Interval International /

What the latest opinion on Interval International? What problems are members having using there services?

We belonged to Interval International and RCI for several years. I actually like II's business model better than RCI's. We never had problems getting the trades we wanted with II and never had any problem with their service.

With II you can search for an exchange BEFORE you deposit your week ..... that is a MAJOR advantage over RCI where you CAN'T search before you deposit your week.

Be aware that your owned resort will have to be affiliated with II before you can join. With RCI, you don't even have to own at any resort to join. Many people join to get their Last Call and Extra vacations.

waltk wrote:

What the latest opinion on Interval International? What problems are members having using there services?

We have been members of II and RCI for quite a few years. We jointed RCI for just the reasons that JayJay mentioned, but had no qualms deciding to stop. RCI prices are always higher than II, and we much prefer the II model, where you can look for an exchange before having to give up yours. On the other hand, we are very happy with II, and have just extended our membership through to 2012.

Those of you with II- does Italy have less availability? I have never been able to get available time , even in november. Or do the Italians not release weeks to II the way France and others do ?

It's DEAD wrong about II when it comes to look for exchange before DEPOSIT. A deposit HAS TO BE MADE prior look-up being done by II. II 's possibly changed their policy. It just happened to me at the time I searched for timeshare in Aruba.

Hi, To put a request in with II you do not need to deposit your resort to search on the website or phone or set up a pending for a place. You do have to be a member in good standing for the time you are looking for. If you have set up a search by there computer for anywhere and you get a match than your resort is immediatly deposited and than you get your confirmation. To start you have to pay the exchange fees to II but if you pull the resort back out before a match is made you receive a full refund. I'm not sure how new this program is but I've used it twice now in the past year and love it since I can still decide to rent my unit at it's home resort if I get tired of waiting to get a match.

johnh274 wrote:

It's DEAD wrong about II when it comes to look for exchange before DEPOSIT. A deposit HAS TO BE MADE prior look-up being done by II. II 's possibly changed their policy. It just happened to me at the time I searched for timeshare in Aruba.

I'm thinking of joining II, not so much to exchange my timeshare, but to buy extra availability weeks. What experience have people had buying "bonus" weeks?

johnh274 wrote:

It's DEAD wrong about II when it comes to look for exchange before DEPOSIT. A deposit HAS TO BE MADE prior look-up being done by II. II 's possibly changed their policy. It just happened to me at the time I searched for timeshare in Aruba.

I haven't heard anything about II changing their policy concerning not having to deposit before looking for an exchange. I hope they haven't changed because it was their strongest positive feature.

To whom It may address, It's great to have II as timeshare company. It will help you out for vacation planning/arrangements with a cost. One of their great benefits is buying Bonus weeks. One disadvantage is Not all the time you can grab bonus week for hotel of your choice or location of your favorite due to their availability. Be mentally ready and prepared if you could not buy bonus weeks of your plan

samuelb15 wrote:

I'm thinking of joining II, not so much to exchange my timeshare, but to buy extra availability weeks. What experience have people had buying "bonus" weeks?

However, if you were getting II to perform an ongoing search for Aruba, then yes you would have had to deposit your week.

johnh274 wrote:

It's DEAD wrong about II when it comes to look for exchange before DEPOSIT. A deposit HAS TO BE MADE prior look-up being done by II. II 's possibly changed their policy. It just happened to me at the time I searched for timeshare in Aruba.

John, You do not need to make a deposit to look!

What you need to do is show what timeshare and date you have in your II acct that you would use for exchange for your trade! II should show this week in your acct already.

I would think that then a filter system would kick in so you see what is available to you! I might be wrong about the filter but this is what II has told me!

johnh274 wrote:

To whom It may address, It's great to have II as timeshare company. It will help you out for vacation planning/arrangements with a cost. One of their great benefits is buying Bonus weeks. One disadvantage is Not all the time you can grab bonus week for hotel of your choice or location of your favorite due to their availability. Be mentally ready and prepared if you could not buy bonus weeks of your plan

samuelb15 wrote:

I'm thinking of joining II, not so much to exchange my timeshare, but to buy extra availability weeks. What experience have people had buying "bonus" weeks?

Samuel,

II also offers "getaways". These can be weeks at a timeshare or cruises. I have not used them, but I check them from time to time. If you can access II on the internet, you can browse the getaways that become available at different times of the year.

I should add that the getaways I have seen are not for prime season, but the weekly rates can be really attractive.

These getaways could be an option to get extra vacation time without having to give up your timeshare week.

Tim

phill12 wrote:

johnh274 wrote:

It's DEAD wrong about II when it comes to look for exchange before DEPOSIT. A deposit HAS TO BE MADE prior look-up being done by II. II 's possibly changed their policy. It just happened to me at the time I searched for timeshare in Aruba.

