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.