Which exchange system do you like the best and why?

[CalGalTraveler]

We use RCI via the HGVC portal. We've had a number of good OGS trades lately. Disneyland Christmas (peacock suites 2 bdrm), Key West Galleon Resort (2bdrm multiple winter weeks but could not use because of work schedule), Maui July 4 week (Maui Hill) plus Disney SSR 1 bdrm matchs (could not go). Sure they are a step down (xDisney) from HGVC but it gets me where I want to go and we trade cheaper HGVC Vegas points.

Unless I need an extra vacation in Vegas where RCI has great deals, I find II has much nicer getaways for cash where we have seen Marriott ski weeks and Hyatt Key West but need more vacation time.

Haven't figured out how to use SFX or others yet.

 

[bjkottwitz]

RCI Weeks and Points are time sensative just like timeshare points/credits. They are not going to hand hold you and tell you when your stuff is about to expire. That is your responsibility to keep track of.

An easy way to keep up on it is set reminders or alarms in your calendars a few days to a couple of weeks before they expire so you can do what you need to do to extend them.

I agree RCI fees are high. But you can still get great deals. I can’t speak to the weeks TPU side only to the points side. When you get allotment of use year points they are good for 1 year automatically save over for another year. You can then pay a fee to extend yet a 3rd year and if your platinum they extend 2 years vice 1 year for the extension fee. If you can’t use them all in 3-4 years you probably have too much timeshare.

Getting good exchanges means creating ongoing searches, if your really specific your odds of being filled are diminished if your less specific your odds of getting filled go up. The earlier you put an OGS request the more likely you will get filled.

To many people decide today I want to take a trip to X for X days staying one of a few resorts and then look at what is available then. They don’t see what they want and log out disgusted. You will seldom find the more desirable stuff this way you must set up an OGS. If you don’t want to pay in advance become a platinum RCI and OGS are free, you only pay once you accept the exchange.

On the RCI Points their is a couple disadvantage you can’t rent your unit unless you forgo your points and take home week. Most resorts have fees in addition to exchange fees for stays less than week supposedly to offset additional housekeeping expense they will endure. That said you can get a lot of stays on points especially when picking last minute inventory.

II is a bit cheaper on exchanges but not as many can join based on what they own. But if you can join II with your home resort you can get some good exchanges at nice resorts and a lot of nice last minute deals. Exchange fees are a bit less and they constantly give you certificates for free stays for just an exchange fee.

I agree with most of the points that breezez makes. I own an EOY HGVC (bought retail prior to finding TUG; ugh) that gives access to RCI, and 122,000 point Grandview (bought on ebay for $2,200 all in) also trading through RCI. In the almost 4 years we bought we have taken(26) extra vacations with an average cost of $377/week (this includes a week at Pona Kai in Hawaii @ $1,531), and (29) exchange vacations that averaged 23,500 pts/week (there was/is obviously also an exchange fee associated with these stays). My wife and I retired shortly before we purchased our timeshares so we have a lot of time to travel, can plan in advance, and don't mind travelling during shoulder or off season. The value we get allows us to vacation many more weeks than we would have been able to is we had booked direct or through travel sites. There isn't one of the resorts that we have visited that we wouldn't return to. Some were better than others, but all have been at least acceptable, and most are very good to excellent (we stick with Gold Crowns whenever possible).

That being said, we would really like to get exposure to II resorts, especially the Marriot resorts. I'd like some advice for getting access to II properties. I'd initially like a low cost option to see how it works, what's available, and if it fits my needs. Any suggestions?

 

[overthehill]

Having been a t/s owner since 1985, my choice for exchanging has changed. For the longest time I used II over RCI as I was able to get the resorts I wanted. But over the past few years, II has not been able to confirm any exchanges I requested. Not one! During a recent conversation with one of their CSR's I was told that the resorts I wanted, i.e. Marriott, Hyatt, etc. were rarely available to non owners of those resorts because the resorts kept the inventory in house. He sited the number of exchanges made over the past year, almost none. I've made the decision to drop my membeship in II when it expires.
In the meantime, I've had better success with RCI but not as good as it once was. I typically begin my searches two years in advance but even that no longer ensures success. As we all know, exchanges happen becasue another owner has deposited their time with the exchange company. Unfortunately, many owners today are renting their time on Home Away or VRBO rather than deposting the time with an exchange company. This year I had to rent a week as I was unable to get the exchange I requested over 18 months ago. I believe this is becoming a trend which is not good for exchangers.

