Interval international unit size upgrade fee??

[krj9999]

Thoughts:

- To have a change of this magnitude without advanced notice; unacceptable in my view. This is not a benefit to members, and is not a modest $10 or $20 change in fees.
- Some loosening of trading power requirements may soften the impact, for those with smaller or lock-off units.
- As others indicated, this was not well thought through IMHO. Those off-season weeks will not turn into exchanges as often. How multiple EPlus exchanges will be handled is unclear. Some compensation should be provided for trading down on size.
- It looks like previously purchased EPlus for confirmed exchanges might be grandfathered into the old rules.
- Value proposition for adding Gold or Platinum improves.
- I wonder if Vistana/Starwood and/or Marriott pushed this change onto II management, in order to improve the value proposition of their respective "points" programs where unit size matters.

 

[dioxide45]

To give everyone another point of view..... and don't kill the messenger.

For the owners of 2 and 3 bedroom non lockoff units, this makes us feel like the playing field has leveled out somewhat. When I would hear and read of all the fantastic uptrades using a studio, and I traded my two bedroom for the same size unit..... it seemed unfair. Imho......

Not sure why you would say to not kill the messenger. You are posting your opinion, not the message.

I do understand how it could be frustrating as an owner of a larger unit. The thing is, II didn't do this for your benefit. They didn't do it to make it more fair. They did it to increase their profit. Charge more for the same thing they did before for weeks that people give them for free.

You always had the option to do what others on here have done for years. Lock off units have been cheap and plentiful on the resale market. While I am bummed about the new fee, we will figure out the new normal and how to maximize the value all over again.

 

[CCR]

Thoughts:

- To have a change of this magnitude without advanced notice; unacceptable in my view. This is not a benefit to members, and is not a modest $10 or $20 change in fees.

I 100% agree. I just deposited my 2017, 4th of July weeks for a studio and 1 bedroom at Mountainside. I probably wouldn't have deposited these if I knew this change was coming. I also read on another post that I could have held out on depositing these longer to get an AC offer. Oh well those are often useless now.

I will now have to watch for Flexchange exchanges and have a back up reservation at Worldmark that I can cancel. I'm thinking these units in flexchange are going to become very difficult to get. Maybe people will buy the eplus just for the security of having a reservation such as a studio in place, buy airfare, and then still have the ability to reserve a larger unit in flexchange if it comes open. (My Worldmark just became more valuable to me for that backup plan).

My second strategy will probably include changing my exchanging pattern to look for really high valuable weeks that are now visible (that used to not be visible with a studio unit) and pay significant fee to get it. A 2 bedroom at KoOlina will probably be worth that extra $198.00

I'm really glad I reserved my Grand Luxxe exchange on Friday, but mad I didn't pull the trigger yesterday on my Spring break plans for Vegas.

 

[Sugarcubesea]

Charge more for the same thing they did before for weeks that people give them for free.

I guess this is the part that really frosts me, they are using something that I am giving them for free and I'm the one having to pay to join and nickel and dime'd for every use.

I think if its in the area where its up for grabs, you should be able to exchange your unit if you can see it.

I will now be using my SDO unit vs depositing for 2017 and only using the QH I deposited.

 

[dougp26364]

Let's get one thing straight, the inventory might not be costing them anything but, providing the service is NOT free. There's website development, employee's to man the phone's, office expenses, benefits to be paid et......Anytime that website isn't working exactly right someone will post on here about how the exchange company can't get their act together. Just keeping their website running without to many glitches takes more effort than most of us will ever know.....and it's not FREE. Sometime I think we take other efforts for granted.

So while you might be "giving" them your week, they're are not providing the exchange service for free. Without their service you'd have to barter with indivicual's yourself to see if you could locate the exchange you wanted or, use what you own and forget exchanging all together.

As to the part about no warning I agree. With timeshare you have to plan in advance and that planning involves strategy of what to lock off and what you expect in return when you want to exchange. I'm fortunate that we completed our exchange of a 1 bedroom elite resort week during a high demand time for a 2 bedroom non-elite resort shoulder season week before these new fee's went into place. As it was I felt it was a fair exchange. Add in the extra $99 upgrade fee and it's no longer a fair trade IMHO. It's also a trade I probably won't make again. I sure as heck won't be trading a 2 bedroom elite resort week for the equivalent size unit at this particular resort. That would be a HUGE step down in quality and value. So even though I might like the location of a particular resort that provides far fewer amenities and comforts than my home resort week, I'm not about to pay for the high dollar resort to trade down into the moderate value resort.

