I started a new business. Check out https://www.xenemm.com for information.
With the new job, I don't have much time to travel. I hope that changes soon.
Friday, June 23, 2017
Sunday, March 29, 2009
What I've Learned about Timeshares: Part 4
The idea of timeshare exchanging is really very straight forward. You have a reserved week in Las Vegas on the third week of June. You’d rather spend a week in Hawaii on the second week of March. If you can find a Hawaii timeshare owner that has that second week in March reserved AND would rather go to Las Vegas on the third week of June, then you might be able to arrange a trade weeks with each other. Exchange companies play a middleman role in this process. Basically, members give their weeks to the exchange company and if the company has a week that you want, they give that week to you. In reality it’s a little more complicated than that and I’ll get into it a bit more in the next article.
Almost all timeshares are officially associated with an exchange company. The two biggest exchange companies are Resort Condominiums International (RCI) and Interval International (II). Marriott Vacation Club happens to be associated with Interval. So I’ll concentrate on them. At the time of this writing, their yearly membership runs at about $89. When you buy from Marriott, they will pay your first year’s membership. My experience with this was that if I wanted to exchange for a vacation after the expiration date of my membership, I had to pay the next year’s membership fee before I could complete the exchange. So when I purchased, by the time I got all the paperwork and reserved the week I wanted from Marriott, a few months had passed since my membership started. Since the week I wanted to exchange into was after the membership expiration, I had to fork over another year’s membership dues before I could make the exchange. Basically, that first year’s membership was a waste of money for me.
Each exchange also incurs an exchange fee. So now I’ve reserved my week with Marriott. I’ve paid my fee to lock-off my room. I’ve deposited both the studio and the 1-bedroom weeks with Interval and I now have to pay Interval an exchange fee when I find something I want to trade for. I don’t know for sure because I’ve never had to do it myself, but I believe that if you were making the reservation for someone other than yourself, you would incur some kind of fee as well.
This is what I mean when I talk about fees overwhelming timeshare owners. Look at this breakdown:
Maintenance Fee: $850
Lock-Off Fee: $125
Exchange Company Membership: $180 (2-years of membership)
Exchange Fees: $200 ($100 for the lock-off studio, $100 for the lock-off 1 bedroom)
These are the numbers that the salespeople gloss over during the sales pitch. Is it really any surprise that many timeshare owners are really unhappy with their purchase? Again, this is why I say that you never want to purchase as an investment and you certainly do not want to buy if you can barely afford your house.
Until recently Disney’s Vacation Club was also associated with Interval, but now they’ve recently switched to RCI. The interesting thing is that Disney controls the exchanges. I don’t have to pay a membership fee to RCI, at least, not directly. I’m sure part of my yearly dues goes towards that membership. Any type of vacation you take with your Disney points has to go through Disney’s member services. If you want to exchange your points for that week in Branson, you call up Disney, tell them what you want and if they can find availability, they’ll let you know. Of course you get charged a small fee for that service. For all the talk about how expensive Disney is overall, it’s amazing that they don’t have very many fees.
Of course, exchanging is completely voluntary. You are always welcome to use your week year after year. Same bat time. Same bat channel. That may work for you. More power to you, but the whole point that I personally bought was to see more of the world. In fact, I bought my Marriott with the explicit intent of exchanging. I’ve never stayed there. I live within a 15 minute drive. I guestimated the cost of exchanging when I made my decision to purchase. I was a little under, but not by too much.
Are you looking for a way to save money when you trade your timeshare? How about looking for a vacation home to rent? Take a look at http://www.reservnstay.com. All listings are free.
Almost all timeshares are officially associated with an exchange company. The two biggest exchange companies are Resort Condominiums International (RCI) and Interval International (II). Marriott Vacation Club happens to be associated with Interval. So I’ll concentrate on them. At the time of this writing, their yearly membership runs at about $89. When you buy from Marriott, they will pay your first year’s membership. My experience with this was that if I wanted to exchange for a vacation after the expiration date of my membership, I had to pay the next year’s membership fee before I could complete the exchange. So when I purchased, by the time I got all the paperwork and reserved the week I wanted from Marriott, a few months had passed since my membership started. Since the week I wanted to exchange into was after the membership expiration, I had to fork over another year’s membership dues before I could make the exchange. Basically, that first year’s membership was a waste of money for me.
