A common theme of this blog is that you need to be flexible and plan early in order to exchange into great timeshares. This general strategy is key to making great exchanges and truly maximizing timeshare ownership.
While I firmly stand by this general rule, there are times when some great exchanges or getaways become available at the last minute. Sometimes other travelers cancel at the last moment or the exchange company releases inventory at the last minute hoping that someone will fill an empty room. I am sure that we all know that Christmas vacation is happening next week so most of the world will likely be traveling. Scoring a christmas week in a luxurious destination is generally difficult which is why you need to put in requests as soon as possible, generally at least one year in advance. While planning in advance is absolutely key, one of my favorite timeshare strategies that I employ when I do not get a week through requesting early is through the use of booking a hotel and searching timeshares that get released at the last moment. The general strategy is as follows when I do not get the desired resort or week: 1. Book a hotel at the destination that you desire to travel to. Try to get the best rate possible or ideally book with points. Make sure that the reservation can be cancelled 24 hours in advance. Booking with points is generally ideal as they can likely be cancelled 24 hours before check-in. Additionally, even if this strategy does not work, the vacation would be free! 2. Put in a Interval International Getaway alert for the desired timeshare week. If and when something becomes available, it will alert you. Book immediately if it is at a comfortable price book. Do not wait, as these will disappear in seconds! 3. Constantly search for exchanges up until the very last minute where you can cancel your hotel reservation. As stated, Interval International and RCI will sometimes release very desireable resorts for key weeks at the the very last second. Here are a couple that I found this morning. A prime ski week in Park City for less than $500 for the week!
While I strongly advocate planning far in advance, there are times that great weeks and destinations become available at the last minute. These last minute deals can be a fantastic value especially if you were prepared to book a hotel room.
I have personally used this strategy many times and have easily saved thousands of dollars for booking a getaway instead of a the hotel stay. In addition to saving money, we are generally happier with the additional space and cooking facilities. Specifically, I was able to use this strategy in St. Kitts. The Marriott hotel and timeshare are part of the same complex. We booked hotel rooms for approximately $2500 per room but kept looking for availability through Interval International. We were able to book a 2 bedroom timeshare for approximately $1,000 for the week at the last minute, saving us $1500 and giving us a 2 bedroom units instead of a small hotel room. In conclusion, BOOK EARLY but if that does not work out, have a plan to keep searching. You could be very surprised with some last minute availability! Interval International is one of the two large exchange companies where you can exchange your points or timeshare week for other weeks. Interval International (II) does offer various membership levels. II recently offered a great deal for upgrading your membership level for 50% off. I discussed this offer here. As a quick reminder, II offers three membership levels, General membership, Interval Gold and Interval Platinum. Due the offer, I upgraded my membership and I am now a Platinum member. While platinum membership does not help you with giving you priority trades, there are some decent benefits that you should be aware of. The first benefit is that each Interval Getaway is discounted $50. Interval Getaways allow you to book weeks with cash instead of using your points or weeks. There are often times some significant weeks that can be had for under $300 for the week. I have seen prime weeks in Cancun, ski weeks, Caribbean weeks and others. Now, in addition to those great prices, you will receive $50 off making it an even better deal. The second benefit is the ability to issue guest certificates for free. These guest certificates usually cost $59 per reservation but it is now included as II platinum member. If you have friends or family, you can reserve getaways and issue a guest certificate for free. This can be a great way to give vacations to friends or bring friends with you on vacation. Getaways can make travel