Saturday, July 28, 2012

Are Timeshares and Vacation Clubs A Good Deal?

timeshare ownership
timeshare ownership (Photo credit: GGtimeshares)

Dreams of warm beaches and bluer than blue ocean beaches pervade the mind every summer. Making plans for that ultimate vacation destination fills your thoughts and just has to be satisfied. You finally take that great trip and just fall in love with the place.

Maybe you think owning a bit of paradise would be the right thing to do. Your thinking of buying a timeshare.

Timeshares and vacation clubs allow you the opportunity to become a part-owner of a resort. The ability to return yearly comes with a certain sense of security; your next vacation is always just around the corner. Most timeshares allow you to trade your allotted time for points to use at other vacation destinations. You can enjoy luxury ski chalet holidays, travel to the Caribbean, or enjoy any city destination that is on your plans list.

What is a Timeshare?
Timeshare ownership has you pay an upfront fee plus a yearly maintenance fee. Depending on the timeshare arrangement, owners either own the rights to a specific, fixed week or a floating arrangement, where you can visit for a week within a period of time each year.

What is a Vacation Club?

Is This a Money Saving Way to Vacation?
Both plans have different restrictions. Timeshares give you a specific week in a specific place from now on. Vacation Clubs have more flexibility with your choice of destinations but you have to deal with a fixed number of points. 

Both of these plans have large upfront costs with an expensive yearly maintenance fee. For example if you take vacation where you pay $200/ night for a week hotel stay over ten years you have shelled out $14,000. A timeshare at the same property might cost $8,000 upfront, with annual maintenance fees of $550. After ten years, you’d have paid $13,500—only $500 less than it would have cost you to pay for normal vacations. Over 30 years, however, the timeshare becomes a much better deal: At the end of that period, you’d have paid only $24,500 for your yearly vacations at a timeshare, as compared to $42,000 if staying at the hotel.

Are They a Good Investment?
For being real estate you would think there is an appreciation value. The value of your timeshare generally decreases sharply after purchasing.  The reason being the number of timeshares is always increasing. New timeshares have an attraction over an older one which people do not prefer. Add to that, it is really difficult to sell your timeshare if the need exists. If you did resell it, you could receive only half of what you paid for it. 

What to Do?
If you like a particular timeshare destination, rent do not buy. Many timeshare owners can't sell or go to their timeshare so they will offer you a great deal for renting them. 

A great place to look for timeshare rentals is Ebay. I personally had a great experience renting a timeshare in Orlando and everything went perfect. Because you’ll be dealing with an individual timeshare or vacation club owner rather than a hotel, be extra cautious to ensure that the deal is legitimate. Call up the hotel ahead of time to verify that the owner in question does, in fact, own a timeshare at the property. Additionally, ask the timeshare owner for references from previous satisfied renters.


  1. If you are not interested in purchasing a timeshare, do not attend a timeshare presentation! The free gifts are not worth wasting a day of your vacation, and putting your hard earned money at risk of being scammed by the timeshare salespeople. If you have already purchased a timeshare there are good articles on how to use timeshares properly.

  2. You are right. I took a free presentation it was awful.Two hours of hard selling and tour. Then as we were to leave we had to go to another salesman who cut the price in half. Then to the last salesman who told us they would give the timeshare to us for free for 24 months. Amazing!

  3. The truth is that the cost of owning a timeshare doesn’t just stop by paying the total purchase price. There are other timeshare fees that must be taken into consideration. By the time you pay the maintenance fees on your timeshare, plus the other fees and expenses, you’ll realize that you’ve paid as much, if not more, that the total cost to stay it a good and nice hotel.

    1. Save the money and stay in a hotel. No one uses their timeshare in a way that makes sense financially. Buy one and you will have anchor around your neck and a never ending money pit.








  11. Thousands of International travelers, particularly from the US and Canada, have fallen victims oftimeshare fraud while vacationing. Resort developers hire skilled salesmen to represent their timeshares as many different attractive packages, such as financial investments, deeded properties, or vacation clubs, just to increase their sales.



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