II request gave me better trading power

[Panina]

I have a week 52 studio at St. Petes Beach and was looking to trade for a studio at a Marriott in early November in Palm Beach .

Searching, to my surprise, did not show any Marriott for Palm Beach. I knew they were available because when I searched with a different week I have, they appeared.

I decided to see if I did a request first what would happen, I did not deposit my week. The first night it matched. I purchased e plus as I alway do.

Out of curiousity, being I knew there were more Marriott Palm Beach weeks out there, I searched using the e plus. They did not appear. The e plus was equivalent to the original search. The E plus did bring up Orlando Marriott weeks.

Sometimes I think II doesn't get it right. I was able to trade for key west , week 52 at a decent resort with what II considers a lower quality trade but that key west week didn't show with my higher quality trade. I personally believe if I have a higher quality trade, I'd like to see everything available and be able to decide if it good enough for me.

 

[1st Class]

II Quality Filters

I was told a while back by a II rep that the quality filters can be removed at your request, but you must speak with a rep to do so.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

I agree with you but what is happening is a rep is manually applying grey area discretion or getting approval to manually match. It happens all the time. They draw the line in the sand for the automated system and then make exceptions on a case by case basis. This method protects inventory from getting zapped by undesirable studio traders while allowing human discretion to increase exchange revenue. They have to draw the line somewhere and because of the flood of studios in years past they are heavily weighted negatively by the automated system, or instant inventory.

 

[dioxide45]

I agree with you but what is happening is a rep is manually applying grey area discretion or getting approval to manually match. It happens all the time. They draw the line in the sand for the automated system and then make exceptions on a case by case basis. This method protects inventory from getting zapped by undesirable studio traders while allowing human discretion to increase exchange revenue. They have to draw the line somewhere and because of the flood of studios in years past they are heavily weighted negatively by the automated system, or instant inventory.

I have seen it happen by the automated system too. And I have seen others report is happening. I do think there is a slight buffer added in to the request system that allows a deposit to pull a slightly higher demand week than will show up in instant exchange.

The way to tell if it was an automated match vs a manual employee match is if the exchange confirmation email came out in the middle of the night or during the day.

 

[VacationForever]

I have seen it happen by the automated system too. And I have seen others report is happening. I do think there is a slight buffer added in to the request system that allows a deposit to pull a slightly higher demand week than will show up in instant exchange.

The way to tell if it was an automated match vs a manual employee match is if the exchange confirmation email came out in the middle of the night or during the day.

All my trade power bumps for my studios took place in the middle of the night.

 

[Panina]

I don't think mine was manually as it occurred overnight. There must be some sort of automated formula when the programs run at night that makes the criteria different.

 

[dioxide45]

I was searching yesterday for a November week in Orlando. I was searching with a studio and a 1BR. The 1BR could see 2BR units at Marriott's Royal Palms, but the studio couldn't. I put in a request last night and it matched overnight using the studio. So it does seem that there is some kind of trade power boost when using OGSs, or perhaps if a unit is sitting in instant exchange, its trade requirements drop some during the OGS nightly match process.

Either case, if you can see a week but have a smaller unit, put in a request as it might just match.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

This is great info to know and the method behind the scenes doesn't matter much but I still think it probably happens manually. Exchange reps get commission. The time of the exchange doesn't matter because the exchange reps can be anywhere in the world. Many reps work from home and log in through a VPN.

The commission is the reason you might get daily calls for alternative matches when you have an OGS running.

 

[hellolani]

Does trade power for instant exchange increase with an OGS?

Aside from an OGS pulling something you can't get on instant exchange, I thought I read on TUG ages ago that it was a best practice to put in an OGS for an impossible week (Xmas at Harbourside was the example I think) as that helps your unit turn up more when searching instant exchange.

Am I misremembering this, or can anyone else remember reading something like that here?

I'm having no luck finding that thread searching but I may be lousy at it.

 

[silentg]

I have been away from II for a while so my question is if you have a studio and trade for a larger unit is there an upgrade fee?

 

[tschwa2]

No upgrade fee. If you have enough trading power, the exchange fee is a fixed price. There may be a 1 or 2 br in inventory though and even if you were willing to pay to upgrade, that may not be an option if you don't have enough trading power.

II makes trading up from a studio more difficult in anything other than off off season and flex change.

 

[dioxide45]

Aside from an OGS pulling something you can't get on instant exchange, I thought I read on TUG ages ago that it was a best practice to put in an OGS for an impossible week (Xmas at Harbourside was the example I think) as that helps your unit turn up more when searching instant exchange.

Am I misremembering this, or can anyone else remember reading something like that here?

I'm having no luck finding that thread searching but I may be lousy at it.

It will help because most of those weeks for prime time will never show up in instant exchange. Everything you see online is leftovers after all the ongoing searches have been matched. So if you want a high demand week, put in a request. It is likely to be your only chance to get a match.

