Timeshare Ownership: Money well spent or big mistake?
Mar 12th, 2006, 11:06 AM
#21
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I own several timeshares. For our family, timeshare ownership works very well.
Through our timeshare ownership, in the last four years we have spent one week vacations in Paris, Kauai, the Big Island, a 50 foot catamaran in the BVI, a 50 foot catamaran in the Grenadines, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Boston, southern Utah, Orlando (twice) and Panama City, as well as 5 days that a neighbor spent last summer at the new Marriott in Capri and long ski weekends and summer weekends each year at Mountain Creek, NJ. The upcoming vacations we have booked for 2006 are one week at Whistler (in July), Newport, RI (in August) and Avon, CO (during Christmas), plus 4 nights at Mountain Creek, NJ during the summer.
I do not believe that we are losing money on our timeshares, because the cost of the investment and maintenance we have spent to date is less than what we would pay for rental at similar places. However, I agree that there might not be an economic reason to buy a timeshare if you are prepared to shop for vacation deals, especially if you get a package that includes airfare.
Here are my thoughts about some of the advantages and disadvantages of timeshares, without discussing the economics:
Advantages:
1. The timeshare gives you a good opportunity to visit different places. We have lots of friends who either don’t go on vacation because they’re too busy, or go back to the same place each year or make plans at the last minute and so settle for what’s available. That used to be me. Owning timeshares forces me to plan ahead. Because I have already paid for the units, I wind up booking quality resorts at quality locations about six months to one year ahead.
2. My family enjoys staying in suites that usually have kitchens and big living rooms. Having a kitchen is a real plus. We enjoy going out to very good restaurants for dinner. But some nights, we just don’t feel like going out, and it is nice to eat in. It also saves time and money to eat breakfast and lunch in the unit.
Disadvantages:
1. There don’t seem to be many timeshares in cities. If you like to spend time in urban areas on vacation, I don’t think timeshares will be for you. Places like the Manhattan Club do not have a lot of openings and are booked quickly. (We spent a week at the Marriott Custom House in Boston, which we really enjoyed, but I think that is the exception.)
2. Most timeshares have late check-ins and early check-outs.
Suggestions:
1. Only buy at a place you have in fact visited. LLindaC complains about owning at Orange Lake. I’ve stayed there and found it mediocre, even though some people love it. I would never buy a time share there. But, LLindaC, it seems that you never visited there before buying.
2. Only buy at a place you would like to go to on vacation. For many reasons, you may be unable to trade your timeshare. If you have to stay at your home resort and you are not happy about it, I think you’ve made a bad investment.
3. Only buy at a quality place. If you buy at an undesirable resort, your trading power will continue to erode as the attractiveness of your resort deteriorates. Also, if you buy at a small place, or if your timeshare does not charge enough maintenance to pay for capital improvements, it will deteriorate. I find a lot of the complaints about time shares are from people who pay at mediocre places and then get upset because they can’t trade into five star resorts. But why should LLindaC have the same trading power with her disappointing time share at Orange Lakes than HonestAbe would have with his first class resort?
4. I like the points system. Under its points system, RCI assigns a resort a certain number of points, depending on the quality of the resort, the number of bedrooms and the time of the year you visit. You can only book a unit if you have enough points to pay for it. While I know that there are problems with RCI’s ratings, if you own a quality unit, you should have enough points be able to book comparable, quality units. If you own a less than desirable unit, you will have less points and be unable to book better quality units. The points system also allows you to book for less than one week. This gives you more flexibility and allows you to book trips within driving distance of your house that you only would like to visit for less than one week. (For example, our daughter wants to spend a few nights in Manhattan. The points system allows us to book a 2 or 3 night stay at the Manhattan Club. We can also spend 3 or 4 nights at resorts in Lake Placid or Quebec, when we wouldn’t want to spent a full week there.)
5. I like lockouts. Marriott allows us to use our two bedroom unit and break it into a one bedroom and a studio. For example, last year I traded our two bedroom Marriott and was able to book in return a two bedroom in St. George and a one bedroom in Avon.
