Hotels may be struggling with sluggish booking performance, but RCI affiliated resorts in the Pacific are busy welcoming visitors and RCI members are making even more plans to travel.
It was a complete transformation for the holiday industry from over a year ago where COVID-19 pandemic sent holiday cancellations soaring, and hotel and resort operators had to get down to business continuity planning. RCI took the downtime during the pandemic to review and enhance its product offerings for RCI affiliates and members, leveraging on its 2019 acquisition of Alliance Reservations Network (ARN) and its highly configurable and intelligent booking platform, and launched Hotel Exchange.
Hotel Exchange offers RCI Members access to over 600,000 non-timeshare hotel accommodations at member preferential prices. Members can use their timeshare entitlement to buy down the cost of their booking up to 60% off hotel rack rates.
Despite the ongoing changes in travel restrictions brought about by the pandemic, RCI saw increased interest from members for hotel accommodations over the past year. In Q1 2021, RCI’s hotel exchange bookings grew by 200% and members have been booking an average of 3 or more nights.
The one feature that RCI members love the most is that it lets them book holidays at great prices in destinations where timeshare properties are unavailable. It also allows for greater flexibility in using their timeshare entitlement on top of the benefits they currently enjoy.
“It’s all about giving value back to our members and our affiliates in appreciation for their continued trust in us,” said Brett Becker, Regional Director for RCI Pacific. “Members may not be able to travel internationally but they can go on staycations near home, or travel out further and explore the sights that their countries have to offer.”
RCI affiliates can reap the benefits too. They can either use RCI’s Hotel Exchange as an added benefit to their value proposition to retain and engage owners, offering access to 600,000+ discounted hotel inventory on top of their home resort(s) and RCI affiliated resorts, or leverage it to develop a new holiday ownership product.
