New to Timeshares and SFX - please help!

[I-DE-HO Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close I-DE-HO]

Thank you all for your advice etc. on this topic; as I said, we just purchased the timeshare so I am still trying to figure everything out

Our TS unit is usable during the "Red" season, which I understand is the highest season, so I would think that this includes all busy times in Mexico (ie, Jan-Easter).

I am a little nervous after reading Phil's post about not likely being able to obtain 2 back to back weeks through SFX in Italy in Nov 2007. I am wondering if it would be better to try to book one week though SFX (probably the second, because it will be Thanksgiving week and I know that SFX does not black this week out like other companies); then use a trade with RCI for the first week of the honeymoon. Do you think my chances of getting back to back weeks in Italy would be better (I will probably stick with Gold Crowns since this is my first trade and my first time in Italy and I want to make sure I am not disappointed) -- Perhaps when Mark returns, he can weigh in with his professional judgment on this.

Thanks again

Amanda,
Didn't mean to scare you, just being realistic. I would suggest that you read your t/s contract to see exactly what your "use" period is. Why? Because many MX resorts exclude Easter & Christmas/New Years weeks. Yours may not. Let us know.

What do you have to deposit with RCI? Do you own at another resort?

It's not clear from your posts whether or not you have actually deposited a week with SFX. Have you? Since you own a 'floating' week have you reserved a specific week yet? If so, which week?

The more we know the more we can help you.

If you have a 2nd week to deposit it's a good idea, in my opinion, to consider giving it to RCI. I see quite a bit of inventory in Italy with my good trader. The problem with RCI is that if you deposit a GC resort week with them you will be blocked (called a downward block) from seeing many 'Standard' resorts in Italy, and elsewhere. RCI's feeling is that they don't what you to "trade down" and then be disappointed when you get to the resort.

Italy shows only 6 GC resorts on the RCI site and none are in the towns you mentioned http://www.rci.com/RCIW/RCIW_index You may have to settle for a 'Standard' resort if you deposit with RCI. Best wishes.

Phil

PS Also consider the independent trading company DAE. They have a lot of European inventory, but I'm not sure how much they have in Italy. No trading power issues either. They accept all weeks and you can pick any week they have. www.daelive.com

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

Thanks Phil. My apologies for the confusion... OK, the only weeks that are not available for me to book at my home resort is Christmas and New Year's weeks - or what they call weeks 51 and 52 of the year.

I do not have any other TSs besides the one in Cabo san Lucas. I have a 2 bedroom/3 bath unit there for one week - hence I am able to split this unit up for 2 weeks in various ways. Next year, I am splitting the 2 bedroom unit as follows - i am going to my home resort in august for 1 week and staying in the studio unit. Then I will have 1 week remaining in a "master suite" at my home resort which sleeps 4/6 (i.e., 4 in beds, 2 in a pull out sofa) -- This is the week I am interested in trading out next year (I have not yet submitted it to SFX or RCI). I was also given 2 additional weeks in my 2 bedroom as part of the "extras" from my home resort as a thank you. These weeks can be used from 2007-2009. So, if I need to trade more than one week to accomplish my honeymoon next year, I would be able to.

Also, I am interested in staying at the Hershey Suites in PA in June 2007 - this resort is in both the RCI and SFX inventories.

I am trying to figure out how best to schedule my trips for next year... the one to Cabo is already booked as this is my home resort so it was easy for me to figure out But, I am still trying to figure out 1 week at Hershey in June and Italy for 2 weeks in November -- I can be flexible with dates give or take a few days, but not as flexible as usual considering I am trying to work around a train festival for the PA trip and my honeymoon for the Italy trip.

Whew.. sorry so long, but I am trying to provide details so you all can give me your thoughts!!

Thanks again.

[I-DE-HO Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close I-DE-HO]

OK, this is what I would do:
1.Call your resort tomorrow and reserve an Easter week with your 'master suite' side. Easter weeks will probably not be available so then say you want any week in Feb. or Mar. 2007. These weeks will trade well with SFX and hopefully RCI.

2. While on the phone ask if your 2 bonus weeks can also be split. If the answer is YES then you can get 4 more weeks deposited!! Reserve Feb/Mar weeks and trade away! Or, you may want to save one for your own use in 2008!

3. Now you have 3, maybe 4 or 5, weeks reserved. Deposit them with SFX, RCI and maybe DAE (I just check DAE's website and they have NO weeks for Italy right now in 2007. When you search, Italy is under "Central Europe"). I don't know anything about SFX's inventory in Italy but since they usually require GC or 5* status I'm guessing they get very few weeks as there are very few GC or 5* resorts in Italy. Mark can enlighten us. IMO, RCI has the most inventory of weeks in Italy. 6 resorts are GC and 11 are Silver. The other 140+ are Standard resorts. But who cares. You won't be inside that much.

