# Club Intrawest and SFX



## badbeatjackpot (Jun 26, 2012)

Have any Intrawest members deposited their unit into SFX?
I currently use II but am thinking about depositing my unit with SFX.

If there are people that have tried both. Which one did you prefer?


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## tashamen (Jun 26, 2012)

I've looked into it, but when I saw the range of weeks that SFX will accept they just cost too much in terms of CI points for me.  In comparison, as you know if you use II, you can deposit a fairly lowly week, in terms of CI points, into II and get good trades.  I've done this several times with off-season Whistler and Tremblant weeks.  

Having said that, I really don't use CI as a trader any more at all - that's what I bought my Trapp Lodge unit specifically for.


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## badbeatjackpot (Jun 26, 2012)

tashamen said:


> I've looked into it, but when I saw the range of weeks that SFX will accept they just cost too much in terms of CI points for me.  In comparison, as you know if you use II, you can deposit a fairly lowly week, in terms of CI points, into II and get good trades.  I've done this several times with off-season Whistler and Tremblant weeks.
> 
> Having said that, I really don't use CI as a trader any more at all - that's what I bought my Trapp Lodge unit specifically for.



Yeah they are quite a bit more steep than II...

I was wondering if there was better inventory making the price difference worth it?


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## jdunn1 (Jun 26, 2012)

I would be very cautious using SFX, if I were you.  SFX is great, but it depends on what you want.  If you want an east coast resort, like a summer Carolina beach week in a Marriott or other name brand timeshare, SFX will almost certainely disapoint you.  If you want New York, then you will get a trade 100% of the time, same with the big cities in California.

Also, SFX tends to give preference to Hilton owners for some reason so some of the best trades I have read about with SFX have gone to HGVC owners.

So, I guess you would need to specify what trade you are hoping to get and then those of us who have used SFX can better chime in.  Personally, SFX failed me big time for a summer Carolina week last year and this year and for a DVC exchange.  Others have had better luck, but again, HGVC owners tend to get the best stuff in SFX.

...I will add that SFX loves prime winter ski weeks in Vancover.  SFX would probably give you the best trade power for a ski week Club IntraWest Whistler deposit.  I almost gave them a WorldMark Vancover ski week that they wanted but SFX wouldn't extend my Diamond membership and the current incentives to join SFX are much less than they were a year ago.

Good luck.  Mostly, I hear good things about SFX, but those good reviews typically concern a NY, NY exchange, Mexico exchange or a HGVC owner listing the great exchanges they have had with SFX.  On the flip side, I've also read a number of complaints about how SFX has left exchangers high and dry for the exchange they were hoping for and had waited a year or so to get. 



badbeatjackpot said:


> Yeah they are quite a bit more steep than II...
> 
> I was wondering if there was better inventory making the price difference worth it?


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## badbeatjackpot (Jun 26, 2012)

Thank you for your insightful post. Getting trades to NY sounds great.

I however live in Western Canada and only go to these locations for my vacations

Las Vegas, Scottsdale, LA and Southern Cali, and Hawaii


When I was going to deposit, I was debating between a Prime Season and a High Season. Both are non ski weeks...

Will I still be able to trade into NY and the areas I mentioned by depositing a May "Prime Week"? Would I be able to get the trades by depositing a High Season instead of a Prime?


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## badbeatjackpot (Jun 26, 2012)

Also What is the SFX online availability like? I understand it's the leftovers but II still has a great selection of online inventory.
is SFX much more sparse in terms of online inventory?


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## tashamen (Jun 26, 2012)

badbeatjackpot said:


> Thank you for your insightful post. Getting trades to NY sounds great.
> 
> I however live in Western Canada and only go to these locations for my vacations
> 
> Las Vegas, Scottsdale, LA and Southern Cali, and Hawaii



I'm not sure what more SFX can offer you than II, since you already have access to great resorts in Las Vegas, Scottsdale and So. Cal. through II.  (I won't comment on Hawaii since I know nothing about resorts there.)  In addition, if you're a member of the EE program in CI then you also have access to some of the HGVC resorts in NYC and Las Vegas.  (I'm not a member of that so don't know how easy or difficult it is to book those.)


