their holiday – and more whenever possible!

Sean Lowe, Managing Director, RCI Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, says: “Since pioneering the concept of timeshare exchange more than 35 years ago, RCI has been devoted to making a world of fantastic holidays more accessible to its members.

“We have offices all around the world and one of the things we at RCI have in common is that we’re all passionate about travel and holidays, and giving our members the best possible experiences.

“Our website www.rci.com is constantly being updated to make members’ online experiences even better – it’s now easier than ever to book online – and our helpful RCI Guides are always available by phone.

“RCI is all about quality and choice, and we work hard to make sure we can offer our members as many quality holiday options as possible.”

For more information visit www.rci.com.