Chances of getting a match on RCI

[Railman83]

Never done ongoing search.

I just put one in for June 26-July 2 2019 for essentially every gold crown on Kona or Oahu, including those resort IDs that represent 3 and 5 day stays.

I gave a reservation for two weeks at Bali Hai and the hope was that during that stay we could skip over to another island for three nights. Hence, the 3 or 5 day res would be fine.

I’ve been watching Hawaii on RCI and see very little until about 1-3 weeks out and the cancellations come in.

I’d ask the experienced ongoing searchers what my chances are from their experience.

Anyone??

As a back up I will likely get a 3 day res at one of Wyndhsm properties and pony up for the cancellation insurance. That way if the trade doesn’t go I have a place.

 

[bnoble]

Are you using points or weeks?

If weeks, I'd actually recommend waiting until 2-4 weeks out. At that point, TPU values are cut by a good chunk, and there tends to be good availability last minute due to others' cancellations plus the fact that most people have to plan ahead to get there. Because you are not particularly picky about where you go and when you go there, this could be a good strategy.

This is a longer story, but I just did this for the 2nd half of June '18. We had had a two-week trip planned >1 year in advance to celebrate my youngest's high school graduation. Between planning and taking the trip, my wife and I separated, and we did not particularly want to share the same condos for two weeks. I got "second homes" for each week for 15 TPU each, and was constrained to Saturday check-ins on the east side of Kauai and Waikoloa on the Big Island so as to minimize driving distance, and still got good choices (Pono Kai and Paniolo Greens). If I had had more flexibility about location and check-in day, I could have gotten even better trades for about the same TPU values.