On February 4, 2024, RCI celebrated its 50th anniversary. We join in congratulating our valuable partner.

The story of RCI's successful journey can be read HERE

We would like to share the history of relations and successful cooperation between RCI and our company Help Line International.

When RCI opened its office in Moscow in 1996, they encountered confused timeshare buyers who were demanding refunds for their timeshare purchases from RCI, thinking that they had purchased from RCI and not from the marketing companies.

In 1996, gave our valuable assistance to the newly opened Moscow office of RCI and since then we have been working together for many years.

We took over the hard task of explaining to the timeshare buyers or owners that the exchange company had nothing to do with their money at the stage of purchasing timeshare, since it receives an application for registration in the exchange system and a very small amount at the very last stage, when it is already registered new club membership and issued a certificate of ownership to the new member.

We were explaining the confused timeshare buyers the procedure of purchasing timeshare, but also we offered to help them track their money and get them the ownership documents directly from the Resort Developer if the marketing company disappeared. For this purpose, we developed special programs where the costs of obtaining documents for members after their financial losses were minimal and affordable.

We negotiated special terms with RCI for timeshare buyers who were harmed by the lack of legislation and lost some or even all of their money buying a timeshare with the indecent marketing companies.

Together with RCI, we worked together to restore the good name of timeshare in Eastern Europe.

Thus, in 1997–1999. We have registered more than 200 members with RCI under special conditions. Many of them continue to vacation and travel with RCI today. In total we have registered over 600 new members with RCI, most of whom would not have become members without our help as they lost money on their original contract which was not completed.

Another important service we have provided to RCI is the assistance of our travel managers to RCI members with their travel arrangements.

Someone had to help the Russian members prepare, apply and obtain tourist visas, which were quite difficult to obtain at first.

Another difficulty was buying inexpensive charter tickets, since travel agencies refused to sell them outside of the package, without accommodation, which is absolutely not necessary for those wishing to live in a timeshare resort.

If it had not been for the services of our travel department in the early years of timeshare in Russia and before RCI was able to organize its own travel department, we believe hundreds of families would have given up their membership.

At that time, RCI gave us status as their official Help Line and recommended us to its members if they had questions about timeshares not related to RCI:

- disagreements with the Club Management Company,

- issues related to maintenance bills,

- reinstatement of club membership,

- re-registration and assignment of rights,

- legal advice or

- consultations on use.

One of the most fruitful was a project called “We want you to come back.” The essence of the project was to help renew RCI membership to those families who were expelled from the Club for late payment of the membership fee and where the Club refused reinstatement.

We negotiated special terms with several Resort Founders and transferred such families to new Clubs on favorable terms while maintaining or improving their membership levels.

RCI has written to such members to ensure that they do not hesitate to call our Resort Helpline hotline for further details. In many cases, members benefited not only from the improved quality of their new property, but also from a price that was often less than if they had been able to reinstate their membership by paying off all debts.

Since 1996, we have organized hundreds of exchanges and extra week trips for RCI members who, for whatever reason, were unable to arrange their holiday using RCI (mainly because they were initially ill or not explained how the system worked. These families were planning to cancel their membership, but with the help of our travel managers, they were able to go on vacation, learned how to use the system, and many continue to enjoy their vacation through the club system for many years.

And now we remain close partners. We help Russian timeshare owners who are RCI members pay for their membership, exchanges, and extra weeks to continue enjoying their RCI travel.

We wish the next 50 successful years to our valued partners and excellent colleagues!

With this article, we begin a series of articles about market differences and national timeshare resale agencies.

The American and European timeshare markets are fundamentally different. Fundamentally because they have serious legislative differences, marketing differs too much, and the actions of buyers themselves vary.

American buyers primarily purchase timeshares in resorts located in USA, the Caribbean region, Mexico, and other South American countries. The most popular are timeshares in the Hawaiian Islands, the lake district of Utah, the area of numerous amusement parks in Orlando, and the tip of Florida Keys and in California. And, of course, there are well-known hotel groups that have their own timeshare complexes – Marriott, Hilton, Melia, Ritz Carlton, and others.

If the timeshare you want to sell is located in USA (South, North, Central, and in the Caribbean), it's worth considering the American market for resale.

- Do Americans really not buy timeshares in Europe?

- They do. But, of course, not as much as on their own continent. Americans purchase timeshares exclusively if they are in the region where their roots are, to visit distant relatives or not lose their roots. For this, they choose timeshares in ancient English estates, French castles, Tuscan and Ligurian villas. Only such exclusivity can justify the purchase of cramped apartments by American standards.

American apartments are almost twice the size by standards compared to European ones. Also, it should be noted that exchanging (intercontinental) a European timeshare for an American one will always cost twice as much, and if an American family does not plan to holiday in Europe annually, it is still preferable for them to own an American timeshare. For a complete picture, add extremely cheap domestic flights in USA and their diverse geography.

American (including Canadian) agencies are very similar to real estate agencies; for their work, they must obtain a real estate sales license, which requires mandatory education – the course is quite expensive and lengthy, the exams are serious, but the responsibility of the agencies is high financially.

There are agencies that, like in real estate, do not take upfront payments, but they also do not advertise timeshares. In this case, the buyer is someone living nearby or someone who knows this agency, who is more interested just in case if they have timeshares for sale. Most often, they offer secondary weeks of resorts located nearby. Their already small number of sales decreases annually because buyers go to global internet resources.

Most agencies take money upfront for advertising, as well as a percentage of the sale. In some cases, they also sign an exclusive contract. The cost of advertising is two to three times higher than European prices. This doesn't bother Americans, who are used to paying high fees to specialists.

Americans set prices on average 25%-30% lower than primary market prices. Americans don't need to be explained that the secondary market is lower than the primary one and that it's impossible to sell for the same amount as bought, unless at least 30 years have passed of "inflations-devaluations-tourist booms of the region," etc. High prices on the secondary market are rare – it's usually an overconfident owner who considers their timeshare extremely exclusive. This won't take them far. The prices listed on the website and in price lists do not include agency fees of 5%-10%, as well as expenses for checking and re-registering the timeshare and taxes.

Also, don't forget that although tens of thousands of timeshares are sold and bought annually in the USA, the number of timeshares listed for sale is many times higher. Among them are not very popular resorts and at extremely low prices.

We actively cooperate with American companies when buyers approach us for famous resorts on American continents and also carefully monitor changes in this market.

Let's summarize: the timeshare that can be sold on the American market is primarily a timeshare of an American resort in a popular tourist area. If you want to sell a timeshare in Tenerife or Costa del Sol, taking it to America is a waste of money and time. There's plenty of similar properties there, but more modern and more comfortable.