I said earlier that over the years ownership and exchanging has evolved and that's what we're doing again. Yes it irritates me to some degree that I have to keep changing how I look at timeshare in order to get the value out of it I want but, that's how it's always been and that's how it will be in the future. It will be interesting in the next few years to see what's available and what disappears from Interval's Inventory.

What I'd like to see is a credit for the quality rating of my resort when I'm trading down to a resort rated lower. Like I said, going from the 1 bedroom unit at an elite rated resort giving Interval the high demand week in exchange for a larger unit at a lower value resort during shoulder season is, IMHO, an even or fair exchange. Charging me another $99 to do the same thing......not so much. If they're going to charge an "upgrade" fee then I'd like to see a credit when I "downgrade".

 

[mdurette]

On the flip side.....for those of you that NEED a large unit, my guess is you will find more of them. Personally, we only NEED a 1BR unit when we travel. But, I will always take a larger one if available simply for the extra bathroom and towels. I will probably rethink that now and that will leave the larger units out there for people that do need them.

 

[dougp26364]

On the flip side.....for those of you that NEED a large unit, my guess is you will find more of them. Personally, we only NEED a 1BR unit when we travel. But, I will always take a larger one if available simply for the extra bathroom and towels. I will probably rethink that now and that will leave the larger units out there for people that do need them.

We've done this in the past but, in large part because we've had some very noisy neighbors in the past. Once I took the 1 bedroom instead of the 2 bedroom that was available and regretted it the entire week. I've never heard a couple make so much noise during the week coming out of a studio unit.

 

[LMD]

Fee

I was going to quit RCI now I may think about quitting II.

 

[CCR]

Can anyone tell if there is a still an internal Marriott preference time period or are all units visible to everyone? It was mentioned that all inventory is now open and visible just with upgrade fees.

If there is still internal Marriott preference/priority for a certain amount of time, where only Marriott owners can see Marriott properties, then my studio may still have some value to snag some great properties. I couldn't see very many Marriott large 2 bedrooms units with my studio until they were 3-4 months out before.

 

[icydog]

Not sure why you would say to not kill the messenger. You are posting your opinion, not the message.

I do understand how it could be frustrating as an owner of a larger unit. The thing is, II didn't do this for your benefit. They didn't do it to make it more fair. They did it to increase their profit. Charge more for the same thing they did before for weeks that people give them for free.

You always had the option to do what others on here have done for years. Lock off units have been cheap and plentiful on the resale market. While I am bummed about the new fee, we will figure out the new normal and how to maximize the value all over again.

Even though the resort for which I was searching only has two bedroom units, I'm being charged an upgrade fee using my one bedroom villa. Right now, II is charging minimal fees to upgrade, but once we get accustomed to paying these upgrade fees watch out! The price will go up and up to whatever number they feel like collecting.
I'm really bummed out by this. II must want to be the new RCI! I pay to join, to upgrade to platinum, to make an exchange, to add EPlus to add insurance Etc, ad infinitum and ad nauseum.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

I haven't read through the posts but I think this new upgrade fee is ok. One of the reasons why I like it is instead of studios being completely blocked from seeing some of these units you now have the ability to see them and exchange. The only exception is an OGS may previously have pulled some of them anyway but not all units have the fee tacked on.

Another reason I like it is it will increase the availability of larger units. Good inventory disappears too quickly to smaller units. This is a way to balance things out.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Size just became way more valuable. Cheap lock-offs that do not contain a studio are huge.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

E-Plus appears to be locked in, so no upgrade fees with a retrade on any existing E-Plus.

 

[icydog]

More and more $

Size just became way more valuable. Cheap lock-offs that do not contain a studio are huge.

If II had warned me this was going to happen I wouldn't have lockoffed my two
WillowRidge weeks. But for an additional $78 it probably makes more sense to pay the fees.

I had to pay Marriott to lockoff the weeks and then II charges me for each trade. The cost of exchanging is becoming astronomical.

 

[SmithOp]

To give everyone another point of view..... and don't kill the messenger.



For the owners of 2 and 3 bedroom non lockoff units, this makes us feel like the playing field has leveled out somewhat. When I would hear and read of all the fantastic uptrades using a studio, and I traded my two bedroom for the same size unit..... it seemed unfair. Imho......