Each exchange also incurs an exchange fee. So now I’ve reserved my week with Marriott. I’ve paid my fee to lock-off my room. I’ve deposited both the studio and the 1-bedroom weeks with Interval and I now have to pay Interval an exchange fee when I find something I want to trade for. I don’t know for sure because I’ve never had to do it myself, but I believe that if you were making the reservation for someone other than yourself, you would incur some kind of fee as well.
This is what I mean when I talk about fees overwhelming timeshare owners. Look at this breakdown:
Maintenance Fee: $850
Lock-Off Fee: $125
Exchange Company Membership: $180 (2-years of membership)
Exchange Fees: $200 ($100 for the lock-off studio, $100 for the lock-off 1 bedroom)
These are the numbers that the salespeople gloss over during the sales pitch. Is it really any surprise that many timeshare owners are really unhappy with their purchase? Again, this is why I say that you never want to purchase as an investment and you certainly do not want to buy if you can barely afford your house.
Until recently Disney’s Vacation Club was also associated with Interval, but now they’ve recently switched to RCI. The interesting thing is that Disney controls the exchanges. I don’t have to pay a membership fee to RCI, at least, not directly. I’m sure part of my yearly dues goes towards that membership. Any type of vacation you take with your Disney points has to go through Disney’s member services. If you want to exchange your points for that week in Branson, you call up Disney, tell them what you want and if they can find availability, they’ll let you know. Of course you get charged a small fee for that service. For all the talk about how expensive Disney is overall, it’s amazing that they don’t have very many fees.
Of course, exchanging is completely voluntary. You are always welcome to use your week year after year. Same bat time. Same bat channel. That may work for you. More power to you, but the whole point that I personally bought was to see more of the world. In fact, I bought my Marriott with the explicit intent of exchanging. I’ve never stayed there. I live within a 15 minute drive. I guestimated the cost of exchanging when I made my decision to purchase. I was a little under, but not by too much.
Are you looking for a way to save money when you trade your timeshare? How about looking for a vacation home to rent? Take a look at http://www.reservnstay.com. All listings are free.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
What I've Learned about Timeshares: Part 3
I don't doubt that some of the things I know about timeshares are wrong. I believe learning is an ongoing process and I look forward to correcting any of my errors. I'm grateful that you'll indulge me and read through this. These are just the ramblings of what I've read and what I've experienced. I learned a lot from reading the forums at http://www.tug2.net.
All timeshares have some kind of yearly maintenance fees. Marriott charges me several hundred, somewhere close to the $1000 mark, but not quite. Disney charges me on a per point basis. So what are these fees? Generally, these are supposed to go to maintaining the resort, regular upgrades and funding for an emergency fund. You will get a yearly statement from the management company indicating how your maintenance fees were spent and how they plan to spend the next year’s maintenance fees. So they keep the grounds looking nice. They pay the staff to check you in. Every few years they’ll upgrade the TV. Put in new carpet. Whatever they have left over goes into a savings fund. In a perfect world, that would be all you’re paying for.
However, Mother Nature does strike, and sometimes she strikes hard. You might remember the Tsunami that hit Thailand a few years ago. Imagine if your timeshare occupied that picturesque stretch of beach and some of the devastation in the region also impacted your timeshares. Guess who’s on the hook for repairing those structures? That’s right. When something like that happens, the management company will assess a special fee and charge the owners whatever is necessary to reopen the resort. This is one of the things that those salespeople tend to gloss over in their flashy demonstrations.
