So far I love Interval International

[djohn06]

Both programs have their strengths and weaknesses. IMHO the value is finding out which program supports your needs. Here's what I like and dislike about both. Keep in mind I only have experience in the weeks program for both companies.

II
Better overall quality resorts than RCI
Easy to find last minute summer exchanges
Love the 3 in 1 exchange program for only a one time exchange
Have to pay additional fees on larger units

RCI
Has highly sought after DVC resorts
No additional charge for exchanging info a larger unit size
More transparency on unit exchange rates via TPU program
Super low last minute TPUs. You can literally get 8 exchanges off a single resort if you know how to work the program.
Resort selection quality is not as good as II

 

[tonyg]

I wonder if Marriott's buyout of ILG with affect the II exchange system.

 

[AgelessTravel]

One thing I am not pleased about in II is that it requires me to call customer service to put units on hold more than 18 minutes or cancel searches etc. Each time I call I need to listen to their sales pitch to upgrade my membership etc. With RCI I was able to do everything online and it did not require me to call very often. Also, they have website chat which is more convenient for me.

 

[klpca]

One thing I am not pleased about in II is that it requires me to call customer service to put units on hold more than 18 minutes or cancel searches etc. Each time I call I need to listen to their sales pitch to upgrade my membership etc. With RCI I was able to do everything online and it did not require me to call very often. Also, they have website chat which is more convenient for me.

You can do a longer hold by calling in? How long of a hold did they give you?

 

[AgelessTravel]

You can do a longer hold by calling in? How long of a hold did they give you?

They will hold it until the end of the business day, but you need to call, can't do it online.

 

[klpca]

They will hold it until the end of the business day, but you need to call, can't do it online.

Good to know! Thanks

 

[NiteMaire]

They will hold it until the end of the business day, but you need to call, can't do it online.

I had no idea you could do this. I have a feeling II will have a spike in end of day holds due to tuggers

 

[AgelessTravel]

It was an accident that I found out. I am used to 24 hour holds with RCI so when I called II to inquire if they do they same thing they told me they can only hold until the end of the business day and you must call in to do it.

 

[chemteach]

I have been exchanging for about 15 years in both II and RCI. Times have changed, I have adapted. I love both systems. I think I may be in the minority about that. I have only stayed where I own 3 or 4 times. I teach high school (Chemteach... ) and can only travel xmas, new years, spring break, and summer. If you plan ahead, you can go to great places. Took families with me to Maui twice, Kauai 4 times, (summer weeks); Cabo and Cancun Xmas and New Years every other year for the last 12 years with 3 to 4 families traveling with us. I've sold some units that were no longer good traders, bought new units that worked better with RCI's switch to TPU. Basically, if you put the time into it, you can do great with good traders.

For II, SDO true platinum weeks are fantastic traders and have internal priority. If you want to exchange into Marriott, the 3 bedroom units that are true 2 bedroom/1 bedroom lockouts in Orlando and Las Vegas are good traders with Marriott internal priority. But that could all change at any time. One of the keys for me with exchanging has been to stay informed about system changes, and sell units that are no longer working well. It takes time, but I happen to enjoy the search. I use an MROP unit for my II exchanges (Small vacation club). Works great.

For RCI, find a unit that give a large number of TPU per dollar of maintenance fees. Don't spend more than $20/TPU. My best unit is $880 for 68 TPU. A summer 3 bedroom lockout at Presidential Plantation Villas. They come up every so often on ebay for less than $100.

Everyone has a different goal. Identify your goals, do research, and then you can figure out what works for you.

 

[jmatthews93]

Everyone seems to have good rationales for why they do what they do. This just shows that there is a lot of flexibility with timeshares. It's a shame timeshares have such a bad reputation because they are actually quite flexible and can get you better and bigger accommodations for less money - whether you buy to own or buy to trade.

Couldn't agree more! Timeshares have been amazing for our family. If we didn't own them, we wouldn't have gone on so many of the amazing vacations we have over the year, and our family is so much closer as a result.

 

[NJDave]

What's a good trader to own for II? My TSes only trade in RCI, and I'm going to unload the annual points one but likely keep the EOY OY one. Both are great traders with reasonable MFs. Marriotts are great quality, but the annual MF increases are not particularly palatable to me!

