Originally posted by dougmatt
Dean,
As always thanks in advance for your reply, your experience in this topic is apreciated! We re looking to trade DVC for Hawaii for this coming XMAS week. I may have a private trade for a condo (posted on Renter's Board) so if that comes through awesome! But if not, I have had searches running via DVC for about a month with no results. What do you think our chances of hitting a match are? Are we crazy thinking we can get this particular week? Is there a particular time we should hope to get a match by? Are there any HI resorts on DVC list not worth 1 to 1 trade? Any guidance would be greatly apreciated!
Doug
Realizing that the war and related issues have skewed things, I doubt very mucy you'll get a match outside the 60 day window unless you are willing to accept a studio, even then you're at risk. You're already late at this point. Frankly there are many resorts that I personally wouldn't trade into as a 1 to 1 even trade in HI. The resorts I'd likely take that are on the DVC list would include The Marriotts on Maui and Kauai and Hanalei Bay and possibly Intrawest, though it has only Sunday checkins). That's about it. Expect the 2 new Marriott's (new) and Westin to be available eventually and both Embassy resorts (rumored to be changing to II). There are many other resorts I'd consider but not even exchange. Some are better than others though so it depends on how badly you want to go, what you want to do, which island you want and the like. There are a few other resorts I'd consider than are not on the II-DVC list and some only with RCI. If you need a larger unit and don't have kids that need to be entertained, consider One Napili Way. One issue with the 2 current Marriott's is they only have a mini kitchen.
I went through this for our trip last summer. I knew I wanted to use FF miles for the tickets so getting something by the 330 window was an issue. My plan was to look for 2 weeks back to back and hope I got at least one before I needed to make my airline reservations. I would then make assumptions and make my air reservations then if necessary make cancellable rental or hotel reservations. I worked through II directly, DVC-II request, SFX, Trading Places, Platininum Interchange and direct exchange listings (TUG mostly). I was offered Kona Coast through DVC soon but I declined that one for several reasons to include the fact it's a fairly easy exchange and I could get it with my cheaper timeshares and the Big Island wasn't really where we wanted to go. I was offered the Schooner through I think it was TP but declined as that wasn't where I wanted to go and I felt the quality was below our tolerance. I was also offered Lawaii Beach through someone (I forget who) and with the way they assign units felt it was too risky. I ened up joining SFX and doing a request first through them and got a 1 BR a the Embassy on Maui using an Aruba week. I then concentrated on Kauai and got a direct exchange at the Embassy there for a 2 BR for 168 points but the other party ended up offering it as a rental instead at $900 and I felt the 168 points were worth more to me than $900 so I paid the rental fee instead. I then went back to SFX and gave them my second Aruba week for a second 1 BR at the Embassy.
So 2 weeks in HI for $84 fees on the FF, $900 rental, $149 3 year SFX membership, $198 exchange fees (SFX), $760 maint fees (2 Aruba weeks) and $500 or so interisland (8 segments). I ended up using none of my best traders (though the Aruba were very good) and no DVC points.
My advice is to do some soul searching and decide how important it is to you. You're already past the FF mile window so I doubt you're going that route. Decide what unit size, what islands, what weeks and what resorts you're willing to accept. Then go out and get them much as I did. Good luck, I hope this helps.
How can you possibly vacation enough to warrant all the ts's you own? Must be NICE 
.. Maybe one day 
.... 