really affordable! The third benefit is what II calls Platinum Escapes. Every now and again, II runs a promotion that offers significant discounts on available weeks. These are only offered to platinum members. I have seen entire weeks for under $150 for the week. The fourth benefit is Priority Getaway Viewing. II claims that you can see different inventory than others for Getaways. I have not seen this benefit in action but it is an advertised benefit so I assume it must happen every so often. The fifth benefit is shortstay exchange. Shortstay exchanges allow you to reserve rooms by night instead of by the week. If you do not normally travel by week, this may be a decent benefit but the exchange rates are generally higher than booking by the week. At times, this may come in handy but generally, I have not found this to be an exciting perk. The sixth benefit is called Interval Options. This allows you to trade your week or points towards the purchase of a cruise, tour, golf or spa vacation. I will look into this benefit more closely in other posts. I personally have not used it since I value exchanges very highly. The seventh benefit is a hotel discount of 10% for hotel stays booked with Orbitz. In other posts, we can look to see whether this is truly a perk. The eight benefit is bonus points on Hertz rentals that are good for 2 free days. If you book through II, you will get 550 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards with your first rental and another 550 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards with your second rental. This can be redeemed for 2 free days or you can accrue your points for other rewards. The ninth benefit is discounts through Saversguide. There are dining discounts such as 50% off or BOGO offers. We'll look into this benefit further but on a quick review, there does seem to be some decent offers. The tenth benefit is Airport Lounge Membership. II includes a standard priority pass membership which can get you access to some lounges. This is decent but there are a lot of credit cards that offer better access but in any event, it is a good perk. We can discuss the Priority Club membership in other posts but lounge access can make traveling a lot easier. The eleventh benefit is VIP concierge. The offer a personal assistance for dining, activities and others. The twelfth is called the Golf Connection. As an II platinum member, you can get access to private golf courses. A 15% discount on golf equipment is also available. The thirteen benefit is called Dining Connection. We can take a closer look at this benefit in other posts but they claim to offer you special amenities including tours, complimentary appetizers and desserts and other special items. The fourteen benefit is called City Guides. II has compiled guides for you to review and use while you travel. Overall, I think that there are some significant benefits to getting II's Platinum Membership. I generally use the $50 discount off Getaways and the free guest certificate. Using just these two perks can easily make up for the fee. The other perks can be beneficial at the right time. Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe below! Comparison of Marriott, Hyatt and Vistana programs for exchanging in Interval International10/21/2016
As I explained in my other post found here, there are multiple timeshare strategies to utilize in order to maximize ownership and get multiple weeks in very nice resorts. In this post, I want to explain why you can purchase a timeshare solely for exchange purposes and how the different programs compare.
For this post, we will compare a timeshare for the Marriott Vacation Club, the Hyatt Residence Club and Vistana Signature Experiences (Formerly Sheraton and Westin Vacation Club). These three timeshare systems all trade through Interval International. In addition, all three of these programs have point components. Marriott is now an all point system whereas the Hyatt and Vistana systems are hybrid systems meaning that you own a specific week that can be converted to points. In this analysis, I want to compare ownership of 2 bedroom units. These are by far the most common in most timeshare systems and provide the most flexibility. Owning a 2 bedroom unit allows you to reserve 2 bedroom units, 1 bedroom units or studios.
Planning far ahead is one of the best tools to use to grab high demand weeks in high demand resorts. It can be difficult to plan so far in advance but if you want the opportunity to grab prime Christmas weeks, you need to plan as far in advance as the system allows.
