Are you happy with your TimeShare?

[chemteach Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close chemteach]

I'm enjoying our timeshares. We didn't listen to the "buy where you want to go" idea for most of the timeshares, and we have been very happy exchanging into resorts we can drive to that are very nice. We've had a few amazing exchanges to places we never would have visited if we had not bought timeshares.

[SOS8260456 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close SOS8260456]

We have been very happy that we got into timesharing. We have been able to utilize our timeshares to stay at places we never would have been able to afford before. We use quite a bit and rent quite a bit. In all, we have enough FF points to utilize as our "winter home" when we retire and as our "summer home" now.

We bought quite a bit also as we tried out several different timeshares before determining the timeshare and system that was right for our family's needs. We also had to learn how to sell the ones that weren't right for us which turned out to be very easy because we had purchased them on the resale market in the first place and we were able to easily recoup our "investment" in them.

It is still quite tempting to buy a bargain when I see one, but I am getting better at resisting.

Our family and friends don't "get it" and have no desire to share in our timeshares. My inlaws actually think that when we stay in a Fairfield that we are staying at the "Fairfield Inn". They all rather make sarcastic comments about too much vacations and about how "rich" we must be. Well, we have just learned to ignore them and yes, we are "rich" in great memories with our children.

Lisa

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Loaded Question?

That seems like a loaded question for a newbie, but I see they are asking other curious questions, too.

100 exchanges here. Happy, growing less, carrying a sign saying The End Is Near.

[barndweller Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close barndweller]

We love timesharing but are relative newcomers to ownership. We stayed in timeshares in the past thanks to friends & family & decided to purchase one in Hawaii to guarantee we could always go to that particular resort. We ended up buying 9 more weeks of timeshares when we discovered the bargains to be gotten on the resale market. Exchanging is not as easy as the salesmen make it sound & getting harder for various reasons. I treat it as a hobby & devote a lot of time & effort into finding exchanges that are a good value & in destinations we really want to go. When trading no longer works for us we will simply use our weeks as our winter snowbird destination since all our resorts are in relatively warm climates and we like them all. It's cheaper than buying a second home & someone else does all the maintenance & takes care of it during the rest of the year. Since all 4 of our adult children love timeshare too, we will gift them with our units when we are longer able to use them.

The one comment I hear often is that it forces folks to go on vacation. That is a concept I have never understood. No one has ever had to twist my arm! My problem is to hold our vacation plans to a more reasonable amount for our budget! Travel, even staying in timeshares, is getting more & more expensive. Between airfares & the rising cost of gasoline, the resorts we own that are close to home are looking better & better.

[BoardGirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BoardGirl]

Force to vacation: it's paid for, I refuse to lose something I paid for.

I didn't grow up doing anything more than camping, altho I consider a cross country trip in an RV to be 'camping.'

We were relatively destitute when we got married, so 'vacation' was moving, painting the house, cleaning out the garage, etc. It was simply time off work, not trips. And certainly not in spacious accomodations. EconoLodge and Motel 6, maybe, Red Roof was a stretch for our budget, but still not for more than a couple nights. Timesharing opens up a luxury that I would have never imagined being able to afford. Vacation has a new meaning to me now. Seeing the world was something I could only dream of, but now, it's within my reach AFFORDABLY!

Of course, it helps that I make a lot more money than I did when we were first married, but we still would not be staying at 5 star hotels. Thrifty, frugal, CHEAP... "old and poor" is my greatest fear so a hunk of our earnings go to retirement.

[Carol C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carol C]

Timesharing is great and a true value, so long as you buy resale.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

I'm not happy with mine. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll do what I can with the 2 I have left, though they are not exactly what I want. I do know what I want in a timeshare and I know when and where I want to own. When the opportunity to buy presents itself, I may dump one of mine and buy what I think will make me happy. I love the Royals, but they are expensive to buy and own, so I've sold all of them. I will buy another if a good deal comes around, because I know I will use them, rent them or resell them for a profit. The key to happiness IMHO is owning where you want to go, when you want to go and spending as little as possible.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

Yes, we love timesharing now the grandkid hate to stay in a hotel (to small for them).

[JuneB Member Find all posts View Profile Close JuneB]

Basically I am happy with all of mine. The first one I bought almost 25 years ago I don't care for and I have just stayed there 3 days in that 25 years. It is a standard resort, low MF, low VEP but I have gotten amazing trades with it. Until 7 or 8 years ago I traded into Sanibel or South Seas almost every year. I can't do that anymore but I have traded into the Sarasota area (GC) in January the last 4 years. In fact I bought another unit at the same resort several years ago for trading only.

I did have 10 units. Am now down to 9, I sold one and I have another up for sale and am thinking about putting another up for sale.

[susieq Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close susieq]

We were relatively destitute when we got married, so 'vacation' was moving, painting the house, cleaning out the garage, etc. It was simply time off work, not trips. And certainly not in spacious accomodations. EconoLodge and Motel 6, maybe, Red Roof was a stretch for our budget, but still not for more than a couple nights. Timesharing opens up a luxury that I would have never imagined being able to afford. Vacation has a new meaning to me now. Seeing the world was something I could only dream of, but now, it's within my reach AFFORDABLY!

