Dopers with timeshare experience, please step inside...

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife and I went to a timeshare presentation today at a resort called Massanutten outside of Harrisonburg, VA. Nice place and the facilities were great.

When we sat down for the hard sell the lady said the rate is usually $26,000 to own a deeded week, but if we bought today it would be $23,500. We balked at the price and the “manager” came over and said they had 1 unit available for someone who had just upgraded, and they could let it go for $12,000. We still said no. We were guided into another room where we were offered the same unit for $5,995 if we signed today. Again, we said no.

So we walked away with a Visa gift card for $175 and $50 in Buffalo Wild Wings cards.

On doing a little research I found that there are a ton of people SELLING timeshares for next to nothing. The concept seems pretty interesting, but I need to know a bit more about timeshares in general before I wade into this further.

RCI seems to be a popular network for trading your timeshare for access to timeshares in other locations. Some seem to work on a point system, some don’t. Any tips on what to look for as far as this goes? Is BlueGreen another, similar system?

If I really plan to use my timeshare week to trade and travel to different locations, does it really matter where I buy my deeded unit? Can’t I search Craigslist for a timeshare that is being sold by a distressed owner? If so, isn’t the trading network more important than the actual unit?

What are your timeshare experiences? Do you think this is a generally good arrangement or no?

Thanks in advance!

2

I would never, ever sign up for a time-share even under torture. The sales pitches tend to make people think that you can’t go on nice vacations somewhere unless you have an ownership stake in a real property. My counter is that the concept of hotels or even house rentals is open to anyone, anytime, any place.

That said, I know smart people in family (college professors even) that swear that they can work out great. My mother and stepfather have a time-share in Los Cabos, Baja California and they use it. I have no idea how much it costs but they are always pressuring family to stay there. They can trade for weeks at other locations if they want which is typical for timeshares. I have heard of some great deals coming out of trades but you have to look for them and be flexible.

I would prefer to just travel where I want when I want and pay to stay there on a nightly basis. I think the whole concept is dumb. You are obviously paying for lots of overhead from the industry and its hard-pressure salespeople itself. Take their literature and stay at the place for a week on your own through your own deal and see if you like it that much. If you really love, buy a condo or house outright and rent it out yourself.

3

From everything I hear you can’t give one away so you better like it when you buy it because you may get stuck with it for life. I know a few people who like their timeshare at Disney but I have no idea what it cost them. They plan to go to Disney every year so it’s OK for them.

4

I had a buddy ask me about timeshares recently so we “ran the numbers” and a NICE Hotel room for vacation is FAR cheaper. I know that you want to go there for the Holidays but so do the other owners so if you devise a “fair” system you will get to spend every? (5th or 6th?) Holiday there.

We quickly determined that a NICE Hotel was cheaper, available, clean and comes with Maid service.

Run away from this deal, enjoy your wings.

Unclviny

5

Disney is the only one I’ve seen that’s remotely feasible, and that’s only if you plan on going to Disney almost every year for the lifespan of the timeshare.

Now, if the deal included steeply discounted park admission, that’d be another thing…

6

Timeshares are a ripoff. The fact they were willing to let it go for 5,995 when the original price was 26,000 should be a clue that you need to run far, far, away.

7

Well, not quite. They are only a rip off if you buy one from the sleazoids who run the ballroom presentations. If you buy one second hand – at next to nothing – it can be a good deal if it’s a place you will end up using on a frequent basis.

Having said that, I would never buy a timeshare regardless of the location or price. Hotels are the way to go for me.

8

I’ve heard they work for some people, but they really didn’t work for us. We bought one in Grand Cayman. Great place, but the yearly fees went up and up, we could never plan far enough ahead to really use the place, nor get the trades through RCI. (we don’t usually know in advance when we’ll have free time).

we sold our for very little just to stop the bleeding.

Maybe if you’re retired…but I still would rather just book vacations the old fashioned way.

9

There’s a joke about which one doesn’t belong: syphilis, herpes, AIDS or timeshare condos. The answer, of course is syphilis, because that’s the only one you can get rid of.

Besides a chance to tell that old joke, the success stories I’ve heard of them is from people who had them in places that they regularly vacationed at.

Generally haven’t heard good things about them, though.

10

Wait, if he could really get a week for $6000, why is that a bad deal? If you rent a hotel room for a week, that can easily run you a grand. He’ll have used the price of the unit in 6 years, right?

11

As others have said, it’s only really a good deal if its in a place that you intend to visit year after year for whatever reason or possibly if you know for certain when you’ll have a vacation far in advance so you can make the trade happen.

