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A bit frustrated with II inventory

John Cerra

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This is the second time that I have banked a summer week at Marriott's Fairway Villa's, 2 bedroom. It has enough trading power to get an AC.

Whenever I look in weeks that we could go away, I am not given a lot of choices. Sure Florida is generally available, done that too many times. Vegas is also available, but I have no real interest. Our ability to travel is complicated by three school age children.

If I were to book a week in easier week, I could just give it to my brother and wife with a gift certificate, right? Is that expensive?
 

Steve

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Hi John,

You need to put in a request. Most of the great exchanges through II are obtained through ongoing requests. The weeks that make it into the online inventory are the left overs that no one has requested. You will get MUCH better results if you enter a request.


You could book a week for your brother. The guest certificates are now $49. But you might want to try to get something for yourself using an ongoing request first.

Steve
 

John Cerra

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Can I pull back a request at some point?

If I put in a request for a certain period of weeks, and then later decide it no longer works, can I cancel the request if it has not been filled?
 

HudsHut

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Yes. An ongoing search request is changeable and/or cancellable. If you were to cancel, you would get a full refund of the exchange fee.
 

e.bram

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OP: Don't bank the week. With II you can search w/o banking. If you don't see something you like use your summer week.
 

timeos2

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NEVER use II place and hope if you want like value

OP: Don't bank the week. With II you can search w/o banking. If you don't see something you like use your summer week.

This is absolutely correct. NEVER give II your week without knowing what you are getting back (meaning use Request First). "Place & Hope" with II is a virtual guarantee you'll be "enjoying" a nice converted motel in Branson just to avoid losing your deposit. II puts paying members place & hope deposits at the bottom of the list. At least with Request First you have a chance of getting something you feel is worth your exchange or you can cancel the trade at no cost.
 

macko420

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This is absolutely correct. NEVER give II your week without knowing what you are getting back (meaning use Request First). "Place & Hope" with II is a virtual guarantee you'll be "enjoying" a nice converted motel in Branson just to avoid losing your deposit. II puts paying members place & hope deposits at the bottom of the list. At least with Request First you have a chance of getting something you feel is worth your exchange or you can cancel the trade at no cost.

let me see if I understand this correctly...............you are able to 'request' a particular area, without actually banking your week but you wouldn't be able to 'search' for an an exchange without actually having banking the week first? Is that correct?
So then IF II comes up with your request, you can then bank your week?

We have a strange situation, I guess, in that in owning with Tahiti Villiage, if we are going to bank the week, we have to tell TV and they do it for us. It doesn't seem to be an option to bank it 'yourself' with II. We own EOY even so this is only the second time we are doing this and I have just banked our weeks (as I described thru TV) and yes, I feel the same way about what I see as available. I did see some nice Hawaii weeks but that just isn't feasable for us right now due to a family situation. Also got 2 AC's, as I split the lock off.
 

DeniseM

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The inventory you see online is the leftovers, after all ongoing requests have been filled. Most prime weeks never go online - they are snapped up by ongoing requests. Your best bet is to put in an ongoing request as early as possible - 12 or more mos. out is not too early. Many owners can deposit at 12 mos. out, so it's good to have your request in place before the deposits start coming in.

Some resorts allow "request first." That means you are allowed to hold a confirmed reservation at your home resort, until your exchange comes through, and if it doesn't, you can cancel, and use your home resort reservation instead. I don't know if Tahiti Village allows that or not.
 

macko420

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Some resorts allow "request first." That means you are allowed to hold a confirmed reservation at your home resort, until your exchange comes through, and if it doesn't, you can cancel, and use your home resort reservation instead. I don't know if Tahiti Village allows that or not.

Hmm, they have not mentioned being able to that but it's certainly worth asking about! Thanks..........

Just one other question........I am wondering, since there are likely multiple requests for 'good' exchanges and since they say we can't deposit our week ourselves, wouldn't we likely lose the chance during the "delay" it would take us to call TV and have them deposit our week? Boy, that stinks, doesn't it?

I guess once it is deposited, we still have the option to make a request, but then if they don't fill that request, potentially find ourselves 'somewhere' just so we don't lose the week.......
 

DeniseM

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If there are requests in place before yours, yes, they will get exchanges before you do. That is why I deposit & request as early as possible.
 

timeos2

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Never give RCI or II a place and hope for a good trader.

Hmm, they have not mentioned being able to that but it's certainly worth asking about! Thanks..........

Just one other question........I am wondering, since there are likely multiple requests for 'good' exchanges and since they say we can't deposit our week ourselves, wouldn't we likely lose the chance during the "delay" it would take us to call TV and have them deposit our week? Boy, that stinks, doesn't it?

I guess once it is deposited, we still have the option to make a request, but then if they don't fill that request, potentially find ourselves 'somewhere' just so we don't lose the week.......