I was thinking the same thing when I first read this since I deposit a 2 br. If it frees up more inventory all the better. I just traded into a 3br developer deposit without a fee, guess I just got in under the wire. I will pay the fee, along with platinum membership because I'm still getting good value.


Sent from my iPad Mini 4 using Tapatalk

 

[K2Quick]

The unit size upgrade fee is really a non-event for me since I belong to a system that charges points for exchanged unit size anyway. However, I've been using II a lot less recently. In the five years 2010 to 2014, I booked 13 exchanges with II (of which 5 were XYZ specials so I really deposited the equivalent of 8 weeks with II). I didn't exchange anything in 2015 with II (booked one week with RCI) and nothing in 2016 (with still a possibility for a last-minute getaway but definitely won't be exchanging).

From my perspective with how I had been using II for exchanging , the trading landscape changed for the worse. The best weeks (Marriott/Westin/Four Seasons) are tied up in preference and even the internal preference inventory seems to have dried up compared to what it was a few years back. I've found myself using my internal system more often than not or using RCI (which despite higher fees seems to have more availability during school calendar times).

 

[VacationForever]

Can anyone tell if there is a still an internal Marriott preference time period or are all units visible to everyone? It was mentioned that all inventory is now open and visible just with upgrade fees.

If there is still internal Marriott preference/priority for a certain amount of time, where only Marriott owners can see Marriott properties, then my studio may still have some value to snag some great properties. I couldn't see very many Marriott large 2 bedrooms units with my studio until they were 3-4 months out before.

There is no change to the internal Marriott period.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

If II had warned me this was going to happen I wouldn't have lockoffed my two
WillowRidge weeks. But for an additional $78 it probably makes more sense to pay the fees.

I had to pay Marriott to lockoff the weeks and then II charges me for each trade. The cost of exchanging is becoming astronomical.

Agreed.I just bought a bunch of Marriott units and now I'm not sure what I am going to do. Owner use and renting out has increased in value vs exchanging. It now cost $400 to lock-off and trade a studio for a 2BR.

I think marriott to marriott studio exchanges during preference still have a place because the price of the alternative is likely still more expensive. If you take a lock-off with a $1,250 fee the additional fees would be $600 to trade for two 2BR units. The $1,850 total cost is still lower than any Marriott two 2BR units.

Non-Marriott studios go way down in value. The exchange fees can easily exceed the maintenance fee.

All of this might be a good thing if inventory was going to increase but I suspect other systems like Marriott DC is going to continue to dry up premium inventory.

I can see some positives and some negatives. I love my cheap non-Marriott units even more. Non priority studios are just plain cost prohibitive. I am not sure what to make of Marriott studios. Obviously very expensive but a Willow Ridge lock-off is still cheaper than two 2BR units.

 

[tschwa2]

Non-Marriott studios go way down in value. The exchange fees can easily exceed the maintenance fee.

If you have low cost studio's (under $400) that you stopped using with II because you couldn't get anything you wanted, you may want to take another look especially if you have platinum (2 for 1 from recent deal). If they can see more now even with an extra $118-$199 for a 2 br it might be worth it. As an owner of larger units, I don't like it that I am now competing against studio owners who could never see the units I wanted in the past.

 

[tahoeJoe]

The step between a studio and a 1 bedroom is bigger than 1 bedroom to 2 bedroom. Most studio don't have kitchen, a lot sleep only 2 and those that sleep 4, all people sleep in the same room (not practical with young children that go to bed earlier). If you look at most 2 bedroom lock-off, you will see that the studio represent 1/3 and the 1 bedroom, 2/3 of the area. So, if they implement different fee than the studio to the 1 bedroom should have the highest fee. Also, studio are the least popular size.

Oh great... you now gave the greedy jerks at II a reason to charge more for upgrades from studio. I can hear it now, announcing a new enhancement from II "...Coming soon, upgrade from a studio to a 1 bedroom for only $149...."

 

[dominidude]

Hey guys, TUG already has a section where TUGers can exchange with each other. There's not even an ad fee or exchange fee for this.

Let's put the screws to exchange companies, and let's exchange with each other instead.

I want some of Admins to contact me, I think we can improve the exchange section of the website to enable us TUGgers to make deposits, make exchange requests, and even have an assigned trade power for each timeshare in order to more or less equitably exchanges with one another.