6. It is important to belong to a timeshare that offers special plans for members. We belong to Marriott Vacation Club and Raintree Vacation Club. Marriott allows us to bank our timeshare every other year into Marriott rewards points. This means that every other year, we can trade in our two bedroom in Orlando and get 100,000 Marriott reward points. We can then use those points at any Marriott hotel. That is how we got to stay at a Category 7 Marriott on the Champs Elysee in Paris. (Marriott sometimes offers transportation packages on these deals to also cover airfare.). Raintree offers something similar that allows us to book places before they go on RCI or one place, the Teton Club, that isn’t even offered through RCI.
7. Join these two groups: Timeshares Users Group (TUG) at www.tug2.net and Timesharing Today at www.tstoday.com. Membership is inexpensive and they offer accurate reviews posted by other members.
8. I don’t think timeshares work well with cruises. We would like to go to Alaska soon. It seems that you get little value for trading in your timeshares and going on a cruise.
9. Timeshares don’t work if you plan on traveling long distances each day and may not work if you like to visit National Parks. If you want to go to the national parks in Southern Utah, it might not make sense to spend all your time at one resort, which would restrict you to day trips to different parks. Similarly, it might not make sense to go to a timeshare near Yellowstone. Because of the time and distance it will take traveling to and from the park, you might be better off staying at a lodge inside the park.
10. It might make sense to buy a quality timeshare near your home if it offers something extra. For example, we get free skiing and golf at Mountain Creek. If there is a timeshare near you that offers free use of its facilities, such as skiing or a gym or golf course, and you will use those facilities, that might make it more worthwhile to purchase.
11. I might not be so quick to discount HonestAbe’s example. We have to find out more information about what is being offered. For example, how many bedrooms are there in the unit; and does it include free or discounted skiing. If we use Gail’s calculations, I’m not so sure that 7 weeks of vacation for $5,000 a year, of which 2 weeks is for skiing in the winter, is outrageous.
Sorry for rambling on for so long.
Through our timeshare ownership, in the last four years we have spent one week vacations in Paris, Kauai, the Big Island, a 50 foot catamaran in the BVI, a 50 foot catamaran in the Grenadines, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Boston, southern Utah, Orlando (twice) and Panama City, as well as 5 days that a neighbor spent last summer at the new Marriott in Capri and long ski weekends and summer weekends each year at Mountain Creek, NJ. The upcoming vacations we have booked for 2006 are one week at Whistler (in July), Newport, RI (in August) and Avon, CO (during Christmas), plus 4 nights at Mountain Creek, NJ during the summer.
I do not believe that we are losing money on our timeshares, because the cost of the investment and maintenance we have spent to date is less than what we would pay for rental at similar places. However, I agree that there might not be an economic reason to buy a timeshare if you are prepared to shop for vacation deals, especially if you get a package that includes airfare.
Here are my thoughts about some of the advantages and disadvantages of timeshares, without discussing the economics:
Advantages:
1. The timeshare gives you a good opportunity to visit different places. We have lots of friends who either don’t go on vacation because they’re too busy, or go back to the same place each year or make plans at the last minute and so settle for what’s available. That used to be me. Owning timeshares forces me to plan ahead. Because I have already paid for the units, I wind up booking quality resorts at quality locations about six months to one year ahead.
2. My family enjoys staying in suites that usually have kitchens and big living rooms. Having a kitchen is a real plus. We enjoy going out to very good restaurants for dinner. But some nights, we just don’t feel like going out, and it is nice to eat in. It also saves time and money to eat breakfast and lunch in the unit.
Disadvantages:
1. There don’t seem to be many timeshares in cities. If you like to spend time in urban areas on vacation, I don’t think timeshares will be for you. Places like the Manhattan Club do not have a lot of openings and are booked quickly. (We spent a week at the Marriott Custom House in Boston, which we really enjoyed, but I think that is the exception.)
2. Most timeshares have late check-ins and early check-outs.
Suggestions:
1. Only buy at a place you have in fact visited. LLindaC complains about owning at Orange Lake. I’ve stayed there and found it mediocre, even though some people love it. I would never buy a time share there. But, LLindaC, it seems that you never visited there before buying.