John, You do not need to make a deposit to look!

What you need to do is show what timeshare you would trade for your trade! I would think that then a filter system would kick in so you see what is available to you! I might be wrong about the filter but this is what II has told me!

Correct you have to show which unit you are trading to start searching. This does not mean it is deposited with II it just means you are a member of II and have a unit to deposit. The only way they can search for you is to know what unit you will be using so they can search for compatable units. I was also told all trades are open to every member within 60 days of the date you wish to go away. Example: A yellow week can get a 5 star red week in that time frame of 60 days or under. Sometimes I don't see that working as promised since I have a few units to search with and even only searching for times that are 60 days or less some units pull up better trades for that time period. II also has flex exchange if you deposit your week with only 45 days left before the units actual week. I hate flex exchange since there never ever seems to be any good resorts to go to. I always make sure my decision on what I'm doing with that week is decided before 45 days to the time of my units week. The getaways that II offers look great. I was looking at them the other day and they wanted $554 for a week in the Dominican republic. Than I went directly to that resorts website in Dominican republic and played around booking those exact dates, room size and the resort wanted $2300. Big difference!

johnh274 wrote:

It's DEAD wrong about II when it comes to look for exchange before DEPOSIT. A deposit HAS TO BE MADE prior look-up being done by II. II 's possibly changed their policy. It just happened to me at the time I searched for timeshare in Aruba.

You can search prior to depositing your week, the one rule is you can only do this if you are searching prior to the week your exchanging, otherwise you must deposit first.

We purchased at Westgate Flamingo Bay (2BR Sleeps 8) a couple of years ago for our first timeshare. Bought for $16K thru Westgate (mistake #1; buy aftermarket) It is a 5 Star beautiful timeshare resort. We banked (deposited) our first 2 years weeks with II and used bonus weeks to stay at the resort each year (Wonderful time). With our banked weeks we requested 2 weeks in a 5 star 2 BR timeshare in Hawaii for January 2008 and were told no problem. II called about every 2 months during 2007 to make sure we were still interested and continued to say that there was no problems. In November we started calling II and were told that nothing was available but they saw no problem in filling our request. Now we are told that nothing ever became available so we are out of luck. They suggested we could purchase 1 BR getaways for $1,000 per week. We are now scrambling to find an exchange before our first deposited week expires in May. No 5 star resorts available. Apparently all they have in inventory are lesser known resorts and off season. We had hoped to exchange for top resorts such as Hawaii & Atlantis in the Bahamas and now understand that those exchanges are unattainable. II & RCI should quit including resorts in their catalogs that they never get in inventory.

richards115 wrote:

We purchased at Westgate Flamingo Bay (2BR Sleeps 8) a couple of years ago for our first timeshare. Bought for $16K thru Westgate (mistake #1; buy aftermarket) It is a 5 Star beautiful timeshare resort. We banked (deposited) our first 2 years weeks with II and used bonus weeks to stay at the resort each year (Wonderful time). With our banked weeks we requested 2 weeks in a 5 star 2 BR timeshare in Hawaii for January 2008 and were told no problem. II called about every 2 months during 2007 to make sure we were still interested and continued to say that there was no problems. In November we started calling II and were told that nothing was available but they saw no problem in filling our request. Now we are told that nothing ever became available so we are out of luck. They suggested we could purchase 1 BR getaways for $1,000 per week. We are now scrambling to find an exchange before our first deposited week expires in May. No 5 star resorts available. Apparently all they have in inventory are lesser known resorts and off season. We had hoped to exchange for top resorts such as Hawaii & Atlantis in the Bahamas and now understand that those exchanges are unattainable. II & RCI should quit including resorts in their catalogs that they never get in inventory.

You should call II again and complain that the Vacation advisors kept telling you it wouldn't be a problem getting this exchange. I do a lot of pendings and been told straight out that some are almost impossible each time they call and they would ask me to add other resorts or new dates. I do not know why they kept telling you it was going to work. I've always gotten my pendings but I usually put them in 12 to 11 months in advance but I never tried for Hawaii. Having a 5 star resort doesn't make a difference usually when your exchanging. A 5 star resort helps but you need a more comprable trade to get Hawaii or Atlantis. If you had a 5 star on the beach in January or a holiday week in a popular resort area than you most likely would get the exchange . I had a week 53 I deposited from the New York area and was told that week had strong trading power and could be used for Hawaii or Disney. When I did searches on the II site using this week it would pull up 30 or 40 resorts per time frame but my week 50, 5 star on the beach in Mexico unit would only pull up 4 or 5 resorts during the same search. It goes by demand for your unit. I still would complain since they gave you false info during your calls.

