I had a friend take some of girls to a timeshare for a girls night out. It was fully equipt with full kitchen to cook in, it was very nice! Family uses their time share points to get up graded room. If you have one how does it work, do you think its worth it?
DO NOT DO IT! We are in legal battle for the one we bought in 2009 because the company breached the contract. But in the meantime, we pay the maintenance fees AND the monthly payment for it. The only benefit is that it helps at tax time with the interest on the mortgage payment, but what I could do with the extra $300 a month!
I personally don't think it's worth it unless you are someone who likes to take the same vacation every year. Some do and make it a family tradition, and that can be fun. It also depends what sort of timeshare you have. Some have a fixed week, others you have to reserve the week every time, which can be a hassle as far as planning.
For me, I like to go different places, somewhat on the spur of the moment. The exchange feature never gives us what we want, because you have to know months ahead of time what you want to do and where you want to go.
I think the better bet is to look on eBay for people trying to rent out their timeshare weeks. You usually get the same deal as them, because many (including us) just try to recoup the annual maintenance costs, without the hassle of the commitment.
I answered a question about this recently, and all I have to say is DON'T DO IT. My husband used to run collections on timeshares... it's so ugly. You pay year round for something you use once a year; if someone else is in your place when it's not your turn, guess who has to pay the maintenance fee? YOU DO!! You can't ever get out of it, and the way the economy is, no one is buying second hand timeshare obligations. It's a money pit. If they want to make upgrades to the facility, they automatically bill you for it, and there's nothing you can do about it except pay up. One of the timeshares my husband managed collections on sold buyers on the fact that they were building a waterpark... this was 11 years ago, and they haven't broken ground (and never will). This particular place also sat behind another hotel, which had private property access... if you were viewing the timeshare place, you could go visit the beach, but once you were a member, you actually had to pay extra to go to the beach! Just don't do it. Take a weeklong vacay somewhere you can rent instead.
my parents have had one for 30+ years and they love it! ours you can "trade" weeks. they have traded every where from colorado to spain!
and it is something my sister and i will actually inherit when they pass.
just shop around and read the fine print! good luck!
My friend just bought her 4th time share. They love it and have never vacationed in the location that they bought into. They always trade their time share weeks and then go to various locations. You are not stuck into vacationing in one location during one particular week.
It never been worth it to anyone except for the people managing the property and selling the time shares. They make a killing.
Take their annual maintenance fee and multiply it times 50. (They sell 50 weeks of the year.) That's how much they charge to mow the grass, water the lawn, vacuum the carpets, clean the toilets and keep the place clean. I went to one time share (typical) and they wanted $1000 per year in maintenance fees for each week. Do you think it really takes $50,000 a year to maintain a 400 square foot apartment and provide maid service and gardening? Each maid does 12 apartments per day. I'd quit my job (or go back to work) for half that kind of money, and I don't like cleaning. Then, most timeshares cost $15,000+ for one week annually. That's $750,000 for one apartment for one year. If there are 12 units in this building, That's $9,000,000 for a 12 unit apartment building. In most cities you can buy apartment buildings for $30,000 per unit or less. So a 12 unit apartment house would be $360,000.
If my figures don't tell you that TIME SHARES ARE A BIG RIP OFF, nothing will. You don't have to be a Noble Prize winner in economics to realise that.
Good luck to you and yours.
The maintenance fees are OUTRAGEOUS. My M. poured like 50k into one years ago and was told that the maintenance fees would never go up...big fat lie, they have gone up like every year to the point where she is now paying 2800 dollars a year JUST in maintenance (the cost of the points has been paid off but that was the 50k)... Half of the resorts that are a part of the timeshare can be booked on expedia for like 120 dollars a night. She only gets about 2 1/2 weeks of vacation a year so it is BARELY even getting a deal.
My parents have one, and if they had it to do over again, they wouldn't have gotten it.
We usually look to see what Dave Ramsey's opinion is before making a financial decision, so I was curious to see what he says. He too says they are a scam.
http://www.daveramsey.com/article/the-truth-about-timesha...
Good luck =o)
I've only known one person to have one (a co-worker from my job before my son was born) and they loooooooved it! But they also used it every single year without fail. It was some luxury cabin on the beach in Michigan. They had decades of awesome family memories from it, and still do. Its flexible and they've gone for 2wks at a time or split up their time. I'm sure with any travel 'packages' out there, some will be bad and some will be good.
