Us timeshare owners must be an anomaly in the USA......

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

I say this because I know most people on TS4M's take every bit of their vacation, and usually vacation much more than the average American.


Americans on vacation: Spot this rare creature out there somewhere if you can.

by Jeffrey White Apr 23rd 2008 @ 3:00PM

It's certainly no news flash that Americans are overworked and for their trouble are rewarded by the world's most pathetic vacation allowances.

Still every once in a while a little factoid jumps out that is surprising (well, at least to me), like this one over at Expedia that says that despite being dead last in the world in terms of vacation days earned, Americans will still leave an average of 3 days untouched. That means your average American is going to get out of the office for a whopping 11 days this year. Europeans take more days off sick than that.

Folks, they give them to you for a reason.

Expedia says a third of all Americans don't take the vacation they deserve. Now, the Web site's eighth annual "vacation depredation survey" is coming from a company whose business is in part to send Americans on vacation, but the numbers they tout still jive with what's pretty well known: Europeans are the world's best vacationers.

Your average Briton will earn 26 days of vacation this year (and take 23). Germans? Twenty-seven (and 25). The Spanish? 31 (and 27). And let's not forget the French, who were pretty much born on vacation: they'll get 37 vacation days this year, and will on average use all but two of those puppies.

None have any qualms of taking these days in one lump, either.

Europeans hold their right to go on holiday as sacrosanct. I worked for two years in the Czech Republic and I would have Czech employees call out sick for two weeks only to go on vacation the day after they return. My father likes to tell me the story of a French colleague of his who was out more than three months on maternity leave, and upon returning to work in the summer, promptly left on the three-week summer holiday common throughout France.

Europeans will defend all this with teeth bared as an offspring of their societies' generous social welfare benefits. And let's face it, which one of us wouldn't love to have a month vacation every year?

Check out Expedia's survey.

USA...14 days
Great Britian....26 days
Germany....27 days
Spain....31 days
France.....37 days

Despite earning the least amount of annual vacation days, Americans will leave an average of 3 days unused—totaling more than 460 million in 2008.


How much vacation are you getting this year? Will you take it all? How many vacations do you have planned?

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

This may be why Americans fall for the timeshare salesman's pitch - buying a timeshare makes you think you will take the vacations. (I know that getting into timeshares definitely increased the amount of time my husband was willing to take off of work.)

I wonder about the statistics of Americans falling for the timeshare pitch vs. Europeans.

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

I wonder about the statistics of Americans falling for the timeshare pitch vs. Europeans.

In a way, it would make more sense for the Europeans to be owning timeshares. Sheesh, they sure have more opportunity to use them.

I'm totally jealous of France, 37 days! WOW!

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

These facts are sad, but true. Before I retired from my high tech career, I would get 5 weeks vacation with about 10 paid day's off. Before I started timesharing, I took about 1 week off and a few short weekend stays every year. I would give back 3 or more weeks per year.

These factoids are absolutely in many of the timeshare sales presentations. It worked for me. Now I vacation all the time. Well, that's not totally true. I am always working and tending to my business. But, that is my hobby, which I would do for free.

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

[QUOTE=ArtsieAng;226168
I'm totally jealous of France, 37 days! WOW! [/QUOTE]

I envy them also for that reason. But when you work all year for something ~ it means so much more to you, and you tend to make the most you can of it. I'm not saying they don't ~ JMO ~ but I'd LOVE to have more time!!

Sue

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

I squeeze EVERY LAST DAY of DH's 35 days a year off....before we TSed, he took off maybe 15-16 days a year....now

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

Pat

I squeeze EVERY LAST DAY of DH's 35 days a year off

I know that you do, and good for both of you! Enjoy!

Now, if I can only get my DH's firm to see it our way.

BTW, this is another reason to own your own business in the USA. You can take as much time off as you'd like, like myself. You may not make a lot of money, but, your vacation time is your own.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

On the other hand, Americans are amongst the hardest working people in the world. That is an admirable trait.

