If you live in San Diego county, you should consider buying a cheap week at the Carlsbad Inn or Coronado Beach Resort for two reasons: 1) year-round day use at the Carlsbad Inn and Coronado Beach Resort; and 2) the opportunity to exchange your “cheap week” for a higher value week using GPX. It’s usually easy to find cheap off-season weeks at these resorts for under $1,000.
Every new timeshare owner quickly learns about the largest timeshare exchange operators, namely RCI and Interval International. However, when deciding on selecting the right timeshare exchange operator, the answer can be difficult, as there are are many exchange operators, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. But when done wisely, using an exchange can open up exciting new destinations, or even allow you to exchange your week for a more valuable week, such as when we exchanged a week worth $902 for a week worth $1,469. Here on the West Coast, one of the best exchanges is GPX, the timeshare exchange operated by Grand Pacific Resorts. GPX is exclusive to owners of timeshare at one of the Grand Pacific Resorts, such as the Carlsbad Inn, Grand Pacific Palisades, and Red Wolf - Squaw Valley. There is no annual membership fee. GPX is a “look first” exchange, meaning you can search for availability before you are required to deposit your week. Deposits must be made at least 14 days or more from the arrival date. Late deposits can still be made, but they incur a fee of $99 - $149. The exchange fee is $189, and GPX allows owners to upgrade when exchanging for an additional fee of $85 (studio to 1BR) or $185 (studio to 2BR or 1BR to 2 or 3BR), depending on availability. Why do we like GPX so much? First, we love the option to look first before you have to deposit. Second, we love the opportunity to exchange a lower value week (like a fall week in Lake Tahoe) for a higher value week (like a summer week on the beach in Carlsbad). Third, the fees are very reasonable. Fourth and finally, Grand Pacific Resorts has lots of great properties on the West Coast and Hawaii.
If you live in San Diego county, you should consider buying a cheap week at the Carlsbad Inn or Coronado Beach Resort for two reasons: 1) year-round day use at the Carlsbad Inn and Coronado Beach Resort; and 2) the opportunity to exchange your “cheap week” for a higher value week using GPX. It’s usually easy to find cheap off-season weeks at these resorts for under $1,000. Because we have family staying in the Palm Springs area the first week of November, we wanted to join them for the week. We already had a week deposited with Interval International (Week 52 at the Welk Resorts, Escondido), so we called Interval to place a request for the Palm Springs area using this deposited week as our trade credit. Interval did not have any inventory immediately available, so we placed a request and crossed our fingers. A week later, we received an email confirming that an exchange had been made for a 2BR villa at the Marriott Shadow Ridge Enclaves in Palm Desert. We were excited because not only is this a beautiful resort, but we also knew that we got great value for our exchange, as demonstrated below.
As I mentioned above, we used our ownership of a Lawrence Welk timeshare to reserve Week 52 at the Welk Resorts, Escondido. The 2015 maintenance fee for this week was $902. The maintenance fees and club dues for the week 44 at the Marriott would have cost us $1,469. That's obviously a great deal, exchanging $902 for $1,469, but it gets even better when you consider that if we did not use timeshare, and just booked a week using Marriott's online reservation system, the cost would have been $2,150! By using timeshare, we effectively cut our costs by 60%! And the truth is that had we not owned timeshare, we never would have paid $2,150 in lodging expenses to make this trip happen. So either we would not have gone at all (most likely), or we would have stayed somewhere more "affordable" (meaning, not nearly as nice as the Marriott). ![]() Love your timeshare, but ready to visit a different part of the country, or world? Many resort operators partner with the exchange organizations on this page, and you can exchange your week/points at your "home" resort for a room at other resorts. The exchange organizations also offer additional education resources and insight into the timeshare industry, as well as special offers, discounts and deals. Exchange operators generally make their money by charging timeshare owners fees for exchange services. These fees typically include annual membership fees, exchange fees, and fees for guest certificates for those times when you want to allow friends or family members to use your timeshare. When it comes to exchanges, there is no one exchange that is "better" than others. Some exchange operators are affiliated with more resort locations, so they might have more inventory available for exchange, but remember that when it comes to exchanging, your ultimate goal is to travel where you want and when you want, and preferably to a resort of equal or better quality than your home resort. |
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