Interval International generally allows you to search 12 months in advance. You can search for available weeks 12 months from the date of search. You can also put in a Request First or Deposit First search 12 months in advance of the desired travel dates. This is great way to get in line to grab a prime week when it becomes available. I recently discovered a new trick within Interval that will allow you to search for 2 years from the date of the search. This can be extremely helpful since you can now see weeks 2 years in advance. In order to use this trick, you need to reserve a week as far in advance as possible. You should search for any weeks that are 12 months from the date of search. You go through the process of reserving that week and paying the exchange fee. YOU MUST GET E-PLUS EXCHANGE. I have talked about the tremendous benefits of E-Plus and this is one additional perk that makes this a no-brainer to get!. Once you reserve a week and you get E-Plus, you can then go through your history and do a E-Plus retrade. As discussed above, E-Plus allows you to retrade the reserved week up to three additional times. When you go to retrade using your E-Plus, the system defaults and allows you to search for an additional 12 months from the date of arrival. For example, assume that I begin a search on October 1, 2016. Interval International's system will allow you to search for exchanges for check-in dates of October 1, 2017 or before. If I found a week for a check-in date of October 1, 2017, I can choose E-Plus as part of the exchange fee. When I confirm that week, I can use E-Plus to search for a re-trade of my October 1, 2017 week. When I search using the E-Plus, the system allows me to re-trade my confirmed week for a check-in date of October 1, 2018 or before! By choosing E-Plus and going through these steps, I have now increased my ability to see availability for 2 years from the date of search. It can be hard to fathom on planning a vacation for 2 years in advance, but it is essential to do so to get these highly desirable weeks. As discussed earlier, one of the best benefits of the E-Plus is the flexibility. While you can now reserve a week 2 years in advance, you have the option to re-trade that week up to three times without any additional fees. Even though you are potentially planning a trip 2 years in advance, you still have the flexibility to change the week, destination or resort. Being able to search inventory for 2 years in advance is fantastic. Since most members do not have that capability, there could be some very desirable weeks that you can reserve before the general members. The downside to this approach is that you lose the ability to do a Request First or Deposit First where you provide Interval with the desired resorts and weeks and they will reserve it for your prior to it becoming available to the general population. This can be a downside but since you can now see inventory that most people cannot see or cannot even put in a request for, this method provides you with a distinct advantage in the system and sets you up to find those fantastic weeks at fantastic resorts. Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe below for unique exchange opportunities and travel deals!
Interval International uses various designations of its members resorts to show the quality of the accommodations. When exchanging into different resorts, these designations are very helpful to ensure that you are getting a quality resort.
Additionally, it is a must to review tripadvisor's reviews before booking. As taken from Interval Internationals magazine, "the Interval International Elite Resort status is awarded based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative scoring elements, including: A Quality Rating System (QRS) resort inspection conducted by LRA by Deloitte, a leader in the field of customer experience measurement Elite Qualifying Criteria (EQC) points, based on multiple combined factors from location to luxurious features and appointments at the resort A high Consumer Satisfaction Index (CSI) score Additional considerations, such as positive consumer reviews on external travel and leisure sites." After staying at many timeshares, all timeshares are not created equally. There are some awful properties as well as some fabulous properties. You need to do your research but generally, the Elite Designation is a great tool to make sure that you are picking good exchanges. My goal is to travel at luxury properties for significantly less than booking directly or at other comparable properties. I tend to always look for the Elite Designation as I feel more confident that these properties will be stellar. As stated in this post here, you can perform one search to find all the great properties. In going one step further, you can follow the instructions in the previous post and you can do one search for all properties. At times, I was receiving an error on Interval in doing this search so if that occurs, take some of the properties off the list and do two separate searches. Here is the list of all Interval International's Elite Designation properties: CEU,BUR,MAO,MSU,KTH,MSK,CXP,MFC,GVR,WSJ,WE2,WQ1,RWM,VRM,TYL,LBP,MPN, VGR,WLR,ITZ,VDT,LX2,LQL,VDF,SPZ,AZB,FVE,FVA,AZS,GKR,GBM,GBN,LXR,MCZ,DI8, MBE,GSE,HEC,RCQ,RDI,WKO,VLS,IPS,ITD,SMW,SMY,GP8,GP7,WGC,WGX,SCT,ITV,BLK ,ITB,CWX,TRM,HYI,VBL,VB2,MDS,MPD,MRD,MR2,WDL,WMH,WMX,FSA,NCV,WSM, HWP,HCC,MMI,MCP,MGV,MGR,HYK,MVO,MKI,MAW,MA1,HKB,MMO,MM1,KAA,KAN,MKO MK1,HSL,MGA,HNS,WNL,MGC,MC1,WRB,MCU,VTF,HYA,HMS,HBK,PPB,PMT,PM3, HRP,WRF,MOU,MSW,HVB,MBY, MGO,MSF,MMC,MSE,MCV,WKV,HYN,HYS Make sure to subscribe below to learn more tips and tricks on how to maximize timeshare ownership.
