PARSIPPANY, NJ–(Marketwire – November 29, 2010) – RCI, the global leader in vacation exchange and one of the Wyndham Worldwide family of brands (NYSE: WYN), has significantly enhanced its RCI^® Weeks program to allow members to know the trading power value of their vacation interval once deposited with RCI. For the first time in its 36-year history RCI Weeks members are able to compare the trading power value of their deposited week to the trading power value of the timeshare interval they want to exchange into and can also for the first time combine deposited timeshare intervals allowing them to transact into higher-valued vacations. And to provide even greater benefit, RCI will for the first time be providing its Weeks members with a “Deposit Credit” if the trading power value of their deposited interval is greater than the interval they have exchanged into.

“In the increasingly transparent online vacation planning world that we live in, this is something our members have been consistently asking for. It’s one of the most exciting things we’ve ever done for our members — it’s really unprecedented,” said Geoff Ballotti, CEO, RCI. “Transparency is important because people want to have more control over how they trade their timeshare vacation for another vacation they’d like to take. From our customer service, marketing and technology teams — we’ve brought together our entire company to solve for our members’ request to give them what they want in terms of knowing the trading power value of their deposited timeshare week and what it will take to get them to where they want to vacation, allowing them access to vacations that they might not have been able to book in the past.

“At the same time we’ve been working with our affiliates who have largely embraced the change as both unique and revolutionary. Our affiliated timeshare developers realize that this is what the customer wants and they are working with us to help us deliver the promise of flexibility for their timeshare owners and our members in planning their vacations,” Ballotti added.

RCI began educating members on these new developments on RCI.com and in the October edition of its Endless Vacation magazine, explaining how trading power transparency, deposit credits and combining deposited weeks will greatly assist them in their future vacation planning and provide them with more choice, flexibility and value in their future vacation planning. RCI will provide further information to its members throughout the next few months to help ensure confidence with the new enhancements and highlight the benefits to members worldwide.

“Just in the few days since these enhancements went ‘live’ on RCI.com, an overwhelmingly positive response has been pouring in from our Weeks members. They — and all of us at RCI — are so excited about this transformation and we look forward to continuing to deliver the best innovations in the industry for our affiliates and their owners,” said Ballotti. 

These significant upgrades follow RCI’s continuous work to develop new innovations for its members that make vacation planning fun and easy. Over the past two years, RCI has launched RCI TV, a revolutionary and entertaining web-based television network, which just last month launched a Spanish language channel. RCI also developed Enhanced Search for Weeks, online search functionality for RCI Weeks members that provides a broad view of the exchange vacations available and the ability to search using filters RCI has also made its debut into the mobile marketing world with the launch of an RCI application for iPhone^® and iPod touch^® devices. Additionally, RCI has a YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/rcitimeshare) that contains dozens of quality resort videos from RCI TV that showcase affiliated properties around the world, and is sharing the latest and greatest travel news and tips with its members via Twitter and The RCI Blog (http://blog.rci.com).

About RCI
RCI is part of Wyndham Exchange & Rentals, the worldwide leader in vacation exchange and the world’s largest full-service vacation rental business, providing access to more than 85,000 vacation properties in approximately 100 countries. The vacation exchange business includes RCI, the worldwide leader in vacation exchange and provider of travel services to businesses and consumers, and The Registry Collection^® program, the world’s largest luxury exchange program. The vacation rentals business includes Hoseasons, cottages4you, Novasol^®, Cuendet^®, Landal GreenParks^®, ResortQuest^®, Endless Vacation Rentals^® and other renowned vacation rental brands through which vacationers can rent a variety of property types, from city apartments to villas. Wyndham Worldwide Corporation is one of the world’s largest hospitality companies with leading brands in lodging franchising, vacation ownership, vacation rentals and vacation exchange. For additional information visit our media center.

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