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

We get Paid Time Off because we only close 3 days a year. Starting out you get 25 days to include holidays, vacation, sick, personal. You can roll them over indefinitely. There are some that have been there a long time carrying 80 days.

I will never be one of those people!

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

How much vacation are you getting this year? Will you take it all? How many vacations do you have planned?

My calendar is odd. My salary is a nine month appointment. During those nine months, we close for about 2-2 1/2 weeks over Christmas, another week in late February/early March, and have various long weekends including Thanksgiving and an October set of "study days." I will travel one week over Christmas/New Years, during the February week, and take most of the rest of the time off at home.

For the other three months, we can choose to pay ourselves out of grants/contracts, or take unpaid personal time. I typically pay myself two of those three months, travel two weeks, and scatter the rest of the two weeks' worth of days off around the summer.

[stasik Member Find all posts View Profile Close stasik]

I get 27 days and I have to use them or lose them. We can rollover only five days. There is a 'bank' for unused days which, if you aren't planning on maternity leave or short term disability, is utterly worthless.

I don't know that Americans are any harder workers by not taking allotted vacation time. Its more of a delusion of their own importance to an organization. Too many people I work with act as if they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. I gently remind then that the company was here before them, it will be here after them, and it will survive if they go away for a week.

One still refuses to take time off because she has deluded herself into believing that she is the only competent person in her group. She has 31 days that she won't take and is turning into a wacko right now.

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

I get 3 weeks and limited holidays. Wife is a teacher at private school, so I schedule one week of my vacation when she has spring break and one week in the summer. The rest of my vacation is usually single days for home projects or for seminars that I attend.

[regatta333 Member Find all posts View Profile Close regatta333]

While we have always taken all or most of our vacation days, it wasn't until we owned timeshares that we actually used most of those days to go away on vacation. We would only do a planned 2-week vacation away and then take days here an there to spend family during the holidays, etc.

Now, we actually plan four trips a year, thanks to our timeshares.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

How much vacation are you getting this year? Will you take it all? How many vacations do you have planned?

This may be why Americans fall for the timeshare salesman's pitch - buying a timeshare makes you think you will take the vacations. (I know that getting into timeshares definitely increased the amount of time my husband was willing to take off of work.)

I wonder about the statistics of Americans falling for the timeshare pitch vs. Europeans.

I earn 11.31 hours paid time off every two weeks. I rarely, if ever, call in sick. Last year I had two sick days (one was a mental health day). So far this year I haven't used any of my paid time off for a sick day. 11.31 X 26 + 294.06 hours of paid time off or 24.05 days/year (we work 12 hour shifts). Unless I get creative with my schedule (we have flexible scheduling as well) I need to take 3 days or 36 hours of paid time off every time we go on vacation. The last two years plus this year and next we have a weeks vacation planned every other month or a total of 6 weeks of vacation and, we spend that time away from home. The funny thing is, 6 weeks off only works out to 216 hours (36 X 6 = 216) so I end the year with 78 hours left over. Don't take that as leaving 6 days on the table. I'll still take them off one day here and there. I won't sell them back to the company because they only pay 50 cents on the dollar for unused paid time off and I'm NOT about to give them half a day's vacation for the privledge of getting cash. I'll sit on my back side and watch T.V. for a day rather than give up half a day's pay that I've rightfully earned.

Now, how did I get into timeshare? You guessed it! We weren't taking vacation and spending that sort of money ($18,500 for that first week purchased from the developer) was going to MAKE me take vacation. I just didn't know it would be addictive and I'd buy 6 more weeks before I was done (done for the moment at least).

I am still the typical work-a-holic American. I tend to put in 48 to 60 weeks when I am working. Hey, I have to pay for all those vacations somehow and gasoline sure isn't getting any cheaper.

[KathyJed Member Find all posts View Profile Close KathyJed]

Before TS, we rarely went on vacation, other than Las Vegas. So of course, we bought from the developer in Vegas. Forcing my DH to take vacation or lose the MFs every year has been all for the good. It makes both of us better people to be around. And I know that everyone who works for or with my DH also appreciates our TS time off. Hey, maybe they should have chipped in and bought it for us.