People should bring their smartphone into the hard sell. “Twenty-six thousand? Well lookie here, this guy at timesharedrop.com is selling the exact same thing for seven hundred bucks.”

12

In addition to the initial cost of the timeshare itself, I believe you also have to pay yearly fees. I’d be curious to know how much they would be in the case of the OP.

13

From all I’ve heard of timeshares, there are additional yearly fees for upkeep and maintenance. These fees can be significant and often go up substantially over time.

14

If you’re really interested in investigating timeshares, check out the forums at http://www.tugbbs.com, the Timeshare Users group.

I ended up buying from Disney a couple years ago, a couple things I came up with from that…

A lot of sales pitches will talk about it being an “investment” or a “savings.” That’s crap. I started looking into timeshares because I needed o force myself to take real vacations (and if I started looking at cheaper options, I’d eventually drag it down to it being cheapest not to go at all).

There are two major types of systems out there–week systems, where you have, say, the 3rd week in July every year, and points systems, where you have a number of points to spend, with the resort costing different point amounts at different times. The latter is more flexible, and, of course, more complicated.

Many larger systems (Disney, Hilton, Marriot, etc) allow fairly easy trading within their system and into their “normal” hotels.

Trading within RCI is also an option, but in those cases, keep in mind that much of your trade value comes from having a timeshare that other people want to trade into. Note that places like Orlando and Vegas are lousy with timeshares, so their trade value can be low unless its one that people want to go to (Disney, for example, is considered “on property” for all the extra DisneyWorld perks).

You can buy “used” timeshares usually for much cheaper than what the developer is selling them for. Note that in the case of point systems, be careful that the current owner hasn’t stripped the points and used them all before selling.

15

The name “Mass 'a nutten” ought to be a tipoff.

16

Run away! Run away!

My best friend and I worked for a timeshare sales company for about two weeks when we were 16 (then quit). They’re sharks. They operate just within the limits of the law.

Here’s a BBC Watchdog article. A recent episode had them follow up people who didn’t want their timeshare any more, and were trying to sell it, ending up being conned by companies who were charging them to not sell their timeshare. One of the timeshare owners was an MP.

They included salespeople doing something like this:

That’s called pressure selling and, in some respects (according to the show, which is pretty sound legally) is illegal in the UK. I assume there are some limits to how illegal it is (probably because it was a very long-term contract rather than a short term sale), but they were pretty certain. I know you’re probably not in the UK, but it’s still definitely dodgy practice at least.

Don’t even think about it.

It’ll be much cheaper and easier to simply pay for a holiday to somewhere you want to go.

17

We did the Massanutten thing 5 or 6 years ago and it went down exactly as you describe it. The more we refused the better the deal became and the more “managers” and “team members” got involved. You would have thought I was the best negotiator in the world from the way they talked. If they can get one spouse even a little interested then they will hammer at that wedge until you either take the deal or divorce. Nice folks.

That said, timeshares seem to work for my in-laws. They have quite a few and are always offering us free weeks. Rarely does it work out that we can get a week where we want, when we want (Massanutten was a rare exception) but they seem happy with it. I think you have to be experienced with the RCI system to us them effectively.

18

Partially, it depends on how you vacation.
Do you like to spend a week every winter snow skiing in the same area?
Time share might work for you.

Do you tend to take shorter vacations, or go different places every time? Time share is probably not be so good a fit.

19

Even if you do, how do you know that the area isn’t going to go completely to shit in a few years for some random reason making your investment worthless? If you don’t have a time share, you can just start going somewhere else.

20

My ex had a timeshare that he loved, I thought it was a huge waste of money. You CAN “trade” your week(s) for other locations; but, it’s not always easy. For instance, his was a week in August in a mountain resort. He could trade that in, and someone else could use his condo that week, since he wouldn’t be there. But if there’s somewhere in particular you want to go, you have to hope that somebody, traded in their week during the week you want to go, at the place you want to go to. We wanted to go to Key West, and we were able to get in at a nice place there; but the following two years, there was nothing available. We could have picked another hotel and just paid for it, but my ex felt like he was “wasting” money because he had already paid for the timeshare but wasn’t using it - he felt like he was paying twice for the vacation.

Plus, you can only stay at places that are part of the time-share community. We were going to stay in Myrtle Beach, and we were able to get a place that was “North Beach” - but because we had kids, I wanted to stay right in town where all the amusements were. But there are no time-share communities right in MB. I don’t want to have to get in the car every day and drive 20-30 minutes to where I wanted to be in the first place.

If you don’t mind being limited on where and when you can stay, I guess it can work out okay. But I would much rather just choose a vacation on my own terms. There are also annual maintenance fees, whether or not you use the time-share.