If you are trying to trade into a Marriott timeshare resort through a
DVC World Passport Collection exchange, be aware of the following:
-- There will be no matches possible until owners at that Marriott resort begin to deposit weeks with Interval International (I.I.).
-- At most Marriott timeshare resorts, the owners cannot reserve weeks until 12 months before the check-in date, so there are no weeks to deposit with I.I. until that time. (Actually, multiple week owners can reserve 13 months before the check-in date for concurrent or consecutive weeks; but such reservations have a single confirmation number, and thus also cannot be desposited with I.I. until they are broken up into discrete weeks, which can be done 12 months before the check-in date.)
-- A Marriott owner who wants to deposit a week for exchange typically deposits his/her reserved week anywhere from 12 months to 60 days before the check-in date. In the past, there was no reason to deposit quickly, because the trading power of the week stayed the same at any time during this period. As of about a year ago, I.I. changed the rules, but it's unlikely that most Marriott owners know this yet.
-- After a Marriott week is deposited with I.I., that week is only available to other Marriott owners (with sufficient trading power) for up to 3 weeks. First I.I. matches pending requests from other owners. Then, if there are no more pending requests, I.I. put the week into the pool for instant matches -- but only to other Marriott owners (with sufficient trading power).
-- Once the 3-week Marriott preference is over, an unmatched Marriott week can finally "escape" into the general I.I. exchange pool.
-- Once again, I.I. matches pending requests first, but this time requests from any I.I. member are considered, not just from Marriott owners.
That's where it really pays to put in your search early. Only after pending requests have been matched, the week is available for instant matches for any I.I. member. In any case, I.I. matches comparable weeks, so strong traders (like DVC) can get exchanges that weak traders can't get.
Okay, that's a lot of detail. Dean said it more succinctly. The bottom line is: When trading DVC to Marriott, don't expect anything until 49 weeks before check-in at the earliest. Be prepared to wait much longer than that, as other Marriott owners have priority over DVC members. And realize that you may not get you want, if you go somewhere where the demand exceeds the supply.
