ASK Interval International

[iianswers Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close iianswers]

As you can see, this section had a name change.

As per Frank I'm going to be helping people as much I can. I am an anonymous insider and not here on behalf of II. If you need personal assistance either pm or email me iianswersts4ms@gmail.com

Any questions or suggestions please don't hesitate to ask.

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

Welcome, and thank you for your assistance! It's very nice to have you here.

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

Thanks appreciate your offer for help and understanding.

[Presley Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Presley]

Welcome and thanks for offering to assist.

[happymum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close happymum]

Thanks for sharing your time and insight!!

[gandalf252002 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gandalf252002]

Yes, I for one look forward to picking your brain, and your knowledge.

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

Thank you, and welcome!

[SOS8260456 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close SOS8260456]

Welcome and thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge!

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

Welcome! People like you who give the straight scoop are a real asset.

But please be careful. We had a similar guy from the inside at RCI who spent several years giving lots of valuable information about their system on this and two other timeshare boards, then suddenly vanished, the theory being he was sniffed out by RCI. That was a real loss to all three boards he participated in.

I have never used II, but now mostly use DAE and SFX. Given that RCI is now so badly screwed up, I have thought of trying II, so I will follow your comments with much interest.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

Welcome to our forums.

First question why have II increase the price of getaways for this year ?

[mdurette Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mdurette]

As you can see, this section had a name change.

As per Frank I'm going to be helping people as much I can. I am an anonymous insider and not here on behalf of II. If you need personal assistance either pm or email me iianswersts4ms@gmail.com

Any questions or suggestions please don't hesitate to ask.

Welcome!!!!

[djyamyam Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close djyamyam]

As you can see, this section had a name change.

As per Frank I'm going to be helping people as much I can. I am an anonymous insider and not here on behalf of II. If you need personal assistance either pm or email me iianswersts4ms@gmail.com

Any questions or suggestions please don't hesitate to ask.

Ok. I'll start. I have two questions:

1. There seems to be an inconsistency on the effectiveness of on-going searches, especially during the flexchange period. It seems that ongoing searches don't match during flexchange, either for searches that were put in place prior to flexchange or for a flexchange request. Can you clarify if this is the case or why it seems to happen?

2. Over the course of the last year or two, the effectiveness/trade power of bonus weeks has decreased dramatically. For example, a bonus week given for the deposit of a Marriott week used to have the same trade power of the deposited week, including the Marriott preference period. Trade power on the bonus week has been significantly reduced, making them virtually useless. Can you comment on why the change and what we can expect going forward?

Thanks for coming to our site.

[iianswers Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close iianswers]

Thank you for the welcomes, hopefully I can be of some service.

@Ryne08

The II Getaway one is a confusing one, I can think of a couple of reasons from what I've seen internally although I can't give you the "corp" answer.

There's ALOT of unsold inventory. As a business they want to make the money back somewhere, the way they seem to see it is if you're buying them you might as well pay an inflated price. The reason I know the price is inflated is there's some accounts on the system that enable you to see a knock down price. I'll try and get some comparisons before the end of the week.

The overnight price increase means you can't really pin it on the developer selling them at higher prices to II.

The other reason is a lower revenue last year. They had payrises, albeit very small ones (this is not an excuse from me, it's more of a reason I would imagine a board would give the likes of me though) and the extra cost needs to be paid for somewhere etc etc.

Other reasons could simply be that if you're going to buy the week you'll pay whatever price is there, some areas are only accessable via the getaways and this bothers me alot. People sign up thinking, and I would think this too, that you can get into the Gulf coast of Florida or to nice areas in Europe or to the South Coast of California and it doesn't seem you can without months of careful planning and luck. This means that you're left with purchasing Olde Marco Island at $879.00 a week or Inn at the Opera at $400 for off season.


@djyamyam

1. There seems to be an inconsistency on the effectiveness of on-going searches, especially during the flexchange period. It seems that ongoing searches don't match during flexchange, either for searches that were put in place prior to flexchange or for a flexchange request. Can you clarify if this is the case or why it seems to happen?

In the last 6 months I haven't seen a pending request confirmed within 59 days even when there is inventory. This is not the official stance on it therefore II have not given any of it's agents a reason so anything I say will be an educated guess.

Within 59 days, most exchange inventory is also available as a getaway. You've not had your request match, oh look it's there as a getaway, oh I'll buy it and make sure I get a vacation. Cold but sadly, wouldn't put it past them.


2. Over the course of the last year or two, the effectiveness/trade power of bonus weeks has decreased dramatically. For example, a bonus week given for the deposit of a Marriott week used to have the same trade power of the deposited week, including the Marriott preference period. Trade power on the bonus week has been significantly reduced, making them virtually useless. Can you comment on why the change and what we can expect going forward?

Bonus weeks don't seem to be worth their salt anymore. It only seems to be getting worse as well. You get a 2 bedroom bonus week that can only find Studios when 2 bedroom and 1 bedroom units are available. I'm as annoyed as you are by this.

I know of way around it that are effectively "breaking the rules" where if we know a unit is available, you can see it with your deposited week and make enough fuss you can match the week to the certificate using a complex and painful process on the agent's end. It's not their fault but at the same time, if they're smart then they'll know how to match it up and who to talk to do it for you, the customer.

I expect the change is due to it being a "free week" instead of a week that II are getting more than $169.00 or whatever exchange fee they're charging for it.

The grids are getting worse on them as well. I'm not really sure what the benefit of this is, the list of restrictions on them actually hurts my head.


Hope that helps, I'll make some enquiries with some people and see if anyone I know has more insight. Keep the questions coming people, I'll try and keep the answers coming.

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

Welcome to TS4MS and thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

Have the Marriott changes made a big difference in locking off units at the MOC or the Lahaina & Napili Villas or anywhere else? It seems to be almost impossible to lock-off a unit there and get a second week. They seem to show up about two weeks before the date of checking in now. It wasn't like that before the new Marriott Destination Club was started.

Would you still recommend doing a request first or not anymore? Thank you for giving your reply on this.

[MaryH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MaryH]

Expired week

Hi iianswers,

I was busy with work and some family health issues for about 18 months or so so lost track of II a little bit. I let my II membership expire intentionally and apparently my week expired as while while I was not paying attention.

Can anything be done with it? I was told by a rep that it is more than 3 months so nothing he can do but I figured it does not hurt to get a second opinion.