4.If you decide to deposit one or more weeks with RCI start an Ongoing Search right away for the week(s) you want. Folks on the RCI board can help you with this when the time comes.

Hopefully others will chime in with their opinions. That's the beauty of these forums. I'm sure I've overlooked a number of things but these are my suggestions.

Phil

Thanks Phil. My apologies for the confusion... OK, the only weeks that are not available for me to book at my home resort is Christmas and New Year's weeks - or what they call weeks 51 and 52 of the year.

I do not have any other TSs besides the one in Cabo san Lucas. I have a 2 bedroom/3 bath unit there for one week - hence I am able to split this unit up for 2 weeks in various ways. Next year, I am splitting the 2 bedroom unit as follows - i am going to my home resort in august for 1 week and staying in the studio unit. Then I will have 1 week remaining in a "master suite" at my home resort which sleeps 4/6 (i.e., 4 in beds, 2 in a pull out sofa) -- This is the week I am interested in trading out next year (I have not yet submitted it to SFX or RCI). I was also given 2 additional weeks in my 2 bedroom as part of the "extras" from my home resort as a thank you. These weeks can be used from 2007-2009. So, if I need to trade more than one week to accomplish my honeymoon next year, I would be able to.

Also, I am interested in staying at the Hershey Suites in PA in June 2007 - this resort is in both the RCI and SFX inventories.

I am trying to figure out how best to schedule my trips for next year... the one to Cabo is already booked as this is my home resort so it was easy for me to figure out But, I am still trying to figure out 1 week at Hershey in June and Italy for 2 weeks in November -- I can be flexible with dates give or take a few days, but not as flexible as usual considering I am trying to work around a train festival for the PA trip and my honeymoon for the Italy trip.

Whew.. sorry so long, but I am trying to provide details so you all can give me your thoughts!!

Thanks again.

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

Phil, thank you so much! I have just sent them an e-mail with the suggestions that you provided to me.

I will wait for Mark to chime in before I decide what to do about submitting the weeks.

The extra weeks that I have can be split in the same way as the regular week that I bought!

Any other suggestions that you come up with (or anyone, of course!!), please let me know!!!

I love this forum!

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

OK, this is what I would do:
1.Call your resort tomorrow and reserve an Easter week with your 'master suite' side. Easter weeks will probably not be available so then say you want any week in Feb. or Mar. 2007. These weeks will trade well with SFX and hopefully RCI.

2. While on the phone ask if your 2 bonus weeks can also be split. If the answer is YES then you can get 4 more weeks deposited!! Reserve Feb/Mar weeks and trade away! Or, you may want to save one for your own use in 2008!

3. Now you have 3, maybe 4 or 5, weeks reserved. Deposit them with SFX, RCI and maybe DAE (I just check DAE's website and they have NO weeks for Italy right now in 2007. When you search, Italy is under "Central Europe"). I don't know anything about SFX's inventory in Italy but since they usually require GC or 5* status I'm guessing they get very few weeks as there are very few GC or 5* resorts in Italy. Mark can enlighten us. IMO, RCI has the most inventory of weeks in Italy. 6 resorts are GC and 11 are Silver. The other 140+ are Standard resorts. But who cares. You won't be inside that much.

4.If you decide to deposit one or more weeks with RCI start an Ongoing Search right away for the week(s) you want. Folks on the RCI board can help you with this when the time comes.

Hopefully others will chime in with their opinions. That's the beauty of these forums. I'm sure I've overlooked a number of things but these are my suggestions.

Phil

Phil - over a week ago I sent Amanda a private message openly and frankly discussing certain issues and challenges about her expectations, our concerns, her honeymoon and how they all relate to quality and locations of Timeshares in Italy. I also made some recommendations about this kind of trip.

Hopefully Amanda absorbs and evaluates all the information and suggestions.

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

Thanks Mark. I am absorbing and evaluating.. and I plan to send you a follow up e-mail hopefully today or tomorrow with further inquiries.

From my limited experience thus far in the world of timeshare trading, I must say that I am pleased and impressed with the customer service from SFX! You guys have been great Thanks again

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

Amanda, I'm not sure what Mark said in his email, but I'm guessing that he said your chances of getting what you want aren't good.

Here's the problems. There aren't that many timeshares in Italy. Of the ones there, few would be up to SFX's quality standards, so not many weeks in Iralty will be deposited with SFX. Also, I doubt that many owners of Italian timeshares belong to SFX, as SFX is an American company and most owners of Italian timeshares are probably Europeans. This would further reduce SFX's Italy inventory.

It can't hurt to have SFX looking for resorts for you, though. SFX has a very good reputation and since you have several weeks at your resort available, depositing one of the weeks with SFX will probably give you something nice in the future (plus maybe a bonus week), even if they don't have anything for your honeymoon.

