On to the next vacation - II to Palm Springs area next spring advice

[BevL]

Well, not quite - we actually have two more planned for this year!!

But we are going to be changing our vacation plans from Hawaii to Palm Springs for early next year - medical costs are just too high in Hawaii for us to go back to back years.

Anyway, I'll be putting in ongoing searches using two Foxrun week 16 units that I currently have deposited with II. Looking for two bedroom units at one of the Marriott resorts or Westin resorts (not likely) for mid to late February.

First off, what are my chances with ongoing searches?

Secondly, I'm a little leery with the way Interval just auto confirms. Should I put in two searches covering, say, a three week period? Or get one week and then try for another?

I've actually never used an Interval ongoing search that actually matched anything.

TIA

Bev

 

[BevL]

And a follow up question.

Using the XYZ - not the extra exchange but where you can get two smaller units for a larger deposit by paying two exchange fees - would I be able to get a small one bedroom and large one bedroom for my two bedroom deposit? Thinking particularly of the Westin resort that has smaller and larger sides but both are actually one bedroom units.

Or is it based on sleeping capacity?

Thanks in advance

 

[BJRSanDiego]

Palm Springs

If you are looking for mid to end Feb, you are in the "flexchange" period. That has some benefits. If you're doing a manual search and you see something you can book it regardless of trading power or number of bedrooms.

First, because time is short, I'd recommend listing a number of different places and request several weeks. Palm Canyon and Welk are reasonable additional resorts. The more options you include, the greater your chance of getting a match.

Also, I recommend that you check daily manually. I believe that the II computer matches are a batch job done around 1 or 2 am. So if something shows up and you do a manual search, you may snag something before the automatic matching.

Feb. is the high season in Palm Desert. So, there will be less inventory. I just did a manual search using a good trader and I didn't see any Palm Desert inventory. Not a good sign...

 

[BevL]

Thanks much but I'm looking for 2013. Just got back from Hawaii three weeks ago and though I'd love another vacation, it's not to be until April.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

Trading in to Palm Desert

Oops, I thought that you were talking about trading in 2012.

I would think that with your early deposit and long timeframe that you won't have any trouble getting your trade.

You will just have to wait for the inventory to show up. I just checked availability using my 2 BR Marriott as a potential trade and I saw DS2 inventory out until around Feb 17, 2013. But I noticed that the inventory was primarily 0 br (efficiencies) in the Jan-Feb timeframe. I also looked at DS1 and SR units, Welk Desert Oasis and Westin Mission Hills and I can only see out to roughly the end of this year. So I suspect that in a few months that they will all be adding more inventory. Because I am a Marriott owner (DS2), I might be able to see and have access to some inventory before non-Marriott owners.

Besides relying solely on your ongoing request, I suggest that you periodically do a manual search to see if things are showing up.

I would be surprised if you do NOT get the trade that you are looking for in the next several months. Enjoy.

 

[sue1947]

The Marriott 2 BRs went to ongoing requests. I got one of them for next Jan (Desert Springs II). They did a mini-deposit a couple hours after I put my request in. Once it hit, I checked and noticed only a couple of 2 br left and they went quickly. I'd make sure the request was in quickly before they deposit the last part of Feb 2013.

Sue

 

[eal]

Hi Bev,
We go to Southern California every February. We always stayed in Palm Springs for a part of the trip, until my BIL bought a 2-br house in Beaumont, about 20 min west of Palm Springs

We have traded into three 2-br Westin Mission Hills units over the years with a Villas of Sedona 2-br, a 1-br Poste Montane and a 2-br Manteo Beach Club. We have also found a 2-br at Marriott Desert Springs with a 1-br Riviera Oaks, and a 2-br at Villas Oasis with an AC.

The only one that was an ongoing search was the exchange with the Poste Montane unit. If I were you I would probably put in two ongoing searches and then call a rep and ask them to note that you are looking for back-to-back weeks (I don't think you can add notes, like SFX provides). They will send a confirmation notice to your email when they find a match, but you can call and cancel if you don't want it. You just have to check your email every day!

