2 bdrm or 3 bdrm

[mandssa]

I'm thinking about purchasing a gold crown RCI affiliated timeshare resale. We have 4 kids - 2 teenagers & 2 babies so we need a larger unit. Does a 3 bdrm unit give me better exchange power or limit me to resorts that also have 3 bdrm units? Anyone know how that would work? Are 2 bdrm units generally more "exchangeable"?

Also, is there any chance of getting a Christmas week exchange if you buy a red floating week or do you have to buy the fixed Christmas week to ever get one?

Thanks!

 

[wackymother]

I'm thinking about purchasing a gold crown RCI affiliated timeshare resale. We have 4 kids - 2 teenagers & 2 babies so we need a larger unit. Does a 3 bdrm unit give me better exchange power or limit me to resorts that also have 3 bdrm units? Anyone know how that would work? Are 2 bdrm units generally more "exchangeable"?

Also, is there any chance of getting a Christmas week exchange if you buy a red floating week or do you have to buy the fixed Christmas week to ever get one?

Thanks!

We have a 3br unit that breaks down into two units, a 2br and a 1br. Both SFX and RCI have urged me to deposit the two units separately because they say the 3br would rarely get me another 3br--there just aren't that many 3brs out there. Also this way I have two weeks to exchange.

And now that I've seen the 2br and the 1br in action for the same week at the same resort, I can tell you that in RCI I see exactly the same weeks with the 2br and the 1br. The 2br has no more trading power as far as I can tell. There's no evidence of additional trading power with a 2br in SFX either.

We have three older kids and even a 2br is pretty tight for us, so the 3br is a good size for us when we stay at our home resort.

I don't know the answer to the Christmas week question, but I know everything depends on how "red" your red floating week is, the resort/area where you own, and where you're looking to exchange into for that Xmas week. Or are you trying just to reserve Xmas week at a resort where you own floating red time? Like your week floats weeks 10-52 or something like that, and you want to reserve week 52?

 

[talkamotta]

My family and I went to Orlando this Thanksgiving and a 2 bedroom w/loft was just not big enough, so I had to get 2 units. Most of the time its just me and the boyfriend and another couple so 2 bedrooms are just fine. If the mf's arent a big difference and you are going to go to your home resort at least a third of the time, my vote would be for the 3 bedroom.

It was rather expensive paying for the two units.

 

[rod]

I'm thinking about purchasing a gold crown RCI affiliated timeshare resale. We have 4 kids - 2 teenagers & 2 babies so we need a larger unit. Does a 3 bdrm unit give me better exchange power or limit me to resorts that also have 3 bdrm units? Anyone know how that would work? Are 2 bdrm units generally more "exchangeable"?

When a week is deposited in the RCI spacebank it is assigned a numeric "trading power" value, which is calculated using the 6 components listed below:

1) Supply, demand, and usage of your week at your home resort
2) Supply, demand, and usage for all weeks in your resort's region
3) Comment card ratings for your home resort (Vacation Experience Profile)
4) Size and configuration of your unit
5) Seasonal designation of your week (red, white, or blue)
6) How far in advance you deposit your week with RCI

If the week you deposited has sufficient "trading power", you can exchange into any size available unit you want within the RCI system. For example, last spring I exchanged into a 4-bedroom using a 2-bedroom deposit; and I have an upcoming exchange this summer into a 1-bedroom using a 2-bedroom deposit.

A 3-bedroom timeshare has a slightly higher "trading power" than a 2-bedroom; it doesn't seem to be a lot higher, but it is higher.

Also, is there any chance of getting a Christmas week exchange if you buy a red floating week or do you have to buy the fixed Christmas week to ever get one?

I don't fully understand your question about Christmas week, but if the week you own and deposit with RCI has sufficient "trading power", you will be able to exchange into a Christmas week if you wish.

If you are purchasing a floating week at a resort where not all weeks float, perhaps I can help you with an example. I own at a resort where weeks 1-21 are floating, weeks 22-35 are fixed, weeks 36-39 are floating, weeks 40-43 are fixed, and weeks 44-52 are floating. If you own a floating week at this resort, you will never be able to reserve a unit during one of the fixed weeks for your use. However, you can reserve one of the floating weeks, deposit it with an exchange company such as RCI, and exchange into one of the fixed weeks if you have sufficient "trading power".

 

[Jya-Ning]

I'm thinking about purchasing a gold crown RCI affiliated timeshare resale. We have 4 kids - 2 teenagers & 2 babies so we need a larger unit. Does a 3 bdrm unit give me better exchange power or limit me to resorts that also have 3 bdrm units? Anyone know how that would work? Are 2 bdrm units generally more "exchangeable"?

Also, is there any chance of getting a Christmas week exchange if you buy a red floating week or do you have to buy the fixed Christmas week to ever get one?

Thanks!

RCI usually has less 3 BR deposit. Most of the time, people purchased 3 BR lock out and lock-out (or split them into two units) and only deposit one side or both sides.

Supply and demand is more important than size or so called season. Season can give you some reference but mean nothing. That is the reason people usually deposit two small units instead of one big units. Not necessary means it is more exchangeable, but they probably give you similar results anyway.