Exchanging your week is one of the best ways to maximize timeshare ownership. Many times, you can exchange your owned week for other properties that are nicer and more in demand than your own week.
Exchanging is great but availability is sporadic and you need to be very flexible with your travel plans in order to get highly desirable weeks and resorts. I have previously explained the benefits of doing an ongoing search with RCI or a Request First or Deposit First with Interval International. Another great way to quickly access what exchanges are available using Interval International's search tool. The search tool allows you to search current inventory by destination, all destinations or by Resort Name or code. As shown in the attached image, you can choose by Resort Name. One great tip in using this search is that you can input ALL the highly sought after resorts in one search and Interval will bring up the matches. Even if you are looking for a specific week, I generally put in the earliest travel date as the current date and the latest travel date for as long as Interval allows which is generally 12 months in advance. The reason for doing so is that Interval's system can be a bit buggy and I have seen additional inventory come up for a specific week when doing a broad search only to find that the inventory does not show up when I do a narrow search. Doing a broad search requires a little more review of the result but can result in you seeing more available weeks. Additionally, even if you are set on traveling one week, seeing availability for a highly sought after destination or resort for an alternative week can get you thinking on revising the initial plans. INTERVAL INTERNATIONAL RESORT CODES: In order to simplify the process, I have included the following list of resort codes HRP, HNS, HWP, HYS, HSH, HYK, HYN, HBK, HMS, HSL, HYP, HYA, HCC, HYB, HYI, HRA, LFP, SXP, STW, SDI, VTA, PGA, PGN, SRM, FSA, SCT, VIO, VO1, VIT, SVV, VKW, VVM, VCC, VIS, VS1, WDL, KAA, KA1, KAN, KA1, WKV, WLR, WMH, WPV, WV1, WRF, WEJ, WSJ, MAW, MFC, MGO, MMB, MPU, MKO, MOW, MAO, MCP, MBY, MMC, MSE, MSF, MDS, MPD, MGR, MSK, MCV, MMO, NCV, MSU, MKW, MPB, MUZ, MGA, MG1, MG3, MG5, MOU, MCU, MGC, MC1, MGK This list includes most of highly sought after resorts in Interval International. This list includes most Marriott properties, Hyatt Properties, Four Season properties and Vistana properties (Formerly Westin and Sheraton). There are other high quality resorts within Interval but this list is good overview of the top quality resorts. In order to perform this search, simply copy and paste the above codes and place them in the search box. You can then see the results. In performing this search, I found over five pages of availability for these prime properties. A couple of things to note.
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UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EXCHANGE YOUR DEPOSITED WEEK OR YOUR POINTS FOR AN ALL INCLUSIVE RESORT. DETAILS BELOW
We currently travel as a family of four with 2 young children. For the past couple of years, we have done a few all-inclusive vacations. It has worked out well since the kids can eat whatever they want as often as they want and the adults can eat and drink without worrying about the price. Daycare and/or kids activities are generally included which allows for some much needed kid-free time. All inclusives have come a long way and it is no longer just a bland buffet for each meal. All inclusives have five-star dining, room service, specialty restaurants and more. We have been very happy at a few resorts but some are definitely lacking in their offerings and food quality. You need to do your research when choosing an all inclusive resort. Interval International current offers all-inclusive resorts within its inventory that are designated by the following symbol.
You need to be aware of the symbol BEFORE booking and understand what it means. The all inclusive resorts within Interval International usually have very low costs per seven night stays which immediately grabs your attention. Take a look below at some of the offerings in the Riveria Maya (Playa del Carmen location). I have personally been to the Royal Haciendas and Cozumel Palace and we will describe them in more detail in other posts.