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## jdunn1 (Jun 26, 2012)

I forgot that CI members have access to HGVC inventory.  That may be the best way to go for Las Vegas and Hawaii, since HGVC has the best Las Vegas timeshare (the Flamingo) in my oppinion.  For Hawaii, I still think HGVC is the way to go since you can get those Hawaii properties.  I think the Hawaii Marriott properties will be a long run via SFX, just because those properites are so expensive to own, I bet those Marriott owners don't deposit many weeks to II and probably even fewer to SFX.  

Now if you are happy with the Manhattan Club, then SFX is 100% the way to go for that exchange.  I would think SFX is the way to go for Southern California weeks, too -- though HGVC has some nice Southern California properties.

I have no experience trading outside the US.

SFX frequently offers members discounted cash rates for the Manhattan Club.  Not sure if you can book an entire week for cash via SFX, but you may be able to.

SFX will probably come throug for Vegas just as well as II or RCI would, but if you can get the Flamingo resort via CI, then that seems like the cheapest and easiest way to go.

...online SFX availability is something of a joke.  Very hard to navagate because SFX will only show you 5 week increments and there is no option to filter the results, even something as simple as excluding Mexico resorts, which must make-up almost 95% of on-line availability is not an option.  It's been a while (six months or so) since I was able to check SFX on-line availalability so things may be better, now.  Earlier this year, on-line availability was not good in SFX.  There were some surprises, like a Hershey PA week in early August and a couple early August HGVC orlando weeks, but that was about the best I ever saw.  Tons and tons of Mexico weeks.  Good looking Mexico resorts and every week of the year, but the Mexico stuff was so ridiculous because it made-up almost all of what was available on-line.  



tashamen said:


> I'm not sure what more SFX can offer you than II, since you already have access to great resorts in Las Vegas, Scottsdale and So. Cal. through II.  (I won't comment on Hawaii since I know nothing about resorts there.)  In addition, if you're a member of the EE program in CI then you also have access to some of the HGVC resorts in NYC and Las Vegas.  (I'm not a member of that so don't know how easy or difficult it is to book those.)


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## badbeatjackpot (Jun 26, 2012)

tashamen said:


> I'm not sure what more SFX can offer you than II, since you already have access to great resorts in Las Vegas, Scottsdale and So. Cal. through II.  (I won't comment on Hawaii since I know nothing about resorts there.)  In addition, if you're a member of the EE program in CI then you also have access to some of the HGVC resorts in NYC and Las Vegas.  (I'm not a member of that so don't know how easy or difficult it is to book those.)



Yeah, I have had some great trades with II but lately I've been seeing more blackouts (Marriott and Sheraton preference period) etc.
I was just wondering if I'd be seeing similar blackouts with SFX?


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## LynnW (Jun 26, 2012)

badbeatjackpot said:


> Thank you for your insightful post. Getting trades to NY sounds great.
> 
> I however live in Western Canada and only go to these locations for my vacations
> 
> ...



Living in Calgary as well these are the locations we travel to most. I have had some great exchanges through SFX for Arizona, California and Hawaii. I have always deposited Mayan Palace weeks so I don't know about CI. They found me 2 weeks at Marriott Desert Villas in Palm Desert for Nov with 1 of them being Thanksgiving week.

Lynn


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## jdunn1 (Jun 26, 2012)

II does make trading outside your resort brand nearly impossible for popular weeks because of all the resort brand preference periods.  No such preference periods in SFX but SFX gets very few Marriott deposits and I would assume Sheraton weeks.  SFX is entirely dependent on owners depositing weeks -- so no bulk deposits.

For Marriott at least, if you do not want a prime week or a high demand gold week, you should do really well in II.  It's when you try to get a Marriott week (outside of say Orlando, Williamsburg and the desert) whenever school is out that II will fail you more times than not.  If you can travel in off season or shoulder season, you will do great with II for Marriott weeks.



badbeatjackpot said:


> Yeah, I have had some great trades with II but lately I've been seeing more blackouts (Marriott and Sheraton preference period) etc.
> I was just wondering if I'd be seeing similar blackouts with SFX?


