how and when did you become involved in timeshare?

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

Purchased two resale weeks in 1991, sold them a few years ago. We just booked Marco island next November, have Door county reserved for Memorial week, and have just 72 tpus left which expire October 2018. I figure we have three exchanges left in addition to the two already booked.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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

My mom inherited money when my grandmother died. My mom always wanted a cottage on the ocean but couldn't afford it. She saw an ad for Water's Edge in Connecticut and bought two weeks there. My family spent many summers with them there, especially our son. When my mom developed breast cancer she insisted on taking all of us to Disney World as she was worried she would not see our son enjoy it. So she exchanged for us all to go to Orange Lake one year. She also gave us a week once to exchange into St. Lucia.

We then received a postcard in the mail from Smugglers Notch and decided to go up on the Chris Kane program- a good deal for a weeks' lodging and activities included. We bought but then rescinded the next day because we felt we could only afford an every other year fixed week (off-season floater in between) and we really wanted an every year fixed week, since our son was in school.

We did visit smuggs another time after that on a good rental deal they were offering.

Fast forward to 1999- we receive a mailing from smuggs about the new West Hill development they were starting construction on. At the same time good friends of ours had visited smuggs on our recommendation and loved it and bought an every other year ownership in a fairly new building at smuggs in the Highlands area of the resort.

We decided to buy an annual fixed week with an attached annual floater in a West Hill unit we picked site unseen based on the materials we received in the mail. The fixed week was the same as our friends so we could get together on the years they were up there.

My parents were upset as the week fell during one of their weeks, but we were able to visit them the second week they were in Connecticut. (They had wanted to leave us their timeshare at some point, but we felt it would be too much to take on anyway and my mom eventually sold it when my dad died)

The rest is history...

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

We are not timeshare fanatics. We actually take more non timeshare vacations. We bought our first TS at Avila Beach CA. We bought from the developer Glen Ivy because we wanted that resort and there were no resales as it was still being built. There was no pressure to buy, no lies, and the price wasn't bad. I don't remember exactly when but it was somewhere in the late 80's. A couple years later we bought another in downtown San Diego. We also bought that from the developer for the same reasons as the first one. We ended up selling our TS at Avila beach several years later because we just had far more weeks that we could ever use. After a couple years with RCI and II, we switched to SFX for exchanging and have used them exclusively for the last 20+ years. Because of bonus weeks and my weeks don't expire, I ended up with 17 weeks banked at SFX, That is when I sold our Avila Beach TS and also several of my banked weeks. We kept our San Diego one because of bonus time. We live close to San Diego and love to spend 2 or 3 nights there on bonus time to play tourist.

As I said we are not huge fans of timesharing. We don't like staying in some condo. We like to stay at upscale hotels with full services. We don't cook any meals in our TS. After all, my wife is on vacation too. Having said this, we have had some awesome timeshare vacations in Mexico at the Grand Mayans where the resorts are 5* resorts. We have also had other good exchanges in New York City, Hawaii, etc. We decide where we wish to go and then stay wherever suits us the most, be it a hotel or TS.

I definitely would not buy a TS now. You can rent one pretty easily, especially in off season.

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

My wife and I attended a presentation at Wyndhams Bonnet Creek in 2010. as a guest of a friend that had recently bought there. The deal was we all got a free weekend in exchange for an hour presentation... 3 hours later we bought a very small points package, and 48 hours we rescinded.

I liked what I say enough that i went to the internet and found the secondary market and bought a much larger points package on ebay for a dollar

My wife was not amused at the monthly payment (maintenance fees) that I had obligated us to and said in no uncertain terms that I had better figure out how to rent this stuff. (actually she used a different "S" word

So I did (figure out how to rent it). The first goal was to rent enough to cover our annual fees and with a little luck have something left over for our own "free" vacation. I did better than that so I bought more and ultimately made vacation rentals my primary source of income


I believe the primary difference in attitude regarding timeshare ownership depends on how the timeshare was purchased... Was it from the developer for lots of money at a high pressure sales presentation? or was it purchased on the secondary market for peanuts?