For example, a look at Cozumel Palace in Cozumel, Mexico for the week of September 20 to September 27 appears to cost $229 for a regular member for a week. When you book through, the terms and conditions are then presented which details the cost per night per person for food and beverage. The costs will change depending on the season. The first thing that you need to be aware of with all the all inclusive resorts in Interval International is that you are required to pay the all inclusive fees for all seven nights, regardless of how many days you actually use! The second thing is that the fees quoted will be for a minimum of 2 adults. If you are traveling solo, you are still going to be required to pay for 2 adults. In my Cozumel Palace example, the fees PER ADULT for the week of September 20, 2016 is $129 per adult, per night. The fees for children between 4-12 are $415 per week. The fees for food and beverage will be $258 per night, already more than the cost for the seven day stay. For this particular week, the total cost would be $1806 for food and beverage and $229 for the accommodations for a total cost of $2,035 with 2 adults. $2,035 is materially different that the advertised cost of $229 for the week so you need to be aware. Spending $2000 for a week at an all inclusive resort may appear like a lot, but is actually fairly reasonable considering all your food, drinks, alcohol, and snacks are paid for. This particular resort also offers some activities and credits. The activity credits can be worthwhile but you need to understand the additional taxes and limitations. We will discuss in additional posts. Since I have stayed here, I can describe these resorts in more detail in other posts. I can say that we really enjoyed both of these resort. Cozumel Palace was smaller than most resorts that we usually go to but we had a great time! As an example, I looked at Thanksgiving Week at Cozumel Palace. Booking with Interval International was $239 per week for accommodations and $129 per adult per night. Thanksgiving week would cost $2,045 through Interval. In comparison, booking directly with Cozumel Palace would cost $2,734.20. In this example, you would save almost $700 booking directly with Interval International. This can actually be a great perk of owning a timeshare.
If you are actually looking for an all inclusive vacation, the question arises on whether this is a deal or if you are better booking directly. We personally booked directly since the Cozumel Palace was not available on the days that we wanted within Interval International and we stayed 8 nights instead of 7 so we could not book through Interval without occurring the food and beverage expenses for 6 additional nights that we were not going to use.
The Palace resorts runs promotions quite a bit so this may or may not always be the case. We will do further trials later to determine if this is always the case. The Palace Resorts is also a sponsor of The Timeshare Guru so perhaps a special deal will be offered in the future!
The key take away is for you to be aware of the symbol and understand that it is an all inclusive resort. You need to read the fine print to determine the total cost of the stay. The weekly prices are a fraction of the overall cost. IN ADDITION, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EXCHANGE YOUR DEPOSITED WEEK OR YOUR POINTS FOR AN ALL INCLUSIVE RESORT. This is very important since you will essentially be giving away your deposited week. If you exchanged your week for the Cozumel Palace above, you would be trading your week for a week valued at $229. If you paid maintenance fees of $1000 for this week, you would be trading a week “worth” $1,000 for a week “worth” $229. There are tons of better exchange opportunities to get much more value out of your week! Overall, all inclusives are a popular way to vacation and my family has thoroughly enjoyed these types of vacation. I personally love not have to worry about the cost of every drink and every meal. It is not as relaxing when you are drinking $15 drinks at the bar and you food and beverage bills gets to be in the thousands. It can be a lot more fun to have as much as you want without thinking of the price. In addition, I like letting my kids order what they want without having to worry about the cost so that they can enjoy their vacation as well! All inclusives are not for everyone as you will tend to stay on the property for the entire trip. This can be good or bad depending on your vacation style. If you want to book an all inclusive vacation, Interval International is a good starting point. However, you should never exchange your week for an all inclusive resort and you should always book it as a Getaway if the price makes sense. You need to read the fine print and do the math. It may or may not make sense to book with Interval International or it may make more economic sense to book through some other online travel agency. All inclusives tend to do a lot of promotions so you need to be vigilant on deals. When they pop up, I will make sure to include them in the Guru Deals. Make sure to subscribe to get alerted first!