 

[MrBill]

For those who are gun shy about owning with big corps like Diamond, etc look into independent time share groups where the members participate in a democratic method rather than the dictatorship of a for profit enterprise. I own 14 weeks with Royal Aloha Vacation Club, first joining in 1999 plus 2 weeks at Pine Acres Lodge in Pacific Grove, CA and 1 week at Nob Hill Inn in SF, Ca. These are sold out but you can find deals on the resale market like I did.
As for exchanging, my preference is Hawaii Time Share Exchange. I also use Platinum, Trading Places International, DAE, and Donita's. Since I use most of the RAVC weeks along with the PAL and NBI time I only trade 6 weeks or so per year and mostof that is in California. Was in RCI first year and did not like the stacked deck. Have belonged to II which I felt was better than RCI but it's been about 5 years since exchanging with them and I will be exiting soon.
Given my age, to prevent getting stuck with memberships I will not longer be able to use, I will start phasing out of TS and doing VRBO or Air BNB.

 

[rosco1e]

At one point I owned 33 timeshares. I was using them to retire (most all in a row at same resort). Many were with Interval, most with RCI. I'm down to 5 now of which only 1 do I always use. They're RCI. I found many (but not most) of Interval units were way better (Marriott's, Westin, etc). Many were only so so. RCI didn't have the cream units but most were pretty good. RCI's fees are outrageous. Intervals are too high also. But what I really feel is the big insult, RCI CLEARLY takes the good units and rents them themselves for $$$$. Members don't get a fair shot at them. I owned Paris and if I banked it, it would NEVER appear. It was always up for rent. That's why most units on RCI (and likely Interval too) are crap. They appear to skim the good ones for themselves to rent. (I wonder if that would be a good class action lawsuit?)

Personally...I've found that Royal-Holiday points work best for us. I have 4 contracts of these. They expire (a monster plus because at the end they just end and you don't have to fight to get out), there's no fee at all to use your points or push them forward one year, maintenance fees are reasonable (not low but ok), and they have hotels and apartment hotels in cities that don't have timeshares at all (like Rome, NYC, etc), and they have many of the same timeshares that appear on RCI. But their not technically a timeshare company although they work almost identically.

 

[DAKOTATEX]

How do the exchange companies compare for using points for cruises?? I have found HGVC to have better cruise exchanges (points) than SFX. Not familiar with any other like II. (Yes, I do know you take a bit of a loss on fees)

 

[skimeup]

P


Actually not cheaper.

I traded in using a 1BR SBP. The trade cost me around $950 all in- factoring in purchase price ($0), MF, II membership, exchange fee, eplus and upgrade fee.

Using my Hyatt, the equivalent cost factoring in purchase price, MF, Hyatt reservation fee, would be more like $2000.

Besides, I don’t have any Hyatt points until next June. I have an SBP deposit (which I used to book) in II, a prime Marriott reservation that could be an II deposit but a relative may want to rent, and an SFX deposit that’s due to expire soon.

I’d *really* like to use that SFX deposit which is why I’d love to be @johncummings right now. It sounds like it if I were him, it would have happened already!

New Hyatt owner here. I was told that I couldn't trade back into a Hyatt and couldn't see Hyatt availability on II. How did that happen? Using a different TS deposit and different membership?

 

[silentg]

We started out with II, then RCI. Also used Trading Places, DAE, and back to RCI. We have had good luck lately exchanging with TUG. Best possible exchanges. Deal with good people, no money involved, great places too.
We are trying to use RCI less. Membership expires in 2020. Have not decided to renew yet?
We have all vacations booked for the rest of 2018 and 2019. Hopefully, no glitches (Knock wood).
Silentg

 

[rickandcindy23]

How do the exchange companies compare for using points for cruises?? I have found HGVC to have better cruise exchanges (points) than SFX. Not familiar with any other like II. (Yes, I do know you take a bit of a loss on fees)

SFX for cruises? I wouldn't do that. SFX is not what I had hoped, but some of the people there are awesome and do their best.

I have quite a few SFX deposits that I have yet to use. I wouldn't try a cruise because I am 100% sure it would net very little toward a cruise.