PS: At the Villas Oasis one evening I met some women from Vancouver at the hot tub who had just jumped on a plane with their husbands and flown to Palm Springs because it had been raining at home every day for 40 days and 40 nights! February is definitely a good time for Palm Springs...

 

[BevL]

That's very encouraging. I have my ongoing searches in, have for a few weeks, check every day and do some manual searches. I can see a few small units into next January, February so will wait for a bulk deposit and hope something passes the preference.

Thanks muchly.

 

[BevL]

Just an update on my old thread and in light of the ongoing questions we get about ongoing versus online searches and likelihood of this and that.

My timeframe was February 1 to March 31 and I had basically the two Starwood resorts and the three Marriott resorts as my choices.

Matched for a two bedroom at one of the Westin resorts for the week of Feb 9 to 16 fairly quickly.

Had to tweak my other exchange request to work around that week and this morning woke up to find a confirmation for a two bedroom at the Marriott Shadow Ridge Enclaves for the week of the 2nd to the 9th of February.

Would have preferred to not move but I"m happy to have my dates locked in a full eight months ahead at nice resorts so will keep what I have. If I saw something at either resort online in Flexchange that allowed us to stay put I might switch it up but no pressure.

I was using a Foxrun week, so no priority at all.

So yes, folks, ongoing searches really are the way to go with Interval. Other than the odd smaller one bedroom/studio unit, I never saw anything close online to what I was looking for.

Bev

 

[jdunn1]

Bev. Thanks for the update. Really nice reading about this.

I got matched with a Marriott Legend Edge for Easter week 2013 using an ongoing request over night. I was using a blue season WorldMark 3 bedroom at Seaside and got that match. I declined the trade, though. While Easter week in Panama City would have been nice, I would have only wanted to be on the beach and the Marriott isn't on the beach.

No problem, though, I used that same WorldMark deposit and found a 2 bedroom Easter week at Marriott's Harbor Lake just sitting in II. It's only a 2 bedroom but that resort has a very nice waterpark.

My experience has been that ongoing searches do work, just certain resorts and areas are very tough, even impossible. For example, I don't think there is even one person who was able to trade into any of the Marriotts in the Carolinas for this coming July without Marriott preference. Even with Marriott preference I have only heard of one person who was able to trade into Grande Ocean in July.

I'm happy with II's ongoing requests, but I'm starting to realize that summer NCV weeks, summer MOW, MGO, MFC, etc... are just never going to happen without marriott preference.

Just an update on my old thread and in light of the ongoing questions we get about ongoing versus online searches and likelihood of this and that.

My timeframe was February 1 to March 31 and I had basically the two Starwood resorts and the three Marriott resorts as my choices.

Matched for a two bedroom at one of the Westin resorts for the week of Feb 9 to 16 fairly quickly.

Had to tweak my other exchange request to work around that week and this morning woke up to find a confirmation for a two bedroom at the Marriott Shadow Ridge Enclaves for the week of the 2nd to the 9th of February.

Would have preferred to not move but I"m happy to have my dates locked in a full eight months ahead at nice resorts so will keep what I have. If I saw something at either resort online in Flexchange that allowed us to stay put I might switch it up but no pressure.

I was using a Foxrun week, so no priority at all.

So yes, folks, ongoing searches really are the way to go with Interval. Other than the odd smaller one bedroom/studio unit, I never saw anything close online to what I was looking for.

Bev

 

[dougp26364]

Thank you for updating this thread to let us know you had success. When I read the intial post, I was thinking this would be a tough one but, also remembered a few exchange requests we had confirmed in the past that were successful when others thought they had little chance.

IMHO, to much emphasis is placed by looking at the results of online searches vs placing an ongoing search. Online searches are typically the left overs not matched by an online search. It occurs to me that it's not so much whether you own in an "overdeveloped" region or even at one of the biggest names in the business so much as depositing/requesting very early and having a little flexablity. In your case, even when you dropped a lot of the flexablity out of the equation, you still matched a two bedroom unit during high season at what's typically considered one of the tougher exchanges.

We're planning on going back to Palm Desert in a couple of years. We're Marriott owners and plan to request a Marriott to Marriott exchange. Your success with non-Marriott units trading into the area for the same seasonal timeframe we'll be looking at is encouraging.