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## JuliGee (Jun 26, 2012)

jdunn1 said:


> II does make trading outside your resort brand nearly impossible for popular weeks because of all the resort brand preference periods.  No such preference periods in SFX but SFX gets very few Marriott deposits and I would assume Sheraton weeks.  SFX is entirely dependent on owners depositing weeks -- so no bulk deposits.
> 
> For Marriott at least, if you do not want a prime week or a high demand gold week, you should do really well in II.  It's when you try to get a Marriott week (outside of say Orlando, Williamsburg and the desert) whenever school is out that II will fail you more times than not.  If you can travel in off season or shoulder season, you will do great with II for Marriott weeks.



You had mentioned SFX gets very few Marriott deposits. As a Marriott owner I am curious as to how you would know how many Marriott deposits they actually get. I and a number of friends that are also Marriott owners have used SFX for a number of years upon recommendation of Marriott management, and in most instances they have come through with a number of Marriott resort exchanges for us, as well as non Marriott exchanges.

I also have to disagree with you regarding bulk bank deposits. What you state has not been our experience. There have been several occassions when I was told to wait a while for my exchange based upon impending bulk bank deposits, and we were booked after the bulk banking took place. I believe Hilton is one of several companies that bulk bank with SFX. Not sure where you are getting your information from, but it totally contradicts our experience.

Juli


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## jdunn1 (Jun 27, 2012)

Okay Juli, then elaborate about all the fantastic Marriott exchanges you and many of your friends were able to get through SFX.  I have shared my experience with SFX, what is there to debate about that?  I have NEVER heard of SFX getting bulk deposits from Marriott, or Hilton for that matter, but I do not know about Hilton.  I was told by SFX that they do not get bulk deposits from Marriott (or DVC) and are totaly dependent on owners depositing their week.  

Again though, Julie, my my experience with SFX and Marriott was for a summer Carolina week (or one of the Marriott Florida ocean front resorts) -- you may have used SFX for much eaiser trades than that.

...and maybe Hilton does make some bulk deposits with SFX.  That would be nice and it definately would explain why I think SFX favors HGVC owners.




JuliGee said:


> You had mentioned SFX gets very few Marriott deposits. As a Marriott owner I am curious as to how you would know how many Marriott deposits they actually get. I and a number of friends that are also Marriott owners have used SFX for a number of years upon recommendation of Marriott management, and in most instances they have come through with a number of Marriott resort exchanges for us, as well as non Marriott exchanges.
> 
> I also have to disagree with you regarding bulk bank deposits. What you state has not been our experience. There have been several occassions when I was told to wait a while for my exchange based upon impending bulk bank deposits, and we were booked after the bulk banking took place. I believe Hilton is one of several companies that bulk bank with SFX. Not sure where you are getting your information from, but it totally contradicts our experience.
> 
> Juli


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## falmouth3 (Jun 27, 2012)

NYC is never an easy trade with SFX.  So don't deposit if that's the place you have your heart set on.  Hawaii is much more attainable, Mexico is a snap.  They do have ways of getting inventory other than deposits, but they are what they call a boutique exchange company and their inventory is much smaller than RCI and II.

They do get inventory in Europe - I got my choice of summer weeks Scotland but I didn't want Edinborough so it worked out well for me.  Not sure if they could have gotten a week in Edinborough.  They do get weeks in London.


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## MaryH (Jun 27, 2012)

Sloane Gardens is a small TS that deposits with SFX sometimes.  I have deposited Allen House a few times with SFX in the past.


