Indianapolis-based Resort Condominiums International (RCI), a leisure services company, was founded in Indianapolis in 1974 by Jon and , working from their northside home. RCI’s revenues for that first year totaled $16,000. Christel DeHaan purchased her former husband’s interest in RCI as part of a 1989 divorce settlement.
RCI succeeded by carving out a market niche that combined two new marketing concepts: resort timesharing and vacation exchange. Timesharing allows vacationers to purchase a limited interest—usually a one-week interval—in a resort condominium. Vacation exchange allows owners of timeshare intervals to exchange accommodations for comparable resort facilities worldwide. RCI arranges exchanges for its members through its network of affiliated resorts.
In 1994, RCI employed 3,400 people and had 54 offices in 26 countries. Before DeHaan sold RCI to Hospital Franchise Systems (HSF) in 1996, the company handled more than 1 million vacation exchanges for nearly 2 million members. RCI was just one of several travel industry concerns in HSF’s portfolio. It also owned Ramada, Howard Johnson’s, Days Inn, and Avis Rent a Car. In 1997, HSF merged with CUC International, a direct marketing company, to become Cendant.
Following the sale of RCI, DeHaan remained in Indianapolis and focused on philanthropic endeavors, including and the The at the University of Indianapolis, built in 1994, is named for her.
In 2020, RCI offered the world’s largest vacation exchange network. RCI’s corporate headquarters is in Parsippany, New Jersey. It’s North America membership office remains in Carmel, Indiana. Kettering, England, serves as the European membership office, and Singapore is the membership office for the Asia Pacific. The company maintains many other satellite offices around the world. RCI’s interests include RCI TV and the travel magazine .
Help improve this entry
Contribute information, offer corrections, suggest images.
You can also recommend new entries related to this topic.
