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Timeshare Consumers Association

The Exchange System

 

The exchange system is regarded as the "lifeblood" of timeshare - providing an enormous increase in the choice of places to visit and times to take a holiday.

The principle is that you deposit the week that you own, just for one year, into a "bank" with the exchange company and take out of that bank another week, in another resort, worldwide. If you own points, then you use your points to select a week in a resort of your choice each year. There is a great degree of flexibility in the system - you can bank a June week in a resort in England and take out of the bank a March week in a resort in another part of the world, in another year.

There are six exchange companies currently serving the UK:

The "big" two: Resorts Condominiums International (RCI )and Interval International (Interval) Three smaller companies: UKRE / ERE (UK / European Resort Exchange); Dial-an-Exchange and Timex  (the latter only on  the internet)

Buying a timeshare with the purpose of mainly using it for exchange purposes - seeing the world in quality accommodation

Both RCI and Interval operate their systems on the basis of "Trading Power". This simply means that they measure the qualities of the week offered by you against the qualities of the week you are looking for.

To make this comparison they use a number of criteria to grade the relative trading power of the week you own and the weeks that you will be offered for exchange - essentially a comparison of supply and demand. The key factors in assessing the supply/demand are:

Region. This is the major factor. It is a measure of the level of demand for exchanges into a region in comparison to the availability of accommodation in that region. If a holiday area has few resorts, and a great many owners wanting to visit, then the region has a high rating. For example, the UK and Ireland are high demand areas. On the other hand areas such as the Canaries, with numerous resorts, have a low rating because of the ready availability of accommodation for exchange.

Resort Quality. Three basic grades: ·

Apartment size. Apartments are generally measured by their sleeping capacity · The "Colour" of Your Week. The Timeshare year is divided into three seasonal bands: · Unfortunately this seasonal banding system does not provide the buyer with much help to the trading power of a week - with only three bands the grading is too coarse to identify actual demand for weeks. For example, all weeks in the Canaries are High season, including January and November, whereas the main demand for exchanges in the Canaries is during the summer months and demand during the winter is much lower.

So, a buyer of timeshare looking to get the best choice of exchange should look for: ·

Buyers should be realise that the exchange system is not perfect - exchange companies cannot guarantee that the ownership of a peak week, in a top quality resort in the high demand region will get the exact exchange that you want. But the greater your "Trading Power", the better chance of getting the exchange you really want.

The two large companies are able to offer a wide range of choice - on a like for like basis - whereas the smaller companies only offer a narrower choice (but not, yet, on a like for like basis). All exchange companies offer "bonus" weeks - which are weeks, usually not in High season which can be tacked onto an exchange (for a fee) to extend a holiday.

How owners can get best value out of the Exchange System

The trading power of your week of ownership (or the number of points you own) is the key factor in the exchange system. But when it comes to using that trading power there are a number of ways of "working the system" to maximise your choice of exchange.

Firstly, it helps to be armed with a few basic facts:

  1. RCI and Interval International restrict membership to owners at resorts where they have affiliation agreements - although some resorts are affiliated to both organisations, allowing you to join both if you wish. But you are not obliged to join either - although most developers provide a "free" membership of the affiliated company as part of the initial purchase.
  2. BUT you can join as many of the other exchange companies as you like - in addition to belonging to RCI or Interval. With an increasing number of companies coming into the market who do not require any Membership fee (or only a very small fee) it is possible to join two or three at little or no cost - only paying when you actually book an exchange.
  3. Exchange demand for school holiday periods greatly exceeds availability - but remember that school holidays in other countries are often at times different from those in the UK - for example, the summer school holidays in the US are about one month earlier than they are in the UK
  4. Bonus weeks (which are mostly unsold weeks in resorts which have been made available to the exchange company by the resort) are usually only available in low and mid season.
  5. It is possible to "double-trade" - banking a week (or points) with one company; booking a week with them and then banking that week with another company to take out the week you REALLY want.
  6. Some owners see the exchange systems as a challenge and have evolved complex ways to beat the system - often with success. But for the average owner who doesn't want to spend too much time he simply needs to know the rules of each system - plus a few "wrinkles"!

Each exchange company has its own system.

Both RCI (0345 626923) and Interval (020 8336 9300) publish, in their directory of resorts, excellent explanations of how to make best use of their systems. Both require the owner to contact them by telephone to request a availability and the owner is then given a choice of weeks/resorts as near as possible to match his request.

The smaller companies serving the UK, but offering exchanges worldwide.

World Resort Exchange (WRE) (01770 302 345) & Dial an Exchange (01756 749966)  The owner can either chose an exchange (and bonus weeks) from regularly published lists or telephone to request an exchange.

Timex (www.timex.to) (currently with free membership) is an "internet only" company. All banking, booking and payments of exchanges are done on the web with resort details and available weeks kept up to date on a daily basis. They provide the opportunity to browse for a resort you like and instantly check availability and book it.

Points clubs

All points clubs have affiliation agreements with one of the two major exchange companies (and some use the exchange companies as managers of the points club system). But these affiliation agreements do not necessarily give the points clubs member the same facilities or rights as direct members of the exchange company. In some cases the benefits may be greater than an ordinary member, in some cases, less.

TCA advice

The TCA is not yet in a position to advise on the "best" exchange company because the newer companies are introducing new options into the market in order to generate business. Our general advice is: ·  

Update:  3 January 2001