It’s good to know that some Dopers have had positive experiences with these arrangements. It looks like a key factor is arranging it so that you can use the TS flexibly with respect to location.
I am still not buying one. 
Excellent choice! After trying again and again to show family members how timeshares rarely save money for either a properly planned vacation or a spontaneous one with realistic expectations…
Yeah, just stay away. Hard sell tactics are not needed for anything that is worth anything.
That is the key. At one of the presentations, I asked if I could take the literature home with me along with the pricing so I could make a decision. The salesperson acted like I asked to sleep with his wife. He told me that that information was proprietary and could not be handed out to a mere potential customer.
From that day forward, I knew it was a bad deal. What seller of a product that is mutually beneficial to both parties would not want that information distributed far and wide? I mean, if I want to buy a TV, I go on Amazon and there is the price. The seller has a TV but would rather have $400. I have $400 but would rather have a TV. The transaction is open and works for both of us.
When you have to hide that information and juggle numbers around, you are trying to screw your customer.
Another tip: Don’t think you can get out of the presentation by claiming that you simply cannot afford to purchase a timeshare right now. They will juggle the numbers, lower the price (“just for you”) and start talking monthly payments. They will do the hard sell of “If my manager can give it to you for $200/mo, will you promise to buy it?” You’ll get the “its been a slow month and I’m not making any money off of you at this price, but you seem like wonderful people and those kids are gorgeous and wouldn’t you like them to experience these fabulous vacation destinations?”
Then, when you think you are getting out of there, another person will come along simply to “conduct a survey” about your “experience.” Do not be fooled. This is just another salesperson to try a different tactic. Sure, you could always walk out, but they first have to hand you the voucher for the free room/free Disney tickets etc. which is the only reason you came in the first place.
The only way to get out of there is to simply be rude and say “Look, I’ve told you five fucking times I don’t want to buy. Hand me my voucher now. I don’t want a survey; I’m not buying.”
He wasn’t scared that you wanted to sleep with his wife…he was afraid of something far,far worse: that you might want to think logically.
I once read an interview in my local paper about timeshare salesmen who were grabbing people at the annual car show in town, in a noisy crowded convention center.
One of them said that people NEVER buy timeshares if you give them time to think about it logically and carefully.
He gave the example of a couple who listened carefully, took notes and then gave the salesman their home phone number with a genuine request that he call them at home the next night to continue with a quieter, more serious discussion.
Now in any other field, a salesman would take that as a serious lead worth following up on. But the timeshare salesman said he had learned from experience not to waste his time–" if they don’t sign on impulse, they won’t sign at all."
Absolutely right. The TV seller has no problem with me comparing that price with the competitors. Amazon has no problem with me shopping their price against Best Buy or others. Even a car salesman, usually held as the pinnacle of the high pressure sales tactic, will let you walk out of the dealership with the last offered price with the terms attached.
The fact that the time share seller won’t do that, and is indeed scared that the terms will be posted on the internet and exposed as a bad deal, is Exhibit A as to why it is a bad deal.
Again, I’m not saying that the very concept of timesharing is a bad deal. Done right, it is not. But you see more of the true market value for it on sites like Ebay where people pay market prices and not under pressure.
Further, I think there is a lot of confirmation bias going on. If you ask your uncle, who bought a timeshare at one of these presentations if he is happy with it, his pride will keep him from admitting to you that he got played by a salesman, and he will have convinced himself that he is happy with it.
My sisters own them, and so far it’s been great for me.
Many years ago they got together and got enough rooms for a family reunion for Thanksgiving. At least 17 of us together for a weekend was a blast.
This year, a brother-in-law’s family was planning a family reunion and they booked Christmas week in Williamsburg. The reunion fell through, and sister’s family couldn’t travel the distance, so they asked us if we wanted it. We haven’t been on a real vacation in more than a decade, so we scrounged up the gas money and went.
We sat through the sales lecture and are using the $100 gift card for a very nice seafood dinner instead of eating another TV dinner.
We can’t afford this now, but if we ever can one sister said we should talk to her first, because the boys are in college and they don’t travel much.
Given a choice, I would go with Vacation Village, because they own the Plumeria resort on Saipan. We used to live on Saipan, and the cost of traveling for a visit is prohibitive.
My ex-, late father-in-law owned a timeshare in Manzanillo, Mexico. All 52 weeks, and then several weeks during important holidays in another unit. These were deeded units, and maintenance wasn’t out of this world, and fees actually were used to make improvements, such as the clubhouse on the shore.
No points, no trades, no gimmicks, really, nice and simple.
My experience has been very good… the industry has written my paycheck for the past 30 years. It is not for everyone, and it is not a real estate investment, but overall the satisfaction rate is very close to 90%.
Our timeshare was very worthwhile… after we bought what a tired owner was selling on eBay, for 1/10th the retail price, and when we needed an affordable stayover in San Francisco. That need is now gone and so is our membership. It was good while it lasted.
Note: We started hitting timeshare sales pitches in the 1980s but didn’t buy until 2002. Those early ones sent us on cheap vacations to Hawai’i and New England. They don’t do that anymore. Too bad.