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Interval International Trading useless

S

shirlasker

TUG Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
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I have a deposit into II and can never get anything worthwhile. I usually end up renting from other owners to get into timeshares and dates I want.
I can get Arizona resorts in the summer and Cape Cod in the winter.....I can never seem to get resorts in the best seasons, so I am ready to give up trading.
It seems pointless. I have 2 Mexican resorts. It would have been better to have bought into Marriot, or just rented from other owners and never bought a timeshare to
begin with.
Anyone else feel that way, or had better experiences with II?
 
shirlasker said:
I have a deposit into II and can never get anything worthwhile. I usually end up renting from other owners to get into timeshares and dates I want.
I can get Arizona resorts in the summer and Cape Cod in the winter.....I can never seem to get resorts in the best seasons, so I am ready to give up trading.
It seems pointless. I have 2 Mexican resorts. It would have been better to have bought into Marriot, or just rented from other owners and never bought a timeshare to
begin with.
Anyone else feel that way, or had better experiences with II?
Click to expand...
Lots of people do get good trades, but yes, it does depend on what you have to deposit into II in return for those exchanges. The higher quality unit you have, both in terms of resort and season/week, the better trades you'll have access to. You don't necessarily need to own a top-tier resort to get access to top-tier trades, but at the same time you can't expect to offer up something from the bottom of the barrel and receive the cream of the crop in return. Other things come into play as well, such as how far in advance you deposit your unit and make your exchange requests. You may get something good if you deposit a decent week a year out and put in an on-going search for something that is also a year out, leaving the request flexible in terms of exact resort or week that you'll accept.
 
What resorts do you want to exchange for? We have not had a problem getting what we want. There are some resorts that look amazing, but I've never seen on II, such as Ocho Cascadas in PV. But other than that -- no issues.
 
shirlasker said:
I have a deposit into II and can never get anything worthwhile. I usually end up renting from other owners to get into timeshares and dates I want.
I can get Arizona resorts in the summer and Cape Cod in the winter.....I can never seem to get resorts in the best seasons, so I am ready to give up trading.
It seems pointless. I have 2 Mexican resorts. It would have been better to have bought into Marriot, or just rented from other owners and never bought a timeshare to
begin with.
Anyone else feel that way, or had better experiences with II?
Click to expand...


I have no idea what you own, but it does sound like you don't have enough horsepower to trade with.

Try planning your trades 2 years in advance to see if that improves your chances. That is difficult to do but it can be done with lots of planning in advance.

Best of luck!



.
 
@shirlasker
I'm sorry that you haven't had the success that you'd like when exchanging via Interval. Exactly which week do you have deposited? Normally the best advice is (if your timeshare system allows it), to reserve the highest demand week within the season that you own. Then deposit it to Interval at the earliest possible time - at least a year in advance.

If you try for resorts that are not Marriott /Westin, the early deposit , early request is the key.

For Marriott & Westin, in addition to adding those resorts into your request, if you haven't matched at 60 days before check-in, it's time to search online as often as humanly possible for cancellations or e-plus weeks to appear.

You are correct that had you bought high season Marriott weeks you would have a much easier time trading. You can still buy a resale Marriott for trading purposes .

I just searched and saw that you own Vidanta Grand Luxxe Loft at Nuevo Vallarta.
I expect other Vidanta owners may have advice for you.
 
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Does early request really work? I have done it all...and ready to give up....Im better off renting the Villa del Palmar timeshare than depositing it. We do use Vidanta for now so that's ok.
 
Maybe some VDP owners will chime in about their experiences/tips with exchanges. I do think the advice here has been good. Some flexibility is key. Shoulder seasons might be more realistic for some of the higher demand resorts. Hawaii is a very difficult trade but even without Marriott ownership, I myself have occasionally seen Marriotts pop up when I manually search for exchanges (the more common ones like Ko olina, Maui Ocean Club and Marriott Kauai Beach Club). We just exchanged into the Surf Club in Aruba and when our timeshare belonged to my H’s parents, they traded into palm desert Marriotts as well as Kauai Beach Club. It can be done.
 
I've had a similar bad experience depositing Villa del Palmar with Interval. Instead of letting me reserve a powerful week and depositing that, they deposited some generic thing that hasn't traded for anything I want. To make matters worse, I made the huge mistake of extending the deposits, and when you do THAT, they're only good for flex exchange. I'll never deposit my Villa del Palmar weeks with Interval again. It was COVID time, and I had to do something with the weeks.
 
We used to use II, but mostly for the Getaways. We did not renew a couple of years ago, so no longer use II or RCI. With II, I was able to get some great places for $149-$249 with their Getawys. We got a Grand Mayan 2-bedroom a year in advance as a Getaway. We did not deposit our Grand Mayan or the Grand Luxxe weeks though, but did deposit some Mayan Palace weeks for some fairly good trades a few times years ago. I tend to book at least a year out - sometimes 2, depending on where the family wants to go on vacation.

