Interval Xchange beta

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

It's all about inventory. I am doubtful that the inventory will be large enough to offer enough good choices based on previous similar attempts to develop a new exchanging alternative. Does anyone remember TimeshareJuice?


I wish you the best of luck but I hope you have an innovative plan to get the inventory you need now and to keep it coming in the future. Relying on the average every day timeshare owner to drive your business has not been successful up to this point, in my experience.

I like the concept and it reminds me of what David's DVC points brokerage is doing except of course he is focused on one developer's very very popular product.
If you could win over the Wyndham, Worldmark, Bluegreen and Marriott owners I think you could get enough traction to get some of the traffic and inventory you need.
Right now there are lots of facebook groups doing direct rentals and exchanges and have no middle man.
I have two timeshares that I rent regularly and having other options is always great.
I wish you the best of success. There needs to be some friendly competition out there.

So I signed up and sadly only see two resort listings and one is way overpriced IMO.
A VV Parkway for $1799 even for a Christmas/NYE seems too high but then again I never do Orlando for the holidays so maybe someone would want it.
Not that there is anything wrong with the resort, I own a unit there and it's decent.
But by just scrolling the available units the very very important fact that this is a peak holiday week is not obvious until you click on the details.
That IMO is the only thing that makes this unit desirable at that price and you don't know it until you click on it.
RCI gives these weeks away for $199 regularly so if it's not screaming Christmas/NYE the savvy renter will pass this listing by.

I'm sure you probably know this already (or maybe not) but RCI has a wholesale division where they will let you resell their inventory.
I'm not in the business but somehow I was put on their mailing list a few years ago and saw that they have a full website
dedicated to wholesaling their unwanted or wanted weeks to travel agents. I think you should pursue that inventory.
I think some of the other biggies do the same.
And if you are not doing facebook then you need to.
The people are out there they are just all over the place scouting for deals.
15% seems reasonable to you, but paypal only charges 30cents and 3% so people are using the facebook groups.
I think you may need to take less for now until you get going.
I doubt people are going to give up 15% at this point.
They will have to price too high to cover it and then the buyers go elsewhere.
Just my opinion of course but it's tough enough for owners to break even let alone share another 15% to get paid.

Good luck with your company.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Can't you hook up with Facebook and get your website exposed over there? They are all over the world. I have no idea how expensive that would be.

I see timeshare owners trying to rent what they own on Facebook in different groups. I follow a few Marriott groups but when I want to go back to one of these ads, I can never find them again because they are scattered all over the place.

Since the exchange companies are getting ridiculous with all the additional charges, people may jump ship finally and try to rent their weeks or points out themselves or just sell what they own.

Again, good luck.

[Interval Xchange Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Interval Xchange]

I wish you the best of luck but I hope you have an innovative plan to get the inventory you need now and to keep it coming in the future. Relying on the average every day timeshare owner to drive your business has not been successful up to this point, in my experience.

Thank you for the input.

Our business model doesn't rely on exchange inventory for success. Interval Xchange is only an exchange program (in the traditional "timeshare" sense) if you want it to be. Our users exchange inventory for dollars, not other inventory. The flexibility of being able to withdraw account balances alleviates any exchange inventory concerns.

Even if we only have a single week listed on our entire site and it gets reserved, the user (owner) can simply withdraw the balance they've earned and use it for whichever purpose they want, from paying off maintenance fees to booking a stay on any other travel website which is ultimate flexibility. If the inventory doesn't get reserved, there's no penalty (financial or otherwise) for the owner/user. Of course we'd like to offer our users attractive ways of spending their account balances without the need to withdraw and incur unnecessary fees. However even in the example above we believe we are still providing a very valuable service.

Interval Xchange was never intended to compete with existing timeshare exchange companies and thus does not operate like one. We have our own business model and challenges just as they do and we believe both models can coexist and complement each other to benefit consumers.

As far as inventory, who said it can only come from owners? We are just getting started and there are lots of exciting things in development. Stay tuned!

[Interval Xchange Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Interval Xchange]

chriskre, iconnections,

Thanks for all the feedback and ideas, lots of valuable stuff!

Inventory pricing is definitely an issue we've discussed on more than one occasion. Currently inventory pricing is up to the owners with no restrictions and there is a strong case for that to change. Owners tend to over value their inventories due to pride of ownership. Unfortunately overpriced, uncompetitive inventory that's never reserved does not benefit anyone.

Large scale paid advertising on Facebook, Google and others is definitely in the works. Right now we use paid ads in smaller "trial runs" to see how visitors navigate through our site and where we can improve. For example, the "Process" page should get a lot more "visual" in a few days making our concept much easier to understand.

Let us know which FB groups you use to rent, I'm sure this info will benefit not just us but everyone too! Why not go a step further and create a separate post where users of this forum can post and share references to all FB groups they use to rent?

Again, thank's for all the help and kind words!

Interval Xchange team

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

chriskre, iconnections,

Thanks for all the feedback and ideas, lots of valuable stuff!

Inventory pricing is definitely an issue we've discussed on more than one occasion. Currently inventory pricing is up to the owners with no restrictions and there is a strong case for that to change. Owners tend to over value their inventories due to pride of ownership. Unfortunately overpriced, uncompetitive inventory that's never reserved does not benefit anyone.

Large scale paid advertising on Facebook, Google and others is definitely in the works. Right now we use paid ads in smaller "trial runs" to see how visitors navigate through our site and where we can improve. For example, the "Process" page should get a lot more "visual" in a few days making our concept much easier to understand.

Let us know which FB groups you use to rent, I'm sure this info will benefit not just us but everyone too! Why not go a step further and create a separate post where users of this forum can post and share references to all FB groups they use to rent?

Again, thank's for all the help and kind words!

Interval Xchange team

We do not rent our timeshares out because we like to use them. This is why I didn't sign up to check your website out because I have nothing to input there.