Have you ever not gotten an exchange match through II?

[kamumma1]

Hi there -
I deposited our Marriott Grand Vista platinum week with II back in May 2015 and requested one particular week at Marriott's Oceana Palms in April 2016. Last month I hadn't heard anything so added 5 other locations. They are all the gold pineapple places (but not all Marriotts) as that's what we deposited and I want to make sure we stay at a nice place. Still waiting to hear, but getting a little nervous that we still haven't heard anything. We are now 7 months out. Does anyone know how often an exchange doesn't come through? And then what happens? We have lots of Marriott reward points so we could forward the request for April 2017 and just travel on our points next year. I'm wondering if Marriott's new internal exchange decreases the ability to get a Marriott exchange through II. And if so, is it worth keeping our timeshare if we can't the the exchanges we want, as we like to exchange. We've never had a problem getting the exchange we wanted over the past 10 years. This is a first. Would love some advice.

 

[Quiet Pine]

Sometimes I put in an ongoing search for a property that's unlikely to come through and I'm not disappointed when I don't get it. Two years ago I requested Ireland, finally gave up and went to Madeira. This year my Ireland requests have expired; I still have Manhattan Club for next June with little hope of getting it. I always enjoy where I do go, and finding a replacement is a fun adventure. Old saying: nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[tschwa2]

Putting in a request for a single week at a single resort is not something you want to do. Are you looking for the week before or after Easter, 2 br only? You also made the request 11 months in advance when those that were reserving specifically to deposit probably did so at 12 or 13 months in advance. I travel to HHI during my Easter break (which is probably not as popular, doesn't have lock off's and has 5 times the Marriott resorts) and I make my request 18 months in advance. One year I did not get the match by 6 months so I opted to take Myrtle Beach.


My suggestion would be to either widen your search or make alternate plans and change your request to 2017. If you can't be a little more flexible or be willing to possibly wait until about 60 days prior to matching than maybe selling your week would be better. I sold mine back this year. MF's were getting high and I decided I could live staying in a non beachfront Marriott or a non Marriott.

 

[HudsHut]

II's travel demand index shows weeks 5 - 14 (Jan 30 - April 2) in the Palm Beach area to be at highest demand; meaning demand greatly exceeds supply. Later weeks in April have less demand.

When you place an exchange for one specific week, your chances of early success diminish. You would have greater success if you widened your parameters to any time in April.

Tracy makes a very good suggestion. Enter your 2017 dates now (but leave the 2016 dates in, too.) You can have many different sets of dates in one ongoing search request.

Marriott is depositing weeks into II much later than before. Be patient. By having the request ready with next year's dates, you lose nothing if this year's match doesn't come through.

Please report back to let us know when you match. This helps us learn whether it's currently possible to get an exchange at Oceana Palms in April, and approximately when the match may occur.

 

[kamumma1]

Great idea to have both years for a search! That's why I love TUGG! We are looking for later April, which is a little easier than earlier, but it has to be the one week as that's my kids vacation. I'll add next year's dates and if this years don't pan out in another month or so, we'll use our points to travel and then keep the request for the following year. I'll post what happens.

 

[alexadeparis]

Happens all the time. I have several searches going on at once with the hard stuff. If one of those hits it's like winning the lotto almost. I have an entire spreadsheet, sorted by exchange company of dream locations/resorts I am looking for. There's probably at least 100 entries on it.



I also have my more basic searches in RCI and II both with multiple weeks, and multiple resorts in multiple locations. For example, for summer break there was a 3 week period between summer college session and fall session.

So, in January 2015, I put in the entire 3 week period with about 10 of the dream spreadsheet resorts over 4 locations. So, I ended up matching in May 2015 (four months later) for August 2016 (15 months out from confirmation) in a 3 bedroom Plantation Bay Villas unit located in South Seas Resort in Captiva, FL. We are super excited even though it is still almost a year away.

My point is, have a running list of acceptable/dream places/resorts and be flexible in letting fate choose your destination and your exact dates, and you should be able to get what you want with at least 1 year advance planning. The sooner you can put the search in, the better. The idea is to have your search in, and aging, well before the first units of that kind start to trickle in because it is truly first come, first served. It is a huge lesson in patience, but also a nice surprise when you get a fabulous match out of the blue.

 

[GrayFal]

Great idea to have both years for a search! That's why I love TUGG! We are looking for later April, which is a little easier than earlier, but it has to be the one week as that's my kids vacation. I'll add next year's dates and if this years don't pan out in another month or so, we'll use our points to travel and then keep the request for the following year. I'll post what happens.

School break for the public schools in the NYC area is 4/23/16 next year.
MA celebrates Patriots day and the schools are off the week before.
Florida will be a VERY popular destination those couple of weeks.

 

[glmyers]

In my 24 years of using II, I've never failed to get an exchange in the week I wanted. I always list as many acceptable resorts as possible for my location in the week I want to travel. When exchanging to San Francisco it took up to the last minute to get it done, but that was fine since we were making the trip even if we ended up in a hotel.

Trading into an easy place like Williamsburg or Orlando I typically just look at the list of destinations currently available about six months out and pick one of the many available choices. I've gotten exactly the exchange I wanted in Orlando as close as three weeks before travelling. As long as your home resort is somewhere people want to go and your destination has a sufficient number of exiting timeshares you will have very little problem getting an exchange through II.

 

[Ricci]

I put in a request for Oceana Palms over a year out for the first 3 weeks of April, 2016. No hits, so I expanded to the first week of May, 2016 and was confirmed about 3 weeks ago for April 30 - May 7. I know it's not high season, but I actually love south Florida in early May....no crowds, not too hot, and no hurricanes yet. (And I get my tan for the whole summer!!)

 

[HudsHut]

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1807526#post1807526

This is the first date I've seen for Marriott's Oceana Palms (MVO) since I began reading this thread.