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...

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