Have timeshares gotten any better?

[carty1]

Bought my Colorado timeshare 35 years ago. For the first 30 years had plenty of great times with family and friends. Then in 2015, "somebody" said NO SMOKING. This NO SMOKING was for the entire premises!! Could not even smoke on the balcony! Starting in 2019 I stopped paying the maintenance fees (I had already paid off the mortgage years ago).
Have not gone back and just rented a place in Colorado. I get threatening mail that they will: "turn over my info to a collection agency" or "you will face foreclosure". So what! Destroy my credit?...Don't think so.

[meleana]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LJ Dem Great idea! Do you have a tip on finding timeshares to rent? (ie: is there a unique method or site, as opposed to airbnb and vrbo etc?)

There are some Facebook pages for this and also a great forum called TUG2.net

[cyber888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisC Ditto. Owner of Marriott Timeshares/VCP over 4 decades, since 1999. Used them for priceless family vacations in the past and continuing to enjoy them in retirement. They are by no means our exclusive method of leisure travel, but we’ve leveraged them for great travel junkets. Works for me in my family. Of course, timeshare haters gonna hate; and timeshare owners who know good deals and good trips, gonna keep on keepin on. More informed debates can be found at the Timeshare Users Group forum.

I agree. exchanged with Marriot yearly and they are nice with Oceanfront views. My timeshare is not Marriot but I could easily exchange with them for 2 weeks or more. My maintenance is about $800+ compared to $1200+ at Marriot.

[folly]

I find it so depressing that timeshare management, CEO, greed mongers have turned what is an excellent product into what it is. Timeshare is a great idea. The biggest complaint I have is the yearly fees have increased to the point you could rent a week on VRBO. Plus must plan a year out only to see the place on rental sites. I have been considering selling or giving it away. That means the purchase price, 12K, will just be thrown away. It shouldn't be this way. We got the most use of ours when younger and would use the local resort for parties and when ppl visited us one the space available option.

[TrvlBug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LJ Dem Great idea! Do you have a tip on finding timeshares to rent? (ie: is there a unique method or site, as opposed to airbnb and vrbo etc?)

Redweek.com. No charge to look, however, $15 to become a member (for 6 mos. me thinks) if you want to contact anyone. It keeps out most of the scammers. The prices listed are all over the map and negotiable. We rent some of our timeshares through them.

Edit to add: The prices are well below what the resorts charge, therefore, (mostly) non-cancellable.

[NanaW]

Not really they are so oversold it’s even worse than it was when we bought in , and it’s a pain in the a$$ to get out. We hardly ever got into the one we wanted if it was a popular one they were always reserved for the same people every year kind of like the campsites are getting.

[Koolau]

Their reputation is so fouled that I'm surprised they are still hawked! Back in the day, Waikiki was flooded with time-share offers (each said NOT A TIME SHARE). We actually went to one of these perhaps 10 years ago. As usual, it promised an amazing and delightful experience at affordable prices - until you read the fine print.

I suppose if you could take advantage of YOUR time share every year during the same time period, it might work out. As nearly as I can tell, a "good" experience would be to have a very nice vacation location at a slightly better per-day rate than booking a nice hotel. If anything didn't mesh (your available time, travel interruptions, you had to TRADE, etc.) you would be WAY overpaying for what you could book otherwise.

In our case, the time share was NOT where we wanted it to be and the "ploy" was, "yes, but you can trade." Well, yes, in theory. In practice, everyone wants the "desirable" locations and the one we would be "buying" was NOT one of the better locations. So "trading" would cost - a bunch.

Also, as others have mentioned, getting out is a lot more difficult than getting in. Personally, I'd avoid TSs but my experience is limited, so YMMV.

[WestUniversity]

Several friends of our belong to one and the sales pitches never end. Apparently even still when they stay at any property they are “supposed” to go to yet more ongoing sales pitches, I assume to up sell them to some higher more expensive level. I really see no advantage in having one...

[brett]

I read an article on timeshare marketing and finances a few years ago.

