New policy II Exchange Fee

[Donald-n-Daisy]

Anyone else hear this?

Spoke to MS today and was told to do a search you must put up the $75 fee in advance only to be returned if no match is found.

If a match is found and you decide not to accept, there are several scenarios, but you ultimately could lose that $75 even though you never made a reservation.

They are trying to cut down on the number of searches that ultimately never book for one reason or another. I can see their problem, but am not very pleased with their solution. They could limit your number of searches either by time period or by number of resorts.

Travel agencies (on-line or conventional) don't take money just to check availability and then keep it if you change your mind as to where or when you want to travel.

I could see even see imposing a small penalty ($ 5 - 10) for searches that come up positive and are turned down by members. But not $75

As I recall we (members) already put in thousands of dollars "up front".

OK I'll stop now.

Does this bother anyone else?

-Donald

 

[Dizzie]

I have MS doing a search for me for Oct 04 in Hawaii. MS said that if I call them and have them stop searching at any point the $75 is refundable.

 

[BillPA]

I'm one of those that doesn't get upset on what one CM says. In my 10+ years as a DVC member, many "negative rumors" have turned out to be just a misunderstanding. I'm not suggesting you have anything to do with it, I'm just saying before we all get our blood pressure up, to wait for the new members guide in a few weeks and see if it is in writing.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I sure we will all look closer at the new guide to see what, if anything they are trying to do to us.

 

[Dean]

This is the way II works normally. You pay up front then if you cancel or don't match, you get a refund. The issue is what constitutes a match and what does not. DVC is the only group I'm aware of in II that gets search first across the board. Marriott gets it for only other Marriott's. The rest of II only gets it for weeks that occur before what you're giving up. Normally with II, if you have a search and you match, you are stuck. If you cancel you lose your exchange fee AND a significant amount of your trade power. You then have a year to use the exchange regardless of when your deposit would have been good till. My guess is if they offer you an exchange that meets your request, you will be on the hook for the fee.

 

[ClarabelleCow]

I have a timeshare with RCI - If you want to exchange, you must deposit your week before they will even search. I thought II was different, that they will do the search before you deposit? Now I know DVC is also different, will they search for you before you deposit your time?/

 

[Dean]

Originally posted by ClarabelleCow
I have a timeshare with RCI - If you want to exchange, you must deposit your week before they will even search. I thought II was different, that they will do the search before you deposit? Now I know DVC is also different, will they search for you before you deposit your time?/

Regular members of II can search first but only for weeks that occur before the week you are giving up. That's not very useful in general as you need to deposit with II 10-12 months out to get the best trading power. It is useful for something like DVC because if you don't get it, you can easily do other things with your points.

 

[Doctor P]

Just to clarify one thing said by the OP--many, many travel agents are now charging a consultation/planning fee that is charged regardless of whether you choose to book or not. The cuts in commissions and the availability of online booking have really forced many travel agents to charge for the services they provide apart from the bookings themselves.