For floating week, you can try to get from your resort. You need to check the floating range, unless it includes wk 52, you will not be able to request and get that week from your resort chain. Also, you need to be careful on how these floating week get bundled together. Usually, if you call earlier enough, and your floating range allow you to get wk 52, you should be O.K.

For RCI exchange, that will depends on where you want to go at wk 52. Some place is hard, someplace as long as you deposit earlier enough, you will have chances.

Jya-ning

 

[bnoble]

When we were recently shopping, we looked primarily at 3BR on the assumption that we'd be using more than trading. If that's your assumption too, then you may as well buy what you want. It won't hurt your chances at trading to have a 3BR, but it won't really help either.

If, on the other hand, you are buying mostly to trade, then a 3BR is probably a needless expense, unless the MFs/purchase price are no more than comparable 2BR units.

I know Stu recently posted that Cypress Pointe in Orlando had almost booked July 4th and Christmas week for 2007---there are two "seasons" at CP, Emerald (low) and Diamond (high) and these are both Diamond weeks. So, presuming you can plan well in advance, and you have the right season, you *can* get these weeks, but you can't dilly-dally around. You might want to call your intended resort to get a sense for how soon the week you care about books.

 

[bogey21]

One benefit of a Red 3 bedroom are the Points you get if you are a member of RCI Points and choose to deposit your Week using PFD.

GEORGE

 

[EAM]

Another minor benefit of a red 3BR

Another minor benefit of a red 3BR is the number of PIC (Personal Interval Choice) points (254K?) Fairfield gives if you buy points from Fairfield and simultaneously enroll a non-Fairfield week at an RCI-affiliated resort in the PIC program.

 

[dougp26364]

I'm thinking about purchasing a gold crown RCI affiliated timeshare resale. We have 4 kids - 2 teenagers & 2 babies so we need a larger unit. Does a 3 bdrm unit give me better exchange power or limit me to resorts that also have 3 bdrm units? Anyone know how that would work? Are 2 bdrm units generally more "exchangeable"?

Also, is there any chance of getting a Christmas week exchange if you buy a red floating week or do you have to buy the fixed Christmas week to ever get one?

Thanks!

I agree with what most others have said. Purchase the three bedroom unit if you can use that size of a unit. Looking at the size of your family that's really the best way to go IMO.

Do three bedroom units trade better? I can't say. While I own three 3 bedroom units I've never attempted to trade the enitre unit. I've always locked the unit off, used the master suite for personal usage and exchanged the studio or 1 bedroom portion.

I will say I've seen more developers building larger units. Lately I've seen a good share of 3, 4 and even 6 bedroom units. If they continue to build more, you should see more for exchange. As it is now I have seen a few 3 bedroom units come up for exchange using either my one bedroom or two bedroom units I've deposited (we own 7 timeshares of various sizes). It seems to me as if three bedroom units are treated equally to two bedroom units at this point. As more are built and more put into the exchange pool, things may change as time goes on.

 

[EAM]

Getting Christmas week

How hard it is to get a specific holiday week in a floating week system depends a lot on what system you are using.

If you want to exchange via RCI and you plan ahead and make your reservations far in advance, you should have no trouble getting a Christmas week in a 2 BR unit at a nice resort at a nice location. Getting a 3BR would be another story because there aren't that many 3BRs deposited. You also might not get your first choice of destination or resort, so you would need to be flexible. Getting a prime location Christmas ski week through RCI could be difficult.

If you deposit a 3BR, it will pull units of all sizes available for the trading power and VEP of the week, i.e. hotel unit, studios, 1BR, 2BR, 3BR.

 

[mandssa]

When a week is deposited in the RCI spacebank it is assigned a numeric "trading power" value, which is calculated using the 6 components listed below:

1) Supply, demand, and usage of your week at your home resort
2) Supply, demand, and usage for all weeks in your resort's region
3) Comment card ratings for your home resort (Vacation Experience Profile)
4) Size and configuration of your unit
5) Seasonal designation of your week (red, white, or blue)
6) How far in advance you deposit your week with RCI

Thank you so much for all your useful replies! Does anyone know if there is available info on points Rod's first 3 points above:
(1) Supply, demand, and usage of your week at your home resort
2) Supply, demand, and usage for all weeks in your resort's region
3) Comment card ratings for your home resort (Vacation Experience Profile)

 

[BevL]

If you're asking if the information for the supply, demand, comment cards, etc. is generally available for a specific week at a specific resort, I'd say no. The "trading power" of any particular resort and particular week is closely guarded by the exchange companies - otherwise we TUGgers would be buying up all the great traders!!

About all you can do is your own sleuthing. If you are interested in a particular area, post it and ask for others who might own something similar. If you decide to become a member, you will have access to the sightings board with certain trade tests - in other words, a test where a number of different weeks have been compared. It's not an exact experiment but helpful.

As a few general guidelines, think of where people want to go, when they want to go there and areas where there are not too many timeshares. An example: Orlando is very popular but there are lots and lots and LOTS of timeshares, so it doesn't exchange well. California or Cape Cod on the summer - not as many timeshares, everybody wants to go there - they exchange, generally, well. San Francisco - hardly any timeshares, pretty popular all year, pretty good trader.

A lot of it is just trial and error and research. No easy answers, really, I'm afraid.

Welcome.

Bev