I keep trying to get things for the kids and grandkids, and there have been a few matches this year for me, including Hilton's Kohala Suites earlier this month, which our kids couldn't use because SFX couldn't get me a second week, and none were available on II or RCI either. And our son was also worried that the vocanic gases would be dangerous for their 14-month-old anyway. I don't think it would have been an issue, but they worry. He is almost 40, so that baby girl is precious.

And while I am on SFX, I will say that they did get me 12/1-12/8 at Hilton's SeaWorld. That was nice because they were able to get two units for the same date, and both are 2 bedrooms. The thing is, I could have gotten anything I wanted in II and RCI, so SFX did come through, but these dates were just sitting online, for months, while I waited for SFX. Hilton SeaWorld is okay, but it's not I-Drive or Parc Soleil, and it's not Marriott. We just stayed there in May, we had three units, and the carpet was absolutely filthy. Our grandbaby was running around with her cousins, and her feet were black in 15 minutes. And during full clean for the second week, I was in the unit, and the lady didn't vacuum anything. No vacuuming for two weeks.

 

[rickandcindy23]

The key with exchanging is in taking advantage of ongoing searches. Let the system work for you, but if you don't have the quality of resorts to match Marriott and Hyatt, you aren't going to get those. I know because I used to hope for something like that with an ordinary resort. Then I found Foxrun, and then Sheraton's Broadway Plantation, and Blue Ridge Village, and now I match every search in II, just about. I love II. It's $199 to exchange, unless you are exchanging into your own system, like Marriott and Vistana.

With RCI, you can only do as many ongoing searches as you have deposits, and I have combined my deposits to the point where I have about 450 TPU's, and I can only do the one search. Sure, you can add additional areas and dates to that one search, but when something matches, you are back to square one with those remaining TPU's. You have to set the ongoing searches again and again and you end up at the bottom of the barrel because now your search is not as old, hasn't got that wonderful patina, as everyone else.

With RCI Points, you can have 40 ongoing searches with one batch of points. It's better. But the fees are crazy.

I have TPU's that are expiring at the end of this month, 3 days from now. There is nothing I can do about it. They won't let me extend the points. What a waste, and shame on RCI for making me believe my weeks will never expire, as long as I keep combining.

I stopped depositing to RCI weeks. I am using the old stuff I have. I plan to stop RCI weeks altogether after I use up those TPU's. I just decided that this minute.

 

[breezez]

I agree with most of the points that breezez makes. I own an EOY HGVC (bought retail prior to finding TUG; ugh) that gives access to RCI, and 122,000 point Grandview (bought on ebay for $2,200 all in) also trading through RCI. In the almost 4 years we bought we have taken(26) extra vacations with an average cost of $377/week (this includes a week at Pona Kai in Hawaii @ $1,531), and (29) exchange vacations that averaged 23,500 pts/week (there was/is obviously also an exchange fee associated with these stays). My wife and I retired shortly before we purchased our timeshares so we have a lot of time to travel, can plan in advance, and don't mind travelling during shoulder or off season. The value we get allows us to vacation many more weeks than we would have been able to is we had booked direct or through travel sites. There isn't one of the resorts that we have visited that we wouldn't return to. Some were better than others, but all have been at least acceptable, and most are very good to excellent (we stick with Gold Crowns whenever possible).

That being said, we would really like to get exposure to II resorts, especially the Marriot resorts. I'd like some advice for getting access to II properties. I'd initially like a low cost option to see how it works, what's available, and if it fits my needs. Any suggestions?

You will find several people giving away Sheraton Broadway Plantation or Desert Oasis. Either of these will give you a week and access to II. But their MF’s are a little pricey and generally at or slightly higher than people rent them for. Another way to get II Access is a small WorldMark account, they will trade in both RCI an II and are generally a strong trader pulling Marriotts and Hyatt’s. The smaller contracts in WM have higher per credit fees but are a cheap way to get access to II

 

[breezez]

With RCI Points, you can have 40 ongoing searches with one batch of points. It's better. But the fees are crazy.

Actually RCI point exchanges and fees are lower when staying weeks or longer, some resorts will tack on fees when staying less than full week to offset additional housekeeping costs. A lot of RCI resorts started adding fees to all trades points or weeks such as amenity fees, resort fees, activity fees blah, blah, blah. My understanding is RCI has been encouraging resorts to tack these fees on as another revenue source. Kind of BS when original TS owner MFs already covered most of this.

What I like better about II is most resorts don’t add a crap load of other fees.

