Methods to Exchanging Timeshare Weeks
Sometimes it can get a little monotonous going to the same location year after year after year, so a few smart brains got together and start exchange programs to facilitate what once was a very manual process of timeshare exchanges. Exchange companies benefit from the network effect, that is the more members you have the better it is (like a telephone), and now many of them are enormous. Here we will briefly describe each of the different types of exchange methods so you get an idea of what the whole concept is.
Direct Exchange
This is the simplest way possible, you just find a timeshare owner in the location you want to visit and you swap their week for your week. All you do is tell your respective resort management offices that you’re reserving a week for someone else. It’s the same process you go through when you give your week away to a friend or relative, you just make the reservation in their name.
Vacation Club
You don’t actually have to do much of anything except work it out with the Vacation Club management. Since they own all the resorts, you simply trade for similarly valued weeks at other locations. Obviously this only works if you’re actually in a Vacation Club, otherwise you’re left to option 3…
Timeshare Exchange Company
This is, now, the most common way to do an exchange. You deposit your week with the exchange company into their “space bank” and then select from a list of available inventory. The availability inventory will only include those weeks that the exchange company considers comparable to the weeks you’ve deposited. There is almost always a fee associated with exchanges.