Chance me: RCI Ski week Park City, UT near the Canyons Resort

[JustKeepBreathing]

I am relatively new to RCI, having used II for my Marriott timeshare primarily in the past. I now have a number of TPUs to use and travel ever year to Park City, Utah to ski. We'd love to have the opportunity to stay near the Canyons and RCI has a number of timeshares right on property. What are my chances of getting an exchange at any of the following resorts? I definitely need a 2 bedroom. How far in advance do I need to put in my ongoing search? How many TPUs do you expect I would need? If the exchange comes through, how many months prior to check in should I expect that to happen?


Grand Summit Hotel - The Canyons #5347
HGVC at Sunrise Lodge - #D412
Raintree's the Miner's Club Park City - #7812
Silverado Lodge at the Canyons - # R906
Sundial Lodge @ the Canyons - #R907

There are also a couple of resorts at Snowbird and Solitude that we might be interested in.


Thanks for all of your help!

 

[JustKeepBreathing]

Does anyone have any experience trying for this?

 

[funtime]

Park City is generally a hard to exchange destination. I have gotten trades thru II at the last minute to Marriotts in Park City that were worthwhile, but always a fluke. I am not sure about RCI, except that I do not see the availability in the exchange pool for the ski season. What they do have is fairly expensive in terms of tpu units. Trading Places always has Park City availability as rentals and they feature Sweetwater Lift Lodge which is right next to Marriott Mountainside. If you think you want to vacation in Park City at the Canyons every year, you would be wise to purchase a Westgate timeshare. Also we found Park Plaza to be a nice mid-tier resort that is well run and fairly affordable to purchase and own.

 

[SMHarman]

But wastegate screw you over on resale and restrict your booking window.

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk

 

[julienjay]

I just traded into Marriott MountainSide for Thanksgiving week through II today...

 

[twinmommy19]

I just traded into Marriott MountainSide for Thanksgiving week through II today...

Thanksgiving and even through the first week or so of December are easy exchanges because the weather is so iffy. There are years where only a small handful of runs are open at this time of year and sometimes all are on the lower mountain. Having said that, we took an early season Park City week a few years ago though and lucked out so you never know.

That said - I think the OP's question very much depends on the size of the unit desired. With II, I've found that trading into studios is doable pretty much anywhere including the top ski resorts during ski season. I've seen one bedroom units pop up once in a while too, but date selection with that would be much less flexible. I'm not sure about via pending requests, but I almost never see prime 2BR ski weeks at the top resorts during open exchange except at the very last minute.

Having stated this, if you are willing to take a studio (or maybe multiple studios with older kids...) you really have to be careful to check sleeping arrangements. IMO it's one thing to take a Marriott studio in Park City where the unit will obviously be small, but at least those units have real beds even though they are classified as "studios" and do not have full kitchens. Many of the studios at the resorts the OP mentioned only have Murphy bed sleep arrangements. Maybe that's not a problem for some people but for us, we want to be comfortable when we sleep on vacation. So this type of bedding just doesn't work for us no matter how nice the ski resort... For other people, having the kitchen might be the more critical concern but the point is, make sure to check the details of the studio lay outs before placing a request. Anyway - I hope this is helpful insight.

 

[jhoug]

Rare to find those resorts for Ski season

You'd be lucky if you even find those resorts in ski season in RCI.
We just had an off season week in May for Grand Summit.
They almost couldn't find our reservation.
My husband had forgotten the RCI letter. They looked and couldn't find his name.
After he was only able to find the unit # on the RCI mobile app.
Then had to log into our RCI account on their computer.
Turns out they still had it listed under the Owner's name and not the exchange.
Anyway, they commented to him that they rarely have timeshare exchanges/week.
When we've stayed their before it is as hotel rentals.

I agree with the other poster about the off-season ski weeks--you will probably only get Nov or Dec.

Sometimes we get Park Regency pretty easily in RCI in the preseason. It is not as upscale as the others. But does have an indoor pool with hot tub.
Has a 1 BR that has a little loft/entrance area with bunks and sleeper sofa so can fit up to six.

Westgate, yeah, I agree with the other poster. They will screw with you.
We own/deeded week 47 (Thanksgiving) when it was white or yellow season, then then when II changed that fringe week to Red, they allowed us for a short time to exchange to other ski weeks. Now we're restricted to only yellow, with 47 and 48 "grandfathered" so we can still request those weeks. If we deposit to II, they give us a sucky week, 43-45 as the deposit. So needless to say, we or someone we know always use 47-48 now.

Most maintenance fees for the real ski weeks are much much more than other weeks, so I doubt people would take the crap shoot of depositing into RCI or II.


Hope that helps.

PS, we live in the Salt Lake Valley.

 

[DanM]

Well, it really does have a lot to do with unit size and flexibility. All of January except week 3 (Sundance) is possible, especially if you will take studios or one bedrooms at Park Regency and ride the bus. That said, I once got my daughter five consecutive studio, one, and two bedroom weeks at Marriotts and Park Place and Park Regency checking several times a day and booking a week or two before...she was snowboarding and apartment hunting at the same time and somehow we managed to keep getting last minute exchanges or getaways.

 

[JustKeepBreathing]

Thanks, everyone. We own a ski week at Marriott Summit Watch and love it, but wanted to check regarding potential RCI exchanges. I figured it would be a long shot. I don't even see summer weeks at most of the locations. I have plenty of TPU's so I'll probably put in an ongoing search to see what happens.

 

[twinmommy19]

I have plenty of TPU's so I'll probably put in an ongoing search to see what happens.

It can't hurt - you just never know. The Hilton property in Breckenridge isn't ski in / out so that might help, but on the other hand I think that property only has 2 BR units so that won't be good for your chances. It's much easier to get a small unit at a lock out property pretty much anywhere you go in prime season. That's probably the biggest reason why the South Carolina Marriott properties are so hard to trade for since they are all 2 BRs.

 

[hudson1126]

As a Grand Summit owner who never trades with RCI ( only SFX-resorts.com), I know that the resort will never guarantee a full 2-bedroom unit, nor the number of bathrooms ( 2 or 3) to paying guests or to exchangees. It's a chance you take. They have some quasi-2-bedroom which is not a true two bedroom, so on an RCI exchange, I'd suggest a request for the Grand Summit only if you can tolerate the unknown layout. That said, they may never be willing to provide it. I trade my full 2 bedroom into the SFX-resorts exchange system. Your best bet is to find a GS owner who does private rental through VRBO/Homeawa, redweek, etc to get a better than retail rate with a guaranteed room layout and unit location or offer one of them a direct exchange if you have a super high end property to offer.