Interval International FAQ & Information

Membership Fees

Any other Fees?

• II fees to extend the period during which a deposited week can be used for an exchange: for three months - $59, for six months - $89, for 12 months - $169 (additional restrictions apply)
• II fees for some TS systems may be less than those quoted here. Marriott to marriott exchanges can be less ( BUT additional restrictions may apply)

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How do I Search for an Exchange?

Search options include:

• “Instant” online exchange.
• “Ongoing Search" / "Pending Request"
• “Deposit First” exchange request
• “Request First” exchange request.

*note: If an immediate confirmation of an instant exchange isn’t available, placing an on-going search for an exchange request allows II to automatically keep searching for a match.

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What size unit can I get with an Exchange?

With an “Instant” online exchange, you can search for any size unit that your week will match with. So if your studio can find an instant exchange at a resort which show a 2 bd available, you can trade for that 2 bedroom.

With an ““Ongoing Search" / "Pending Request" exchange, you can only search for a size unit which is the same as your unit size ( or less). EXECPT: If you are using a 1 bd unit and want a 2 bd unit, you can get a 2 bd unit by requesting an exchange into a resort which have only 2 bd units.

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How do I “search” for an instant online exchange?

• On the vacation exchange page, just select where and when you’d like to travel and click continue. Some people have said that using the "map" search will give better results due to a glitch in the II software.
• Select the previously deposited week or available week (not yet deposited) you’d like to use for your exchange.
• If you are using a week still available to you (not yet deposited), you may be asked to provide the check-in date and/or reservation numbers before you continue
• Then you’ll be shown a list of units available for instant exchange for your specified date and destination..
• You can cancel the transaction any time prior to selecting “Submit” on the payment information page.
• You’ll receive a confirmation number after submitting your payment details.

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Why do I use “Request first” or “Deposit First” exchange? What is the difference between them?

The best weeks & resorts for exchanges are generally not sitting in II inventory, so if you want a great week at a great resort, you’ll have to do an ongoing search for your exchange request. Also called a “pending request”.

The difference between the two methods are:

• with “Deposit First”, you give II your week before they fill your exchange request.
• Once you deposit your week, you’ll have a period of 1 year before, till 2 years after check in to find an acceptable exchange.
• Your deposit’s trading power is locked-in as of the date you deposit the week.
• with “Request First”, you keep your week until II finds an acceptable exchange for your week.
• You must find an acceptable exchange before 60 days before your weeks check in date. If you don’t find an acceptable exchange, you can stop the search and use your week for your own vacation.
• As you get closer to your check in date, your week’s trading power will lessen, and if not deposited by 60 days before check-in (or withdrawn for your own use), any deposit will be a Flex Deposit (see below) with many restriction on its use.

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How do I “Request first” or “Deposit First” exchange?

• Log in to your II account.
• Select “Exchange”.
• Select “View your Units”.
• Select “Exchange” for any eligible week.
• Enter your Reservation # , your actual (or a hypothetical) “Check-in Date”. Then click “Continue”.
• On the vacation exchange page, just select where and when you’d like to travel & click “Continue”
• If you’re lucky you’ll get an instant exchange confirmation, but most likely you’ll get a page which says: At the moment there are no matches for the destinations and dates you selected.
• Then further down the page it will ask if you want to “deposit first” or “request first”. Follow the prompts for whichever search method you wish to use.

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Can I Exchange back into my home resort?

When trying to exchange back into your home resort, you have priority over other owners, but only as a tiebreaker

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How do I verify that my online exchange confirmation has been completed?

You’ll receive a confirmation number at the “Transaction Complete” page after you’ve selected a resort and the dates you want to travel, reviewed the resort information, and provided your payment details. Then your home resort will then verify the week you relinquished, and we’ll send your confirmation certificate to you via your choice of e-mail, fax or regular mail.

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How do I find out about a pending request / ongoing search?

After match your request, II will either mail or email you. If it’s very close to the date of travel, they will also call. They also might call to offer you something that (they think) is close to your original request. If you express interest, they will confirm it, and if you decide you don’t want it, you have 24 hours to cancel. This might put your original deposit back in line behind other requests.

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If I get a trade, can I cancel it?