Many timeshare owners have become disgruntled with the lack of flexibility of timeshares. Once you exchange through an exchange company, you are stuck with that particular unit or resort. While they indicate that you can cancel, you forfeit your exchange fee of either $179 for online bookings or $189 for over the phone. Depending on how far advance you cancel will depend on what type of replacement week you will be offering. Some replacement weeks have restrictions that only allow their use within 60 days of check-in. This can be severely limiting. In addition, you are then required to pay a new exchange fee. As you can see, cancellation can be costly.
Sometimes, a better unit becomes available at a better resort, airfare changes occur, family issues occur or some other item comes up where you need to change or cancel your reservation. In order to provide more flexibility to timeshare owners, Interval International came up with a feature called E-Plus. This is truly a fantastic addition to Interval International. In addition to your exchange fee, you can pay a fee of $54 in order to be able to exchange your confirmed reservation up to three additional times for no additional fees. I have taken advantage of this program by completely changing destinations or changing resorts. It has been extremely advantageous and gives you much more flexibility that what you had in the past. Additionally, if you confirm into a studio unit for a particular resort but really wanted a one bedroom unit, if one becomes available you can exchange into the 1 bedroom unit. If you are on points, you will be required to deposit the additional points but will not be responsible for an additional exchange fee. You can elect to purchase E-Plus at the time of exchange or within five days after confirmation. If you use Request First or Deposit First, you can elect to pay for E-Plus at that time or within 5 days of confirmation of your week. In order to utilize E-Plus, you will need to go into your exchange history, "My History" and navigate to the Exchange tab. If you purchased E-Plus, you will click on "Start E-Plus Retrade" in order to search within the current inventory. There is a box on this page that also indicates how many retrades remain for that particular deposit. While E-Plus does provide a tremendous value since it opens up flexibility, one thing to consider is that you no longer have the opportunity to put in an ongoing request for a certain week or resort. Once you are confirmed into a week, you can exchange into other weeks through E-Plus but you are confined to current inventory and cannot set up an ongoing request that would automatically book you into the desired week or resort. Inventory constantly changes so you need to be diligent and constantly search. Alternatively, you can sign up here and be on the lookout for fantastic exchange opportunities! Overall, E-Plus is definitely an enhancement to timeshare exchanges as flexibility is becoming more and more of the norm. In the past, timeshares became to be viewed negatively since you were locked into the same week and resort year after year. The industry responded with the introduction of points and hybrid systems and continues to evolve in order to meet the demand of today's timeshare owners. E-Plus is another step in the right direction to provide greater flexibility. The Trials and Tribulations of Travel Planning with Timeshares: "Fail to Plan is a Plan to Fail"8/31/2016
As my father tells me, Fail to Plan is a Plan to Fail.
