Would you let an AC be deciding factor in staying with II?

[dmbrand Member Find all posts View Profile Close dmbrand]

We are in the midst of completing a private sale for a summer week in coastal Maine(week 29). The sellers would like us to take the 2009 week, and we have agreed. We can’t use it this year, so I am trying to weigh the different options. I can’t decide whether to deposit the week in our II account(provided it closes by 5/19), and receive the bonus week; or just try to complete a direct exchange with someone for something in the future.

At this close date, I am not even sure if we could successfully rent it. By not depositing, I can allow our II account to expire, and not incur membership and exchange fees. We will be using the Maine week in the future. Prior to happening upon this opportunity, I had been thinking of switching to RCI for our other dual-affiliated unit(even after reading the lengthy “RCI crimes” thread”).

As vacationers still tied to summers/school breaks, I am not sure if receiving an AC is valuable enough to stay with II at this time. Is it truly a great benefit, or will I be frustrated trying to find a use for it?

[philsfan Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close philsfan]

I would bet that you could rent a coastal Maine July week even if you started advertising in June. I wouldn't deposit it so late in II or RCI unless you just don't care if it will trade well or not.

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

I would not vacation anywhere that did not have air conditioning

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

We are in the midst of completing a private sale for a summer week in coastal Maine(week 29). The sellers would like us to take the 2009 week, and we have agreed. We can’t use it this year, so I am trying to weigh the different options. I can’t decide whether to deposit the week in our II account(provided it closes by 5/19), and receive the bonus week; or just try to complete a direct exchange with someone for something in the future.

At this close date, I am not even sure if we could successfully rent it. By not depositing, I can allow our II account to expire, and not incur membership and exchange fees. We will be using the Maine week in the future. Prior to happening upon this opportunity, I had been thinking of switching to RCI for our other dual-affiliated unit(even after reading the lengthy “RCI crimes” thread”).

As vacationers still tied to summers/school breaks, I am not sure if receiving an AC is valuable enough to stay with II at this time. Is it truly a great benefit, or will I be frustrated trying to find a use for it?

I think you have to weigh what each exchange company does for you.
Are u happy with your II exchanges?Are u happy with being able to search for exchanges without depositing your week?
Are u able to use the ACs you have in the past - do you have the vacation time and flexibility to use them or another friend/family member that can take advantage of them?

Why would you be switching to RCI? What can they get you that II can't?
Are u okay with not being able to search until u deposit and have to deal with the reality that your week could trade well one year but not the next for no apparent reason?

I would bet that you could rent a coastal Maine July week even if you started advertising in June. I wouldn't deposit it so late in II or RCI unless you just don't care if it will trade well or not.

I agree that u will be able to rent this week thru Boston Craig's List......even in June/July.

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

I would not vacation anywhere that did not have air conditioning

Bingster AC = Accommodation certificate

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

I would venture a guess that you can easily rent the week 29 IF you do not try to gouge with your asking rent. I have had success renting in Provincetown at the last minute by asking a little over maintenance fees when our plans changed and we were not able to use our week 27.

As for the AC, I have received them for my Cape Winds summer week, but have only been able to use one. All of the others have expired unused, even when offering them to other members, hoping someone could get something using them.


Joy

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

I would venture a guess that you can easily rent the week 29 IF you do not try to gouge with your asking rent. I have had success renting in Provincetown at the last minute by asking a little over maintenance fees when our plans changed and we were not able to use our week 27.

As for the AC, I have received them for my Cape Winds summer week, but have only been able to use one. All of the others have expired unused, even when offering them to other members, hoping someone could get something using them.


Joy

I am in a similar situation as Joy that because of many weeks owned, my ACs tend not to get used.
Many times my parents were able to use them but now do not travel as often.

[dmbrand Member Find all posts View Profile Close dmbrand]

I guess I was so sure that renting would be too much trouble, I didn't give it much consideration. We live in the Midwest; a trip to Maine definately takes more advance planning for us. I will have to look into this further.

We have only been timeshare owners(WI resort) since Jan 2008; used our unit once, and exchanged for an upcoming trip this June 2009. Never been offered an accomodation certificate. I have been happy with II so far(only one exchange); but with the ever escalating costs of membership and exchange fees, as well as maintenance fees, the idea of a direct exchange gets more appealing...especially if this newly acquired unit has some value to others.

GrayFal-Thanks for giving me more to mull over; and by the way..Happy Birthday!
Joy - I had been wondering if some of those AC's go unused; thanks for the reveal.
Philsfan - Renting is looking better,thanks.
Bing - My fault; I shouldn't use an acronym in title.

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

We have always used our AC's and they get really good when close in to the time frame for the trade.

We are looking forward to dumping RCI when the membership expires....next year.

We have been using II more and more, and the AC's are a definite winner for us, and II has the search first feature, and there have been many more choices offered each time we conduct a search.

The only downside on II is that you cannot put a "hold" on the unit, but if you have any need to, within 24 hours you can call and cancel with no penalty. Which we did only once.

While II does rent out units, as do all trading companies it seems...it appears that II has much more allegiance to the timeshare exchange model than RCI...RCI dumps hundreds and hundreds of prime weeks into rental sites and travel agencies.

Good luck with your plans, and congrats on your ownership.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Drop II - you'll never miss it. We sure don't

We are in the midst of completing a private sale for a summer week in coastal Maine(week 29). The sellers would like us to take the 2009 week, and we have agreed. We can’t use it this year, so I am trying to weigh the different options. I can’t decide whether to deposit the week in our II account(provided it closes by 5/19), and receive the bonus week; or just try to complete a direct exchange with someone for something in the future.

At this close date, I am not even sure if we could successfully rent it. By not depositing, I can allow our II account to expire, and not incur membership and exchange fees. We will be using the Maine week in the future. Prior to happening upon this opportunity, I had been thinking of switching to RCI for our other dual-affiliated unit(even after reading the lengthy “RCI crimes” thread”).

As vacationers still tied to summers/school breaks, I am not sure if receiving an AC is valuable enough to stay with II at this time. Is it truly a great benefit, or will I be frustrated trying to find a use for it?

Strictly opinion but in my experience there are few things - except possibly the recent Slim post - that are more frustrating than trying to get value out of II especially if you need prime time or desire specific resorts. As you guessed the AC is virtually useless for those times. I let my II membership die in 2002 or 2003 - that was after close to a decade of trying to make it be any value vs RCI. I wasted all those years of membership fees to get a half dozen trades not even close to what I gave up - always settling for a smaller unit, lower quality, lesser time or wrong location just to get something rather than lose a deposit. Request first was a tad better but still far from satisfactory. I now know being a paying member of II is a losers play - you have to be in corporate group to get anything of value.

So I'd say drop II and look at RCI, SFX (a real quality exchange vs a good but meaningless motto). In those same years plus the 6 years since RCI has consistently delivered what II never could.

[barndweller Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close barndweller]

Personally, I much prefer II over RCI but certainly wouldn't keep my membership based soley on a possible AC. II has gotten less generous with the ACs lately in my experience. I'd look into using TPI for exchanging weeks you may not use. There is no membership fee and sometimes you get bonus weeks.