Who has traded DVC through II? Where was it and how did you enjoy the experience?

[icydog]

Wow, thank you very much for sharing all that information. I copied it and placed it in my files to refer to when I want to make an exchange. I keep all the things I pick up on this board, tug, ts4ms etc in one place so I can refer to them when I need them.

BTW, I know one way to exchange to a two bdrm Marriott with a one bdrm is to try and exchange to a resort that only has two bdrm units like the Marriott Newport Coast. That is of course if the resort you're trading is good enough.

 

[mark&sue]

We live in the UK and wanted to go away for our spring school holidays and not pay for any travel costs. We phoned up MS and just asked for anything available in the UK for that week. They said they had a villa in Devon and we booked there and then.

Here is the thread with photos which I posted earlier this year

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1034064

Hope you find somewhere you really enjoy.


Susan

 

[Dean]

Wow, thank you very much for sharing all that information. I copied it and placed it in my files to refer to when I want to make an exchange. I keep all the things I pick up on this board, tug, ts4ms etc in one place so I can refer to them when I need them.

BTW, I know one way to exchange to a two bdrm Marriott with a one bdrm is to try and exchange to a resort that only has two bdrm units like the Marriott Newport Coast. That is of course if the resort you're trading is good enough.

That doesn't work with DVC as they won't let you search for a 1 BR unit at resorts that only have 2 BR non lockoff's. Even in flexchange, you're looking at full 2 BR points. Those are two of the reasons I'd like to see DVC change the II affiliation so I could add DVC to my regular II account. The best you could do would be to try to find out the relative availability of 1 BR to 2 BR deposits and concentrate on resorts that have a favorable number of 2 BR deposits compared to 1 BR units. The Royal's seem to be the best example that I personally am aware of. And as such I'd recommend anyone who could survive with a 1 BR (4 people or less) to search for one and pray for a 2 BR. The problem is II doesn't give out the info and even finding the relative number of unit types for a given resort can be quite a chore. The Royal resort (cayman's) seems to be favorable in tis area as well. Places like Aruba seem to have the reverse problem with a lot of 1 BR and studios and most 2 BR are lockoff's.

 

[AnnaS]

I also want to thank you very much Dean. You are a wonderful source of helpful information. You give us more to think about and consider.

 

[dvc at last !]

Dean,

You are a wealth of information.

 

[Dean]

I also want to thank you very much Dean. You are a wonderful source of helpful information. You give us more to think about and consider.

Very kind words indeed. Thank you Anna, esp. the think and consider portion.

 

[icydog]

That doesn't work with DVC as they won't let you search for a 1 BR unit at resorts that only have 2 BR non lockoff's. Even in flexchange, you're looking at full 2 BR points. Those are two of the reasons I'd like to see DVC change the II affiliation so I could add DVC to my regular II account.

Is there any reason Disney has gone this route with II. I have other timeshares that trade in II, all Marriott's, and I find that not having the same selection as everyone else is a disadvantage. Also everyone from II has the opportunity to see what's available at DVC and to reserve there. Most likely there won't be anything to look at but sometimes folks, myself included, have traded into DVC with other timeshares. Other II members can see DVC but we can't go on line to see them. Seems a little repressive to me and very unfair. Do DVC and II have some sort of Sweetheart Deal that permits us very limited resorts and no access to inventory at all.. I know we don't pay II fees if we search using DVC's member services group but I could fold my DVC resorts into my II account. Even those who don't have II accounts might welcome the opportunity to see all that is available to them in Interval by paying yearly fees.

 

[Dean]

Is there any reason Disney has gone this route with II. I have other timeshares that trade in II, all Marriott's, and I find that not having the same selection as everyone else is a disadvantage. Also everyone from II has the opportunity to see what's available at DVC and to reserve there. Most likely there won't be anything to look at but sometimes folks, myself included, have traded into DVC with other timeshares. Other II members can see DVC but we can't go on line to see them. Seems a little repressive to me and very unfair. Do DVC and II have some sort of Sweetheart Deal that permits us very limited resorts and no access to inventory at all.. I know we don't pay II fees if we search using DVC's member services group but I could fold my DVC resorts into my II account. Even those who don't have II accounts might welcome the opportunity to see all that is available to them in Interval by paying yearly fees.

I'm sure there is a reason but I can't speak for them. Based on the info I have, I believe it's a combo of things. Partly to have control themselves and partly as a method to try to limit the chance of negative experiences and therefore member complaints. IMO, they feel the members are not knowledgeable enough in this area and they would get a lot of complaints from inferior exchanges and if that's the reason, they are likely correct. To truly dissect this you'd likely have to discuss each component independently which I won't do at this time. I suspect some of the other issues come from II. I can understand some but can't understand why something in flexchange would be the same as otherwise other than that DVC simply wasn't knowledgeable enough themselves in this area to know to structure it differently. There are other systems with a somewhat similar setup as DVC though none I know of that are nearly as restrictive.

I think a change to allow us to add DVC to our regular II account would benefit you and I but likely would not the regular DVC member who has little plans to trade much or at all. But certainly there are changes that could happen that would.

But to take the other side for a moment, no one searching outside the 60 day window sees everything, only the portion II things they should. You know the idea of not trading up or down too much.

 

[pouncingpluto]

Partly to have control themselves and partly as a method to try to limit the chance of negative experiences and therefore member complaints.

This basically fits what our guide told us, which was that the resorts we have access to are the best of the II resorts, those that best correspond to DVC's level of quality.

 

[Dean]

This basically fits what our guide told us, which was that the resorts we have access to are the best of the II resorts, those that best correspond to DVC's level of quality.

There is still considerable variability of quality. And while on the surface it may seem that other II members (non DVC) have access to everything in the book, this is not really the case. II already limits how far up or down you can trade. They do this both by resort quality/rating and by trade power of the week deposited.

 

[icydog]

When we bought DVC 15 years ago, Disney thought we would all be trading our weeks around, at least in the last 10 years they have. I don't think they have re-visited this aspect of trading at all. Look at other big timeshare companies, Marriott, BlueGreen, Hilton, Hyatt, Fairfield, World Mark, Sheraton and Sunterra; they all allow you access to their resorts first, but then you are given a special line in II or RCI to call to reserve non-company owned resorts.


That could work for DVC as well. We could have a designated rep in II to help our members pick the right resorts and show them how to deposit and reserve vacation time. We could still have the best II resorts in the DVC portfolio, and not all the resorts in DVC's portfolio are that good, and choose exclusively from them. I hate having this White Elephant in my list of timeshares. I can't see what's available on line and have to depend on a cast member to decide what might work for my vacation.

If we had internet access I could do what I always do, reserve a week, deposit the week into II, search for something I really wanted, if it wasn't available I could put in an ongoing search until it shows up. It is not Rocket Science. I learned to do this and so do all the members of Interval International. What makes Disney believe that DVC members cannot master this process???