Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Joseph Greff - J.P. Morgan.
Joseph Greff - J.P. Morgan
A question for you on the RCI margin. You mentioned you expect 200 to 300 basis points of improvement over the next few years. Can you just sort of help us understand relative to what - I mean, I guess my question's more direct - Wyndham Exchange and Rentals had north of 30% EBITDA margins; is that what you're looking for to improve upon or is that the level that you're looking to get to on a sustainable basis?
And then my second question is with regard to the WAAM initiative. How much revenue contribution or EBITDA contribution do you anticipate from this initiative in 2010?
Steve Holmes
Okay, taking the questions, I'll take them in reverse order.
On the WAAM question, we are looking for minimal contribution in 2010. The product that we've already signed up for we're going to need to put through our registration process, and that registration process will take us into the beginning part of the year. So it's not going to be a huge contributor in 2010. If successful, which we certainly hoping this program will be, you'll see more of this grow in 2011 and 2012.
As to your first question, which related to the RCI margin question, the margin in the third quarter, that is one of our higher margin quarters that you're looking at, and our average for the year in that business is probably around 25% or so. We're looking for the 200 to 300 basis points to be incremental to that average of 25% margin that we've been running in that business.
And as you know, we've been talking about this initiative for awhile. I think we've already captured some improvement, so this is additional improvement that we're looking to get.
Operator
Your next question comes from Steven Kent - Goldman Sachs.
Steven Kent - Goldman Sachs
Steve, could you just talk about tuck-in acquisitions and what you meant by that? Given your multiple, it seems like maybe share buybacks would be on the list and maybe more importantly debt paydown, so I was a little puzzled by the idea of tuck-in.
And then strategically, can you just talk a little bit more about Wyndham and changing the name, what the reaction is and does that basically put you out of business with pursuing any hotel companies who would want to use you as an exchange company?
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