Timeshares

A friend recommended a timeshare. Anyone have any info?

Pro?
Cons?
How to purchase?
How to trade or rent out?
How do you upgrade or change location?
Maintenence fees?

Anything else you can think of that I should know?

Timeshares are great because you can stay at a variety of resorts at a discounted price, if you rent through a timeshare owner.

For instance, I am an owner at the Lifestyle Hacienda Resort in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

www.viptravelresorts.com

You can rent an entire villa for $165 per night or $1100 a week, which includes a secluded full size pool, breakfast made daily , and the all inclusive food and drinks, as well as vip amenities. The all inclusive rate is an additional $37.50 per day per adult.

If you wanted to stay in the suites it's only $75.00 per day or $500 per week.

I have access to many different resorts at a substantial discount....send a FM if you are interested.

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Posted by Autumn08

A friend recommended a timeshare. Anyone have any info?

Pro?
Cons?
How to purchase?
How to trade or rent out?
How do you upgrade or change location?
Maintenence fees?

Anything else you can think of that I should know?

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Pros - it is like a pre-paid vacation. you are spending your money in advance, so you have to go since you put your money out. Nowadays, most timeshares are vacation clubs, where you get a certain amount of points and can book for anytime of year as long as you have the right amount of points in your account for that particular vacation.

Cons- if you do not vacation often, you will loose your money and time. Also, the amount of money needed to purchase could be 1k or more.

To purchase - I would go through a resale company, they are usually cheaper that way because someone is trying to get out of what they have.

Most timeshares will allow other people to use your timeshare, but you have to be the one to make all of the arrangements for them.

To vacation outside of your home resort, there is usually some type of fee, which varies between each company. I have a timeshare with Disney and they charge anywhere from $75 to 95 for each reservation outside of Disney resorts. I also belong to RCI and they charge based on the number of nights you stay at a resort. It can go up to $139 for 7 days or more.

You do pay yearly taxes, maintenance fees and possibly a fee to belong to a timeshare exchange company. The big exchange companies include RCI, Interval and ICE. I belong to RCI and Interval. The fees can range from $500 a year to more than 1k depending on the size of the unit you bought and the location of the resort.

I think they work for people who vacation at least once a year. I vacation at least twice a year and more if I can fit it in. It has worked miracles for me since a vacation is already in my budget, I just have to pruchase airfare and activities, which is expensive enough these days.


ETA: You can make your money back by renting out your timeshare. Disney is pretty stirct on how often you can do this per year, but the points can go for $10-11 per point and the average person need 200 points at Disney.

We own one through Starwood in Orlando and are very happy with it.

We trade through Interval International for a fee, ours is around $150 (it varies on who your timeshare is affiliated with).

We pay annual maintance fees that are pretty nominal. You sometimes need to pay resort fees to the resort you trade into (we did in Hawaii and Los Cabos - that was an all inclusive so we had to pay an upgrade for the all inclusive cost).

We've been really happy with ours. The only downside though is that you have a whole week usually starting from one weekend until the next, sometimes we like to take shorter trips.