Anyways, congratulations, you are now current on all your yearly fees. You now have the privilege of using the room that you own. One of the regular complaints from timeshare owners is the fees that you have to pay to use the timeshare. Keeping things simple, if I used my week at the Marriott Vacation Club at the resort I owned at during my season, I don’t have to pay a fee. Same goes for Disney’s Vacation Club. I can use my points at any DVC property without paying a fee. It’s not always that simple. Marriott offers a few different ways to use my timeshare week. In addition to reserving the whole week, I can split it into a 3 day vacation and a 4 day vacation at different times of the year. Some resorts also have what are called lock-off rooms where they can turn a 1 bedroom condo into a 1 bedroom condo and a studio, so again, you can take multiple vacations. Any of those uses will incur a fee. Points systems don’t have to deal with this kind of issue because they already let you choose the length of stay and the size of the room.
You can also bank or borrow your timeshare. Banking simply means that you’re giving up the use of your points or timeshare week for the current year. Say you wanted to take a big two week vacation next year or you’ve run out of vacation days at work this year. You can bank this year’s week and use it with next year’s week to create a 2 week long vacation. Or book both weeks at the same time so that you can invite all your family and friends to come along for a nice week-long vacation. Borrowing is a similar idea, but instead of grabbing the current year, you are using a future year’s week to use in the current year.
Each timeshare system will have a method of adding flexibility to using the timeshare. More often than not, they will incur some kind of fee. The ultimate flexibility comes from the ability to exchange your timeshare. This deserves its own article, but to suffice to say, this is where a lot of the fees come from. Most owners go on autopilot when dealing with this feature. Which may be good, might be bad, but it really comes down to how much work you want to put into finding the best use of your timeshare.
Are you looking for a way to save money when you trade your timeshare? How about looking for a vacation home to rent? Take a look at http://www.reservnstay.com. All listings are free.
All timeshares have some kind of yearly maintenance fees. Marriott charges me several hundred, somewhere close to the $1000 mark, but not quite. Disney charges me on a per point basis. So what are these fees? Generally, these are supposed to go to maintaining the resort, regular upgrades and funding for an emergency fund. You will get a yearly statement from the management company indicating how your maintenance fees were spent and how they plan to spend the next year’s maintenance fees. So they keep the grounds looking nice. They pay the staff to check you in. Every few years they’ll upgrade the TV. Put in new carpet. Whatever they have left over goes into a savings fund. In a perfect world, that would be all you’re paying for.
However, Mother Nature does strike, and sometimes she strikes hard. You might remember the Tsunami that hit Thailand a few years ago. Imagine if your timeshare occupied that picturesque stretch of beach and some of the devastation in the region also impacted your timeshares. Guess who’s on the hook for repairing those structures? That’s right. When something like that happens, the management company will assess a special fee and charge the owners whatever is necessary to reopen the resort. This is one of the things that those salespeople tend to gloss over in their flashy demonstrations.
Anyways, congratulations, you are now current on all your yearly fees. You now have the privilege of using the room that you own. One of the regular complaints from timeshare owners is the fees that you have to pay to use the timeshare. Keeping things simple, if I used my week at the Marriott Vacation Club at the resort I owned at during my season, I don’t have to pay a fee. Same goes for Disney’s Vacation Club. I can use my points at any DVC property without paying a fee. It’s not always that simple. Marriott offers a few different ways to use my timeshare week. In addition to reserving the whole week, I can split it into a 3 day vacation and a 4 day vacation at different times of the year. Some resorts also have what are called lock-off rooms where they can turn a 1 bedroom condo into a 1 bedroom condo and a studio, so again, you can take multiple vacations. Any of those uses will incur a fee. Points systems don’t have to deal with this kind of issue because they already let you choose the length of stay and the size of the room.
You can also bank or borrow your timeshare. Banking simply means that you’re giving up the use of your points or timeshare week for the current year. Say you wanted to take a big two week vacation next year or you’ve run out of vacation days at work this year. You can bank this year’s week and use it with next year’s week to create a 2 week long vacation. Or book both weeks at the same time so that you can invite all your family and friends to come along for a nice week-long vacation. Borrowing is a similar idea, but instead of grabbing the current year, you are using a future year’s week to use in the current year.
Each timeshare system will have a method of adding flexibility to using the timeshare. More often than not, they will incur some kind of fee. The ultimate flexibility comes from the ability to exchange your timeshare. This deserves its own article, but to suffice to say, this is where a lot of the fees come from. Most owners go on autopilot when dealing with this feature. Which may be good, might be bad, but it really comes down to how much work you want to put into finding the best use of your timeshare.
