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starwood owner-my first 2 II exchanges succesful

djp

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In the last two weeks I have made my first two forays into the world of external exchange. I have gotten the vibe that alot of starwood owners dismiss the II exchange as a bad deal, and that has been my opinion until now. Now I wuld agree that when it comes to prime Starwood weeks the external deal could be a bad deal unless trading for another elite resort...DVC,FSA etc, but I have had 2 good experiences trading my non prime season starwood weeks through II.
My first trade made me the most happy, we have been planning this summer to go to Colorado and stay at the sheraton mountain vista where we own. I actually had made a reservation at SMV using our summer 2brlo. But I did a request first using one side (the small side) of our lock off there and it actually pulled a full 2brlo at SMV for the same week as the unit we were trading! This really made me happy. I give you a dollar and you give me $2.25.

When I scored the 2brlo in exchange for the smaller 1br, I went ahead and deposited the large side in II as well. I have been searching for a last minute trip to Califoria coast and yesterday scored a week at Harbortown resort Ventura, in what is basically a 2br. While this resort is not up to starwood standards it is a five star on the california coast, and I got it with my summer 1br at SMV.
The final test is still in the works, but it is looking good. We deposited our 2brlo ski week at SMV with II looking for a 2br at DVC next year. I put in a broad search-april through October at any DVC. I am still waiting for confirmation, but they did call and offer me a 2br at Wilderness villas for this year, so this trade looks like it will come to pass.
I imagine for the most part I will stick to internal exchange, but so far so good with II.
 

Denise L

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Congrats on your II exchanges! So basically you got 1 week in a 2 bedroom at your home resort and 1 week in a 2 bedroom in SoCal, and 1 week in a 2 bedroom at Disney's VWL!?! You did great :) !
 

ciscogizmo1

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Disney: Beach Club Villas & Bay Lake Towers
I'm glad to here you got some great exchanges. I haven't exchanged my Westin unit in II yet but I've done about 8 Marriott exchanges and I've been very happy with them.
 

tomandrobin

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Two bedrooms units at DVC are hard to come by, when excnaging thru II. If you get one take it! September, January, early November and May might be your best chances.

If I was a skier, I would work out a direct trade. But my wife does not like the temperature outside when it gets below 60! So its pretty much warmer weather vacations for us, which isn't necessarily all bad!
 

djp

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I understand that 2brs at dvc are hard to come by, what happened was that as I requested the different resorts I meant to put april 2008-october 2008, but on the wilderness lodge, I accidentally put april 2007-October 2008. So they called me with a 2br at wilderness in sptember 2007, which we can not do, but it shows me that the odds are good to get a 2br in our time frame for next year.
 

Henry M.

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I think I posted this before but don't remember the thread. I ended up having to deposit my WKORV studio in late December 2005 because of my poor planning. Starwood deposited a 1BR SDO, April 17 unit. They said that was the best they could do so late in the year. This gave me only 16 months to use my exchange since the exchange is good for 24 months from the week that is deposited.

Late last year I decided to see what I could do with it and found a 2BR unit in Schliersee, in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps in Germany. It is a Sunterra resort. I just went to the Interval web site and checked what was available for my kids Spring Break. I'm headed there tomorrow so I'll find out how great or bad of an exchange it was. The pictures look nice and I can't complain about getting a 2BR for my studio. The area where it is located is very beautiful so I'll be happy if the place is even just so-so.
 

ciscogizmo1

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I think I posted this before but don't remember the thread. I ended up having to deposit my WKORV studio in late December 2005 because of my poor planning. Starwood deposited a 1BR SDO, April 17 unit. They said that was the best they could do so late in the year. This gave me only 16 months to use my exchange since the exchange is good for 24 months from the week that is deposited.

Late last year I decided to see what I could do with it and found a 2BR unit in Schliersee, in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps in Germany. It is a Sunterra resort. I just went to the Interval web site and checked what was available for my kids Spring Break. I'm headed there tomorrow so I'll find out how great or bad of an exchange it was. The pictures look nice and I can't complain about getting a 2BR for my studio. The area where it is located is very beautiful so I'll be happy if the place is even just so-so.

That sounds like a great trade to me. We've stayed in a dive and still had fun in San Francisco. I can't wait to hear about your trip when you return.
 

tomandrobin

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I understand that 2brs at dvc are hard to come by, what happened was that as I requested the different resorts I meant to put april 2008-october 2008, but on the wilderness lodge, I accidentally put april 2007-October 2008. So they called me with a 2br at wilderness in sptember 2007, which we can not do, but it shows me that the odds are good to get a 2br in our time frame for next year.

Just another note about DVC. Owners at individual resorts reserve from 11 to 7 months out from their stay at Disney. More then likely your request would be honored after that time frame, less then 7 months out. Also, its a point based system. Members don't deposit units, only points, which is another reason you don't see the two bedrooms alot.
 

Henry M.

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I just got back from my trip to Germany and I am very happy with the trade that I got. The AlpenClub Schliersee is not WKOR, but I did get a 2 BR unit in exchange for my studio so I think this was a fair trade. The weather was great (but it can be bad this time of the year) and we had a great vacation with sidetrips to München, Salzburg and various small areas between München and Austria.

The resort is located in a small town about an hour train ride from Munich. It is located near a small lake and is surrounded by mountains. It is close to Spitzingsee where Starwood has a nice Alpine hotel. This time of the year they'd normally have a lot of skiers in the area, but this year the winter has been very warm and the ski areas nearby are closed. We are noit slkiers so this was OK with us, but others could have been disappointed.

Our unit had two bedrooms, with a single bath, a small kitchen/dinette area and a living room area as well as a balcony with a table and some chairs. One room had a double bed (two single mattresses in a double frame) and the other had two separate single beds. The living room had a very comfortable double sleeper sofa. The terms single and double don't directly relate to American bed sizes. If you've ever stayed at a local German hotel you will know that a single bed is a little narrower than an American twin bed, it has a firm but comfortable mattress and they all use a comforter instead of sheets and a blanket. Double beds are the size of two single beds. It was the same arrangement here.

Overall I think this was a fair trade for my studio in Maui (even though Starwood deposited a 1br SDO week into II). I think the value of what I got was on par with the value of the studio. My vacation was great and everyone in the family enjoyed the sights and being in the location we were in.

Regarding DVC, if I needed a 2BR Disney resort, I would probably go to the trade and exchange section of the Disney Boards. See http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29. There are a lot of DVC owners there and many would be interested in working out a deal for Maui or other Starwood locations. I wish we could have a forum like that for our own TUGger trades here. II might work but availability for 2BR is usually hard to find.
 
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