And 97.4% of the time, or roughly that, the BOLD will be the result if you are silly enough to give away your valuable week without one FROM II in hand. What else would you expect as they give priority to every corporate account, favored developers, anyone except paying members. Your only hope is that they want your week bad enough to get you something decent and that isn't going to happen when you gave it to them a year in advance on the hope that, if they happen to have something left over, it will be of nearly the same value. You trust them to put your request ahead of a Marriott or Starwood or a points owner that gets 2 weeks for one? Why would they do that? They HAVE your week already & you'll PAY them to take some leftover junk when you finally realize they aren't going to "find" anything you actually want. Think it through and you'll never use place and hope.
 

AwayWeGo

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[triennial - points]
I Resemble That Remark.

"Place & Hope" with II is a virtual guarantee you'll be "enjoying" a nice converted motel in Branson just to avoid losing your deposit.
We stayed 1 week at The Colonnade in Branson MO -- had a nice time.

The Colonnade is a converted hotel that turned out to be a decent timeshare. It lacks most of the Orlando-style on-site resort amenities, but the units themselves are spacious & very nice. Plus, The Colonnade had free breakfast every morning -- basically, just an augmented continental breakfast, but it beat the sox off pop tarts & tang.

Full Disclosure: We got The Colonnade via RCI Last Call, not I-I. Details of our week there are written up in the TUG Resort Reviews section.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Falls Church), Virginia, USA.​
 

Dave*H

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Think it through and you'll never use place and hope.
It has worked quite well for me, and I don't own at any big name resorts. However, I always place my request far in advance and am realistic about what I expect to get and what availability is likely to be.
 

rickandcindy23

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We have had great success with ongoing searches. I personally had 4 ongoing searches for the Westin Ka'anapali and Princeville 2 bedroom units, using my North Carolina summer generic resort weeks, and all four were fulfilled. I definitely recommend ongoing searches for areas where inventory is limited. We already know that II holds back inventory to fulfill ongoing searches first, and if you want to play and win the game, that is the only way to do it.
 

funtime

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I also advise placing a search request. Marriott weeks do get preference for other Marriott weeks in II. The trick is to deposit far enough in advance and then just wait. While I like the internet last minute stuff, I can travel anytime of the year. With school age children, I advise placing a deposit first. Also remember that if another poster deposits a week that is weaker than Marriott weeks they will see less deposits than you do and that may be a source of unhappiness for the poster. I would give II a chance, I think once you get the hang of it you will do well. Funtime
 

RedDogSD

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This is absolutely correct. NEVER give II your week without knowing what you are getting back (meaning use Request First). "Place & Hope" with II is a virtual guarantee you'll be "enjoying" a nice converted motel in Branson just to avoid losing your deposit. II puts paying members place & hope deposits at the bottom of the list. At least with Request First you have a chance of getting something you feel is worth your exchange or you can cancel the trade at no cost.

Timeos,

This is absolutely bad information and you know better. The deposit first has the same chance of getting good weeks as the request first. There is no evidence that the Interval system does any priority for request first.

You would not believe the great trades that many of us have had using Deposit First. I have had requests that never go through using Request first. The decision on whether or not to do Request first or Deposit first should have nothing to do with what you are requesting and everything to do with whether or not you want to use your home resort if you don't get it.
 

e.bram

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Posters not happy with II inventory should be upset with unit owners(not II) no depositing or trading their prime holdings. II has no control over that.
 

frenchieinme

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OP: Don't bank the week. With II you can search w/o banking. If you don't see something you like use your summer week.

Which leads us as to why the inventory is so scarce when you want to look up a specific week. ;)

frenchieinme :hi:
 

timeos2

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Timeos,

This is absolutely bad information and you know better. The deposit first has the same chance of getting good weeks as the request first. There is no evidence that the Interval system does any priority for request first.

You would not believe the great trades that many of us have had using Deposit First. I have had requests that never go through using Request first. The decision on whether or not to do Request first or Deposit first should have nothing to do with what you are requesting and everything to do with whether or not you want to use your home resort if you don't get it.

Quite the contrary. I suffered through over a decade of paid II membership - believing all along that somehow I was "doing it wrong" by using place & hope, differebt weeks, different resorts & comparing the results to RCI. I also eventually tried Request First and, finally, got a corporate (free) membership that was the ONLY way II was even a slightly usable option.

The bottom line was nearly every time we had to end up settling for some garbage time we really didn't want with place & hope. That despite using weeks that traded extremely well with RCI & SFX for the same periods. The request first did better as we at least got something CLOSE to what we wanted or simply didn't give them our time. Still far more hassle than it ws worth but at least there was a remote chance of some success other than accepting the usual II leftovers or lose the deposit.