Are you looking for a way to save money when you trade your timeshare? How about looking for a vacation home to rent? Take a look at http://www.reservnstay.com. All listings are free.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
What I've Learned about Timeshares: Part 2
I don't doubt that some of the things I know about timeshares are wrong. I believe learning is an ongoing process and I look forward to correcting any of my errors. I'm grateful that you'll indulge me and read through this. These are just the ramblings of what I've read and what I've experienced. I learned a lot from reading the forums at http://www.tug2.net.
There are different flavors of timeshares. Originally, you bought a specific unit for a specific week at a specific resort. That 2 bedroom suite belonged to you always and forever during that same week year after year. The biggest advantage of this setup is for a family with school aged children. You can pretty much guarantee that when Spring Break comes around, you’ve got a place to stay at your favorite resort. This advantage starts to fall apart when you consider that your kids won’t stay kids forever. By the time those wonderful teenage years comes around, you can look forward to hearing, “Do we have to go back there again this year? We always go there!” What do you think will happen when they move out and it’s just you and your spouse? Now you’ve got the 2 of you staying at a room that can sleep up to 8 people. This is not to say that this type of timeshare would no longer be useful. I’ll get to the other stuff you can do with it a little later.
Timeshare developers are always looking for ways to improve their product. One of the ways they improved on the fixed week model was to allow the ownership week to float. Instead of buying a specific week, you would buy a specific unit at a specific resort for a week you can use anytime within your season. The seasons can go by several names, Gold Season, Platinum Season, Red week, Blue week. The seasons usually correspond to the kind of demand the resort receives during that timeframe. A ski resort in Aspen Colorado would have a higher demand during the winter months than during the autumn months. The Marriott Vacation Club uses this kind of timesharing. I own a week during the gold season of my resort. I have the option of reserving my week any time between the first week of January and the last week of May. Here’s the point where you need tenacity. If I wanted a high demand week, like the week that includes Memorial Day, I need to know that I want that week at least a year in advance. You also need to know when your resort allows you to start booking. For Marriott, my booking window opens about a year prior. To get that week, I am in competition with all the other owners who own within the same season. So my best shot at getting this specific week is to call the reservations desk as soon as they open on the day my booking window opens. You probably wouldn’t need this kind of planning for lower demand weeks.
Another way that the developers have changed their timeshare products is by moving to a points based system. Rather than buying a week at a time, you now buy an allotment of points. You get a new fresh set of points every year. The Disney Vacation Club does it this way. With this type of timeshare, I now have the flexibility to book a room at any time of year for as long as I want. It could be a weekend getaway every few months or a 10-day family reunion. As long as I have enough points for the year, I can book as many trips as I want. So the way Disney works is that each resort owned by Disney has several types of rooms. A studio cost fewer points than a 2 bedroom. Each day of the week is worth a different amount of points. Monday at one resort for the studio costs less than a studio room on Saturday at the same resort. On top of that, they also have seasons. So if you tried to get that studio for the last week of December, it will cost you more than what it would cost you to get the same studio for the last week of January.
Of course there may be other types of timeshare systems. I'm just writing about the ones I know about...
Are you looking for a way to save money when you trade your timeshare? How about looking for a vacation home to rent? Take a look at http://www.reservnstay.com. All listings are free.
There are different flavors of timeshares. Originally, you bought a specific unit for a specific week at a specific resort. That 2 bedroom suite belonged to you always and forever during that same week year after year. The biggest advantage of this setup is for a family with school aged children. You can pretty much guarantee that when Spring Break comes around, you’ve got a place to stay at your favorite resort. This advantage starts to fall apart when you consider that your kids won’t stay kids forever. By the time those wonderful teenage years comes around, you can look forward to hearing, “Do we have to go back there again this year? We always go there!” What do you think will happen when they move out and it’s just you and your spouse? Now you’ve got the 2 of you staying at a room that can sleep up to 8 people. This is not to say that this type of timeshare would no longer be useful. I’ll get to the other stuff you can do with it a little later.