In general, there are certain Marriott's that in order to trade into it's best to own a Marriott due to the Marriott preference. The same is true for Vistana. The difficult trades for example are Myrtle Beach / Hilton Head in the summer, Aruba Christmas week amongst others. If you want to trade to Marriotts offpeak (e.g. Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head or Aruba in October) or Orlando / Las Vegas, a non-Marriott should work. Foxrun has traded well in the past and has reasonable fees. You can obtain a unit for free. If you want peak Marriott weeks you should own where you want to stay. Otherwise, you may get the trade but you need to be flexible or somewhat lucky.

 

[2saltydawgs]

New to TUG, but an "owner" at UVC property Villa Del Palmar in Cabo San Lucas since 2001. We bought a 2 bdrm 3 ba unit floating weeks 1-50, on our first trip to Los Cabos, wish we knew then what we know now. We exchange with II and have been pretty satisfied with our luck in getting a resort when and where we want, for the most part, and exchange now more than go to Cabo. We are II Gold members, and was not so fortunate this year in getting any of the dozen or more resorts we had hoped to get for April thru August. We have adjusted our travel plans, and rather than have a week go unused, are taking a trip to Ruidoso NM to get out of the AZ heat for a week.
I have a question for those who know II well - does the value of your home resort deposited with II, have any effect of the success of getting an exchange request?
What I mean is - if my home resort were say Villa del Arco, instead of Villa del Palmar - would I have more success getting an exchange request filled? We have had opportunities to "upgrade" our home resort to Villa del Arco, but so far have not. Also - does being on a points-based system compared to a week matter? Just wondering how the value of your home resort and points vs weeks effects your exchanges.
Thank you very much for any info.

 

[VacationForever]

New to TUG, but an "owner" at UVC property Villa Del Palmar in Cabo San Lucas since 2001. We bought a 2 bdrm 3 ba unit floating weeks 1-50, on our first trip to Los Cabos, wish we knew then what we know now. We exchange with II and have been pretty satisfied with our luck in getting a resort when and where we want, for the most part, and exchange now more than go to Cabo. We are II Gold members, and was not so fortunate this year in getting any of the dozen or more resorts we had hoped to get for April thru August. We have adjusted our travel plans, and rather than have a week go unused, are taking a trip to Ruidoso NM to get out of the AZ heat for a week.
I have a question for those who know II well - does the value of your home resort deposited with II, have any effect of the success of getting an exchange request?
What I mean is - if my home resort were say Villa del Arco, instead of Villa del Palmar - would I have more success getting an exchange request filled? We have had opportunities to "upgrade" our home resort to Villa del Arco, but so far have not. Also - does being on a points-based system compared to a week matter? Just wondering how the value of your home resort and points vs weeks effects your exchanges.
Thank you very much for any info.

Without know much about Villa Del xxxx system, I do not know if one is a stronger trader than another. I did a quick google and based on what I saw, I suspect both of them trade equally well. The greater question is where were you searching for and how long in advance did you put in your trade request? If you are looking for super high season like a Westin or Marriott Hawaii week in July/August, it is such a difficult trade that even with strong traders, you may not find a match. Moreover, Westin and Marriott have their priority block in that non-Vistana (Westin/Sheraton) owners and non-Marriott owners have first dibs before the weeks are opened to other brand owners.

 

[2saltydawgs]

We started request for Oregon coast last September, Worldmark and similar - everyplace that II has on NW coast up to Victoria BC. Nothing.
Have had pretty good luck exchanging up til this year. Just came back from a non-TS condo rental for a week on Oregon coast - maybe owners there just use their
weeks instead of trading - Oregon coast is just beautiful. Took our 2018 week with VDP Cabo and traded within Villa Group to Flamingos near Bucerias Mex, so TS weeks covered
for this year. I did find out I can pay my 2019 MF to UVC early, and then book that week, so I can then deposit it into II and set up another exchange request. Maybe putting in request more than 12 months out will help with the more popular resorts.

 

[karibkeith]

I always have preferred II over Rci not only in the quality of resorts but also how II handles the customer service aspect, superior to rci.

I have had great success getting what I wanted with II requests. With Rci never had a good match, always had to use instant exchanges.

Rci is great for last minute exchanges. I recently got a disney resort for 10 tpus.

You mention Trading Points and that is a consideration for using RCI. I think that II is still a week for a week. I f you are fortunate enough to have a week with a high Trading Value then you may find that you can get two or more weeks for one.