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

We originally bought our first timeshare the year after getting married, bought in 1988. My wife had a timeshare with her first husband, really liked it but gave it up in her divorce. We bought our second while on vacation in 1990. We bought our third in 1992 after trading into it (it is our favorite,Lawrence Welk Villa,Escondido) and lastly we bought into Worldmark in93 because we kept ending up trading into Worldmark.
In our case they have worked out great as we've enjoyed about 120 weeks of vacation and our kids have got to see about 40 states in traveling with us. The in-laws liked our units so much they wanted to pay us for all the times they stayed with us. Not a chance, we have always enjoyed their company and all our friends and other relatives we shared with.

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

We bought our first timeshare in Maui in the early 80's. When we came home, we had many invitations to look at newly constructed timeshares in our area and bought another one a month later. It is our favorite beach city. We still own both and stay there every year and will continue as long as we are able to fly.

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

I believe the primary difference in attitude regarding timeshare ownership depends on how the timeshare was purchased... Was it from the developer for lots of money at a high pressure sales presentation? or was it purchased on the secondary market for peanuts?

That is not our case at all. Neither of our presentations where we bought were high pressure at all. In fact when we agreed to purchase our Glen Ivy TS, the sales manager came over to our table and asked us if we were sure that was what we wanted to do.

The money was never a factor because we got what we wanted when we wanted it and resale was not an option. However I don't like the idea of being locked in forever because they are very hard to get rid of.

It is the concept of staying in a condo with minimal services compared to a 4* hotel that we don't like. As I said the Vida resorts are awesome and are 5* so we do like them. There are other awesome resorts in Mexico. We also like the Hilton Vacation Club ( in the Hilton hotel ) on 6th Ave. in NYC. We weren't too crazy about the Manhattan Club. There are also some locations where TS is the only viable option just like the reverse is true for other locations.

As I said, I would never buy one now because rentals are easy to get and often don't cost anymore than the M/F.

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

That is not our case at all. Neither of our presentations where we bought were high pressure at all. In fact when we agreed to purchase our Glen Ivy TS, the sales manager came over to our table and asked us if we were sure that was what we wanted to do.

The money was never a factor because we got what we wanted when we wanted it and resale was not an option. However I don't like the idea of being locked in forever because they are very hard to get rid of.

It is the concept of staying in a condo with minimal services compared to a 4* hotel that we don't like. As I said the Vida resorts are awesome and are 5* so we do like them. There are other awesome resorts in Mexico. We also like the Hilton Vacation Club ( in the Hilton hotel ) on 6th Ave. in NYC. We weren't too crazy about the Manhattan Club. There are also some locations where TS is the only viable option just like the reverse is true for other locations.

As I said, I would never buy one now because rentals are easy to get and often don't cost anymore than the M/F.

No doubt that there are folks that are happy with there developer purchase, and folks unhappy with their secondary market purchase. and my comment was no doubt an over generalization.

You didnt face a high pressure sales person, so I wasnt speaking to your experience at all. Im only suggesting that a person that invested lots of money in something they didnt want in the first place, is likely to be more unhappy with their decision than they guy that wanted it and got it for next to nothing.

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

We vacationed for the first time to ST Thomas in USVI in the winter of 1985 with friends on a air/hotel package. Loved the island/clear blue ocean. We had never heard of timeshares when we took a timeshare tour while on this vacation. We saw this as a great bargain for years compared to the cost of staying in the hotel we were in there .

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

1991 Took the family (including my dear Mom) to Orlando! Loved the space to relax and eat-in at 1/3 of the cost of our previous Disney trips. Bought a unit, used every year, but really didn't get "into" timesharing until we purchased pre-construction at Marriott Fairway Villas in 1999.

We had been renting various NJ shore homes with no amenities, cleaning our first and last days, so we were thrilled when we learned Marriott was building at the Seaview golf resort.