Yes, but only within 24 hours, and only by telephone. The 24 hour cancellation period starts from the time of confirmation and you must call during II’s business hours to cancel a confirmed exchange. If you have selected regular mail as your choice of notification for confirmations, you must change that to email in order for the cancellation period to apply. (Note: all trades made within 7 days of check-in basically can not be cancelled)

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If I have a confirmed exchange and have to cancel it, what happens?

When you cancel a week before 60 days of check-in, you get a replacement week. That week is good for 1 year from the date you canceled. ( not the check in date of the deposited week you started with.) If you cancel 59 - 14 days of check-in, your replacement week can only use the "Flexchange" service to make an exchange. You also lose your exchange fee.

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If I have a confirmed exchange, and then find a better one while searching II, can I upgrade?

When trying to exchange back into your home resort, you have priority over other owners, but only as a tiebreaker

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Can I Exchange back into my home resort?

Yes, by telephoning II and paying a second exchange fee. (Note that if you do this, be very careful to check your online “history,” as II has been known to mess up these second exchanges!) Upgrading a confirmed exchange can be done but the original week used for confirmation must have sufficient trade power to secure the upgrade. For example, you confirm a studio using resort “A”. Then see a two bedroom available using resort “B”. You want to upgrade your resort “A” exchange to the two bedroom. Resort “A” must have sufficient trade power to get the two bedroom unit. This generally won’t apply inside Flexchange, 59 days to check-in or closer, as trade power restrictions are mostly lifted.

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What day will my exchange start?

You can be confirmed to either a Thurs, Fri, Sat or Sunday check in. If you need a specific check in day you can request this by phone only.

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When can I deposit my week? When does Interval list the home weeks I own under my “Resort Units”?

• All resort units are listed at least one year prior to your check-in date.
• You can deposit your week as early as one year in advance of the check-in date of your home unit.
• In some instances — if your resort participates in the Early Deposit program — weeks may be deposited from 18 months to two years in advance.

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What is Flexchange & Flex Deposit?

Flexchange is for those members who want to request a vacation exchange on short notice — from 59 days to 24 hours before check-in. You can check Flexchange availabilities at IntervalWorld.com or by calling II. Additionally, you can make a Flex Deposit if you need to deposit your week 59 to 14 days prior to the check-in date, you then can only use the Flexchange service to make an exchange. If the deposit is made between 13 and 7 days before check-in, the replacement week can be used for an exchange only within 30 days of the desired travel date.

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What are Regional Restrictions and how do they work?

II enforces a policy which allows some TS in a region (like the greater Orlando area) to restrict trading to other resorts within the same region. This limits the number of TSs you can trade to when trading back into the same area which your TS is located. The restriction generally doesn’t restrict trading to a different resort within the same family of resorts. So Marriott owners in Orlando, can trade to the other Marriott resorts in Orlando. This restriction does not go away during the “flexchange” period when most restrictions on trading seem to go away.

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How do I add a new resort / week to my II account?

When trying to exchange back into your home resort, you have priority over other owners, but only as a tiebreaker

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Can I Exchange back into my home resort?

• The weeks you see under “Your Resort Units” reflect the resorts / units which II believes are currently eligible for you to exchange.
• After your deed is recorded at the local county auditor and the resort has recognized you as a new owner. Simply contact member services to add an additional week to your account.
• II will verify your unit’s number and size with your home resort and update your records.
• There is an administrative fee to add a week(s) to an existing membership. The administrative fee is waived, however, if you renew your membership for at least one year at the time you add your week(s).
• Please note that you must have the same names on the deeds for all weeks to add a week to an existing membership. You can't add a week to your II account if the owner names are different.

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The time limit for requesting an exchange is about to expire, what can I do?

• You can extend your expiration date for three, six, or 12 months by purchasing a deposit extension or by contacting member services.
• You can extend your Request Window only once and your week will be treated as a Flex Deposit.
• Weeks initially relinquished as Flex Deposits or late-notice deposits maintain their original redemption method.

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How do I purchase a Guest Certificate online?

• You can purchase a Guest Certificate online at the time you make an exchange confirmation or place a request. Or You can also purchase a Guest Certificate online when you buy a Getaway.
• If your transaction was already completed, simply go to your Member Corner and click on “My Transactions” to view your exchange and Getaway history. You have the option to add, modify or delete a Guest Certificate for any current exchange or Getaway transaction by clicking the “ADD/MODIFY/DELETE” button.

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I know I can’t rent an exchange - but then why is there a “guest certificate?”

You can give it to someone - what a great wedding or anniversary present

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What is an AC?