 

[VacationForever]

We started request for Oregon coast last September, Worldmark and similar - everyplace that II has on NW coast up to Victoria BC. Nothing.
Have had pretty good luck exchanging up til this year. Just came back from a non-TS condo rental for a week on Oregon coast - maybe owners there just use their
weeks instead of trading - Oregon coast is just beautiful. Took our 2018 week with VDP Cabo and traded within Villa Group to Flamingos near Bucerias Mex, so TS weeks covered
for this year. I did find out I can pay my 2019 MF to UVC early, and then book that week, so I can then deposit it into II and set up another exchange request. Maybe putting in request more than 12 months out will help with the more popular resorts.

Worldmark system is very inexpensive to own, with both acquisition costs as well as MF. They have more than 90 locations along the West Coast. Worldmark almost never deposit summer weeks for highly sought after areas/resorts like Depoe Bay and and Seaside into II. If it is an area which you would like to go to for the next few years, you may consider buying WM points in the resale market. You will likely get back what you paid for when you decide you no longer want to visit these places.

 

[Panina]

You mention Trading Points and that is a consideration for using RCI. I think that II is still a week for a week. I f you are fortunate enough to have a week with a high Trading Value then you may find that you can get two or more weeks for one.

You are right you can more weeks if you deposit a high tpu week with RCI. I find it works well for last minute trades where you can at time get higher quality, higher demand place.

For planned trades in the future, I find you are actually at a disadvantage for higher quality, higher demand places.

I own a prime winter week at Eagles Nest Marco Island. Tpus given cannot get me a planned prime week in a high demand place. Many times RCI gives me less tpus then they charge for the week plus I am competing against others that combined their deposits. Never will give this week to RCI, If I don’t use it Interval will get it.

 

[quikitikit]

Some good posts have been made stating their successful trades. As I mentioned the "buy where you want to stay" philosophy, I should elaborate a bit on why trading was not for me.

Most importantly, my wife is a teacher. My kids are in school. You see where this is going...as we can only travel during the peak (hardest to travel) time.
CLEARLY, exchanging is not a great option for someone in that bucket.
In fact, you can see from those replies that mentioned successful trades - they traded into very good locations, but they were mostly non-peak seasons.

But in addition to that, we have always traveled for 2-3 consecutive weeks per year. Doing this makes exchanges quite a bit more difficult, as ideally you want each exchange to have the same day of the week for arrival. So once you lock in one of those weeks, with, say a Saturday arrival, what do you do when your vacation is approaching and you finally get that offer for your second week, but it has a Sunday arrival? You either need to turn it down and let it roll, or you accept it and pay for a connecting day. Or what if that second week has a Friday arrival. If you accept it, you have adjacent weeks with an overlapping day.

I think exchanging is an EXCELLENT option for people who are retired, or anyone with very flexible travel options, or for those who go for one week stints.
But for a two-income married couple or a couple with kids, exchanging might not be ideal.

My family situation was (and is still) not suited for trading.

I bought Marriott Newport Coast (NCV) in 2009 EOY even year resale and joined II. In 2010 Marriott changed to the point system. Initially I bought timeshare for my husband and I to use and travel. We started family vacations in 2010 at Newport Coast with our 3 adult children including son in law. We enrolled NCV and bought Marriott points in 2015 so we could trade to different locations. Now with 2 grandkids, we have had family vacations trading to Maui and this year to Oahu in June because my daughter is a teacher and the grandkids are in preschool and elementary school. Owning Marriott has definitely been a real benefit to trade to Marriott in Hawaii. Yes summers are super busy peak time but I have to put a little effort to get the trade at the location and time I want a year ahead of time. Good luck! It can be done! Sometimes have to be flexible!

 

[chriskre]

You are right you can more weeks if you deposit a high tpu week with RCI. I find it works well for last minute trades where you can at time get higher quality, higher demand place.

For planned trades in the future, I find you are actually at a disadvantage for higher quality, higher demand places.

I own a prime winter week at Eagles Nest Marco Island. Tpus given cannot get me a planned prime week in a high demand place. Many times RCI gives me less tpus then they charge for the week plus I am competing against others that combined their deposits. Never will give this week to RCI, If I don’t use it Interval will get it.

Why don't you just use RCI thru the HGVC instead of converting it to TPUs?
That winter week should get you anything you want in RCI without having to convert to TPU's.
If it's 7000 HGVC points, RCI is your oyster, just do an ongoing request and you'll get much better value
and not have to pay any combine fees for the TPUs. Just pay the ongoing search fee.
I just got back from Eagles Nest, it's a nice resort but they are having parking issues with the construction.

 

[chriskre]

You mention Trading Points and that is a consideration for using RCI. I think that II is still a week for a week. I f you are fortunate enough to have a week with a high Trading Value then you may find that you can get two or more weeks for one.

