TABLE OF CONTENTS The history and evolution of vacation exchange is directly tied to the history and evolution of the timeshare industry, which dates back to the 1960s in the French Alps. Demand for the vacation pleasures of a 'second home' were extremely limited, prices were high and consumers did not want the financial burdens of year-round second property ownership. In order to expand the potential customer base, companies began marketing a concept which involved buying only specific weeks of time in a resort condominium unit.
The idea spread to the United States in the early 1970s. From the beginning it was clear the product still had one basic flaw: vacation owners were unwilling to buy an inflexible product that limited their vacation options by locking them into taking their vacation at the same time and at the same place year after year.
Timeshare owner and entrepreneur Jon DeHaan recognized that timeshare owners wanted more flexibility to take a vacation when and where they wanted. The idea of an exchange network took hold. Jon and his wife, Christel, with the support of a few key developers and ALDA (the precursor to ARDA), were convinced the exchange component was needed to facilitate timeshare sales, and in 1974 they founded RCI, the world's first exchange network.
The DeHaans originally intended to help developers of vacation condominiums sell new units by offering the buyers of those units' opportunities to exchange into other vacation destinations. When the...