We only have one resort that we exchange - Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay. We exchange with SFX and get an extra week when in PV for overflow when extra family wants to join us. About 10 years ago, we divested ourselves of "extra" timeshares and just own where we want to go - the PV area. We have Buganvilias and Grand Luxxe. We use SFX exchanges or bonus weeks to get extra units when our group is larger than 4 people. This year, however, our son has rented a large condo in PV for his family one week, so we did not have to make an exchange too. We will get the registered into our unit so they can pop over to the Buganvilias and visit us and hang out on the beach or by the pool.
 
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EJC said:
I've had a similar bad experience depositing Villa del Palmar with Interval. Instead of letting me reserve a powerful week and depositing that, they deposited some generic thing that hasn't traded for anything I want. To make matters worse, I made the huge mistake of extending the deposits, and when you do THAT, they're only good for flex exchange. I'll never deposit my Villa del Palmar weeks with Interval again. It was COVID time, and I had to do something with the weeks.
Click to expand...
Wow -- is that how all the VDP resorts work (weeks or points)? You have no choice in what week you deposit into II?
 
shirlasker said:
I also have Villa del Palmar
Click to expand...

I agree, VDP and II don't work well unless you go to a resort heavy destination like Vegas, Orlando or Cabo. RCI and VDP is not much better.

Bill
 
We have had great success exchanging our gold Marriot Harbour Lake Unit into Elite rated Marriot resorts over the last 20 years…our last exchange was using our HL 1 BR to exchange into a platinum Marriot Aruba Ocean Club week this past April….last year,Our HL studio was able see a 3BR SurfWatch unit in Hilton Head for mid August…as well as 3BR units at Marriots Frenchman’s Cove…no complaints here using Interval
 
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amsunshine said:
Wow -- is that how all the VDP resorts work (weeks or points)? You have no choice in what week you deposit into II?
Click to expand...
I don't know. I do know at least one of the contracts was a holiday week membership. I thought they should have given me a holiday week to deposit. WRONG!
 
What do you think the trading power is of a 1 bedroom platinum week at Harborside during week 52? Have an ongoing search in for about 4 months now. Looking in 2024 in decent seasons for what I want but not pulling what I want. I aim aiming high, I know. For example am looking for a 1 bedroom or higher at one of the two Marriotts in Spain next year May to October, but only can get a studio, which we don't want.
 
amsunshine said:
Wow -- is that how all the VDP resorts work (weeks or points)? You have no choice in what week you deposit into II?
Click to expand...

I always deposit a winter week. Usually PV. I had thought that even point members had to deposit a reserved week.

Bill
 
easyrider said:
I always deposit a winter week. Usually PV. I had thought that even point members had to deposit a reserved week.

Bill
Click to expand...
Just looked at my Interval account. I deposited 3 weeks, and they all say Nov.6-13 wk 45. I had no control over which weeks they deposited, and all three are still sitting in my account because they are such poor traders. I extended all three unaware that they would then only be good for flex exchange.
 
EJC said:
Just looked at my Interval account. I deposited 3 weeks, and they all say Nov.6-13 wk 45. I had no control over which weeks they deposited, and all three are still sitting in my account because they are such poor traders. I extended all three unaware that they would then only be good for flex exchange.
Click to expand...
Where are your units? Week 45 should be a great trade — it’s one of our favorite weeks for perfect weather in Mexico. That’s such a shame that they aren’t trading well.
 
@klpenny

I posted the current availability (searching with a Marriott) for MMB, MUZ in the Sightings section.

A June week popped up for MUZ when I ran the search a second time, but it is under Marriott preference.

Since your search in set up, you are in good shape to match when more inventory is added.
 
HudsHut said:
@klpenny

I posted the current availability (searching with a Marriott) for MMB, MUZ in the Sightings section.

A June week popped up for MUZ when I ran the search a second time, but it is under Marriott preference.

Since your search in set up, you are in good shape to match when more inventory is added.
Click to expand...
I see the June week for MUZ. Is that through Marriott points as it is not in II?
 
EJC said:
Just looked at my Interval account. I deposited 3 weeks, and they all say Nov.6-13 wk 45. I had no control over which weeks they deposited, and all three are still sitting in my account because they are such poor traders. I extended all three unaware that they would then only be good for flex exchange.
Click to expand...

My UVCI accounts are winter premiere weeks. I reserve a week , always a winter week I might be able to rent out or use, then decide whether to deposit that week as I plan out the year. II for us exchanges better with Worldmark but even then it isn't as good as RCI, imo. UVCI PV and Cabo both trade in RCI and SFX. Maybe try RCI or SFX.

Bill
 
TheTimeTraveler said:
I have no idea what you own, but it does sound like you don't have enough horsepower to trade with.

Try planning your trades 2 years in advance to see if that improves your chances. That is difficult to do but it can be done with lots of planning in advance.

Best of luck!



.
Click to expand...
Bingo! My thoughts exactly, when I read the original post. the tip off was "I should have just bought into Marriott". Although, even owning Marriott, Vistana, Hyatt, or other high valued companies, the resort and season will make a difference. Hope the OP can figure it out. But as you said, the culprit is most likely not having enough horsepower. This is the second biggest reason why people are unhappy with timeshares. They don't have enough HP or they have no idea how to use it.
 
@klpenny The MUZ week was on II yesterday, but was probably confirmed very quickly. I saw it when I searched with a Marriott week.
 
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