In my own observations, although II reps are usually much more knowledgeable than RCI reps, the experience level of the individual phone rep always makes a world of difference, regardless of the exchange company involved. Some phone reps seem unwilling to ever acknowledge that they "just plain don't know" something, while others seem to feel free to offer opinions which are completely unencumbered by any actual knowledge. It's a crap shoot.

These days, the whole exchange picture is very dynamic and changing quite rapidly anyhow. Personally, I fully expect the availability of quality exchanges to continue (it's already well under way) to diminish steadily with BOTH RCI and II, as each of these companies branches out into conducting their own direct rentals. RCI has already bought into SnapTravel and LeisureLink, for no other purpose than offering direct rentals (which is much more profitable for them than just collecting piddling exchange fees). And, of course, any and all weeks "held aside" by any exchange company to be offered for direct rental (and obviously, only the more desirable weeks and places get "put aside" for direct rental) then are NOT ever available to members as "exchange" inventory.

In summary, these days it certainly seems best to buy and own ONLY that which you would either use, as is, or perhaps to rent out yourself on occasion. Buying or owning primarily to "exchange" is increasingly becoming just a fool's errand, thanks in large measure to the ever changing practices of the major exchange companies, RCI being both the biggest and (in my opinion) by far the worst offender. II is certainly not in line for sainthood either, they are just not as big or as bad....

Hawaii (especially 5* and Gold Crown resorts) and Harborside at Atlantis are two of the most sought after locations in timesharing.

With locations as popular as the two above, you need to deposit very early .... at least a year out (preferably more) and start an ongoing search. With an ongoing search those people that are waiting in line will get any weeks that become available, leaving those that are merely checking from week to week with nothing.

jayjay wrote:

Hawaii (especially 5* and Gold Crown resorts) and Harborside at Atlantis are two of the most sought after locations in timesharing.

With locations as popular as the two above, you need to deposit very early .... at least a year out (preferably more) and start an ongoing search. With an ongoing search those people that are waiting in line will get any weeks that become available, leaving those that are merely checking from week to week with nothing.

============= There are a few opportunities to use RCI Points to exchange into a Gold Crown resort in Hawaii in 2008. Though it's high on the point scale (60,000+ points for a 1 BR).

richards115 wrote:

We purchased at Westgate Flamingo Bay (2BR Sleeps 8) a couple of years ago for our first timeshare. Bought for $16K thru Westgate (mistake #1; buy aftermarket) It is a 5 Star beautiful timeshare resort. We banked (deposited) our first 2 years weeks with II and used bonus weeks to stay at the resort each year (Wonderful time). With our banked weeks we requested 2 weeks in a 5 star 2 BR timeshare in Hawaii for January 2008 and were told no problem. II called about every 2 months during 2007 to make sure we were still interested and continued to say that there was no problems. In November we started calling II and were told that nothing was available but they saw no problem in filling our request. Now we are told that nothing ever became available so we are out of luck. They suggested we could purchase 1 BR getaways for $1,000 per week. We are now scrambling to find an exchange before our first deposited week expires in May. No 5 star resorts available. Apparently all they have in inventory are lesser known resorts and off season. We had hoped to exchange for top resorts such as Hawaii & Atlantis in the Bahamas and now understand that those exchanges are unattainable. II & RCI should quit including resorts in their catalogs that they never get in inventory.

this is really a 'trade power' issue. It is the same issue that people within RCI experience and the same holds true for II. II is a broker, they do not make the decisions, the decisions were set up when the system was implemented. It works like a bank system. you get out what you 'can afford' to get out. If you have a 5 star 4 bedroom in Branson, you are never going to 'see' or be 'told' that there is any availability in Hawaii, London, Paris, Vail, Aspen, etc... those time locations sell for 2-10 times the price of properties in Branson, Tennessee, Oregon, Florida, Hilton head etc... the reality is simply this: if you purchased your time share in those places and paid those prices, you can expect to see availability within like priced or equal value resorts. Likewise if you purchased in Paris or London, or Hawaii at Hyatt, Westin, Four Seasons etc... you paid top DOLLAR for your weeks... they do not get any 'value back' when they trade 'down' to stay at Branson, Tennessee, Florida or Oregon... but they do get to see everything that is available in the I.I. sytem and you do not. You are told no worries, because there 'might' be a 4 star or a 'select' property that comes available, but the chances are slim... you will not be finding availablitity in the Hyatt's, Westin's, Four Seasons, World Mark or Raintree resorts in those Peak season times in any of those locations. its how the sytem works. You have other locations available and you are doing much better to own something rather than 'stay in a hotel', but the system has its flaws, its not perfect. Not all time share and vacation ownerships are created eqaul. Fact of the system....