2. Only buy at a place you would like to go to on vacation. For many reasons, you may be unable to trade your timeshare. If you have to stay at your home resort and you are not happy about it, I think you’ve made a bad investment.
3. Only buy at a quality place. If you buy at an undesirable resort, your trading power will continue to erode as the attractiveness of your resort deteriorates. Also, if you buy at a small place, or if your timeshare does not charge enough maintenance to pay for capital improvements, it will deteriorate. I find a lot of the complaints about time shares are from people who pay at mediocre places and then get upset because they can’t trade into five star resorts. But why should LLindaC have the same trading power with her disappointing time share at Orange Lakes than HonestAbe would have with his first class resort?
4. I like the points system. Under its points system, RCI assigns a resort a certain number of points, depending on the quality of the resort, the number of bedrooms and the time of the year you visit. You can only book a unit if you have enough points to pay for it. While I know that there are problems with RCI’s ratings, if you own a quality unit, you should have enough points be able to book comparable, quality units. If you own a less than desirable unit, you will have less points and be unable to book better quality units. The points system also allows you to book for less than one week. This gives you more flexibility and allows you to book trips within driving distance of your house that you only would like to visit for less than one week. (For example, our daughter wants to spend a few nights in Manhattan. The points system allows us to book a 2 or 3 night stay at the Manhattan Club. We can also spend 3 or 4 nights at resorts in Lake Placid or Quebec, when we wouldn’t want to spent a full week there.)
5. I like lockouts. Marriott allows us to use our two bedroom unit and break it into a one bedroom and a studio. For example, last year I traded our two bedroom Marriott and was able to book in return a two bedroom in St. George and a one bedroom in Avon.
6. It is important to belong to a timeshare that offers special plans for members. We belong to Marriott Vacation Club and Raintree Vacation Club. Marriott allows us to bank our timeshare every other year into Marriott rewards points. This means that every other year, we can trade in our two bedroom in Orlando and get 100,000 Marriott reward points. We can then use those points at any Marriott hotel. That is how we got to stay at a Category 7 Marriott on the Champs Elysee in Paris. (Marriott sometimes offers transportation packages on these deals to also cover airfare.). Raintree offers something similar that allows us to book places before they go on RCI or one place, the Teton Club, that isn’t even offered through RCI.
7. Join these two groups: Timeshares Users Group (TUG) at www.tug2.net and Timesharing Today at www.tstoday.com. Membership is inexpensive and they offer accurate reviews posted by other members.
8. I don’t think timeshares work well with cruises. We would like to go to Alaska soon. It seems that you get little value for trading in your timeshares and going on a cruise.
9. Timeshares don’t work if you plan on traveling long distances each day and may not work if you like to visit National Parks. If you want to go to the national parks in Southern Utah, it might not make sense to spend all your time at one resort, which would restrict you to day trips to different parks. Similarly, it might not make sense to go to a timeshare near Yellowstone. Because of the time and distance it will take traveling to and from the park, you might be better off staying at a lodge inside the park.
10. It might make sense to buy a quality timeshare near your home if it offers something extra. For example, we get free skiing and golf at Mountain Creek. If there is a timeshare near you that offers free use of its facilities, such as skiing or a gym or golf course, and you will use those facilities, that might make it more worthwhile to purchase.
11. I might not be so quick to discount HonestAbe’s example. We have to find out more information about what is being offered. For example, how many bedrooms are there in the unit; and does it include free or discounted skiing. If we use Gail’s calculations, I’m not so sure that 7 weeks of vacation for $5,000 a year, of which 2 weeks is for skiing in the winter, is outrageous.
Sorry for rambling on for so long.
Mar 12th, 2006, 11:58 AM
#22
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We actually did stay at Orange Lake before buying. We bought one of the new units, which was nice. On our last trip, the unit was dirty, had towels on floor and cigarettes in ash tray and reeked of smoke. I never thought about the smoking issue!
Mar 12th, 2006, 12:59 PM
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I read your message as asking people who have "actually" owned timeshare units to respond to this.
