Ontopic Timeshare experiences.

I think they are fairly legitimate, but are usually associated with horrible sales tactics. Mom and her hubby got all sorts of crap for going to a sales pitch when we went to Vegas four or five years back. Was supposed to be a 45 minute pitch. Two hours later they got out of there. I'm not sure why her husband didn't pitch a fit as he has been known to do with people that waste his time.

Within the past couple years they eventually got some sort of timeshare/property share thing in the Caribbean somewhere, they go annually. They like going, but they have to get the reservation almost a year in advance in order to get a good weekend. That's their main complaint with them, it's hard to get a good weekend.
 
My parents have one and use it regularly. They've been able to go to Hawaii multiple times, Sedona, South Carolina, San franscico, Oregon, Oceanside and probably more with lodging already paid for. About half the time they offer for kids to join do I've bern to Oceanside and am going to Hawaii in sept with lodging covered. The resorts are really nice.
 
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My sister's in-laws had/have one and they used it for their honeymoon in Hawaii. They loved it. Another friend of mine is with RCI and has nothing bad to say. She's used it a bunch and can trade around and stuff for other locations.

We have DVC (Disney's time share - shock of all shock) and use it a bunch. It has saved me money in the long run and we get some fantastic rooms (1 or 2 bedrooms usually with full kitchen). Our next stay will include a few nights in one of these over the water bungalows


We bought the majority of our shares via resale which saved something like $15-20K. Our version gives us flexibility in locations, room size, time of year etc... there is no fixed week or stuck with specific location which was important to me. It paid for itself probably in 5 years or so. Just added on as well.

We even suckered @APRIL and @fly to visit us one year when we had a 1 bedroom at the Beach Club (near Epcot for all you FL drinkers ;)). Not sure how they liked it, but so far my family has all loved our accommodations when they stay with us.
 
Yea, I think it works for people who like to take yearly vacations to touristy resort areas (nothing wrong with that) and are in it for the long haul.

For others, it's a waste.
 
Yeah if you don't vacation a lot I don't think it is worth it. I was forking out far too much a year with vacations and while I had a friend who gave me fantastic discounts at a resort those were drying up as the economy picked up. So I bit the bullet and bought in on a resale before the prices went back up. That was like 11 years ago and no regrets for us.

We'll use it for Disney or other places so it works for us. I'm spoiled with condo like rooms when we travel. Cannot seem to share a room with the kiddo after having our own bedrooms with wonderful showers and whirlpool tubs.

The one thing people forget about with these though is that there usually is a yearly maintenance fee. A lot of people don't calculate that with costs. Also if you have to finance the buy in, it's likely not worth it.
 
yeah, let me reiterate. They are expensive up front, and expensive every year, but if you go on expensive trips every year then maybe it works out.

Since I know you're kind of a jew @Casper, there are arbitrage options out there. People who make money every year on timeshares. IIRC, the trick is to pick them up on the secondary market. I've never bothered to really look into it tho.
 
fly said:
yeah, let me reiterate. They are expensive up front, and expensive every year, but if you go on expensive trips every year then maybe it works out.

Since I know you're kind of a jew @Casper, there are arbitrage options out there. People who make money every year on timeshares. IIRC, the trick is to pick them up on the secondary market. I've never bothered to really look into it tho.
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Kind of a Jew?????

Jew crazy! Bobberts legal Name should be Casper Cheapstein
 
fly said:
yeah, let me reiterate. They are expensive up front, and expensive every year, but if you go on expensive trips every year then maybe it works out.

Since I know you're kind of a jew @Casper, there are arbitrage options out there. People who make money every year on timeshares. IIRC, the trick is to pick them up on the secondary market. I've never bothered to really look into it tho.
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Depends on the timeshare. Our yearly fees are not that costly - a fraction of what I was paying OOP to stay in a room. Now we get a lot bigger and better than what I used to. Before Dom I traveled like 2 or 3 times a year and stayed in studios (hotel room with kitchenette). Now we just go once a year, but like our space. Rack rate for our trip this October would be $11,118.50 - that's a fuckload of money I wouldn't put out for one trip. In fact that's close to what the buy in was for the first part of our buy in.

DVC people make money on their timeshares by renting out points (which is how you 'pay' for a room - you get x many points a year). They'll charge $15/point to rent a room, which still saves the family money. I rented a room for my dad (he refused to get it as a gift) and he paid $1935 for a room that would normally cost $4353.75 for his stay. So it can be a win-win for both the renter and the owner.

As I said before you were in a DVC room of ours. A 1 bedroom so you can see what we kind of like to stay in (though we do 2 bedrooms now)
 
I wasn't looking at purchasing. I was offered a possible job at a resort selling timeshares. While commission based, some of the agents do make crazy money. Personally I always felt that they were a marketing scam. Like, if someone has to use such shady sales incentives to get you to listen to their pitch, how can the product really be that great? If it was a value, I'd think it would sell itself. Add on top of that, there are so many laws against what timeshare sales agents can and can't do that it's obvious the public has had problems with deceptive sales practices in the past.

The curve ball is that almost everyone I talk to who owns a timeshare, or whose parents own a timeshare, doesn't share this same opinion. In fact a few of them were insulted that I felt they were a scam. As if I was suggesting that they or their loved ones were duped. Most of the people I talked to who do have timeshares do so through RCI. And maybe it makes a difference on what timeshare family you're a part of.

Interesting responses, guys. Thanks.
 
I did notice that almost all timeshares are now on a point system and are transferable. That probably makes them a better than complete scam of a deal, depending on the price. The part that scares me is the inability to resell for anything close to your going in price, and the fact that management expenses and real property tax will rise drastically even if you don't use the unit.
 
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