You'll get a variety of opinions about whether swapping points outside of
DVC is a good use of points, with the truth falling somewhere between the extremes that various parties express.
Basically you choose one or more potential vacation destinations and one or more times to travel (in 1-week units), and contact MS. MS immediately tells you the potential number of points involved--which you can also pull from charts in your member guidebook. Sometimes MS can make an immediate match, but more often you go on a waiting list until someone from one of your chosen resorts decides they'd like to come to a DVD resort, at which point MS calls you. You then have a couple of days in which to accept the trade or try waiting for a better one. It's a bit hit or miss, but it often works if you start a year or so ahead of time, aren't in a hurry for answers, and you're flexible about travel times and destinations. We called 15 months ahead of time for a particular week in Hawaii, gave several potential resort names (including one that we know tends to succeed) and within a few weeks we had our reservation.
Is it a good use of points? If you're willing to rent your points for cash and then arrange a condo rental directly from an owner at your destination, you can often strike a better deal; you can also arrange your own trade with another timeshare owner through various agencies and trade boards. Some people do this all the time with great success, while others find it too complicated or risky, or feel that the time and hassle involved aren't worth the trouble. Personally, I'm paid by the hour and I'm very busy, so it makes no sense for me to lose a couple of thousand dollars in income while I put in the time needed to save several hundred. The situation is different for other individuals, some retired and some simply well-informed travel hobbyists. These individuals often own several timeshares and have become quite skilled and knowledgeable at making trades outside of MS, and they post a lot of helpful advice on this board if you want to try that route.
Do you get good resorts? DVC certainly tries to limit choices to places that of quality that actually generate viable trades. But DVC resorts are very good themselves and, outside of Marriott and a couple of other companies, many resorts don't quite compare. There are, however, ways to research different places and within five minutes learn if visitors like and respect them.
In the long run, you probably should use DVC mostly for staying at DVC resorts. But it can be a prepaid way to trade out from time to time for variety. As I mentioned above, my family is staying in a 1-bedroom in Hawaii at a well-rated resort next spring break for 144 points. Could I have arranged an even better deal if I'd really dug into renting and trading? Probably. But I also know that our family would be much more likely to take a suite at a first-class hotel instead, where we'd pay three times as much as the value of our DVC points, so we're content with this arrangement.
