Renting v. Owning

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

I edited #14.

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

At much higher rates....if you look beyond the thousands of dollars people HAVE to pay to get out of their TS's....on a strictly vacation by vacation cost...its much cheaper to own

I'm not a fan of the lie that its cheaper to rent then own....even including the RCI Membership fee ($89) and the Exchange fees ($179)

WITH MY Fixed week Wyndham ownership:
If i only use it for the one week in my TS it costs me about $111 a day
2 weeks total Depositing both sides in RCI(26 TPU's each) $88 a day
2 weeks total depositing one side(using the other) $75 a day
3 weeks total(2 weeks exchange(13 TPU each) one week in my TS) is $58 a day
4 weeks total (4 weeks exchange(13 TPU each)) is $57 a day
5 weeks total (5 weeks exchange(10 TPU each)) is $51 a day
6 weeks total is harder but not impossible(8-9 TPU each) is $47 a day


Now please let me know where you can find for rent 28-35 days of vacation a year for an average of $51 - $57 a day and Mostly, if not all in 2br places

We sold our 256K of Wyndham points we also believed offered better opportunity for value than renting could. After doing so we have brained the exact units/resorts/times we would have requested & has even better luck getting them by rental than we had in the past by owner request.

The results: 10 Days in August 2010 at Williamsburg, Kingsgate (our old home resort) - $495. Cost using our ownership - at least $795. 2BR

July 2011 - 7 days LV Grand Desert - a favorite we return to often- 2 BR $295.

August 2011 7 Days 2 BR Nashville $199.

There is NO WAY we could get those rates as an owner & we have no overhead. 2 rentals from RCI & one private. It is no longer a contest - owning, except to use exclusively where you feel you want to go/own - is a higher cost and far less owner friendly than renting. Renting is now cheaper, easier to obtain and gets you more of the exact unit/resort/time than owning can do. It shouldn't be that way but the acts say it is. What a shame for those that felt owning & trading was a viable, cost effective plan. RCI and others have ruined it by basically giving away inventory they get for free & undercutting the very people that pay the real costs.

It isn't RCI alone by any means - the whole timeshare model was exposed by the openness of the Internet and the explosion of easy access to rentals by virtually anyone thus ending the exclusivity of being a timeshare owner and the perks that offered. The changes at RCI/II made it worse but wasn't the root cause. Unrealistic sales prices & pitches to far too many that never should have bought are the real issues.

[Ridewithme38 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ridewithme38]

2 rentals from RCI & one private.

Ahh, but there is the rub, you have to have owned a TS to be a member of RCI...you can't get those prices on the private market, ok, one guy i know rents extremely cheap for patriots place...but thats not normal market prices...

So it's kinda not accurate to say renting is cheaper then owning...when you have to own...or atleast have had owned, to get those rates...the average person can't get rates for that cheap...for 99 out of 100 people it will be cheaper to own...because they don't have access to RCI and don't really know about Redweek(Which i've found to be too expensive) or Tug last minute deals

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

II has, indeed, been known to do rentals to the public, following the lead of RCI, but on a much smaller scale and less likely to involve diversion of prime inventory like RCI.

Last minute rentals of soon to expire inventory, like the TPI site, are also a far different dynamic than RCI's rentals which are often a year or more out. I have rented some pretty darn good weeks but in small units in Europe from RCI for ~$200 and a 2BR holiday ski week in the US for ~$300, all of them many months ahead of time.

Here's another website where they rent timeshares to the public for as low as $294.

Trading Places International - Hot Deals Weekly Stays


And intervals public consumer website.

Plan A Vacation, Vacation Packages, Condo Resorts, Hotels, Traveler Benefits

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

Haven't you been keeping up? RCI has lots of rental sites for non-members as well, and sometimes offers non-members even cheaper prices than members. When my RCI membership expires, I will just start dealing with the non-member sites for rentals.

Ahh, but there is the rub, you have to have owned a TS to be a member of RCI...you can't get those prices on the private market, ok, one guy i know rents extremely cheap for patriots place...but thats not normal market prices...

So it's kinda not accurate to say renting is cheaper then owning...when you have to own...or atleast have had owned, to get those rates...the average person can't get rates for that cheap...for 99 out of 100 people it will be cheaper to own...because they don't have access to RCI and don't really know about Redweek(Which i've found to be too expensive) or Tug last minute deals

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

In addition to RCI, and a significantly lesser degree II, there are also some timeshare developers who just don't get it. DRI, for example, has been renting weeks out of its European collection on internet booking sites for less than a member would have paid and sometimes inventory they do not even make availible to members. This makes their members, quite understandibly, see red. Why own when you can rent cheaper?

On the other hand, I think most developers do get it. At the Timeshaer Stripped Bare conference in the UK last year a major European developer told how RCI's rental to the public program was not only hurting developer sales but also the developer's member retention. And,of course, the Seasons timeshare chain a few years ago really let RCI have it in detail over this issue when they announced they were jumping ship to II.

We sold our 256K of Wyndham points we also believed offered better opportunity for value than renting could. After doing so we have brained the exact units/resorts/times we would have requested & has even better luck getting them by rental than we had in the past by owner request.

The results: 10 Days in August 2010 at Williamsburg, Kingsgate (our old home resort) - $495. Cost using our ownership - at least $795. 2BR

July 2011 - 7 days LV Grand Desert - a favorite we return to often- 2 BR $295.

August 2011 7 Days 2 BR Nashville $199.

There is NO WAY we could get those rates as an owner & we have no overhead. 2 rentals from RCI & one private. It is no longer a contest - owning, except to use exclusively where you feel you want to go/own - is a higher cost and far less owner friendly than renting. Renting is now cheaper, easier to obtain and gets you more of the exact unit/resort/time than owning can do. It shouldn't be that way but the acts say it is. What a shame for those that felt owning & trading was a viable, cost effective plan. RCI and others have ruined it by basically giving away inventory they get for free & undercutting the very people that pay the real costs.

It isn't RCI alone by any means - the whole timeshare model was exposed by the openness of the Internet and the explosion of easy access to rentals by virtually anyone thus ending the exclusivity of being a timeshare owner and the perks that offered. The changes at RCI/II made it worse but wasn't the root cause. Unrealistic sales prices & pitches to far too many that never should have bought are the real issues.