Just Wondering......

[Petra Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Petra]

I'm new to this forum so I have a question.
I own at Westgate Lakes and would love to go to different places without using II. Somehow when we upgraded with Westgate we were changed and can now only exchange with II every other year and didn't know till it was too late. Anyway I was wondering if people on this forum ever just exchange with someone else on their own without using II.
THANKS.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

People do but I doubt you'd have much success exchanging your Westgate Lakes unit unless it was maybe a Christmas or Spring Break week.

II may work out nicely for you though if you get an Accommodation Certificate (AC) with deposit and then do an XYZ exchange.
You could potentially get 3 weeks of vacation exchanges out of one deposit.

Also Westgate has an internal exchange system for other Westgate resorts.
You'd save the II yearly fee but I believe the exchange fee is on par with II's fees.
I believe it's $189 to exchange internally. II is $179.

Welcome to the forum Petra.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

You could also try this site.
Not sure how successful they are but it's free.

http://www.timesharejuice.com

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Another approach to save the cost of an annual fee ( such as II yearly membership fee) is to take a free membership with one or more of the independent timeshare exchange companies.

Here are several examples.

http://www.daelive.com
Welcome to Worldwide Vacation Exchange the easy way. The DAE way.
DAE is the world’s largest privately-owned global timeshare exchange provider.

You’ll love our low fees, simple approach to timeshare exchange, and legendary personal service.

Search, hold, book and confirm instantly, and you don’t have to wade through a set of complex rules to conduct a transaction with us.

Membership is free and transaction fees are not charged until your exchange is confirmed.

Extend your vacations with our low cost Rentals, heavily discounted Bonus Weeks and daeOptions non-timeshare resorts - you can even book unlimited low cost vacations for family and friends with no guest certificate fees and no exchange needed.

We invite you to take the DAE Satisfaction Challenge. Place a Request and let us find you the vacation you really want - no fee, no catch - and we won’t even ask you to deposit your week until we deliver!

http://www.tradingplaces.com

Currently running a special where you make a deposit and get a bonus week

https://www.sfx-resorts.com/

Also offers bonus week(s) with deposit.


**** you will still have to pay an exchange fee with these companies but their basic membership is free.***

The problem with trying to do a direct exchange is the many people think their ownership is wonderful and yours is not....in other words, is it an equal trade?
You have a summer Orlando week and I have a summer Hilton Head week. I do not think this is equal so would not make the trade. Now if you had a winter Aruba week, I would trade my summer Hilton Head for THAT!

By using an exchange company, they determine the "worth" of each deposit and make exchanges according to that formula...you are much more likely to get where you are going by using a company.

Good Luck and to TS4Ms

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Welcome . . . there's all kinds of knowledge here . . . you never know what you'll get. (TS4Ms is like a box of chocolates.)

Even if considered "equal", it's really hard to find another person who owns exactly what you want to go to when you want to go there and have them want to go to yours exactly when you own. The exchange companies wind up with stuff no one wants. That's always been an issue with them. But, that becomes an additional benefit of belonging to an exchange company.

Here is a thread where I have been documenting RCI's excess inventory to Florida during Snowbird Season (now), weeks for less than $300, with no deposit required:

http://www.timeshareforums.com/forum...-resorts/page6

So, you could go on additional (no limit) 1-week vacations for less cost than the one you trade for.

Bonus Info : In the early 90's, Westgate (Vacation Village) was affiliated with RCI, and the owner/developer got a burr under his saddle and affiliated with II. He and the owner of RCI duked it out in the courtroom with a spate of nastiness. My wife and I were owners in the CFI kingdom, small as it was at that time, so wound up being dual-affiliated. Over time we determined that II did not suit us and one time we wound up staying at Westgate via RCI. We were treated as second class citizens . . . the attitude at Westgate seeps down from the top and they really know how to carry a grudge.

Our first Westgate tour was in 1989, and according to them RCI was better than sliced bread. Our last Westgate tour was in 2007 or so, Christmas Week when had the extended fam in a 3-bedroom at Orange Lake via RCI. We took the Westgate tour to get Disney passes for our nephew's family. They did not "tour", but they did require us to sit in their immense closing room to eat our breakfast. They were still badmouthing RCI. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get the passes.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Bonus Info : In the early 90's, Westgate (Vacation Village) was affiliated with RCI, and the owner/developer got a burr under his saddle and affiliated with II. He and the owner of RCI duked it out in the courtroom with a spate of nastiness. My wife and I were owners in the CFI kingdom, small as it was at that time, so wound up being dual-affiliated. Over time we determined that II did not suit us and one time we wound up staying at Westgate via RCI. We were treated as second class citizens . . . the attitude at Westgate seeps down from the top and they really know how to carry a grudge.

Our first Westgate tour was in 1989, and according to them RCI was better than sliced bread. Our last Westgate tour was in 2007 or so, Christmas Week when had the extended fam in a 3-bedroom at Orange Lake via RCI. We took the Westgate tour to get Disney passes for our nephew's family. They did not "tour", but they did require us to sit in their immense closing room to eat our breakfast. They were still badmouthing RCI. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get the passes.

I guess it was not just us:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...e_Florida.html

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I'm new to this forum so I have a question.
I own at Westgate Lakes and would love to go to different places without using II. Somehow when we upgraded with Westgate we were changed and can now only exchange with II every other year and didn't know till it was too late. Anyway I was wondering if people on this forum ever just exchange with someone else on their own without using II.
THANKS.

Trying to clear something up.

Are you saying that when Westgate changed things on you that then you were only able to exchange through II or that you were only able to exchange Every Other Year?

But, still, the answer to what you're trying to find out is, essentially, No, we don't, we use exchange companies.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Sorry I have to keep adding new posts to add new thoughts, but, oh well. I don't mean to intentionally monopolize any thread, it's just that . . .

Even for those who have searched every day for years and years and years, you can imagine how cumbersome the search process would be if we were not doing it through exchange companies, who have sorted their deposits by area and timeframe.

Can you imagine what the process would be like if there were only Direct Exchanges, and you had to sort through more than 100,000 weeks that had not been sorted????

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Perhaps there should be a rule about four consecutive posts in the same thread.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Sure, why not?

Just call it the JLB edit-and-post rule.

Have a happy Super Bowl, everyone.



or, a four-out-of-five rule.