You can also get more weeks thru II using the XYZ scheme or usually with a fairly good week they'll
give you an AC that might have some value depending on where you want to go.
I know that they are great for getting nice Marriott's in Orlando and a few other places.
They have date restrictions but the value is certainly there for what they give you.

You can also upgrade to a platinum account and split that week into two 6 day vacations instead of just a
one week for 1 week. I think II doesn't do a good enough job of showing that they are more versatile
than we think. RCI is making themselves seem like they are doing us a huge favor but for me II is so
much better lately that I'm rarely giving much to RCI anymore. I'd much rather give a single week to
II and buy the re-trade with an option to finally end up with a perfect exchange. I've been buying the
re-trade now and it's the bomb.

 

[Panina]

Why don't you just use RCI thru the HGVC instead of converting it to TPUs?
That winter week should get you anything you want in RCI without having to convert to TPU's.
If it's 7000 HGVC points, RCI is your oyster, just do an ongoing request and you'll get much better value
and not have to pay any combine fees for the TPUs. Just pay the ongoing search fee.
I just got back from Eagles Nest, it's a nice resort but they are having parking issues with the construction.

I have not had good luck with my requests whether using tpu’s or going through hgvc in RCI. Not sure where hgvc is in the chain on getting matches. I have always gotten great trades in Interval.

 

[chriskre]

I have not had good luck with my requests whether using tpu’s or going through hgvc in RCI. Not sure where hgvc is in the chain on getting matches. I have always gotten great trades in Interval.

The instant exchanges on RCI are not great.
You need to do an ongoing search and set it up early so you are one of the first in line.
I've had luck getting HHV thru RCI, Manhattan Club for NYE and DVC thru ongoing searches.
I used my HGVC to get them. YMMV obviously depending on where you want to go and
what gets deposited.
Where HGVC moves up the chain is that RCI wants those HGVC points.
I've not compared lately but when I search RCI thru the DVC portal there is definitely
a difference in what the regular run of the mill RCI member sees as available inventory
for instant exchange. I'm assuming that it may be the same with HGVC as RCI wants
us to give them our DVC and HGVC points.

But I do agree if you are the type who wants the thrill of the hunt then stick with II.
I find that around 4am or 5am that I've done well getting exactly what I wanted from II.
I'm usually looking for Marriotts and the resorts that I prefer have literally loaded as I searched.
Good luck to you, I hope your II lucky streak continues. I do agree with you that they are
definitely much more exchange friendly lately than RCI. It pains me these days to give RCI
any more of my units. I don't feel they deserve my business anymore so II is definitely getting
most of my units and my exchange money.

 

[HudsHut]

Hi 2saltydawgs:
WorldMark has the vast majority of resorts along the Oregon/Washington coast, and does not deposit summer weeks into II because they are in such high demand by owners.
If there is no supply, it doesn't matter what resort you are using to trade, there will be no match. For that area, you'll need to rent or do a direct trade with a WorldMark owner.

 

[youknowthenight]

You can also get more weeks thru II using the XYZ scheme or usually with a fairly good week they'll
give you an AC that might have some value depending on where you want to go.
I know that they are great for getting nice Marriott's in Orlando and a few other places.
They have date restrictions but the value is certainly there for what they give you.

You can also upgrade to a platinum account and split that week into two 6 day vacations instead of just a
one week for 1 week. I think II doesn't do a good enough job of showing that they are more versatile
than we think. RCI is making themselves seem like they are doing us a huge favor but for me II is so
much better lately that I'm rarely giving much to RCI anymore. I'd much rather give a single week to
II and buy the re-trade with an option to finally end up with a perfect exchange. I've been buying the
re-trade now and it's the bomb.

How does the split work? Can I trade a Vistana week for two 6 day weeks?

 

[klpca]

How does the split work? Can I trade a Vistana week for two 6 day weeks?

In Interval it is called Short Stays. We are using one right now. You can book anything from 1 - 6 nights (obviously us tuggers will do 6 nights, lol). Inventory is limited, but there are great properties that pop up now and then. We deposited our New Orleans week then booked our first short stay (Marriott Desert Springs I) - two bedroom. We still have another short stay to use. We also received an AC for deposit. Expiration date is the expiration date of our week. You do have to pay two exchange fees, but I think ours was $159 for the 6 nights. I think this is a sweet deal. The major downside is that there is no ability to cancel. You bought it, you have to use it. No retrades, no eplus etc.