I would suggest contacting DAE and putting in an ongoing request for what you want. You do not have to deposit your weeks with DAE unless they find what you want. A nice feature of DAE is that they accept all weeks, so if they find what you want, you can give them one of your studios in exchange. (I assume the "master suite" is actually a one bedroom. Is that correct?)

I would be cautious about depositing any of your weeks with RCI. RCI is one of the very few exchange companies that won't tell you anything about how well your week will trade until you give them your week. (Actually, they may be the only exchange company that won't tell you anything about how your week will trade.) Once RCI gets your week, you probably won't be able to get it back, no matter how poorly it trades. I have heard that most Mexican weeks are very poor traders in RCI, although I have no personal experience with this.

You might want to consider using a timeshare for one of your two weeks in Italy, and staying in hotels the rest of the time. It would be far easier to find one unit, given a choice of two check-in weeks, then to get two back-to-back weeks. You also could consider looking for a direct exchange with someone who wants to stay at your Mexico resort, although it may be difficult because so few people own in Italy.

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

Judy -- great advice -- thank you! And, thanks for explaining.. This is all so new to me, I find that I am spending a lot of time just trying to figure out how everything works! I called my resort today and reserved March 26, 2007 in the Master Suite (which is a 1 BR and sleeps 4-6 people). I am going to call back and reserve another 2 weeks for Prime time 2007 so that I can attempt trading for both of my vacations that I am trying to plan for next year -- however, for example, let's say that I do get 1 week in Hershey for June, and 1 week in Italy for Nov. - and I still have one week left that I had reserved with my resort for next year -- can I still trade that for a vacation in 2008 if I reserved it for March 2007?


Thanks again

[Mark @SFX Industry Representative Find all posts View Profile Close Mark @SFX]

Amanda, I'm not sure what Mark said in his email, but I'm guessing that he said your chances of getting what you want aren't good.

Here's the problems. There aren't that many timeshares in Italy. Of the ones there, few would be up to SFX's quality standards, so not many weeks in Iralty will be deposited with SFX. Also, I doubt that many owners of Italian timeshares belong to SFX, as SFX is an American company and most owners of Italian timeshares are probably Europeans. This would further reduce SFX's Italy inventory.

It can't hurt to have SFX looking for resorts for you, though. SFX has a very good reputation and since you have several weeks at your resort available, depositing one of the weeks with SFX will probably give you something nice in the future (plus maybe a bonus week), even if they don't have anything for your honeymoon.

I would suggest contacting DAE and putting in an ongoing request for what you want. You do not have to deposit your weeks with DAE unless they find what you want. A nice feature of DAE is that they accept all weeks, so if they find what you want, you can give them one of your studios in exchange. (I assume the "master suite" is actually a one bedroom. Is that correct?)

I would be cautious about depositing any of your weeks with RCI. RCI is one of the very few exchange companies that won't tell you anything about how well your week will trade until you give them your week. (Actually, they may be the only exchange company that won't tell you anything about how your week will trade.) Once RCI gets your week, you probably won't be able to get it back, no matter how poorly it trades. I have heard that most Mexican weeks are very poor traders in RCI, although I have no personal experience with this.

You might want to consider using a timeshare for one of your two weeks in Italy, and staying in hotels the rest of the time. It would be far easier to find one unit, given a choice of two check-in weeks, then to get two back-to-back weeks. You also could consider looking for a direct exchange with someone who wants to stay at your Mexico resort, although it may be difficult because so few people own in Italy.

Judy - thank you for posting. Just some clarification if I may. Actually SFX is not dependent on having our inventory banked from Members for it's supply of space. Member deposits are just one of several sources. Whether SFX has 10 members from Italy or 10,000, that is not so much the issue.

The main issues are... "Quality, Location and other matters" we have already discussed with Amanda for her consideration.

It doesn't matter which exchange company she chooses for this, the issues remain the same. Amanda owns at a very good quality resort and certainly wants some piece of mind an exchange company can reciprocate with a reasonable degree of "consistency" for quality of property and location. (Even more so because it's her honeymoon).

What an exchange company gives out, is only as good as the deposits they take in.

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

Thanks very much for the clarification, Mark; it's good to know that SFX has inventory in addition to member deposits. I had been thinking that Amanda was more concerned with location than with quality, which is why I suggested requesting with SFX and other companies, but re-reading her posts, I see that she said she was looking for Gold Crown quality.

Amanda, timeshares on the European continent tend to be less luxurious than US timeshares, on the whole. So, you may end up having to choose betwen the location (Italy) and level of luxury, or go with a hotel (and unfortunately, European hotels are expensive for Americans, due to the poor exchange rate.)

...can I still trade that for a vacation in 2008 if I reserved it for March 2007?

Generally, timeshare deposits are good for a minimum of two years after check-in. So, a credit from a week whose check-in date is March 2007 should be good until at least March 2009 in most timeshare exchange systems.