The 4th of July is one of the most difficult weeks to get on exchange in either RCI or Interval International. Now that the 2009 holiday is over you should be putting in your exchange request today for 4th of July 2010. The longer you wait, the less chances you have of getting it.
Many timeshare owners don’t get around to putting in their exchange requests until after they receive their annual HOA bill. And typically that bill arrives in January of each year. Only those owners that have very powerful trading timeshares will be able to get 4th of July 2010 if they wait until next year to put in their request.
You should never wait until you receive your HOA bill to pay it. If you really want to increase your exchange power you should always request next year’s vacation this year. And that means you’ll have to pre-pay next year’s HOAs now. Many timeshare owners are unaware that they can do this so they wait. And as a consequence, they have less likelihood of getting what they want on exchange.
Most timeshare companies will let you pre-pay you HOA’s by credit card over the phone. Or you may be able to send in a check. But doing it that way will probably delay you getting in your exchange request by several weeks while your payment is being processed. And the longer you delay putting in your request the less your chances of getting confirmed.
Another thing to consider when requesting 4th of July week is that you’ll only be giving RCI or Interval International 1 week to search for. This adds another degree of difficulty to and already difficult exchange request. To offset this you need to increase the amount of resorts you’re willing to take. A good strategy to use to do this is to request 4th of July week in several different resort areas instead of just one.
For instance, you could request 8 resorts in Vail, Colorado, 6 in Whistler, British Colombia, 10 on the California coast and 8 on the Oregon coast. By doing this you would increase your odds of getting confirmed enormously.
So get going for next year’s 4th of July holiday now. I’ve found that the timeshare owners that typically exchange for holiday weeks are planners by nature. And they are some of the savviest timeshare exchangers in the industry. The best way to compete with them is to get in your request early and to give a lot of resort choices.
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Jeff Pierce, The Timeshare Expert, has taught thousands of timeshare owners the secrets to getting the best exchanges with both RCI and Interval International for over 21 years.
His two books, The Timeshare Exchange Bible – RCI Weeks Edition, and The Timeshare Exchange Bible – Interval International, are the only books of their kind in the timeshare industry and designed to help you master at the very complicated art of getting good exchanges.
I would love to have you share your opinions and personal insights on this blog.
For 10 FREE videos on getting a better exchange in RCI and II, go to TheTimeshareExpert.com.
