Timeshares?

[Jillian]

My husband and I are looking into possibly buying a timeshare somewhere (not sure where yet, probably somewhere in New England).

Do any of you own timeshare?

What do you like/dislike about owning?

Do you think it's worth the money?

Have you found it easy to trade?

Do you have points or weeks?

I know of a couple of people that have bought timeshares on Ebay and others that have bought straight from the developer, both say great things about each way. It's all really confusing to me, to be honest.

[Michele]

I am all for Timeshare as long as it is affiliated with a very reputable company like Marriott or RCI etc. Do your homework and check out all the resales on the internet. There are many site dedicated to resales. I would be more likely to go that route than ebay or at least get comparison prices first. Remember, location, location, location. You may not see the value in owning a timeshare in Orlando (Disney) but the trade value will be tremendous. Good luck!

[MWC]

Hubby and I own in New England, and we are seriously considering dumping it for several reasons. Our timeshare is affiliated with RCI, which got bought out by Wyndham Resorts. We sat through a presentation by Wyndham to explain their new system ... and it sounded to us as though now would be a good time to dump our timeshare -- otherwise, it sounded as though we would have to "buy in" to the tune of several extra thousand dollars to qualify for Wyndham's threshold of useable points.

While overall the timeshare concept has worked well for us ... now that I have discovered vrbo, I wouldn't bother with the timeshare route.

[gingele]

My husband has worked in the timeshare (and hotel and casino) industry in various capacities over the past 15 years...all in the financial and accounting end of things - not sales. (Just sayin').


I can tell you two things:

First - we don't own a timeshare. So take that for what it is worth.

Second, and as Michele stated - if you are going to buy, do so on the secondary market.

[DavidB]

I really don't think it's worth the price. We have rented timeshares in Cancun from owners. It was a nice way to get a big place at a reasonable price. I think at the time (6 years ago) weeks were in the $25,000-30,000 dollars per week range. Then there was about an $650 per week maintinance fee. (we were paying $1500 per week for a 2 bedroom in prime time) Seems like your tying up a lot of money for a one week vacation. Do you think it's that hard to get a hotel room in Cancun. The other thing is we use to love Cancun. Now with all the growth its gone thru I really wouldn't want to stay there anymore.

[NorthMinnesota]

We have had a timeshare for years based in Orlando. Bought it in the secondary market (I think we paid $5000) and trade it through RCI. Easy to trade if you are flexible with when you schedule your trips, hard to trade if you have to vacation during school breaks. I think the yearly maintenance is around $500 so for that amount we have had some wonderful vacations. Now we use VRBO to find good deals. We don't like to go to the same place all the time. My in laws use their three weeks of timeshare every year for their winter trips. It has been a good investment for them. I wouldn't buy another week now but would use VRBO or TUG rentals instead.

[MWC]

That's the thing; with a timeshare, you really are tied into either the place you buy ... or the places you can access via the timeshare's "trading" network. We used to have no trouble with RCI ... but especially once we became tied into the school calendar, we have not been as happy with our ability to trade into the location we want, when we want. Also, we like doing city-based vacations; in which event you can forget your timeshare being useful.

With so many internet tools available, I would say in the long run you are better staying unencumbered.

[NorthMinnesota]

Have you tried trading for anything in Europe? I'd like to try something in Italy. Inlaws traded for time in England and loved it. What about the cruises? I'm not a cruise person but I wonder if that market has good reviews.
My youngest is a junior in HS this year so we won't be tied to the school thing for much longer!

[MWC]

Originally Posted by NorthMinnesota

Have you tried trading for anything in Europe? I'd like to try something in Italy. Inlaws traded for time in England and loved it. What about the cruises? I'm not a cruise person but I wonder if that market has good reviews.
My youngest is a junior in HS this year so we won't be tied to the school thing for much longer!

The one time we made an attempt, the RCI rep on the phone strongly discouraged it, for two reasons. 1. European availabilities are extremely limited. 2. European accommodations tend to disappoint American customers because they tend to be smaller and less deluxe.

I don't know about cruises, it's not the kind of thing we would do. But even if you can't do a direct exchange, it seems to me that RCI offers a lot of discounted "extra vacation" packages. I think you can find reviews on igougo.com.

For Italy, or anywhere in Europe, I would go for a vrbo apartment rental. We had a blast in Florence and Paris, and felt like "real" residents, not tourists!

[NorthMinnesota]

So you did vrbo on your last European vacation? I remember your TR and pics.

[MWC]

Originally Posted by NorthMinnesota

So you did vrbo on your last European vacation? I remember your TR and pics.

For Paris, yes.
For Florence, that was about 8 years ago ... we used an Italian site, emmeti.it, or something like that.