Your salesperson made it seem like doing a timeshare exchange was so simple – just like getting a hotel room. Pick up the phone, call RCI or Interval International with your request, and you’d be instantly confirmed into a 1 or 2 bedroom villa on a beachfront resort in Hawaii for less than $200 for the week. He said you’d feel far more intelligent than all the rest of the people at the resort that were paying $300-$500 per night.

If you’re like most timeshare owners one of the major reasons you purchased it was to exchange it to other resorts worldwide. And like most timeshare owners, you’ve probably heard the words “not available” nearly every time you’ve tried to exchange it. About now you’re starting to feel scammed.

The 2 words, “not available” combined with the less than realistic explanation of how a timeshare exchange really works by the salesperson has given rise to a seething, angry cauldron of timeshare owners that feel helpless and frustrated. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about what you were told regarding how easy a timeshare exchange would be, but plenty can be done about the “not available” issue.

1. You must understand that “not available” in timeshare speak really means that there’s a waiting list of people who have already requested the EXACT same thing as you.

2. Just because you’re request isn’t available the day you ask doesn’t mean it won’t become available at a later date. So whenever you hear “not available” you should immediately ask to be put on the waiting list. RCI and Interval International call that doing a pending search or request.

3. There will ALWAYS be a waiting list for the best resorts and/or peak travel periods.

On the beach in Cabo

With that in mind, here are the key things you’ll want to remember about getting on RCI or Interval International’s waiting list that will help you understand how a timeshare exchange really works and thereby increasing your chances of getting what you want:

• You can’t exchange into a resort unless someone exchanges out of that resort. Seems simple enough, right? But many timeshare owners don’t understand this concept because they equate doing a timeshare exchange as the same as doing a hotel reservation. Since a hotel knows its availability in advance and because most hotels average only 65-70% occupancy, it’s much easier to get a reservation.

But neither RCI nor Interval International own any of the resorts in their portfolios. They are third party exchange services and must wait until the individual timeshare owner deposits or banks the week they own before they can make it available to another exchanger. The best resorts and or peak travel periods always have more timeshare exchange requests than there is availability so a waiting list is established.

Each time RCI or Interval International receives a deposit of a highly demanded week, it is instantly confirmed to the next person on the waiting list and so on and so on. The waiting list for prime timeshare weeks may get smaller, but it will never completely go away and is the reason you’re told it’s “not available”.

• The closer it is to the date that you want to take your vacation, the longer the waiting list. If you wait until May to request an August week you will be facing a much larger waiting list than if you would have placed that request in January.

• The closer it is to the date that you want to take your vacation, the fewer remaining available weeks. If you wait until May to request an August week, the majority of the August weeks will have already been deposited and confirmed to other timeshare exchangers on the waiting list leaving less for you.

• Neither RCI nor Interval International will tell you where you’re at on the waiting list. You’re position on the waiting list changes from day to day. If you’re 10th on the list and another timeshare owner requests after you, you may be bumped down to the 11th position if his timeshare resort is better or if he has maximized his exchange power. If RCI or II told you that you’re now number on the waiting list when you were number 8, you’d give up. They then would lose both the annual dues and the exchange fees.

The waiting list is a fact of life when doing a timeshare exchange and always will be. Now that you understand this, always request as far in advance as possible and learn what you can do to get the most exchange power from what you own.

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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.

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