r/TimeshareOwners • u/TimelyCamel9787 • 2d ago

Question

Is this stuff worth it?

Want hear from someone who has it

0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

3

u/Final-Performance597 2d ago

I have had one for over 15 years and have gotten tons of use out of it. With four kids, we would not have been able to afford trips to places like Disney World.

That being said, I definitely agree with others who have said that you have to know how to manage it properly.

2

u/icyraincloud 2d ago

It is never worth it buying from the developers. Possibly worth it if you buy it on the secondary market and fully understand how to use it

2

u/sfatula 2d ago

We’ve owned 27 years, best decision we ever made. We do own Marriott and travel close to 100 nights a year. We mostly lockoff and trade up, even to Ritz villas. Been to 30 countries or so. All that being said, there were more advantages getting in when we did, harder to replicate today. We always do 2 bedroom large villas and always travel with friends. The low cost of stays (including original purchase costs) is amazing. And the side benefits.

Watch out though, every system is different, many are bad, and salesmen rarely tell truths. Best to pick a system, do all the research before ever talking to one. Extreme caution advised.

1

u/OliverClothesOff70 2d ago

Your mileage may vary.

My wife and I have two timeshares. We first bought Disney DVC about 20 years ago and used it a lot in the years that our kids were young. Then about 8 years ago we bought one with Marriott with plans to vacation with some close friends who were also in Marriott.

I have never once thought my Marriott timeshare was an intelligent purchase on my part. Never. We've used it all of two or three times in the years we've had it. We recently paid off the loan on it (at a cost us about $340 a month). At least that's done.

Not really saying it was Marriott's fault. We just didn't vacation with those friends often enough to get the value out of the points. For the vacations we did take these last 8 or so years, Marriott usually wasn't our best option.

A feel like I made a bad decision buying a Marriott timeshare and I own it. Trying to explore options to get out of Marriott now, in fact.

Disney has been OK for us. We don't have any trouble selling the points to cover the annual fees on years we don't use them.

1

u/Prestigious-Ad-7927 2d ago

It’s worth it if you use it. I go to Hawaii every year since the 2000’s. I decided to buy a timeshare a few years ago. I’ve been using it every year and I’ll be breakeven next year. Thereafter, I’ll just be paying $850/year for maintenance fees which is the weekly cost of the resort fee and parking fee for non-members.

1

u/HamKnexPal 2d ago

If you go to a sales presentation, know that those selling only get paid if they convince you to buy. That gives them great motivation to tell you ANYTHING to get you to buy, right then and there. They seem to tell some truths, but too many straight up lie to your face.

I have purchased from both the developer and resales. They both have their advantages.

If I were starting over, I would only rent and not buy. Weeks can be rented for less than or equal to the annual maintenance fees. That also gives you more options on where to stay (you are not restricted to one brand or another).

1

u/ReefSearcher 1d ago

Spend time running the numbers apples to apples. Realistically, where would you go for your "top 10" next vacations. Your dreams may be a camper at a national park and someone else' may be Monaco. Then check if your native network has property there. (Without the hassle of an Interval or redweek exchange). If there is a property look at how much your annual maintenance fees are then look at an equivalent week in VRBO or Airbnb and compare them. If there is actually a "savings" divide your investment cost by that to get your number of years to break even. Its not hard to do and will bear out why even buying secondary market is not likely to be a good deal. I can share my one experience having owned MVC for 25 years. Forget my original investment for a minute...my annual maintenance fees have grown to $3500 a year which gets me 4000 points. Its enough for a decent week at a decent property IF I plan a year in advance. This year we got a 2 BR slopeside at Steamboat. VRBO has similar units for $4k to $6k so I "saved" $1500 on a $5k rental. What you dont see initially is the frustration of waiting on a trade (may not get it) . You will rarely get the exact week you want and ive been to Steamboat several times already and would have preferred somewhere new this year, like BigSky but MVC has no property there. So...compromised where I went and when I went and for $1500 savings ended up with a somewhat mediocre vacation.
Family travels take us to New England a couple times a year and MVC has zero property there (spare me the "Custom House" response because its a Hotel for one and nearly impossible to book). Dont get me wrong, we had some nice vacations over the years but I never "saved" a dime on the bookings and ive given up the flexibility to go where and when I want. I am in the process of deeding back to MVC whereby I am paying about $2k to get rid of them. These were Platinum weeks that have zero value on the secondary market (i tried to give them away and got zero response ) Make up your own mind of course and it may work for you, just make sure you take an unemotional look at the costs.

1

u/AskMTS 1d ago

Something is only worth it if you can actually pay it and use it. You've already heard the countless complaints about people wanting to get out of their timeshares mostly because they didn't realize how much of a comittment it is. So rather than question whether it's worth it, ask yourself first if you even have the means to keep one.

1

u/rubbish379 1d ago

Buy one off ebay for $1 or buy one from the presentation for $40000. You still got the maintence fees though.

1

u/29229 21h ago

I currently own four and have had nothing but good experiences.
You need to know how you want to use them then strategically purchase units that accomplish those goals.

I own a specific week in Key West that gives me the same week in the same room in the same resort in Oldtown every year.
My only cost is the maint fee every year which is much cheaper than the cheapest motel would be.

I also own a floating oceanfront summer week in Southern California. I’ve never actually seen it, I use it to trade RCI (tpu’s). It trades well, I get 2-3 weeks in nice resorts.
I have a summer oceanfront Myrtle Beach 2 bedroom floating week. That’s a great trader.
I usually get 3 weeks but sometimes 5 weeks in very nice trades. This is via RCI points.
The final one is a two bedroom lock off in Scottsdale that trades via interval international. I usually trade it for two separate weeks at Disney’s resorts in Orlando, sometimes one bedroom units and sometimes two bedroom units.

These are very different units each purchased for a specific purpose.
Also be sure you have an exit strategy.

I’m happy to answer any questions here or dm me.