The SAME OWNERSHIPS in the corporate (read priority) account yield top trades consistently - and points left over! So the only way we'd ever use II now is as a free, corporate member with all that brings. If I had to use II (because of a resort limitation - boo!) then request first is the only way to go. NEVER use place & hope, as I already said, or you will get the short end nearly every time. Those begging you to do so just want to grab up the good times & leave those depositing with the usual II trash to have to deal with IMO.

Being a paying owner in II is a total rip off. You are last on the list of II priorities.
 

camachinist

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I also advise placing a search request. Marriott weeks do get preference for other Marriott weeks in II.

I'm watching trade tests carefully at my home resort, NCV, and anecdotally at other Marriott resorts and am seeing TUG members taking new Marriott deposits (online) with non-Marriott weeks as I see them with my Marriott weeks, without delay. Perhaps something has changed with regard to 'Marriott preference' at II. Are we seeing a glitch or enhancement prior to points rollout? Time will tell :)
 
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Mike Dee

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This is absolutely correct. NEVER give II your week without knowing what you are getting back (meaning use Request First). "Place & Hope" with II is a virtual guarantee you'll be "enjoying" a nice converted motel in Branson just to avoid losing your deposit. II puts paying members place & hope deposits at the bottom of the list. At least with Request First you have a chance of getting something you feel is worth your exchange or you can cancel the trade at no cost.

I never deposit my week with the intention of getting something else, but I do bank weeks that I am not going 60 days prior my week. When I use those weeks for requests I usually do quite well with my exchange.
 

RedDogSD

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Quite the contrary. I suffered through over a decade of paid II membership - believing all along that somehow I was "doing it wrong" by using place & hope, differebt weeks, different resorts & comparing the results to RCI. I also eventually tried Request First and, finally, got a corporate (free) membership that was the ONLY way II was even a slightly usable option.

The bottom line was nearly every time we had to end up settling for some garbage time we really didn't want with place & hope. That despite using weeks that traded extremely well with RCI & SFX for the same periods. The request first did better as we at least got something CLOSE to what we wanted or simply didn't give them our time. Still far more hassle than it ws worth but at least there was a remote chance of some success other than accepting the usual II leftovers or lose the deposit.

The SAME OWNERSHIPS in the corporate (read priority) account yield top trades consistently - and points left over! So the only way we'd ever use II now is as a free, corporate member with all that brings. If I had to use II (because of a resort limitation - boo!) then request first is the only way to go. NEVER use place & hope, as I already said, or you will get the short end nearly every time. Those begging you to do so just want to grab up the good times & leave those depositing with the usual II trash to have to deal with IMO.

Being a paying owner in II is a total rip off. You are last on the list of II priorities.

I just don't share the same experiences. I get everything I want. However, my experience is that Interval does a terrible job of filling their requests. I don't think they have an automatic computer system that shoudl be doing it. I think they have human beings trying to fill them, and this slows the process down. I call them quite frequently when I have an ongoing request...and they sometimes just reach inside their magic bag and pull out what I was looking for.

I just want newbies to understand a few things. If you do request first, unless you are a Marriott or other corporate program, you can only request something up to your check in date. This is not always a good idea. For example, if you can only get a reservation at your home resort 12 months in advance (this is the way that 3 of my 4 TSs are), and I immediately put in a request, I can now only request 12 months out. Anyone who uses Interval alot knows that the best results come from requesting a tad more than 12 months out so that when the deposits come at 12 months, you can grab one.

So, if my Goal is to get August, 2011. I have to wait until I get my home unit this August before I can put in the request for August 2011. The only exception is my Marriott. If I did deposit first, I could have grabbed a top July 4th week, and then deposited it, and requested August 2011. My trade power would have been better with the July deposit than the August potential deposit.

So, I just want the information to flow freely. You have your opinion, and you are certainly an experienced TSer, but other experienced TS'ers(I have had Interval for 11 years as well) do not share your opinion. So, everyone should see how they do.
 

macko420

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RedDogSD,
I see you own at Tahiti in Vegas. We own at Tahiti Village so we are both part of Consolidated. Maybe you can answer this question for me??
For TV, Consolidated requires we call them if we are going to bank our week and then they give it to II. Is there another way to do this with Consolidated? this is only the second time we are able to use our week as we are EOY, even, and I'm not sure we can reserve a week and then bank it later. You would think you can but who knows! Thanks!
 

RedDogSD

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I sent you a PM, but a quick summary in case anyone googles Consolidated in the future.

You can reserve any week you want. If you decide you cannot go, just give them 30 days notice and then tell them you want to bank a week with Interval. This is better than the normal way because they will drop something in Interval that is more than 30 days away. Otherwise, Interval will punish you for dropping a deposit in that is so close to the Check in Date. This is the same way you can try to rent if you do try to rent. Reserve a Holiday week so that you can attract kids, and if you don't get a renter by the 30 day out mark, cancel and ask for a deposit.
 
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