Interval International - Marriott Exchange

[David N]

I am an inexperienced Marriott timeshare owner at Shadow Ridge in Palm Desert CA. I own a bi-annual 2Br lockout unit, Gold Season. I get a floating week in 2020 for which my travel schedule is completely booked. I would like to trade for a week in 2021, perhaps somewhere else. Is Interval my best option? Does it work well if you might only use the exchange once?

 

[HudsHut]

Hi David:
Welcome to TUG:

Yes, Interval will give you the greatest variety of choices. but you'll need a membership through dates of travel.
Gold weeks are 22 - 27 and 36 - 49 If you have not yet reserved, make sure to get the highest demand week in your season for 2020. At this point in 2019, you're very close to the date to reserve Thanksgiving week, which Interval rates as a Travel Demand Index (TDI) of 125.
Marriott's Inventory Release Calendar for 12 months in advance shows:
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
at 6 am PST
is when you need to be online to book the week which begins Sat Nov 21, 2020.
When you go to make the reservation, choose Owner Occupy. Select Full Villa Lock-off (or similar wording to that effect). Then call Marriott to ask that the unit be split into its two parts, 1 br and studio. Marriott charges approx $90 to do that. The advantage is you can trade the separate units in II and get 2 weeks of vacation.
If you have your Interval membership by then, ask Marriott to deposit to Interval. When you log on to Interval, you will see the two weeks under Exchange > My Units
You will have 3 years to use the deposited weeks.

 

[JohnB3]

Trading in II works reasonable well for Marriott weeks owners. You do get a bit of fee pile on with II but I’ve not had any complaints about using my willow ridge unit to trade. I don’t think about the fees too much but some do and for a single trade the fees might feel material to you.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[10spro]

You may also want to consider splitting your unit so that you have 2 weeks to trade in II. Also as mentioned the highest trade week for your season is Thanksgiving, call that week to reserve, and then go backwards a week one by one until they have something available.

 

[KL Cain]

I love II and have successfully traded my Hilton Head Bronze weeks for a few good vacations. Of course, I was going to Orlando, which was an easy trade. I have found my best trades to be within the 30 day or less window. I'm a spontaneous traveler with my travel, if my plans don't work out for the year. The best, the weeks last two years, which is awesome!

 

[10spro]

Hi David:
Welcome to TUG:

Yes, Interval will give you the greatest variety of choices. but you'll need a membership through dates of travel.
Gold weeks are 22 - 27 and 36 - 49 If you have not yet reserved, make sure to get the highest demand week in your season for 2020. At this point in 2019, you're very close to the date to reserve Thanksgiving week, which Interval rates as a Travel Demand Index (TDI) of 125.
Marriott's Inventory Release Calendar for 12 months in advance shows:
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
at 6 am PST
is when you need to be online to book the week which begins Sat Nov 21, 2020.
When you go to make the reservation, choose Owner Occupy. Select Full Villa Lock-off (or similar wording to that effect). Then call Marriott to ask that the unit be split into its two parts, 1 br and studio. Marriott charges approx $90 to do that. The advantage is you can trade the separate units in II and get 2 weeks of vacation.
If you have your Interval membership by then, ask Marriott to deposit to Interval. When you log on to Interval, you will see the two weeks under Exchange > My Units
You will have 3 years to use the deposited weeks.

I think a lot of us will be calling at 6am Pacific on Nov 20 in hopes for that elusive Thanksgiving week that is probably already booked :-( I've always called Marriott to book and split then deposit to II. Is there any way to do the entire process online or does it have to require a call to Marriott which I've never done without waiting on hold for what seems like forever.

 

[jpc763]

I am an inexperienced Marriott timeshare owner at Shadow Ridge in Palm Desert CA. I own a bi-annual 2Br lockout unit, Gold Season. I get a floating week in 2020 for which my travel schedule is completely booked. I would like to trade for a week in 2021, perhaps somewhere else. Is Interval my best option? Does it work well if you might only use the exchange once?

Hi David,
I also own a Gold week at Shadow Ridge and have always been able to book Thanksgiving week at the 12 month window and have exchanged it successfully in the past. If you are online at 9am EST, you should have good luck. I always book my weeks online vs. calling in but that is just my preference.

 

[davidvel]

Hi David,
I also own a Gold week at Shadow Ridge and have always been able to book Thanksgiving week at the 12 month window and have exchanged it successfully in the past. If you are online at 9am EST, you should have good luck. I always book my weeks online vs. calling in but that is just my preference.

Me too.

To OP: Also note that if it's booked, keep checking back over the next few days, as Thanksgiving often shows back up after the initial rush. You should practice logging in, checking availability, and be ready to pull the trigger. My advice is to book the Owner Occupy, Full villa online. Then call back and split it later. I have heard of glitches when trying to split in a single transaction.

 

[10spro]

Me too.

To OP: Also note that if it's booked, keep checking back over the next few days, as Thanksgiving often shows back up after the initial rush. You should practice logging in, checking availability, and be ready to pull the trigger. My advice is to book the Owner Occupy, Full villa online. Then call back and split it later. I have heard of glitches when trying to split in a single transaction.