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## JuliGee (Jun 28, 2012)

jdunn1 said:


> Okay Juli, then elaborate about all the fantastic Marriott exchanges you and many of your friends were able to get through SFX.  I have shared my experience with SFX, what is there to debate about that?  I have NEVER heard of SFX getting bulk deposits from Marriott, or Hilton for that matter, but I do not know about Hilton.  I was told by SFX that they do not get bulk deposits from Marriott (or DVC) and are totaly dependent on owners depositing their week.
> 
> Again though, Julie, my my experience with SFX and Marriott was for a summer Carolina week (or one of the Marriott Florida ocean front resorts) -- you may have used SFX for much eaiser trades than that.
> 
> ...and maybe Hilton does make some bulk deposits with SFX.  That would be nice and it definately would explain why I think SFX favors HGVC owners.



I am sorry if you thought I was debating your experiences, I truly wasn’t. Your experiences are your own. I was addressing specific comments you had made. You had stated that SFX gets very few deposits. I simply asked (as a Marriott owner), how would you know how many deposits SFX gets from Marriott owners? I was wondering if you had some inside information, or is this just a guess? As an owner I am curios. I don’t know if they get bulk bank from Marriott, they probably don’t because of Marriott’s relationship with I.I. But Marriott has many thousands of owner that are marketed to by SFX, so I would be very surprised if it was just a few.

You had also mentioned SFX is entirely dependent on owners depositing weeks—so no bulk bank deposits. I have found this not to be the case. Actually I called them today, and asked what resorts they get bulk bank deposits from, and was told by the agent they get a number of bulk bank developer deposits. I asked them to be specific but the agent would not share details with me.

I don’t have time to pull the details of all of our SFX exchanges and bonus weeks, so here are the weeks we have used in the last 5 years. Although we have stayed at a number of Hilton resorts, we are not Hilton owners and don’t know about the special favors you mention. 

2008 March, Marriott Desert Springs (bonus week)
2008 June, Sloane Gardens Club London (exchange)
Used my Club Donatello week for the exchange

2009 March, Marriott Maui Ocean Club (bonus week)
2009 June, Marriott Heritage Club, Hilton Head (exchange)
2009 Sept., Bay Club Hawaii (bonus week)
2009 October, Hilton NY (exchange)
Used my Marriott NPB and Donatello for the exchange

2010 June, Manhattan Club NY (exchange)
2010 Sept, Marriott Grand Ocean Hilton Head (exchange)
2010 Oct, Parkside Victoria Resort, Victoria (bonus week)
Used my Marriott and Donatello units for exchange.

2011 Feb, Hilton Grand Waikikian, Oahu (exchange)
2011 Feb, Hilton Kingsland Hawaii (bonus week)
2011 April, Crane Beach Barbados (exchange)
2011 June, Manhattan Club NY (exchange)
2011 Oct, Montecristo, Cabo (bonus week)
Used 2 of my Marriott weeks for exchange, and a Donatello unit.

2012 Feb, Marriott Ko Olina Oahu (bonus week)
2012 April, Sloane Gardens London (exchange)
2012 June, Grand Luxxe PV Mexico (exchange)
2012 Sept, St. James Club Colorado (bonus week)
Used both our Marriott units for the exchanges.

We have 2 pending search requests for bonus weeks we hope will come through for later this year. 

Juli


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## jdunn1 (Jun 28, 2012)

Hi Julie.  You certainely shared alot of your SFX trades with us. Thank you.  What a nice note about SFX.

I was only talking about my experience with SFX trying to get a summer Marriott (or Wyndham) beach week in the Carolinas.  Two years ago I was offered a mid June week at Marriott's Harbor Club, or one of the other inland Hilton Head resorts, but I wanted one of the beach front resorts.  After I declined that trade, I was never offered another Marriott week and SFX told me how difficult it would be to get a summer beach front Marriott week.

It would surprise me to no end to learn Marriott does any kind of bulk banking with SFX because in all my conversations with SFX, I was never told anything close to this.  I'm certain Manhattan Club and some of the Mexican resorts bulk deposit with SFX and you just let us know that Hilton also does some bulk deposits, which was nice to learn.


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## travelguy (Jun 28, 2012)

FWIW - I've had great success with SFX trades over the years including many East Coast trades (Hilton Head, Disney, Myrtle Beach Wyndham, etc.) and several Marriotts, HGVC, etc.  However, my best success is using SFX for Colorado ski weeks.  I'm guessing that they have some connection with Grand Lodges because it seems they get choice Holiday weeks (I've gotten MLK and Presidents Week) and unsold inventory at the Grand Lodge Peak 7 (my trade was President's week).  I've also gotten several Fractional/Destination Club units that are outside the traditional timeshare system.