 

[exyeh]

I have this question: When doing an instant exchange search (in 59 days) by a week, would it be more powerful than by a e-plus search?
I appreciate it if anyone knows and answer.

 

[tschwa2]

They should be the same. An eplus should have the same trading power your original week had when doing an instant exchange.

 

[dioxide45]

This is great info to know and the method behind the scenes doesn't matter much but I still think it probably happens manually. Exchange reps get commission. The time of the exchange doesn't matter because the exchange reps can be anywhere in the world. Many reps work from home and log in through a VPN.

The commission is the reason you might get daily calls for alternative matches when you have an OGS running.

I am fairly confident that it is happening through the system OGS matching process, here is why. I went way back to look at overnight match pattern. Here is what I am seeing;

Year:Times of Match
2007: 4:00am
2008: 5:47am
2009: 1:11am
2010: 4:23am and 4:28am
2011: 3:49am
2012: 4:33am
2016: 3:59am <<--this is the most recent OGS that I just had match.

Taking out the couple of outliers, they all appear to be between 3:30am and 4:30 am when we believe that the OGS match job is run. I suppose it is possible that someone working in an international office or over VPN is performing some of these matches, but several posts here have indicated other overnight matches where there appeared to be a bump in trade power. We know that II doesn't send out all confirmations at the same time because if you confirm an exchange during daytime hours, you receive a *mostly* instant confirmation email.

I suppose it is possible that these bumps are a result of manual searches. Even if they are it does seem that placing an ongoing search does increase your chances of matching something that you can't see online with the same week but you do know is available with a larger unit.

 

[dioxide45]

I just had an interesting experience with II. Last Thursday I put in a request using a studio for a week at Imperial Palms (all 3BR units) for November. I could see the unit online with a 1BR, but I was willing to offer up my studio deposit first. Overnight the week matched. At that time I wasn't sure if we wanted to keep it because I was gambling on something similar trading a 1BR in to Crystal Shores. So I didn't want to have a deposit tied up in an exchange, because if I got Crystal Shores I would have cancelled a current exchange and then used that cancellation replacement to book in to Imperial Palms.

Anyway, I cancelled that confirmed exchange within the 24 hours. On Tuesday of this week I opted to put the same studio unit up in an OGS for that same Imperial Palms 3BR. This time on Wednesday morning, there was no confirmation waiting in my inbox. I called II and tried to plead my case indicating that the week had previously matched but didn't this time. The rep wouldn't budge. Could have been a glitch or something, they would need to wait for the system to match it. They couldn't' manually match it.

Well today I got the call from II for "alternative matches". They were offering me some studio somewhere and told how hard it would be to trade my studio for a 3BR at Imperial Palms. When I explained that I had previously made the same match and that the week was still sitting out there they put me on hold and a few minutes later and told me they could make the match. So I now have the 3BR week back. I am not cancelling it now. I may retrade later if a 2BR or 3BR Lakeshore Reserve comes up.

So, what would explain why the match came through once and then not come through the second time. Was there truly some kind of glitch that allowed the match? Perhaps there were two Imperial Palms units on deposit and each had different trade powers assigned to them? Was it possible that when I cancelled my first confirmed exchange and cancelled the OGS that they somehow blocked that same unit from matching again? I think they do this if you have an OGS open and cancel an exchange in 24 hours but don't cancel the OGS. They don't want the search to just rematch the same unit, so they would have to block it somehow.

Any thoughts?

 

[scootr5]

Was it possible that when I cancelled my first confirmed exchange and cancelled the OGS that they somehow blocked that same unit from matching again? I think they do this if you have an OGS open and cancel an exchange in 24 hours but don't cancel the OGS. They don't want the search to just rematch the same unit, so they would have to block it somehow.

Any thoughts?

I would think this is the answer.

I've been trying to force a match for 2018 without much luck. I've got a 2 bedroom unit deposited that was a "good" week at a "regular" resort, trying to match a 2 bedroom "good" week at a "better" resort. I can see the unit I want in inventory with other weeks I have not deposited, but the search hasn't matched (and the unit has been there a few days). I called in yesterday to see if they could match manually, and the rep told me I should keep the OGS running and maybe it would match in the future.

 

[PClapham]

I would think this is the answer.

I've been trying to force a match for 2018 without much luck. I've got a 2 bedroom unit deposited that was a "good" week at a "regular" resort, trying to match a 2 bedroom "good" week at a "better" resort. I can see the unit I want in inventory with other weeks I have not deposited, but the search hasn't matched (and the unit has been there a few days). I called in yesterday to see if they could match manually, and the rep told me I should keep the OGS running and maybe it would match in the future.

What doesOGS mean?

 

[dioxide45]

OGS=Ongoing Search