I called Marriott yesterday in preparation for Thursday so that I'm ready to pull the trigger immediately at 6am Pacific. Marriott told me that I have to book 2 separate transactions, once for the 1BR and once for the lockoff. I asked what happens if I book the 1BR and then come back to do the second transaction and the date is no longer available. She didn't really have an answer. Then I asked if I called instead of doing it online would Marriott be able to help me do this in one transactions. She said they would have to do it the same way. I'm worried if I book the full villa and then ask to split it later they won't know what to do, but on your advice, I will go that way and cross my fingers.

 

[davidvel]

I called Marriott yesterday in preparation for Thursday so that I'm ready to pull the trigger immediately at 6am Pacific. Marriott told me that I have to book 2 separate transactions, once for the 1BR and once for the lockoff. I asked what happens if I book the 1BR and then come back to do the second transaction and the date is no longer available. She didn't really have an answer. Then I asked if I called instead of doing it online would Marriott be able to help me do this in one transactions. She said they would have to do it the same way. I'm worried if I book the full villa and then ask to split it later they won't know what to do, but on your advice, I will go that way and cross my fingers.

They are wrong. Book the 2BR in one transaction online. Then later, when it's not busy, call and lock off into 2 reservations--tell them you are going to use both. Then you can deposit each separately to II. All units at Shadow Ridge lock off, so there should be no issue. I have done it this way for over 10 years.

Again, make sure you practice reserving online. You should see gold inventory if you log in now and practice, just don't finalize obviously. On your reservation day, log in about 10 minutes early and keep hitting refresh inventory as you get close to the top of the hour.

ETA: You should have reserved THIS MORNING for Thanksgiving 2020 week (checkin in Nov 20, 21, 22, 2020.) If you missed it, keep trying for the next 3-4 days, as inventory likely will pop back up.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

I have a related question, but about reserving at Desert Springs. For week 47, the earliest date to reserve is Thursday, Nov 19, 2020 and the latest date for week 47 in Monday the 23rd. But when I look at the II weeks calendar for 2020, they only show the Friday, Saturday and Sunday dates. So, I'm wondering if ii will consider the 19th and 23rd the same strength as the Friday, Sat and Sunday dates??

 

[HudsHut]

David N and 10spro: how did it go? I agree with Davidvel. Book 2 br lock off. Then call Marriott and ask them to split it, and pay lock off fee over the phone. I would not try the two transaction method for a holiday week.

Since I only make a Marriott reservation once a year, I always practice two or 3 days ahead of time so the screens are familiar to me on the actual day I need to reserve.

 

[10spro]

David N and 10spro: how did it go? I agree with Davidvel. Book 2 br lock off. Then call Marriott and ask them to split it, and pay lock off fee over the phone. I would not try the two transaction method for a holiday week.

Since I only make a Marriott reservation once a year, I always practice two or 3 days ahead of time so the screens are familiar to me on the actual day I need to reserve.

I messed up. My notes from the year before were to reserve on 11/20 but somehow in my head I thought the actual day was Thursday. I did find the online process to be very easy, but I was a day late, and ended up with Week 44. I'm thinking since I have to call Marriott anyway to split it, I'll also ask if they can help me do any better than that.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

@10spro and others, if you go to the marriottvacationclub site and navigate to helpful tools, there is an ap that will calculate the earliest reservation date for the 12 month and the 13 month points. I always double check because with leap years and such things can change. I also check with interval to make sure that I'm reserving the higher demand week.

 

[exyeh]

I love II and have successfully traded my Hilton Head Bronze weeks for a few good vacations. Of course, I was going to Orlando, which was an easy trade. I have found my best trades to be within the 30 day or less window. I'm a spontaneous traveler with my travel, if my plans don't work out for the year. The best, the weeks last two years, which is awesome!

I have a question about the Marriott OGS: When is the time that II stops the OGS for Marriott owners? I know that II always told us that they will keep on search until 2 days before check in time. but I know from the experience that OGS stops about 20 days before check in. Then you will need to do instant exchange on line to try your luck. This is for non-Marriott owners. I am new for Marriott owner so I do not know about Marriott OGS at II ??

 

[VacationForever]

I love II and have successfully traded my Hilton Head Bronze weeks for a few good vacations. Of course, I was going to Orlando, which was an easy trade. I have found my best trades to be within the 30 day or less window. I'm a spontaneous traveler with my travel, if my plans don't work out for the year. The best, the weeks last two years, which is awesome!

I have a question about the Marriott OGS: When is the time that II stops the OGS for Marriott owners? I know that II always told us that they will keep on search until 2 days before check in time. but I know from the experience that OGS stops about 20 days before check in. Then you will need to do instant exchange on line to try your luck. This is for non-Marriott owners. I am new for Marriott owner so I do not know about Marriott OGS at II ??

I believe once within 60 days OGS no longer works regardless of Marriott or non-Marriott exchanges within II.

 

[samara64]

They called me for a match within 30 days. I thought that it stops at 59 days but I guess not.

 

[exyeh]

Because the OGS is entered long before 59 days so the search is still in the request. I am just not sure when it actually stop searching for Marriott owners request?

 

[VacationForever]

They called me for a match within 30 days. I thought that it stops at 59 days but I guess not.

Good to know but maybe this is not the norm? I believe agents get a small commission if they sell an trade and it might have been an agent who was actively looking as opposed to system matching it.

 

[VacationForever]

Because the OGS is entered long before 59 days so the search is still in the request. I am just not sure when it actually stop searching for Marriott owners request?

Yes, I know OGS is put in before 60 days but there have been very few, if any, report of system matching once inside 60 days.