Timeshare developers are always looking for ways to improve their product. One of the ways they improved on the fixed week model was to allow the ownership week to float. Instead of buying a specific week, you would buy a specific unit at a specific resort for a week you can use anytime within your season. The seasons can go by several names, Gold Season, Platinum Season, Red week, Blue week. The seasons usually correspond to the kind of demand the resort receives during that timeframe. A ski resort in Aspen Colorado would have a higher demand during the winter months than during the autumn months. The Marriott Vacation Club uses this kind of timesharing. I own a week during the gold season of my resort. I have the option of reserving my week any time between the first week of January and the last week of May. Here’s the point where you need tenacity. If I wanted a high demand week, like the week that includes Memorial Day, I need to know that I want that week at least a year in advance. You also need to know when your resort allows you to start booking. For Marriott, my booking window opens about a year prior. To get that week, I am in competition with all the other owners who own within the same season. So my best shot at getting this specific week is to call the reservations desk as soon as they open on the day my booking window opens. You probably wouldn’t need this kind of planning for lower demand weeks.
Another way that the developers have changed their timeshare products is by moving to a points based system. Rather than buying a week at a time, you now buy an allotment of points. You get a new fresh set of points every year. The Disney Vacation Club does it this way. With this type of timeshare, I now have the flexibility to book a room at any time of year for as long as I want. It could be a weekend getaway every few months or a 10-day family reunion. As long as I have enough points for the year, I can book as many trips as I want. So the way Disney works is that each resort owned by Disney has several types of rooms. A studio cost fewer points than a 2 bedroom. Each day of the week is worth a different amount of points. Monday at one resort for the studio costs less than a studio room on Saturday at the same resort. On top of that, they also have seasons. So if you tried to get that studio for the last week of December, it will cost you more than what it would cost you to get the same studio for the last week of January.
Of course there may be other types of timeshare systems. I'm just writing about the ones I know about...
Are you looking for a way to save money when you trade your timeshare? How about looking for a vacation home to rent? Take a look at http://www.reservnstay.com. All listings are free.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
What I've Learned about Timeshares: Part 1
I don't doubt that some of the things I know about timeshares are wrong. I believe learning is an ongoing process and I look forward to correcting any of my errors. I'm grateful that you'll indulge me and read through this. These are just the ramblings of what I've read and what I've experienced. I learned a lot from reading the forums at http://www.tug2.net.
I do not believe everyone should own a timeshare. A certain amount of discipline and tenacity is needed, along with the ability to plan ahead, for it to make sense. Do not ever think of a timeshare purchase as an investment, instead it is a luxury item. In these tough economic times, it is very apparent that people spent far more than they can really afford. Like any business, timeshare developers spend inordinate sums of money to entice Joe Public to buy their product. If you’ve ever walk through a heavily touristed area, you’ve probably seen their minions trying to entice you take a tour. They’ll even give you free tickets to the show tonight.
Most people’s impressions of timeshares stem from several decades of the pressure cooker style of selling where the sales team sits you in a room and basically hold you hostage until you crack under the pressure and buy a unit just to escape. I’ve been to more than a few of those, mostly in the Las Vegas area, so I know first hand that those still exist. My secret for escape is to not engage them. After sitting through the video, I can usually say in all honesty, “I’m not going to buy anything today. I haven’t seen anything that adds value to my vacationing experience.” It has a tendency to skip over the low level salesman and move me to the manager fairly quickly. I try to be polite about it, of course. No need to piss them off, they still hold those free tickets. If you ever find yourself in one of these presentations, take a moment to look around and count out how many of the people sitting around you have cracked and are actually signing the paperwork and getting that 15% financing to buy. It surprises me every time. These sales people are NOT hurting if you turn them down. Fact is they’d probably be very grateful if you didn’t lead them on, because as soon as they can get rid of you, they can move on to the next bus load of tourists.
