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Wyndham Exchange & Rentals, the parent company of fractional exchange networks RCI and The Registry Collection, has won an award for its "superior revenue management and pricing practices" by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). The accolade recognizes the company’s industry-first “Optimizing Vacation Exchange” model, which gives RCI subscribing members a more transparent and convenient exchange process for RCI Weeks.
 
“The team from Wyndham Exchange & Rentals has created an innovative solution to a difficult problem: how to provide a more flexible and transparent exchange process for its 3.8 million exchange members,” said Robert Shumsky, chair of the judging committee for the award. “Their solution was simple and transparent to their members, and was backed up by a sophisticated optimization model to dynamically calculate the value within RCI of each property in the exchange transaction. The new system improved customer satisfaction, increased transactions and revenue for Wyndham Exchange & Rentals, and led to a sea change in the industry."
 
Wyndham Exchange & Rentals was among one of three finalists, including Disney and Google, during the presentation phase of the competition held at Columbia University from June 22 to 24. The judges selected Wyndham Exchange & Rentals based on the impact, originality and technical merit of the redesigned exchange model, which works by dynamically setting Exchange Trading Power values to help maximize the number of exchanges in RCI’s network. The new model now gives RCI subscribing members insight into the value of their weeks deposited with RCI for exchange purposes, as well as the value of other deposited weeks, adding clarity and simplicity to the timeshare exchange process.
 
“The Revenue Management and Analytics team worked tirelessly to partner with groups across our global organization to design and build a highly complex system of algorithms, which are the heart of our exchange network and the basis for the entire trading process for our RCI Weeks product,” said Gordon Gurnik, president, RCI, the global leader in vacation exchange. “In doing so, they have significantly increased customer satisfaction and better positioned us for future growth.”
 
The winning Wyndham Exchange & Rentals’ Metrics & Algorithms team members are Srinidhi Melkote (director, Analytics), Dasong Cao (senior research scientist), Preeti Modgil (analytical systems architect), Arjun Madhavan (manager, Analytics), Sneha Thakkar (senior research scientist), and Ryan Connelly (lead analyst).
 
www.wyndhamwordwide.com

15/07/11