I love our Timeshare, and agree with BoardGirl. Our home resort is less than an hour away, but although we've owned for over twelve years now, only stayed at there twice. It's a wonderful place, in a great area, and we have a July/August week. It would be a great place to spend a week every year, and we probably will do just that when we don't want to travel so much. But for now we've been having just too much fun exchanging. We try to limit the exchanges that we have to fly to to every other year, or maybe every third year. In between years, we go someplace that we can drive to. We've exchanged to some fantastic places ~ places I'm sure we never could've seen if it weren't for Timeshares. There's a lot of research and planning involved, and I usually have things booked a year or more in advance. It's a lot of work ~~ but I love it ~~ and the rewards are tremendous!!

Sue

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

The key to happiness IMHO is owning where you want to go, when you want to go and spending as little as possible.

Tony, I agree with you 100%. Buy were you love to go and it's better yet when you don't need a flight to get there either and buy resale too. Then you can hardly lose if you need to sell early or very fast and you have really saved a lot of money in vacationing that way because of the low purchase price too.

This isn't a well-known fact yet unless you do your homework before you buy. Most people do not plan to buy a timeshare when they go on vacation but get enticed to take a timeshare tour and most resorts look nicer than a hotel room so people get emotionally involved and buy because they were told that they have a special deal for that day. Not all companies do this but most do. They also mention that you are protected for the ever rising hotel rates but they forget to tell you that all timeshare related fees keep going up just as fast.

If people immediately search the Internet for what they have purchased, they realize quickly that they paid way too much and have time to rescind but not everyone is doing this yet. The next generation will do this for sure so the developers will have to come up with a different plan if they want to keep on selling the new resorts.

I am really curious how this industry will continue from here. If the developers are not profitable enough with original sales, they will come up with more fees yet to get money from their existing customers until we take it no more and then they stop building and find something more profitable again. They are in business to make money and satisfy their investors first but still try not to lose their customers either. It's going to be interesting to follow this industry.

[Icc5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Icc5]

We ours and it's only begun

We have been satisfied and then some with almost every trade and we love staying in the Worldmarks we've stayed in. We really enjoy using Lawrence Welk either yearly or every other year depending on our plans. Things should even get better for us as we will be grandparents soon and also be retiring soon so even more options open up.
Heck, we like the timeshares we've stayed in so much that we will be moving shortly down the street and remodleing with features we've liked where we've stayed. We will soon have a huge master bath with a walk in closet and a sitting area in the master bedroom. A Murphy bed will be going in my office just for when needed in the four bedroom we are moving to. We will be giving up a huge yard with a pool which means getting rid of lots of yardwork and pool maintanance. Don't I sound depressed about it all? Ha Ha Ha, I think not.
Bart

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Timeshare's R Us

After 12 years and a total of the equivalent of 7 weeks of ownership we are very happy with our timeshares. Only one, ironically the first purchased resale for about 1/3 of the developer cost of the time, would we get rid of today if we could get even that heavily discounted purchase cost back or close to it. It still works for us so we hang in there with it but it was the one mistake we made.

We always purchased because we wanted to use the resorts. Even the ones we boiught to get into Wyndham points have the home resort we can drive to and don't mind using if we have to. The only exception to that rule (buy where you want to go), the number one rule I feel, is our under $500 purchase of an RCI Points resort membership to get into that system. We may never go there but we certainly get our value out and if we gave it away tomorrow we'd feel good about it.

Timesharing has been very good for us. I think it would have been different, especially lately, if we had bought because we only wanted to trade. Since we didn't we love it.

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

Yes, we are very happy with our timeshares!!

I do agree that you should buy where you would like to vacation, 3 out of 5 years, or so.

However, so far, we have mostly traded our timeshares for other locations. There are so many places that we want to go, and we have been very successful, in making those trades. Life is good!

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Well, seems to be about what you would expect on a timeshare forum, the assumption being that if you did not like timesharing you would not be here in the first place.

To condition my previous response, we are sorta into Timeshare Lite. Although we own three weeks, the total we paid for them is just a fraction of what most pay for one, and our three annual fees total to less than most pay for one.

In reality my attitude is that if they gave ownership away just to get someone to pay the annual fees, timesharing may be fair. That pretty much describes what we own,

I guess I feel that way primarily because most of the industry does not do anything to maintain the value of ownership. They sell it to you and then you are on your own when it's time to bail out.

How could you realistically expect to have happy owners when they pay $20000 (or more) going in and only get $2000 (or less) going out?

If we had paid what most pay and if our annual fees were what most are, we would not be happy.

All that said, there are some nice areas, and some older, established resorts which are way passed the hyper-inflated involvement of developers, where ownership is sold at prices determined by market forces. SW Florida is a prime example, an area of very little new timeshare development, but a highly desired vacation destination.