Interval International

Timeshare exchange is one of the reasons timeshare owners love their vacation properties. It’s hassle-free vacation ownership with the opportunity to enjoy a different location every time you travel.

Trading Places International is a timeshare exchange company with over 35 years of experience in helping timeshare owners just like you. Best of all, you don’t have to pay an annual membership fee to take advantage of many of the timeshare exchange opportunities they provide.

With hundreds of timeshare resort destinations in their inventory, Trading Places International offers an easy way for you to exchange your timeshare, paying only an internal exchange fee (swapping timeshare at your own resort) or an external exchange fee when you want to vacation at a different resort. Fees range from approximately $109 to $159, depending on location and the type of exchange. You can also bank your timeshare through Trading Places International, meaning that you can “turn in” your timeshare now and enjoy a different timeshare resort in the future, up to three years from the date you make your deposit.

If you have more specific timeshare exchange needs, Trading Places International offers paid membership benefits, further expanding your timeshare exchange opportunities.

Timeshare Owners Have Choices When it Comes to Timeshare Exchange

In addition to Trading Places International timeshare exchange, there are other companies, including the two largest, RCI (Resort Condominium International) and II (Interval International). There are also timeshare exchange companies that specialize in properties in a certain region as well as several companies that, like Trading Places International, offer a no annual fee option.

With so many choices available to you, anyone interested in timeshare exchange should be able to find a company that fits his or her needs and vacation desires. As a timeshare owner (or prospective timeshare buyer), remember that timeshare exchange is a benefit of ownership you can really make work to your advantage; it is flexible and available in a variety of formats to fit every vacation need.

Starting July 16, 2009, the Marriott Vacation Club timeshare program will change its timeshare points system by integrating Marriott Vacation Club properties into Marriott Rewards Categories.

The good news for Marriott timeshare owners is that as part of this change, their timeshare stays will now be eligible for Marriott’s Fifth Night Free program, which Marriott describes as follows, “Guests must reserve a stay for a minimum of 5 redemption nights at one hotel to receive the fifth night for free. The fifth night free will be automatically applied when guests reserve for a minimum 5-night redemption stay.”

Marriott Vacation Club Timeshare Assigned New Rankings

According to Marriott Vacation Club, the strategy behind the change involves assigning hotel category levels to the Marriott Vacation Club timeshare resorts. Most timeshare properties will be ranked as a category 5, 6, or 7, in the Marriott Rewards system. This means that a one-night stay will require 25,000 points; 30,000; or 35,000 points respectively, based upon a deluxe guestroom, and depending upon whether the resort is a category 5, 6, or 7 property.

Upgrading from a deluxe guestroom to a one-bedroom timeshare will require an additional 5,000 points per night; a two-bedroom timeshare will call for 10,000 more timeshare points; and a three-bedroom timeshare will be 15,000 more points per night, all above the base points requirement for that resort.

One simple way to look at this is that at a category 5 resort, the cost in points will be 210,000 points for 7 nights in a two-bedroom timeshare. That rate increases to 240,000 points for the same number of nights, and the same size timeshare unit at a category 6 resort, and 270,000 points at a category 7 resort. These numbers include the benefit of using your one free night that is available to you when booking five or more consecutive nights.

Receiving Your Marriott Rewards Credit for Marriott Timeshare Stays

Remember that in order for a Marriott Vacation Club International owner to ensure receiving Marriott Rewards credit for Marriott Vacation Club International nights, he or she should present his Marriott Rewards member ID at either the time of check-in or check-out. The option for Marriott timeshare owners to count timeshare nights towards qualifying for the next level of Marriott Rewards Elite status, went into effect last June 30 (2008) but still comes as a surprise to many Marriott timeshare owners.

The new timeshare points system applies to reservations booked on or after the July 16 effective date. If you have already scheduled to use your timeshare points after the effective date the timeshare rates at the time of booking will prevail.

You may wish to also visit Marriott Vacation Club Rewards FAQs, if you have additional questions.

Bloomberg News (and other sources) have reported that Arizona-based ILX Resorts has filed for bankruptcy protection. In a story that is becoming all too familiar, ILX Resorts timeshares cites the tight credit market and the growing economic recession as causes.

But here is an important fact to remember: ILX Resorts timeshares are open for business and will continue to operate. Many people learning of the situation at ILX Resorts timeshare will walk away remembering only the word “bankruptcy,” but ILX has filed chapter 11, an important distinction, which is designed to protect a company from its creditors for during a period of restructuring. ILX Resorts has not filed chapter 13 bankruptcy, which is liquidation bankruptcy.

Southwest US and Mexico Timeshares

ILX timeshares owns eleven timeshare resorts, most of which are located in the southwestern US. They also own one Mexico timeshare in San Carlos. In the US, ILX timeshares can be found in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and South Bend, Indiana.

Premiere Vacation Club is owned and operated by ILX Resorts Incorporated and is a vacation ownership program offering the flexibility of staying as few as two nights or as long as multiple weeks in your ILX timeshare. Affiliated with Interval International timeshare exchange, Premiere Vacation Club timeshare can be exchanged internally through the ILX Resort system or through Interval International.

I don’t know how many cities Santa Claus covered on Christmas Eve and in the wee hours of Christmas Day, but he’s about the only one who can take in more territory than you can as a timeshare owner with great timeshare exchange privileges.

Timeshare exchange is designed to give you flexibility in vacation destinations, dates, and accommodations. Resort Condominiums International (RCI) and Interval International, (II) are the two largest timeshare exchange companies, but there are dozens of other companies, many of which specialize in regional or other targeted types of travel. You will find the cost to join a timeshare company varies, as will the types of services they offer.

In their book, How to Benefit from Your Timeshare, authors Susan Johnson and Janice Taylor describe the benefits of timeshare exchange like this:

“An Exchange Club is an organization that lists thousands of travel destinations for use by its members. … An Exchange Club take points/weeks that you do not want to use in the current year and allows you to use and select from their huge inventory of locations worldwide. You should receive a directory from the Exchange Club listing all properties available to you within their network.”

Currently there are 4,775 RCI affiliated timeshare resorts and 2,400 resorts affiliated with Interval International.

Follow this link to learn more about the opportunities of timeshare exchange. And to help you get started in planning your vacations, here is a handy timeshare calendar or, you may wish to visit the website for Timeshare Calendar.