If money was not an issue, travel planning would not be an issue at all. You choose flights, irregardless of costs, and choose accommodations, irregardless of cost. Unfortunately, I do not have that luxury and most people do not as well. Exchanging your timeshare can unleash tremendous value and you can end up staying in properties that far surpass the quality of your own timeshare or those available to you through the internal exchanges. While there are opportunities to make great exchanges, availability for specific weeks and destinations can be extremely hard to come by and may never become available. The issue with vacation planning with timeshares is that you need to plan very far in advance. Some timeshare systems allow you to reserve weeks 2 years in advance of the actual week. Most people do not plan ahead and typically only plan vacations a few months in advance. As I will detail below, if you plan to exchange into prime weeks, this strategy may not work very much and you will quickly become disgruntled with timeshare ownership with the claim that your desired week, destination or resort never becomes available. The goal of my site is to help you avoid this fate and get the maximize value out of timeshare ownership. Further complications with travel planning with timeshares involve airfare if you are traveling to a destination outside of driving distance from your home. Airfares fluctuate and destinations during prime travel weeks can easily far exceed the budgeted amount for the vacation. I personally use frequently flyer miles to get airfare for free but frequent flyer miles can be even more complicated than timeshare exchanging and having availability with free airfare along with the desired week and resort can be next to impossible. However, I have successfully navigated this system for many years and it is doable with diligence, planning, patience, flexibility and websites such as mine! In order to get the two goals to meet up requires a ton of time, work and flexibility. My goal is to give you some tips on how to navigate timeshare exchanging in order to get the desired weeks. I will also detail some basic tips on how to get frequent flyer miles and use them to get airfare for free! TIP ONE: PLAN AHEAD, WAY AHEAD AND BE FLEXIBLE: The first tip is that you must plan ahead. One of my vacation rules is to always have a trip planned. This keeps me motivated to work and keeps me excited to see new destinations and spend quality with my family. Generally, I plan one year in advance and put in a Request First with Interval International or an internal request with one of my timeshare programs. (i.e Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, etc.) I put in a request with various top quality resorts around the world that I would like to travel to. You need to make sure that you choose the specific resorts that you want and not just put in a destinations. There are some crummy timeshares out there so you need to make sure that you choose the high quality luxurious ones. I make sure that the potential destinations have decent flight paths from my home airport so that I can make sure to only have one stop and to make sure that there are no overnight stays. We travel with young children so an overnight stay or more than one stop can be more difficult than desired. Request First with Interval International is a great tool and highly recommended since their system will constantly check their system and automatically confirm you into the desired resort for the specific week. I always make sure to use E-Plus which provides three free exchanges for a one-time fee of $54. This is absolutely necessary for added flexibility as without E-Plus, the reservations are non-cancellable except for a large fee for cancellation as well as the re-booking fee. I will discuss E-Plus in more detail later but this is an absolute must to give you the needed flexibility to change destinations Many times I change destinations because nicer resorts become available or fantastic airfare deals become available. SECOND TIP: HAVE A PLAN B The second tip is that you always need to have a Plan B. Most hotel reservations allow you to make reservations and cancel up to 24 hours before check-in. Once I put in a Request First, I also review hotel options in the desired areas of travel. I will make a few speculative bookings for the desired weeks so that there are options for accommodations in the event that the timeshare accommodations do not come through. Booking directly through the major chains is preferable as they generally make it easy to reserve and cancel your reservations with a few clicks. While I highly prefer timeshares for many reasons, you need to make sure that there are viable hotel options. One of my favorite ways to have a Plan B is to use hotel points to reserve a week in the desired location. I can reserve a hotel room that is fully cancellable with hotel points so that the week will be free in the event that the timeshare option does not become available. I will explain in later posts how to arm yourself with hotel points so that you too can have this option. THIRD TIP: USE INTERVAL GETAWAY ALERTS: As discussed in this post (Getaway Alerts), I explained how to use Getaway Alerts on the Interval International App. I routinely populate various dates and times and become alerted when a desired resort and destination becomes available. As discussed, many times it is economically beneficial to reserve a week with cash instead of using your deposited weeks or points. In addition, there are some fabulous deals with Interval Getaways so a deal at a great resort may end up dictating the ultimate destination for your vacation. A great deal for accommodations may open up the budget for an increase in the price