Interval International: The importance of constant searching!

Interval International has been a great resource for me to exchange into high quality weeks.  My primary strategy has been to use my Hyatt Residence Club points and exchange through Interval International.  

The easiest way to set yourself up for success in getting the week that you want is to put in a Request First or Deposit First Request.  I talked about these here. 

However, it always surprises me that there are great weeks that come through just by searching current inventory.  A lot of time, bulk deposits, for some reason or another do not immediately match with ongoing requests so there is a potential to grab a prime week through searching current inventory rather than putting in a Request First or Deposit First request. 

In this post, I wanted to alert readers on the "proper" way to search Interval International. 

I have gone through the basics on how to use the search functions of Interval International,  but one item that I have left out is that you should be searching over, over and over again using the same search. 

Doing Multiple Searches 

Most people know that Interval International inventory changes constantly.  Deposits and exchanges are constantly being done.  However, when you do a search, Interval International does not simply provide a list of all resorts that are available for your particular search but rather they use a search algorithm that includes metrics such as trading power, preferences, deposited week, timeframe before check-in and so forth. 

It has to be a fairly complex algorithm but it is one that does not always produce the same results.  Most times it does but I am always surprised that different resorts and weeks come up at certain times and disappears at others despite using the same search parameters. 

My thought is that the algorithm is not perfect and does not always produce consistent results.  Therefore, you need to search multiple times for the same search.  You could be surprised on some results. 

Conclusion

The key to being successful with Interval International is to be diligent with your requests and to constantly search.  While putting in a Request First or Deposit First ongoing search is an extremely good tactic, the other tactic is to simply search often and when you do so, do multiple searches for the same thing.  My preference would be to do both.  

Did you know that you can exchange a "Request First or Deposit First" reservation that has not matched?  I'll do a follow up on this item on a later post. 

When I search, I generally do about 10 searches and if nothing changes, I move on to something else and will revisit it later in the day.  The key to remember is that you should not just do one search and think that these are all the results.  It can definitely be the results but often times, when you do multiple searches one after another, the system displays additional results which could be your desired week. 

The key is to consistently search over and over.  You could be surprised by some results that come up using this tactic.  Also, if something comes up that you want, BOOK IT IMMEDIATELY.  If you don't, the chances are that it will disappear and not come back either because it matched an ongoing request, someone else booked it before you or simply that the system shouldn't have displayed it and it was a glitch. 

Have you used this tactic before?  Were you successful?

​Make sure to comment below!
​