Timeshare Season Colors

Timeshare season colors rank each week of the year by how much demand it draws. In the RCI system a red week is high demand, white is average, and blue is low. Interval International uses red, yellow, and green for the same idea. The color sets your week's trading power for exchanges and strongly affects what it is worth.

What do timeshare season colors mean?

A timeshare season color is a label the resort and the major exchange networks attach to each week to show how sought-after that week is. Resorts divide the calendar into seasons based on local demand, then assign a color to each season. The hotter the demand, the higher the color tier, and the more the week can do for you when you exchange it or try to sell it. The colors describe demand, not the quality of the resort or the unit, so a modest resort can still hold a red week if its location peaks at that time of year.

Two things drive the color: when people most want to be there, and where the resort sits. A ski resort's red weeks fall in winter, while a beach resort's red weeks fall in summer, so the same calendar date can be a red week at one resort and a blue week at another. Season colors sit alongside the broader types of timeshares, because a fixed or floating week is still classified by its season, and they are mostly a weeks-based idea rather than a points-based one.

What is the difference between a red, white, and blue week?

In the RCI color system, the three tiers run from highest demand to lowest. The differences show up in what the week costs to buy, how easily it exchanges, and what it fetches on resale.

• Red week (high demand). The peak season at that resort. A red week is the most expensive to buy, carries the greatest trading power in an exchange, and tends to hold the most resale value.
• White week (average demand). The shoulder or mid season. A white week costs less, carries moderate trading power, and sits between the other two on value.
• Blue week (low demand). The off season. A blue week is the cheapest to buy and the easiest to find, but it carries the least trading power, which can make it hard to exchange into a busier time or to resell.

Because the colors track local demand, they shift from place to place. A red week in a ski town and a red week at a beach resort fall in different months, so always read the color against the resort's own seasonal calendar rather than the calendar date alone.

How does Interval International classify seasons?

Interval International, the other major exchange network alongside RCI, uses the same demand idea with a different palette: red for high demand, yellow for average, and green for low. A red season week is the most desirable to own and the easiest to exchange, for the same reason it is in the RCI system, because high demand means high trading power.

Interval International also publishes a Travel Demand Index, or TDI, that puts a number on demand for a given week in a given region. The index runs from 50 to 150, with higher numbers marking the busiest, most requested weeks. Owners use it to gauge how strong a week is and to time exchange requests, and it works hand in hand with the color tier. If you trade through one of the timeshare exchange companies, the color and the demand index together decide how far your week will reach.

How do season colors affect trading power and value?

Trading power is the strength your week carries when you deposit it with an exchange network and request a stay somewhere else. A higher-demand color gives you more of it, so a red week can usually be traded for a wider range of destinations and dates than a blue week from the same resort. RCI expresses this strength for weeks-based members as Trade Power Units, a value set from the resort's quality, the season color, the location, and the unit size, so the color is one of several inputs rather than the whole story.

The color follows the week into the resale market too. A red week generally commands a higher price and sells more readily, while a blue week can be slow to move and may sell for very little, which is part of the wider timeshare resale value reality. Knowing your color before you buy or sell sets honest expectations: you pay more up front for a red week, but you also hold more trading and resale strength, whereas a blue week is cheap to enter and harder to exit.

How do I find out my timeshare's season color?

Your season color is written into your ownership documents and your resort's seasonal calendar. Start with the deed or membership certificate and the resort's published season chart, which maps each week of the year to a color. If those are unclear, the resort's owner services desk or your exchange network account can confirm the color and, in RCI's case, the trading power your week currently holds. Confirm the color from the resort or the network directly rather than from a listing or a sales pitch, because the color is exactly what affects the cost and the resale strength of the week you own.

Sources

RCI (rci.com), official guidance on trading power and the Weeks season system (red, white, and blue), reviewed June 2026. Interval International (intervalworld.com), on the Travel Demand Index and its red, yellow, and green seasonal classifications, reviewed June 2026. Timeshare Users Group (tugbbs.com), a non-commercial timeshare owner community, for how owners describe season colors in practice, reviewed June 2026. Last reviewed June 2026.