Timeshares

Do you own one?
If so, where?
Do you love it?
What are your annual fees?
Do you have a specific week or floating?

Pros and Cons?

Re: Timeshares

ooh and can you really buy one off ebay? Would/did you? If you bought off another online site, which one?

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I am not sure on what site, but my uncle has one that he bought. the actual "property" he bought into is in South Africa, but he's never been there.

he bought there b/c the payments are cheaper, and he has a floating week. he picks a week and a destination, and pays a set fee for going to another location for the time.

I am not sure if that makes sense, but he's been happy so far with it.

what I mean to say is, you can buy into a cheaper time share, and then go to whichever destination you'd like for a set fee extra.

Re: Timeshares

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Do you own one? Yes
If so, where? Orlando through Starwood
Do you love it? So far (we've owned it two years)
What are your annual fees? We pay about $400/yr in maintenance and $150 if we want our week deposited into II for exchange out of the Starwood network
Do you have a specific week or floating? Floating

Re: Timeshares

We have one with disney. Probably not what you are interested since you are right there but here it goes...

I don't remember the dues off hand -- I want to say about $500-600 per year but it varies based on the resort and the number of points you purchase.


Pros:
I love our home resort - the Boardwalk. We can book there 11 months in advance of our planned trip. We can book 7 months out for all the other resorts.

I like the flexibility of the point system - we can go any time of year for any number of days. We can borrow points from the next year or save/bank points we don't use or want to save for a year. The points are assigned based on time of year so a Wednesday during Sept is less points then Christmas eve. This doesn't change unless they change the pricing seasons which I don't see happening in the near future.

You can trade points with other time share companies all over the world. I hear disney is pretty poplular to trade out for so it's easy to get accomodations in other places.


Cons:
We tend to go to Disney all the time. DH LOVES it but I hate to say I am getting tired of it.

The new vacation resorts are flooding the smaller ones making it more difficult to get last minute reservations at preferred locations.

They are not lifetime timeshares -- the older ones expire in 2040 and the newer Saratoga Springs memberships expire in 2050.

Message edited 5/16/2007 12:33:21 PM.

Re: Timeshares

Yes, I own one in Williamsburg, VA. We bought it on our honeymoon as a "longterm investment"

Would I do it again? No, probably not due to the monthly payment that we can't really afford right now

We LOVED the place, that's why we bought it

It is an Interval International timeshare

Annual fees are almost $300

We own a 4 bedroom lock-out for 1 week bi-annually (every two years). When we bought, we got a bonus week every year. So, in reality, we got a 4 bedroom lock-out every year.

I find it VERY confusing to figure out when to bank, when to request, when to split my units, etc. you kinda have to know what you are doing to benefit from a trade. I kinda have the knack for it now, but it's been 3 years.

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I didn't answer the pros and cons (got sidetracked at work).

The pros are:

We got a lot of Starwood hotel points when we purchased the timeshare and we're gold preferred guests so we get late check out and free upgrades. It guarantees you take a vacation every year. We've used our week in Hawaii and used bonus weeks we received in Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos.

The cons are:

We haven't found any yet but, I know it's harder if you are trying to travel to a popular destination at a peak time.

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Do you own one? YES

If so, where? ARUBA

Do you love it?YES, I STAYED THERE FOR MY HONEYMOON!

What are your annual fees? IT JUST GOT RAISED FROM $610 to $725/week/year

Do you have a specific week or floating? WE OWN WEEK 49 IN A SPECIFIC ROOM EVERY YEAR, BUT CAN TRADE UPON AVAILABILITY.

We actually rented our timeshare for the past 2 years, so it's a nice income too!

Oh yeah,
Pros:
1-We know that that week is ours every year
2-Aruba has the most amazing weather year round
3-Aruba is one of the most popular timeshare locations to trade IN to, so we will have no problem trading or renting.
4-My timeshare has a message board to trade or rent weeks, which makes it soooo easy!


Cons:
1-You have to do the legwork if you want to rent or trade
2-There's a fee if you join a timeshare company, which helps you trade

Message edited 5/16/2007 12:35:30 PM.

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ILS own one that has properties in Atlantic City, Disney, Vegas, and a ton of other locations around the world, including London & the Carribean. They visited the one in Vegas in person & that is when they bought. They use their weeks every year & love it.

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We have a time share through the Hilton. Through the timeshare, we can also use the rci resorts. We've used the timeshare in Hawaii, Spain, LAs Vegas, Florida. They are so great and perfect for families. We pay around $600/year in maintenance fees.

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Don, did you report me?

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Do you own one? YES

If so, where? ORLANDO, FL THROUGH RCI

Do you love it? SOMETIMES - EVEN THOUGH WE OWN "RED" TIME WHICH IS THE HIGHEST LEVEL AND IN FL WHICH I THOUGHT WOULD BE WANTED, SOMETIMES WE HAVE A HARD TIME FINDING A GOOD TRADE

What are your annual fees? ABOUT $350 PER YEAR MAINTENANCE

Do you have a specific week or floating? SPECIFIC BUT WE BOUGHT TO TRADE NOT GO TO FL

Pros and Cons?

PROS:
1) It makes us plan for vacations (which I like since work gets crazy and sometimes I forget to breathe)

2) We can travel the world and stay in decent places without spending an arm and leg - we bought it in May 05 and so far we traded and went to Malaga, Spain and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

CONS:
1) Until we pay off the mortgage, it doesn't seem to make financial sense when you have to pay the mortgage, plus maintenance fees, plus membership fees, plus exchange fees.

2) We bought a deeded property which is lifetime ownership but we weren't advised that from time to time there may be assessments that you have to pay

Overall, I am satisfied with our timeshare, but I wish I had bought through Interval (they have better quality resorts) and through a private ownership program in the Caribbean or Hawaii. Those places have higher exchange value.

Luckily we got our 2 bedroom lock-out for a great price, we it's not like we took a financial hit or anything.

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We own a Marriott Timeshare, based in Palm Beach Shores, Florida.

We own one week during "gold season", which is Oct-May. We have traded it a few times, but mostly go to PBS.

We are actually selling it in order to buy a vacation home there because we love it so much and want to be able to go whenever we want.

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My ILs have a few in Orlando through RCI that are red weeks, which are supposed to be high demand and easy to trade, but we've never been able to trade for anything decent.

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I have a timeshare at Gurney's Inn in Montauk. I pay $800 maintenance for one week. We have a set week (week13) and we haven't joined Interval yet.

It's nice but a lot of $$ - we would like to sell.

I thought it was a good idea because we can always get to Montauk, and we love it out there. But the maintenance is overboard IMO.