Exchange 101

Vacation exchange allows owners the opportunity to trade their vacation week for new or different vacation experiences at other comparable resorts across the country and around the world. Exchange offers a variety of vacation experiences, from ski slopes to beaches, modern cities to quaint villages, with an equally diverse range of accommodation types—villas, efficiencies, condominiums, cabins, and many more. Recent industry enhancements include options such as adventure, cruise, golf and spa exchanges as well as the opportunity to exchange timeshare accommodations for airfare, hotel stays and rental cars.

Most resorts are affiliated with an exchange company that administers the exchange service for its members. To exchange, the owner places his or her interval into the exchange company’s pool of resorts and weeks available for exchange and, in turn, chooses an available resort and week from that pool. The exchange companies charge an exchange fee, in addition to an annual membership fee. Most exchange companies and resorts offer their members the additional benefit of saving or banking vacation time in a reserve program for use in a different year.

The exchange fact on based on a good system.  Which mean what you own is what you get!  If you own a resort that is not in a good location.  Plan on not going somewhere that is a great location or plan on going during the off-season for that location which might not happen in place like Hawaii, Orlando to just name a couple of prime locations most of the year.  Size of what you own also play a factor in what you get somewhere else.  Most common size is a two bedroom accommodations.  Studios are the least common and hardest to exchange unless it's in major beach resort that commonly have only studios.