- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
- Messages
- 14,501
- Reaction score
- 3,195
- Points
- 698
- Location
- Kansas
- Resorts Owned
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Marriott Grand Chateau
Marriott Shadow Ridge
Marriott Ocean Pointe
Marriott Destination Club Points
Hilton Grand Vacation Club Las Vegas Blvd
Grand Colorado on Peak 8
Spinnaker French Quarter Resort Branson
In 1998, when we purchased our first timeshare, the ability to exchange was a huge part of the sales presentation. You can stay were you own but....... look at all these places you can exchange into! We even had salesmen try to convince us to buy their timeshare because it was less expensive than the others. The idea was buy low and trade high (buy cheaper timeshares and trade into more expensive places).
It's part of what attracted us to timeshare in the first place and, honestly, was part of the fun. It was like an early Christmas present when I could lock off a studio unit, then make an instant exchange with Interval into a nice one bedroom unit and a nice resort, even if it wasn't in the prime season for that region. Many times I did this for spring/fall weeks in Branson, MO because it was within driving distance and had many nice resorts. I looked at my options today and they're pathetic compared to what they once were.
As the years have progressed there have been so many subtle yet major adjustments by timeshare developers. It seems nearly all timeshares are in some sort of a system that promotes internal exchange rather than utilizing I.I. or R.C.I. Couple that with the ever increasing membership fee's, exchange fee's, upgrade fee's et, charged by the big two and we've found little value in either exchange company for several years.
We're at the point where we've already allowed our personal RCI account expire and plan on allowing our personal I.I. account to expire as well. I kept them around so long as I could do instant exchange upgrades from a studio to a larger unit online but, in recent years developers, who once sold us on this ability to exchange, have put pressure on the exchange companies to make this more improbable if not impossible. RCI went to points based exchanges and I.I. now has their version of a points based exchange system up and running. I suppose if I didn't have personal experience with the way exchanging use to be I might think these new systems were nice. However, I know how it use to be. I know what I use to be able to accomplish and I know that's not nearly as easy as it once was.
I've always said buy where you want to stay in case every thing goes to heck. A few years ago I modified that advice to buy into the system that offers you the destinations and quality you desire. Personally I'm glad I followed my own advice because I've found little use for the big two in recent years. At one point we'd complete, at a minimum, 2 exchanges a year and very often it was 3 or 4. Now, I stay within the system we own or at the resorts we own, maybe completing 1 exchange every couple of years. It's no longer worth the expense to me.
It seems to me that developers, wanting to make it difficult for others to "trade up" by exchanging into their systems, have put enough pressure on the big two exchange companies that they may be killing themselves off, at least as far as the personal exchanging account goes. I'm sure they offer their services to manage the internal exchanges for the systems out there and that's how they'll stay afloat.
It's part of what attracted us to timeshare in the first place and, honestly, was part of the fun. It was like an early Christmas present when I could lock off a studio unit, then make an instant exchange with Interval into a nice one bedroom unit and a nice resort, even if it wasn't in the prime season for that region. Many times I did this for spring/fall weeks in Branson, MO because it was within driving distance and had many nice resorts. I looked at my options today and they're pathetic compared to what they once were.
As the years have progressed there have been so many subtle yet major adjustments by timeshare developers. It seems nearly all timeshares are in some sort of a system that promotes internal exchange rather than utilizing I.I. or R.C.I. Couple that with the ever increasing membership fee's, exchange fee's, upgrade fee's et, charged by the big two and we've found little value in either exchange company for several years.
We're at the point where we've already allowed our personal RCI account expire and plan on allowing our personal I.I. account to expire as well. I kept them around so long as I could do instant exchange upgrades from a studio to a larger unit online but, in recent years developers, who once sold us on this ability to exchange, have put pressure on the exchange companies to make this more improbable if not impossible. RCI went to points based exchanges and I.I. now has their version of a points based exchange system up and running. I suppose if I didn't have personal experience with the way exchanging use to be I might think these new systems were nice. However, I know how it use to be. I know what I use to be able to accomplish and I know that's not nearly as easy as it once was.
I've always said buy where you want to stay in case every thing goes to heck. A few years ago I modified that advice to buy into the system that offers you the destinations and quality you desire. Personally I'm glad I followed my own advice because I've found little use for the big two in recent years. At one point we'd complete, at a minimum, 2 exchanges a year and very often it was 3 or 4. Now, I stay within the system we own or at the resorts we own, maybe completing 1 exchange every couple of years. It's no longer worth the expense to me.
It seems to me that developers, wanting to make it difficult for others to "trade up" by exchanging into their systems, have put enough pressure on the big two exchange companies that they may be killing themselves off, at least as far as the personal exchanging account goes. I'm sure they offer their services to manage the internal exchanges for the systems out there and that's how they'll stay afloat.