of airfare. FOURTH TIP: USE HOPPER TO TRACK AIRFARE The fourth tip is to populate the airfare searches using Hopper. Hopper was discussed in this post here and is a great way to easily monitor airfare. Since at this stage, you will not necessarily know the ultimate destination, you can put in multiple itineraries and Hopper will constantly monitor the cost for the flights. If one destination is significantly cheaper than another, you can opt in to booking the airfare at that time. Once you book airfare, you are generally locked in to the destination as change fees can be as high as $200-$300 per ticket so you need to make sure things are lined up with the timeshare or have a reasonable Plan B that you are prepared to use in the event that the timeshare availability does not become available. Once your airfare is locked in, I would revise the request first to make sure that only the resorts in your request are for the destination desired. While you will have 24 hours to cancel it free of charge, if you miss this window, it can be problematic. FIFTH TIP: USE SOUTHWEST AIRLINES IF POSSIBLE Alternatively, if you are in destination that is serviced by Southwest, I highly recommend booking tickets with Southwest. Southwest is the only airline left that allows changes and cancellations free of charge. Southwest even allows you to receive travel credits if the price of the airfare goes down. Southwest will give you travel credits to use at a later date in the event your flight cost went down from the date you originally booked. However, there are a few issues with Southwest that should be understood. Southwest only opens its flight schedule for approximately six months in the future. Therefore, if you confirm into a resort a year in advance, you may not be able to book airfare with Southwest until six months from the trip. You will also be subject to the price of the trip once it opens up. While Southwest is known for its low fares, the prices for some trips and high demand weeks can be extremely expensive. The second issue with Southwest is relating to cancellations. Southwest does allow cancellations but the do not provide refunds. They provide you with a travel credit that must be used within one year from the initial reservation date. They also require you to keep the reservation number in order to access those travel funds. This does require a bit of record keeping and organization. The best method for Southwest is to use their Rapid Reward Points. Instead of booking with cash, you can use Rapid Reward Points and if you needed to cancel or change destinations, the points are immediately redeposited to your account. I will explain this in later posts but for the purpose of this post, Southwest is a great airline to use when timeshare planning. SIXTH TIP: USE AUTOSLASH As discussed in this post here (autoslash), Autoslash is a great tool for rental cars. You can make reservations using Autoslash without any credit cards and they will track your rental to ensure that you receive the lowest price on your car rental. Since it is conceivable that you have many potential destinations for the trip, you can make multiple reservations for the same week. Do it as far in advance as possible and autoslash will do the rest to make sure that the cost of your rental car is the lowest. SEVENTH TIP: CONTINUE MONITORING AIRFARE, HOTELS AND TIMESHARES AFTER CONFIRMING Going through these various steps seem exhausting but once you get a system in place and have alerts set, it becomes on autopilot and just requires monitoring. The key is that once everything is booked, that you continue to monitor everything to make sure that there are no unintended surprises. I try to book my airfare 330 days in advance which is when most airlines open their schedules. When I book this far in advance, airlines continue to make schedule changes throughout the year. Many times, the reserved flight path changes, times are altered or non-stop flights all of sudden require a stop. These can completely derail all the travel planning put forth above and could require a complete re-do of everything above. This is why is is highly beneficial to continue to monitor all these items to make sure everything is on track. You do not want to be surprised on the check in date that your flight now requires an overnight stay. Also, while schedule changes with airlines can be problematic, most if not all airlines allow you to re-book or cancel your flights for no charge or fees if the airline make a schedule change that impacts the travel time by greater than two hours. In other posts, we can discuss schedule changes and how to use them for your advantage but for the purpose of this post, you need to monitor your airfare. Airlines will generally inform you of schedule changes but those e-mails may go to spam or simply be missed. In writing this post, I realize that travel planning can be daunting and difficult. Working with timeshares adds even more complexity. These tips are meant to allow my readers to begin using these tools and becoming informed on how these tools can help alleviate these issues and obtain the desired weeks and resorts within a reasonable budget. I highly recommend that you subscribe to my Guru Deals below so that you can be alerted to various exchange opportunities, travel deals, flight deals and other opportunities to allow you to travel to luxurious destinations for a fraction of the retail cost. Travel planning as described above may not be for everyone so when airfare deals become available, I will try to include some options for timeshares and see how you can easily book quality weeks for reasonable costs and avoid all the steps above! Subscribe below so you don't miss out! |
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