What Exchanges Can Do For You:
- Give you access to over 7000 resorts world-wide
- Allow you to use fewer points per vacation - doubling (or more) the vacations you are able to take each year.
- Potential to upgrade into a larger unit, at a nicer resort, for fewer points than a standard WM condo
What Companies Offer Exchange Services:
- Large exchange companies - Interval International (II) and Resort
Condominiums International (RCI )
- Independent Exchange companies - San Francisco Exchange, Dial-An-Exchange (also many others)
- Owner-to-Owner Direct Exchange - Redweek.com, Timeshare Users Group (TUG) web site (www.tug2.net) classifieds
What Things Affect Exchanges:
- When you want to go
Some individuals are only able to travel during peak holidays and summer vacations - this will increase the amount of competition for the available deposits and decrease your options for travel.
Other individuals are able to travel on shorter notice (within 59 days of travel date), during off-peak times, or within a larger set of travel dates - they will find significantly more options!
- Where you want to travel
Traveling to a general area (the Caribbean) will increase your options vs. traveling to a specific, high demand resort (add specific dates to this equation and you can see where you have really narrowed your chances of getting an exchange).
Also remember to factor in that some resorts have limited
exchange activity (thus few owner deposits) or are very small.
- What you are using to trade
If you are requesting an exchange - your exchange is being considered based on the effective trading power of ALL the Worldmark resorts giving you the most powerful search possible with WM.
If you decide to deposit a week (in order to save credits) your deposit will be rated by many factors depending on which exchange company you are using and when the deposit is made. When you make an exchange using this unit, you are only pulling possible matches based on the effective trading power of this one unit.
- Last Minute Exchanges:
II Flexchanges with 59-day Window; RCI Instant Exchanges with 45-day Window
During this time period, you will be able to see almost ALL inventory, with few exceptions, regardless of the trading power normally required.
The cost for confirming a Flexchange is only 4000 credits + housekeeping charge for the appropriate unit size.
For those people who do not wish to deposit a week into II or RCI in order to save credits on exchanges, Last Minute Exchange allows you another opportunity to exchange at a reduced rate.
- Other things that influence your ability to exchange
- Lack of owner deposits
No deposits = no inventory
- Rentals
Both II and RCI have increased renting inventory to individuals that do not own timeshare.
- Vacation Clubs
A vacation club is an organization that goes to the developers and purchases developer weeks and then sells a membership allowing individuals access to their inventory and effectively decreasing what is available each year through II / RCI.
- Weather / Political Climate
Hurricanes, civil unrest, gas prices, etc all factor into whether or not people will be taking vacations.
- What Exchanges Can I Expect To Confirm
There are no guarantees when exchanging! For a lot of people it is a cat and mouse game and they live for the chase
The best advice would be to research where you want to go and ask for advice on the viability of an exchange there. A good place to post these questions would be here on the WM Owners Forum or on TUG.
Another good resource is checking the various boards for "sightings". A "sighting" is a message another forum member has posted when they run across an exchange they feel is too good to pass up. Places to look for previous sightings would be:
- WMOwners Vacation Exchange Information Forum
- TUG Sightings Board
- Worldmark the Club Forum Archives
- WMOwners Sightings Forum