“Accommodation Certificate”Interval International (II) offers an incentive bonus to owners of high-demand weeks who deposit them with II. That bonus is an Accommodation Certificate (“AC”), which can be exchanged for a week through II. Your exchange choices will be limited and generally won’t be prime season weeks. Thus, there are effectively blackout dates and blackout resorts. The restrictions for your AC will differ from the restrictions on some other ACs. In addition, you can use your deposited week to exchange for another week.
During the last 59 days (“Flexchange”) before a week for which you would like to redeem your AC, you can see almost any week available in the II exchange system, other than those weeks restricted for various resort system (such as Marriott) internal trading preferences. The cost to redeem an AC ranges from $229 to $329: $229 for a studio, $279 for a 1BR and $329 for a 2BR.
The AC is valid for one year from the date it is issued, which is usually soon after you make your deposit. Thus, to use your AC, you must reserve and take your additional vacation during that one-year period. That suggests some strategy, since the longer you wait before depositing, the longer you will have to use that AC once it is issued. The challenge is to balance that additional time against possible reduced trading power for your week due to delaying your deposit.
There is no guarantee that you’ll receive an AC every year you deposit your week. The demand for your week could change, possibly leading II to stop offering an AC for your week. Also, you won’t get an AC if you use the request-first method for requesting an exchange, under which you hold onto your week until you get an exchange that’s acceptable to you.
Because most available weeks that can be confirmed with an AC are off-season (except during Flexchange), ACs don’t work well for everyone. Many, many ACs go unused. However, if you don’t mind traveling in the off-season or scheduling your trip on short notice (during Flexchange), you might well be thrilled with the results.

To determine if your week currently qualifies for an AC, follow these steps:

• Log in to your II account and Select "exchange"
• Select “Deposit/Extend a Week”.
• Select “Deposit” for an eligible (1BR or larger) week.
• Enter (or make up) your Reservation # (for Marriott owners a 8-digit Marriott “Reservation No.” starting with “8”). Also select your actual or a hypothetical “Check-in Date”. Then click on “Continue”.
• If you are lucky, the next screen (“Deposit Details”) will have two paragraphs. The first paragraph will explain how long you will have to complete an exchange if you deposit the week. The second paragraph, the one you hope to see, will read something like the following:
  Deposit this unit and you’ll earn a Bonus Week Certificate that’s good for an additional one-week accommodations at an Interval member resort (certain fees and restrictions may apply). Once your unit is verified for deposit, the certificate will be issued so come back to IntervalWorld.com soon to check on the status of - and to start planning - your bonus vacation.
• At that “Deposit Details” screen, do not click on “Deposit” unless you really want to deposit it!

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Can I undo a deposit?

Generally no. Possibly, if it was their mistake, and if your deposit hasn’t yet been assigned to someone else.

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Can I cancel an on-going search / pending request?

Yes, but only by calling II on the phone. This can’t be done online.

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Why do the destination units available change when using different potential deposits?

Because each of your deposits may have different “Trading Power,” that is, the resorts and weeks that have more demand, and those you deposited earlier, can pull better exchanges. Note that sometimes you’ll see LESS with a better unit than with a less desirable one. This may be because Interval sometimes won’t show you units that are of lessor quality or smaller than the one you are depositing.

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When does my membership expire?

Click on the “My Account” link to view the expiration date of your Interval membership.

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If we sell the ownership of one of our weeks to a buyer, and we've already deposited our week for next year with II, what options do we and they have?

After the new owner has the new deed and has been recognized by the resort, they can join II ( or if already a II member). At that time, II can cancel the seller’s deposited week and give the new owner a "supplemental week" instead. It has the same fees and trading rules as a regular week, but is not guaranteed to be the same trade power and quality level as the week that was canceled.

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If we sell the ownership of one of our weeks to a buyer but it has been used to confirm a nice exchange, can the confirmed exchange be transferred to the new owner?

The easiest way to use the exchange by the new owner would be via a guest certificate.

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The Final Word!

Exchanging your Timeshare can be as simple, or overly complex as you want it to be! Even folks who have been exchanging for years are still learning new tricks and rules (not helped by the fact that the exchange companies regularly change the rules and policies to suit their needs)! The absolute best place to find help and advice for specific Timeshare Exchanging questions is our Free Discussion forum for Timeshare Exchanges found here: Timeshare Exchange discussion forum

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