There are a few companies out there where the timeshare experience is quite the opposite. I happen to own at two of them. Disney’s Vacation Club, is probably the epitome of the soft sell approach. After I sat through their presentation video, the sales rep came into the room, told our group thank you and said “You can pick up your gifts at the front desk. If you’re interested in seeing a sample villa, I’ll be waiting for you outside those doors.” Now we went into that presentation with the sole intention of buying. Never were we asked if we wanted to purchase.
We also own with the Marriott Vacation Club. They’re more of a traditional timeshare company, selling weeks at a time at their resorts. Although, they float their weeks into seasons, so you don’t have to go on vacation at the exact same week every single year. While they were not as hands off as Disney’s approach, the sales rep we had was very upfront from the beginning. He basically told us to “Watch the presentation, it usually sells itself. If you want to buy we’ll go through the rest of the tour, if not, we’ll part ways, no hard feelings.” We didn’t quite have to chase him down to buy this one, but there was definitely none of the pressure in the sales room.
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that we had the money to afford these purchases. These are a luxury item in the most real sense. Each of the times that we actually purchased a timeshare, we walked into the presentation with the intention to buy (after thorough research on its value). All the other presentations were for entertainment purposes only.
Are you looking for a way to save money when you trade your timeshare? How about looking for a vacation home to rent? Take a look at http://www.reservnstay.com. All listings are free.
I do not believe everyone should own a timeshare. A certain amount of discipline and tenacity is needed, along with the ability to plan ahead, for it to make sense. Do not ever think of a timeshare purchase as an investment, instead it is a luxury item. In these tough economic times, it is very apparent that people spent far more than they can really afford. Like any business, timeshare developers spend inordinate sums of money to entice Joe Public to buy their product. If you’ve ever walk through a heavily touristed area, you’ve probably seen their minions trying to entice you take a tour. They’ll even give you free tickets to the show tonight.
Most people’s impressions of timeshares stem from several decades of the pressure cooker style of selling where the sales team sits you in a room and basically hold you hostage until you crack under the pressure and buy a unit just to escape. I’ve been to more than a few of those, mostly in the Las Vegas area, so I know first hand that those still exist. My secret for escape is to not engage them. After sitting through the video, I can usually say in all honesty, “I’m not going to buy anything today. I haven’t seen anything that adds value to my vacationing experience.” It has a tendency to skip over the low level salesman and move me to the manager fairly quickly. I try to be polite about it, of course. No need to piss them off, they still hold those free tickets. If you ever find yourself in one of these presentations, take a moment to look around and count out how many of the people sitting around you have cracked and are actually signing the paperwork and getting that 15% financing to buy. It surprises me every time. These sales people are NOT hurting if you turn them down. Fact is they’d probably be very grateful if you didn’t lead them on, because as soon as they can get rid of you, they can move on to the next bus load of tourists.
There are a few companies out there where the timeshare experience is quite the opposite. I happen to own at two of them. Disney’s Vacation Club, is probably the epitome of the soft sell approach. After I sat through their presentation video, the sales rep came into the room, told our group thank you and said “You can pick up your gifts at the front desk. If you’re interested in seeing a sample villa, I’ll be waiting for you outside those doors.” Now we went into that presentation with the sole intention of buying. Never were we asked if we wanted to purchase.
We also own with the Marriott Vacation Club. They’re more of a traditional timeshare company, selling weeks at a time at their resorts. Although, they float their weeks into seasons, so you don’t have to go on vacation at the exact same week every single year. While they were not as hands off as Disney’s approach, the sales rep we had was very upfront from the beginning. He basically told us to “Watch the presentation, it usually sells itself. If you want to buy we’ll go through the rest of the tour, if not, we’ll part ways, no hard feelings.” We didn’t quite have to chase him down to buy this one, but there was definitely none of the pressure in the sales room.
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that we had the money to afford these purchases. These are a luxury item in the most real sense. Each of the times that we actually purchased a timeshare, we walked into the presentation with the intention to buy (after thorough research on its value). All the other presentations were for entertainment purposes only.
Are you looking for a way to save money when you trade your timeshare? How about looking for a vacation home to rent? Take a look at http://www.reservnstay.com. All listings are free.
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