A secondary benefit of a UVC membership is a two-year membership in RCI. The benefit is described in paragraph 3 on page 16 of 44 of this 2019 UVC contract:
3. Exchange System.
Resort Condominiums International (RCI)
Member will be affiliated to Resort Condominiums International, LLC ("RCI"). Said affiliation will come into effect within sixty (60) business days following the Activation Date. Mediator will cover the cost of the first two annual affiliations so that Member can have access to the RCI exchange system and deposit lodging intervals. All deposit or exchange and annual renewal fees will be paid by Member.
Starting on the third year, the annual affiliation fee will be paid by Member directly to RCI.
The full terms and conditions on the RCI program are found on pages 30-44 of the 2019 contract linked above.
When we joined in 2019, I had never heard of RCI. I did some initial investigation and learned it was a timeshare exchange company. I wasn't sure what that was, but I had a low opinion of timeshares, in general, so I ignored it.
The first two years of my UVC membership were spent trying to learn UVC. Between that learning, work and family responsibilities, I didn't have time for anything else. I didn't use RCI at all during my free, two-year membership. In a UVC upgrade meeting at Secrets Papagayo in 2021, the UVC rep I met with encouraged me to start using RCI. When we got home, I did some deeper investigation.
RCI has a language of its own, and the exchange process they use is complicated and not very intuitive, but I persisted in my learning. I found the FB group UVC Members Using RCI. It was, and remains, a big help to me in learning the ins and outs of using RCI as a UVC member.
As a timeshare exchange company, RCI doesn't own timeshare properties (Full disclosure: RCI is owned by a parent company called Travel + Leisure Co. That parent company also owns Club Wyndham which is one of the world's largest timeshare companies. Club Wyndham owns many timeshare properties.). RCI's role is to facilitate the transaction between timeshare owners who want to trade vacation weeks with each other. Timeshare owners who tire of vacationing at the same property every year use a timeshare exchange company to trade their timeshare week with an owner of a week at a different timeshare property. Most RCI customers are timeshare owners.
There is no timeshare ownership involved in a UVC membership, so UVC members don't have to pay for a timeshare purchase contract or for annual timeshare maintenance fees, but they also don't have a timeshare week to exchange with RCI. UVC and RCI have worked out a process through which members get a timeshare benefit without having to purchase a timeshare contract and pay annual maintenance fees.
The process UVC has developed with RCI works like this:
1. Members purchase from UVC, Trade Power Units (TPUs), which is the "currency" RCI uses to book RCI timeshares. Currently, a TPU purchase costs $325USD. The number of TPUs deposited into a member's RCI account with each $325 payment varies with their UVC membership level as shown in this table:
Depending on the size of the unit as well as the resort's location, amenities and a few other variables, the average RCI timeshare probably costs around 12-28 TPUs for a one-week stay. Some will cost more and others will cost less.
2. Members search the RCI inventory of properties at rci.com to find an available property in a location they want. As a timeshare exchange company, RCI's inventory includes only those timeshare weeks that an owner has deposited with RCI so the owner can vacation at a different property. That's why availability can be an issue for RCI users. Weeks at ski resorts have less availability during the winter months because owners of those weeks use them themselves rather than exchange them through RCI. Similarly, weeks at beach resorts have less availability in warm months.
You never know when an owner will deposit the week you want. Just because the week you want isn't in the RCI inventory when you looked today doesn't mean an owner won't deposit it with RCI tomorrow. Successful RCI users are diligent about searching the RCI inventory for availability.
3. Once a member has paid for a TPU deposit, the TPUs have been added to his RCI account, and an acceptable unit is found, the reservation process can be completed online or through the call center. An exchange reservation will reduce the TPUs in the member's RCI account and require a $299USD payment to RCI. Many resorts these days charge additional fees for amenities, parking, etc. RCI has gotten better about making its users aware of those additional charges, but if you're going to use RCI, you should be aware that most transactions, today, will include an additional resort fee.
There are caveats that can cause the final price to be higher or lower, but the basic RCI reservation currently costs a UVC member $624USD ($325 to UVC to purchase TPUs and $299 to RCI to reserve) for a one-week stay at an RCI timeshare. The most I've ever paid for an RCI vacation was for a week on Eagle Beach in Aruba. That week cost about $750. The least I've ever paid was for a week in the mountains of North Carolina which was about $325. Both were two bedroom units with living room, dining room, and a full kitchen.
The RCI website is quirky, unreliable and frustrating to use. RCI used to have a phone app, but it had so many problems, they gave up on it and removed it from the Apple store and Google Play. Despite these shortcomings, the prices on RCI make it a valuable addition to my UVC membership.
Many members get frustrated with the complexity of the exchange process and don't take the time to learn it. Some expect RCI will work like hotels and offer room availability in any location and on any dates they want to travel. Still others think they're not on vacation if they're not being waited on. If you see yourself in one of those groups, you won't be an RCI fan.
It's not for everyone, but if you're willing to travel without the frills of an all-inclusive experience, have the time and patience to understand the exchange process and have flexibility in your travel schedule, you'll probably find RCI valuable.
We took our first RCI vacation to Nashville in September of 2021 more than two years after joining UVC. To date, we've spent a total of 34 weeks in RCI timeshares in 4-1/2 years. That averages to about 8 weeks per year that we've traveled through RCI. It's been the most useful part of our membership.