The only reason II and RCI increase their fees is because they have no competition. Let's give them some :whoopie:

 

[Saintsfanfl]

Here is a crazy one. The platinum getaway price for a 2BR for mid December at Marriott's Grande Vista is only $247!!! The exchange fee alone using a Marriott studio for the exchange is $322. This is even higher than the Basic membership getaway price. You still have to pay another $80 to lock-off but I exclude this so we can compare apples to apples for II's revenue. Does this make any sense at all?

It makes sense when you figure II would rather have the cash for the getaway then the studio deposit but still seems way unbalanced.

 

[dominidude]

If you have low cost studio's (under $400) that you stopped using with II because you couldn't get anything you wanted, you may want to take another look especially if you have platinum (2 for 1 from recent deal). If they can see more now even with an extra $118-$199 for a 2 br it might be worth it. As an owner of larger units, I don't like it that I am now competing against studio owners who could never see the units I wanted in the past.

Just what I was thinking. In addition to everything said before, it seems to me that II is making it harder for higher occupancy units owners to exchange. I was the owner of a studio which seldomly saw any 2 bedrooms outside flexchange.

Now that studio (which is still in my account) sees quite a few 2 bedrooms outside flexchange, but I would need to pay the increased exchange fee. And it stills sees quite a few 2 bedroom units in the flexchange period, like before.

It seems that going forward 2bdr unit owners will need to seriously consider A) using their units, not exchanging them B) downsizing when exchanging.

It's a bad deal all around really, as smaller unit owners that have valuable weeks now are not having the value of their time interval recognized.

In case anybody is wondering, I dont think TUG would be anymore at risk than it is currently if we started our own deposit/request/trade power scheme.

And there wouldnt be paperwork either, it should be all automated. However, there would be server processing power and space issues that would need to be addressed.

In case it's not already obvious, I could take the lead on this if nobody with more experience does.

 

[klpca]

Agreed.I just bought a bunch of Marriott units and now I'm not sure what I am going to do. Owner use and renting out has increased in value vs exchanging. It now cost $400 to lock-off and trade a studio for a 2BR.

I think marriott to marriott studio exchanges during preference still have a place because the price of the alternative is likely still more expensive. If you take a lock-off with a $1,250 fee the additional fees would be $600 to trade for two 2BR units. The $1,850 total cost is still lower than any Marriott two 2BR units.

Non-Marriott studios go way down in value. The exchange fees can easily exceed the maintenance fee.

All of this might be a good thing if inventory was going to increase but I suspect other systems like Marriott DC is going to continue to dry up premium inventory.

I can see some positives and some negatives. I love my cheap non-Marriott units even more. Non priority studios are just plain cost prohibitive. I am not sure what to make of Marriott studios. Obviously very expensive but a Willow Ridge lock-off is still cheaper than two 2BR units.

Not sure where you own, but my San Francisco studio unit trades much, much better anywhere else but Interval. I get over 40tpu's from RCI, and SFX treats it as a 1 bedroom for trading purposes. I haven't deposited my Donatello unit in years even though they constantly offer me an AC (just what I need - an AC with an underlying studio unit. Nearly impossible to use!)

 

[dougp26364]

Having thought about this for a few days I'll toss out one more opinion/observation.

II could have just as easily gone to a points based exchange system like RCI's and then allowed developers to sell it as an upgrade for thousands of dollars. With points you pay for what you want. The upgrade fee is built in by the points value. DISCLAIMER: I don't understand RCI's points system that well. I became disillusioned with RCI years ago, dropped our individual membership (we still have the HGVC corporate membership) and haven't looked back.

Interval is instead keeping their weeks based exchange system but charging the upgrade fee in the form of a fixed dollar amount, regardless of the quality of the week or season. It's a flat fee vs a moving target such as RCI's points program. I think I'm happier I.I. stuck with their base program and added the fee vs changing to a points based system that requires members to join and pay a large enrolment fee.

In the end some things will change but, I bet there's not as much change as TUGGER's believe. The only real change I see for us is I won't take a 2 bedroom unit if I have to pay a fee to do it. I would if someone where to travel with us and, if they paid the fee. We also won't be locking off our 3 bedroom ocean front unit unless I absolutely need that extra week. Since we don't typically need that extra week for an exchange, it's one more studio unit I.I. won't get for an exchange. Somehow I don't see them missing it very much.