The author claimed that 30 percent of the cost of your timeshare purchase is directly attributable to marketing and sales.

The author was no a huge proponent of timeshares and suggested that deeply discounted secondary market was the place to buy.

[harwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by disneysteve By free, I'm assuming you mean no upfront cost. That's actually not that hard to find. Lots of timeshares get sold for $.01 or $1.00 online because people are so desperate to get rid of them. How much is your annual fee? It may be well worth it if you've been able to make use of it every year. The problem arises when you no longer want it. You need to find a willing "buyer" to take it off your hands, even if you're giving it away for nothing. Otherwise you're stuck with that annual fee indefinitely.

Many resorts will do a deed back. You just sign over your deed to the resort and you're done with it. It saves them from foreclosing on it.

[Al in Ohio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brett I read an article on timeshare marketing and finances a few years ago. The author claimed that 30 percent of the cost of your timeshare purchase is directly attributable to marketing and sales. The author was no a huge proponent of timeshares and suggested that deeply discounted secondary market was the place to buy.

I’d agree with everything stated above. A big chunk of the thousands it cost to buy in upfront goes to the salesperson commission. Unfortunately it’s also a big incentive for them to lie to get tou to sign. You can buy in on the secondary market for pennies on the dollar.

[phil1ben]

Bought a Hilton timeshare RESALE on Ocean Avenue in South Beach. Paid pennies on the dollar. We love it.

We use all of our points every year. It certainly is not an investment but I could sell it for what I paid. We look at the maintenance fees as prepaid vacation to a spot we want to go over and over again. Although we are free to use our points at all of the other Hilton timeshare locations, which are many.

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brett I read an article on timeshare marketing and finances a few years ago. The author claimed that 30 percent of the cost of your timeshare purchase is directly attributable to marketing and sales. The author was no a huge proponent of timeshares and suggested that deeply discounted secondary market was the place to buy.

We went to a TS pitch at a Ski resort. I figured out that the TS price (50 weeks with shoulder, low and peak rates) was 3 times the price of a new unit. And that was just their one year revenues. No wonder they are so popular for marketing companies.

And they offer $500 per qualified couple delivered to the pitch and the external rep offers anything to the prospects out of that $500.

[ponyboy]

Why would anyone buy into a timeshare now when there are things like vrbo and airbnb? I get it years ago when it was much more difficult to rent condos and houses.

[teejayevans]

I like to own or rent...timeshares always seem to be a little of both with none of the benefits of either.

[SmallCityDave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponyboy Why would anyone buy into a timeshare now when there are things like vrbo and airbnb? I get it years ago when it was much more difficult to rent condos and houses.

I agree to some extent because there are so many bad timeshares and uniformed consumers (like we were).

We've had our timeshare for almost 18 years it was the worst decision we could have ever made (or so I thought), we've had 109 great vacations so that's about 550 nights and we've spent about $100 per month on maintenance dues. If we were to buy again we could buy the timeshare for about $5000 (resale). We have about 60 resorts to choose from, we know what to expect and were are rarely surprised and that's a good thing.

Timeshares aren't for everyone and it's taken a while to figure things out but it's been a great decision for us. We recently stayed at a Ritz Carlton ($500 per night) the property was great but the room left a lot to be desired our boys were very disappointed with the accommodations as were we.

[zinger1457]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponyboy Why would anyone buy into a timeshare now when there are things like vrbo and airbnb? I get it years ago when it was much more difficult to rent condos and houses.

If you know how to use the timeshare system correctly, and they are in locations you like to visit, they can be cheaper than vrbo/airbnb, and you know exactly what you're getting, no surprises or hassles dealing with strangers. During any given year I can stay at nice 1BR units at the Westin Kierland in Scottsdale and Westin Desert Willow in Palm Desert for ~$60/night. Stayed in a nice 2BR unit at the Marriott Shadow Ridge in Palm Desert last month for ~$40/night. There are certainly timeshare nightmares out there, just have to educate yourself first.