 

[bjkottwitz]

You will find several people giving away Sheraton Broadway Plantation or Desert Oasis. Either of these will give you a week and access to II. But their MF’s are a little pricey and generally at or slightly higher than people rent them for. Another way to get II Access is a small WorldMark account, they will trade in both RCI an II and are generally a strong trader pulling Marriotts and Hyatt’s. The smaller contracts in WM have higher per credit fees but are a cheap way to get access to II

Thanks breezez. I've stayed at Sheraton Broadway Plantation and Desert Oasis and both were very nice. I've also stayed at a number of WorldMark's as well and haven't been disappointed. I'll see what's available on the TUG marketplace.

 

[breezez]

Thanks breezez. I've stayed at Sheraton Broadway Plantation and Desert Oasis and both were very nice. I've also stayed at a number of WorldMark's as well and haven't been disappointed. I'll see what's available on the TUG marketplace.

If looking for a WM you will find an entire exchange with them being sold buy owners at wmowners.com

 

[rickandcindy23]

A 2 bed at SBP is about $966 in MF's. A lockoff is about $1,200 in MF's, and that gives you two exchanges. I have a small side of the lockoff, so a small 1 bed, smallest they have, and that has fees of about $430 and it's exchanging very well. I love the exchanging game. Our kids don't travel much, which is how we were at their ages, but I am hoping they all step up their vacationing at some point. I have some amazing weeks for them to use.

A Marriott's Willow Ridge in Branson is about $1,179 in fees for a 2 bedroom. You can turn that into a lockoff for a measly $80 and have two deposits. Those are great traders, if you buy Platinum season.

Most of what we own we rent out.

 

[dukebigtom]

The continual increase in RCI are ridiculous and frustrating. But, for some things works better than II depending on where you want to go.

I've had a little experience with DAE and had a hard time finding much good inventory.

II is my favorite. Higher end resorts and lower fees than RCI, but also limited in some areas.

BigRom

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Not sure if this counts, but I like exchanging via internal systems best. (e.g. HGVC, Vistana Starpoints) More than RCI or II because it is free, easy, and the exchange properties are uniformly high quality. Unlike RCI and II reservations that lock you in for a year or more, with HGVC you can cancel penalty-free anytime up to 31 days. A downside is that there are limited locations.

I do prefer RCI and II for cash getaways as the last minute cash open season in HGVC is not a good deal anymore.

 

[Trudyt623]

I have access to RCI through my Disney ts and find the resorts to not be as nice as II resorts. Also, I just returned from a Hilton Head trip through RCI and they wanted to charge me a $75 early check out fee because I did not book a full week. I balked to both the resort and Disney and finally the manager said she will remove the charge. How does this cost them extra housekeeping fees? It's cleaned after we leave and if it sits vacant for 2 days they won't have to reclean it. Also, if the rent it for those 2 days the rental price will cover the housekeeping. I hope Disney moves back to II. I have had excellent trades with II using my Marriott weeks.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I have access to RCI through my Disney ts and find the resorts to not be as nice as II resorts. Also, I just returned from a Hilton Head trip through RCI and they wanted to charge me a $75 early check out fee because I did not book a full week. I balked to both the resort and Disney and finally the manager said she will remove the charge. How does this cost them extra housekeeping fees? It's cleaned after we leave and if it sits vacant for 2 days they won't have to reclean it. Also, if the rent it for those 2 days the rental price will cover the housekeeping. I hope Disney moves back to II. I have had excellent trades with II using my Marriott weeks.

You need to join Mouseowners or some other site and rent your DVC points then pay cash for whatever vacation you want. You should be able to get at least $14 to $16 per point. This is with minimal work. You just tell people on that site that you have extra Disney points, and then have them pay with Paypal.

If you advertise Aulani, you can rent the studios for $16 per point pretty easily.

If you don't want to do either of those things, you should go to David's Rentals and rent them. All you have to do is book what they already check inventory for, then add the guest names they tell you. The only thing I thought was a bit inconvenient was adding the Magical Express and Magic Band choices, but I made money, so I was okay with it.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Actually RCI point exchanges and fees are lower when staying weeks or longer, some resorts will tack on fees when staying less than full week to offset additional housekeeping costs. A lot of RCI resorts started adding fees to all trades points or weeks such as amenity fees, resort fees, activity fees blah, blah, blah. My understanding is RCI has been encouraging resorts to tack these fees on as another revenue source. Kind of BS when original TS owner MFs already covered most of this.

