With AP prices getting me down -- talk to me about trading

[rutgers1]

I simply cannot stomach the price increases not only in AP's, but everywhere around Disney. However, the AP's have gotten to me the most. Income has not increased in this country since 2008, yet you would never know it based on the rate of price hikes at Disney World.

With that said, I can't see us going to Disney World as often. I can't afford it. I will either sell my points or use them to trade out. So, here is my question....What are your experiences with trading out?

We called Member Services and inquired about it a few months ago. The process seemed relatively painless, and the trade seemed to be pretty decent -- a nice size villa at a beautiful resort for a decent amount of time. If I recall, I was getting more space but a few less days per a similar amount of points used at a DVC resort. Does that sound about right?

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

Please come visit www.tug2.com to learn about trading. Trading DVC for any resort on RCI is just not a fair trade. At least when DVC was with II you could get something approximating what you were trading out. Not really so with RCI. You are far better off renting your points and the getting the RCI unit with cash on Redweek, Ebay, etc. That or sell DVC and get a cheap, great trader.

 

[ldo]

we have traded via RCI for 10 years (using another week, not DVC). We have gotten very nice units at Williamsburg, Hilton Head, Smugglers Notch, VT and Escondio (sp?) outside of San Diego, and Bermuda. All were great vacations. I agree with PP, DVC is expensive to use to trade out. My most expensive timeshare cost $8K and the one we used for Bermuda was a deal I got for under $1K. However, unlike DVC, other TS can be very hard to impossible to get rid of if you don't like them anymore. I agree with PP. Rent or trasnfer your points and then use the $$ to rent from an owner. If you have kids, cruises can be relatively reasonable.
Wllbg is driveable for you and a good vacation for families--you have both colonial wllbg and busch gardens. Passes to both are much less than WDW.

 

[bwvBound]

There are lots of other timeshare owners who would love to work a direct trade with you. It is quite possible that the DVC owner might be able to parley a unit or season upgrade when working a trade directly with the non-DVC-owner. Similar to post #2 above, please visit TUG!

 

[awilliams4]

Never traded. Every time I checked into it, it seems that you don't get even remotely close to a return on the value of your points. Far more return to just rent (or transfer) your points to someone for a fee and use the cash to pay for the same RCI (cruise, whatever) accommodations with the cash you got from renting....and the rest of the cash to pay for food, transportation, etc.

 

[a742246]

Sometimes trading into rci with Disney works out petty good! EX. trading into the Manhattan Club in NYC you can get a good deal, but more often than not you can make out better renting your points.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

True, but I can see Manhattan Club with my freebie timeshare too DVC has very high dues to use as a trader unfortunately. Nonetheless, people must be trading out of DVC in droves though, because trading IN is pretty easy so long as you like SSR.

 

[rutgers1]

There are lots of other timeshare owners who would love to work a direct trade with you. It is quite possible that the DVC owner might be able to parley a unit or season upgrade when working a trade directly with the non-DVC-owner. Similar to post #2 above, please visit TUG!

I was wondering what you meant by the "a unit or season upgrade" partpart.

I am assuming that hat you can rent directly from owners on Tug? And I could find someone to trade with me directly so I can bypass RCI?

I am disappointed that RCI doesn't work well for DVC owners. We are super bummed out over recent price increases. I have to admit that some of the magic is gone for us. We were hoping to soften the blow by making quick and easy trades through RCI and seeing some more of the country.

 

[bwvBound]

I was wondering what you meant by the "a unit or season upgrade" part.

I am assuming that hat you can rent directly from owners on Tug? And I could find someone to trade with me directly so I can bypass RCI?

I am disappointed that RCI doesn't work well for DVC owners. We are super bummed out over recent price increases. I have to admit that some of the magic is gone for us. We were hoping to soften the blow by making quick and easy trades through RCI and seeing some more of the country.

Generally, the timeshare exchange companies (RCI, II, etc.) attempt to shape trades to fit a pre-fab mold: "like for like." This means that trades are loosely structured to match unit sizes (studio trades to studio; 1BR to 1BR; etc), season (low season trades back to low season), resort quality/demand ("Gold Crown" to "Gold Crown" ... but "Silver" to "Silver"); etc.

Trading directly with other timeshare owners, skirting the big exchange companies entirely, tosses these rules out the window. The decision comes down to any agreement accepted by the involved parties. With DVC being such a unique, and highly requested, property -- the DVC owner can often negotiate "my 1BR for your 2BR?" or "my January week for your summer week?" These are what I was implying by "unit or season upgrades."

TUG does offer a vehicle for direct "owner to owner" exchanges. I'm not a huge fan of the interface, but it is a place to start:
http://www.tug2.net/timeshare_classified_ads/exchange_your_timeshare_for_free.html

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I was wondering what you meant by the "a unit or season upgrade" partpart.

I am assuming that hat you can rent directly from owners on Tug? And I could find someone to trade with me directly so I can bypass RCI?

I am disappointed that RCI doesn't work well for DVC owners. We are super bummed out over recent price increases. I have to admit that some of the magic is gone for us. We were hoping to soften the blow by making quick and easy trades through RCI and seeing some more of the country.

The pass increase killed the last of the magic for us too, so we listed our points for sale (one contract sold, one to go!). If the magic is gone for you too, why not actually sell the points and then just use cash to pick up either a cheap trader or just rent with cash from redweek, tug, Ebay, etc.? You can very economically travel in timeshares that way without having the very pricey DVC dues to go along with the trip.

I guess that for me, if you're not using DVC to go to Disney, it's not really economical no matter how they sell the "trading out" option. There are so many other timeshares out there, so many great traders that can be had for cheap or even free (do your research before you commit tho!). DVC was great while it lasted, but at least for now the magic is gone for at least some of us.

 

[ldo]

for those who want to sell and get a different timeshare, I highly advise to read tug2.net forums. You can get first-hand reports from owners of pros/cons of different timeshares. The TUG direct exchange board is not the best, although I have done many direct exchanges with Tuggers. I think that there might be a Marriott direct exchange on a Marriott owners board somewhere on the web, as well. TUG is definitely the place to start.
There are many good exchanges via RCI with DVC, but most savvy RCIers pull their exchanges over 1 year out, so if you are looking at 9 months out, all the good trades are usually gone. We just got back from an Aug. exchange to Bermuda that was outstanading. We also went to S. Cal (traded 15 months out) and to Banff, Canada (15 months out). Banff was not fancy at all--in fact the smallest 2Br you can imagine (600 sq ft). But, the scenery and proximity to Banff town and national park was fabulous. Everyone loved it--including my hard to please teens.