A couple people responded that friends of theirs had owned and had bad experiences or others just "knew" that it had to be a bad experience.
Why respond when you have no actual knowledge?
As to replacing roofs or facing special assessments as a timeshare owner. These costs are passed on to every owner within a condominium or anyone owning homes that have been affected by a hurricane. Equal billing folks!!
My experience has been pretty much as every other timeshare owners' has been. Good! We enjoyed our timeshare and it was truly first rate. The island that we bought on was so wonderful that we bought a home there and our kids now have taken over the timeshare (which they also love).
As to a special assessment - yes we've had one and that was to update the units. They are still first class and we're sure they'll stay that way.
We bought ours via "Resale" and paid much less than full price.
Hope this helps as it is from an "owner".
A couple people responded that friends of theirs had owned and had bad experiences or others just "knew" that it had to be a bad experience.
Why respond when you have no actual knowledge?
As to replacing roofs or facing special assessments as a timeshare owner. These costs are passed on to every owner within a condominium or anyone owning homes that have been affected by a hurricane. Equal billing folks!!
My experience has been pretty much as every other timeshare owners' has been. Good! We enjoyed our timeshare and it was truly first rate. The island that we bought on was so wonderful that we bought a home there and our kids now have taken over the timeshare (which they also love).
As to a special assessment - yes we've had one and that was to update the units. They are still first class and we're sure they'll stay that way.
We bought ours via "Resale" and paid much less than full price.
Hope this helps as it is from an "owner".
May 28th, 2013, 11:46 AM
#24
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I would not buy from a timeshare company or builder. You will pay a fortune and never get your money back. Timeshares are a terrible investment and may cost you a ton of money in fees throughout the year.
I spoke to someone who owns several - but they buy them from owners who are selling them for rock bottom prices because they just want to dump them. (There is nothing wrong with them - but the owners can't sell for what they'd like to get.)
we own a timeshare but always exchange it - ours is paid off (we've owned it almost 30 years and only paid $7000.
We still lose money because of the years fees for this and that imposed by the time share inn/hotel.
You are probably better off just paying for a nice unit each year than owning a time share.
I spoke to someone who owns several - but they buy them from owners who are selling them for rock bottom prices because they just want to dump them. (There is nothing wrong with them - but the owners can't sell for what they'd like to get.)
we own a timeshare but always exchange it - ours is paid off (we've owned it almost 30 years and only paid $7000.
We still lose money because of the years fees for this and that imposed by the time share inn/hotel.
You are probably better off just paying for a nice unit each year than owning a time share.
Jun 12th, 2013, 02:23 PM
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We don't own, and have had the boiler room sell in order to get a couple of lift tickets. We have friends who have a time share in St. John's and it could be worth it--don't forget the expense of getting there.
Our kids bought one on their honeymoon to Sedona--and it is now on DDIL's last nerve as she will be glad to tell you--they have used it twice in 5 years.
another friend has several, and TOTALLY works them for points and trading and all kinds of things I had NO idea of. Her husband is a pathologist with lots of time off--and ability to get where they want.
Investigate CAREFULLY--and don't get caught in the boiler room mantra--we can't make this offer for longer than 5 hours.
We have a "time share"--a beachfront condo that we
share with friends and have it 4 time a year/shere. If you have friends, and a resort nearby , think about this. This situation is VERY popular in our Carolina city for beach shares of houses/condos. Works like a charm.
Our kids bought one on their honeymoon to Sedona--and it is now on DDIL's last nerve as she will be glad to tell you--they have used it twice in 5 years.
another friend has several, and TOTALLY works them for points and trading and all kinds of things I had NO idea of. Her husband is a pathologist with lots of time off--and ability to get where they want.
Investigate CAREFULLY--and don't get caught in the boiler room mantra--we can't make this offer for longer than 5 hours.
We have a "time share"--a beachfront condo that we
share with friends and have it 4 time a year/shere. If you have friends, and a resort nearby , think about this. This situation is VERY popular in our Carolina city for beach shares of houses/condos. Works like a charm.
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