As far as the HGVC preference, years ago SFX had a presence at HGVC that would directly coordinate trades.  I know that ended several years ago but SFX appears to still have access to an abundance of HGVC inventory.  I have also reserved specific HGVC weeks at their request and exchanged for SFX bonus weeks; my presumption is that the weeks that I obtained were for another SFX member requesting those weeks.  SFX also gave some HGVC members Platinum status a year ago.

I have had two occasions that I'm aware that SFX has "reached out" to resorts and individual owners to obtain trades that were not available until I requested them.  One was at a privately owned condo that was not in the exchange system (Telluride).

Also - my other trades with SFX include Vegas HGVC, multiple Hawaii Marriott, Wyndham Beachwalk, Maui Hill, Beaver Creek St. James Club, Vail Marriott, and many others (all higher end, we're pretty picky).


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## JuliGee (Jun 30, 2012)

jdunn1 said:


> Hi Julie.  You certainely shared alot of your SFX trades with us. Thank you.  What a nice note about SFX.
> 
> I was only talking about my experience with SFX trying to get a summer Marriott (or Wyndham) beach week in the Carolinas.  Two years ago I was offered a mid June week at Marriott's Harbor Club, or one of the other inland Hilton Head resorts, but I wanted one of the beach front resorts.  After I declined that trade, I was never offered another Marriott week and SFX told me how difficult it would be to get a summer beach front Marriott week.
> 
> It would surprise me to no end to learn Marriott does any kind of bulk banking with SFX because in all my conversations with SFX, I was never told anything close to this.  I'm certain Manhattan Club and some of the Mexican resorts bulk deposit with SFX and you just let us know that Hilton also does some bulk deposits, which was nice to learn.



I have tried on several occasions to get more info out of SFX on who they get bulk bank weeks from but they have always been very tight lipped about it. They don't like to disclose their resources. Can't say I blame them.

As a Marriott owner, I know that any Marriott on the beach in Hilton Head can be very difficult to get even for a Marriott owner during the summer. I noticed you own a Marriott? Surely it would have been a better shot for you trading your Marriott week internally? Or were you trying to trade a week from a different resort that may have had lower trading power?

If we want to go to another Marriott on an exchange, we still take our chances by going through SFX because we love their bonus weeks. If we did an internal trade with Marriott, then we would miss out on the SFX bonus weeks.

Juli


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## jjking42 (Sep 8, 2012)

SFX is my first choice for the West Coast ,NYC, Mexico and Hawaii.
If I want east coast I use Marriott Florida club, Wyndham points or RCI


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## badbeatjackpot (Mar 9, 2013)

Hi there, I'm just revisiting my old thread.
I noticed that the bonus weeks pricing is quite expensive on SFX.
We always get 2 bedrooms so a bonus week search more than 180 days out would cost 699 for a 2 bedroom. But it also says future deposit required.
What does that mean? I thought we get the bonus weeks because we have already deposited our week.

2nd question is, if I deposit a 1 bedroom, would I be able to search for a 2 bedroom? and if so, how much more would it cost me on top of my regular exchange fee?

Or, is the only way to get a 2 bedroom is to deposit a 2 bedroom?

Thanks!


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## presley (Mar 9, 2013)

badbeatjackpot said:


> 2nd question is, if I deposit a 1 bedroom, would I be able to search for a 2 bedroom? and if so, how much more would it cost me on top of my regular exchange fee?


You can get any size unit.  If you are a platinum member, there is no upgrade charge to the 2 bedroom.  If you are a gold member, you pay $199. + the exchange fee.

I also noticed where it says future deposit needed for the further out bonus weeks, but that doesn't make any sense to me.  Since sell off weeks are available to anyone, I think the they mean you have to have made a deposit to do a search for further out weeks.  Not 100% sure, though.


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