geographical restriction

What is the geographical restriction and does it apply to all areas or just Orlando?

spatenfloot,

Many resorts impose restrictions on guests who own within their geographic areas. The idea is that those who already own timeshare weeks in those general areas are less likely to purchase weeks at their resorts.

A few other examples are Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Mazatlan and Cancun in Mexico.

Madge,

Is the restriction imposed by the resort you own or the resort you are trading into? If it the latter, how would you know? Is this one of those time we need to depend on the VG? I own in Orlando and have traded into other resorts in Orlando. So have some of my friends. There was no problem.

bellesgirl,

The restriction is enforced by the resort you're requesting. Our system will not allow a confirmation to be finalized into a resort with this restriction, based on your deposited week. If the Guide doesn't catch it right away, he'll catch it when he tries to confirm. Unfortunately, it is possible to start an ongoing search with restricted resort ID numbers. An edit message will display, but the Guide can still start the search. If this were to happen, you would likely have trouble accessing the search online. Just call or send an e-mail to feedback@rci.com with TUG in the subject line if you're ever not sure.

Using Orlando as an example, when we owned Orlando weeks some Orlando area resorts would not allow us to exchange into them. Others would. I did a lot of searches with Orlando and non-Orlando weeks and it made a big difference.

In addition to what Madge has said about wanting to find better prospects, another reason for the block is to prevent someone from buying at an inexpensive, inferior resort and then trading into a nicer resort in the same area.

II has a similar Regional Block. Their's was so restrictive that if they had you in their records as an Orlando owner, they even blocked you from Orlando Getaways. So, with them it was an exchange company policy. I got them to change that if you also owned something else outside of the Orlando area.

Hope this wasn't too much idle chatter.

Jim,

I'll add to your chatter since I found it helpful!

Some resorts in Orlando waive the restriction for owners of what they believe to be equivalent resorts. For example, Vistana (0450) and Orange Lake (0670) are both actively selling, but they allow each others' owners to visit on exchange. This isn't always a two-way arrangement; one resort can waive the restriction and the other enforce it. I believe that Silver Lake (2610) enforces this for Orange Lake owners, but Orange Lake waives it for Silver Lake owners. It's entirely up to the individual resorts.