What I like better about II is most resorts don’t add a crap load of other fees.

I agree! I love II.

 

[DeniseM]

The 2 most important factors in choosing an exchange company are:
1) where you want to go?
2) what you have to deposit?

If the resort you want, and the resort you own are not affiliated with the exchange company you want to use - no can do.

 

[terces]

We have owned at a Sandos Resort in Mexico for a number of years. It’s an AI and we feel it gives us good value if used in the shoulder season, but it also gives us a decent amount of RCI points and an RCI account. We were really unsure about expanding our timeshare experience, but sold our Motorhome last year and decided to give it a try so we acquired 400,000 points and proceeded to book a total of 14 weeks - all RCI Gold Crown. What we found was most of them were a bit tired; when you walk through the door your nose wrinkles a bit but they grow on you and we have had some good vacations. We found that RCI does permit deeded owners to post reviews of their own properties and in some cases they are very fake reviews so this to us is a distinct negative with RCI. The other thing is the booking fee of $299 US which equals about $430 CDN. Adding up the cost of points, whether it is from the cost of your MF’s or buying points, plus the “other fees” some resorts charge, they are still pretty good deals in our mind. HOWEVER, if you cancel, the entire fee is lost along with the cost of point insurance. So for that reason we want to steer clear of RCI as much as possible. Through our research we either stayed at or visited 6 different HGVC resorts and ended up buying 2 x 7000 HGVC points (resale) with MF’s if approx $850 x 2 = $1700 which should give us at least 4 weeks of shoulder season in a 1bdrm. Our intention is to only use these points within the HGVC system. They now have over 60 resorts and are growing rapidly. Booking fees are about $60 and there are no additional “cleaning fees” or “resort fees” and you can cancel 30 days prior with no penalty and then a reduced penalty. They have a slick booking system and we just love the high quality resort feel of the HGVC properties

 

[heathpack]

New Hyatt owner here. I was told that I couldn't trade back into a Hyatt and couldn't see Hyatt availability on II. How did that happen? Using a different TS deposit and different membership?

As I said in the post I used a Sheraton Broadway Plantation to trade into Piñon Pointe. That is not a Hyatt TS.

 

[VacationForever]

We are members of II. We own a Marriott at Myrtle Beach timeshare (Platinum season) and one at The Royal Sands through The Royal Resorts in Cancun. We bought the Myrtle Beach timeshare in 2009. Since then we have had trades to Marriott's St. Thomas timeshare, St. Kitts timeshare, Kauai timeshare, Aruba timeshare, Marco Island timeshare, Maui timeshare, West Palm Beach timeshare, and a non-Marriott in Cabo San Lucas. We actually went to Myrtle Beach last year. It's not our kind of place. We bought Myrtle Beach for the trades that we were promised, and they delivered. We've also gotten great II Getaways and Accommodation Certificates. We actually get more Accomodation Certificates then we can use. Right now we have 2 we can't use because of commitments.

We've traded our 2019 Myrtle Beach for a 14 day Scandinavian & Russia cruise. We checked prices on all cruise deal sites for the same cruise, but none could beat the $2000 discount II offered.

We couldn't be more satisfied with II.

Did you trying using a 3rd party travel agency to compare? Many offer about 8% of the cost back to you in the form of refundable onboard credits or cash card.

 

[hurnik]

How do the exchange companies compare for using points for cruises?? I have found HGVC to have better cruise exchanges (points) than SFX. Not familiar with any other like II. (Yes, I do know you take a bit of a loss on fees)

Either one is a bad deal, IMO.

With HGVC they partnered with Cruises Only and it's a "flat" value (near as I can tell). I wanna say last time I looked, 7000 points equated to about a $500-600 discount. Horrible, IMO. 7000 points at best is around $1,000 in MF and club dues, so you're better off just paying cash, IMO.

SFX (actually via their Travel Store/ICE), it's not that great, but it's difficult to figure out because it varies on how much discount you get. They do or did, however, extend the discount to up to 4 cabins (last time I looked). So if you "saved", say, $200 on a cabin and were booking 4 cabins, you'd save like $800.

The downside with the SFX Travel store is that you cannot combine any of that with any other cruise discounts (ie, past guest savings, etc.) Rarely they will let you combine with select NCL discounts.