After we bought the Marriott weeks, I wanted to learn how to maximize our use and that is when I got "into" timesharing.

I did learn (and am still learning) and am so grateful for our timeshares and the friends we've made on the boards.

Contemplating adding additional weeks as I head into the next phase of our life!

Maria

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

1991 Took the family (including my dear Mom) to Orlando! Loved the space to relax and eat-in at 1/3 of the cost of our previous Disney trips. Bought a unit, used every year, but really didn't get "into" timesharing until we purchased pre-construction at Marriott Fairway Villas in 1999.

We had been renting various NJ shore homes with no amenities, cleaning our first and last days, so we were thrilled when we learned Marriott was building at the Seaview golf resort.

...

Contemplating adding additional weeks as I head into the next phase of our life!

Maria

When we were looking at those first timeshares I was thinking about the future, particularly about the possibility of having multi-generation family vacations. I had a vision of simply hanging out together, sharing living space. Cooking meals together. Mixing our own drinks. Having a refrigerator to raid during the day. Letting people get up in the morning when they were ready to get up, without worrying about when everyone was going to breakfast.

I am so pleased that has started happening. We added to our ownership to allow us to book two units at the same time, to accommodate that children, their spouses, and now one grandchild. We just hang out and occupy a living space, now spread across two units. When somebody is ready for privacy, they can retreat. We've been returning to Kauai often enough that now it feels like a second home to us. One of our kids is even thinking of moving to Kauai full-time, largely due to their time in Kauai on vacations.

I am at a stage in my life where I feel blessed, and getting involved in timeshare has contributed in its way to the blessing.

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

1991 Took the family (including my dear Mom) to Orlando! Loved the space to relax and eat-in at 1/3 of the cost of our previous Disney trips. Bought a unit

Did you tour? Where?

[M. Henley Class President Find all posts View Profile Close M. Henley]

Around 1972 we fell fo4r a phone call for three free nights in Daytona Beach, FL and 3 nights in New Orleans in return for doing a TS presentation at Coconut Palms in New Smyrna Beach, FL.
After my lengthy endurance of the sales pitch the guy brought in the closer. After another 30 minutes or so, he said, "Well, then, what would you give for a week"? I threw down my gold card (no platinum back then) and said $5,000 total, bottom line, for a 2-BR, 2-BA. Take it or leave it.

He took the card to the back office, where the big boss and a few others worried over it, finally taking my offer and telling the salesman that he had to give up half his commission

Unfortunately, there was but little, if any, internet, and the only resales that I could find were in the back of Timesharing Today, which I found somehow and subscribed to it.

Through the years I found resale bargains and ended up. at one time, with 145. I have now downloaded to three, and intend to dump one of them (my only US TS) shortly. I have two in RCI Points Australia which, given a break in currency exchange rates, are at least affordable. I use half the points for air travel, and the kids use some of the other half, with me using some.

Have had some good trades and some good times with my wife and our grandson at my original purchase, as well as trades all over the country.

However, if I lived close to the financial mark, I would always have regretted the original purchase, but it has had nothing to do with causing any financial hardship.

[M. Henley Class President Find all posts View Profile Close M. Henley]

After further consideration, if I hadn't gotten into TSing, I wouild never have heard of tonyg and JLB, and that would have made my life much more mundane.

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

Did you tour? Where?

Yes, Blue Tree Resort at Lake Buena Vista. At the time it was managed by Westin, low B-S tour, we took the big binder, mulled it over, then purchased. If I remember correctly it was $4,000.

The salesperson even gave us a tip, purchase the smaller 2-bedroom rather than the larger. The maintenance fees are less and in II we would have the same trading power. We originally purchased a January week since my children had that week off school. As our needs changed and I got more educated, I was able to change to a float at no cost, just recording fees for a new deed. Maintenance fees are still less than $600, I traded 2017 for HI.

Maria