The Start

Timeshares have a bad reputation.  However, timeshares can be a terrific way for people to explore the world on a reasonable budget in accommodations that generally far surpass that of a general hotel.  

I believe that timeshares have a bad reputation because they are extremely complicated.  Most people will generally own a timeshare and travel to their owned week for a few years.  Once they become tired of that destination, they want to find other timeshares to exchange into using their week.  T

his can be done through an internal exchange ( Hyatt to Hyatt, Marriott to Marriott, etc.) or through an exchange company.  When they attempt to exchange their week, an owner generally is surprised that they cannot exchange to the destination they wanted, the desired time frame or their size of unit.  

I believe this occurs most often because most people don't plan ahead.  There are over 5 million people who own timeshares and most people want to travel over holiday weeks or the summer.  This creates an immense demand for the popular resorts.  Most people want to exchange for a week in a Hawaii or a ski week in Aspen.  

These types of trades are not impossible but there are numerous things that must be considered before a timeshare owner can potentially get these weeks.  What generally ends up happening is that the timeshare owner seeks an exchange a few months beforet he desired date of travel and gets frustrated at the lack of options or the fact that they cannot go to the Caribbean during Christmas week when they attempt to make these plans in September.  

As a result, many timeshare owners will let their week go unused while still paying the maintenance fees.  This in turn creates anger and frustration with their timeshare ownership and perpetuates the bad reputation. 

My goal is to explain how these programs work and how to maximize their value.  I want to fully explain each of the most popular programs and how they work as well as the certain sweet spots that you can use to maximize your travel.  

I want to explain how you can exchange your week in order to get your desired week or how you can use your one week and turn it into multiple vacations.  My maintenance fee for one of my timeshares is about $1100 per year.

 I can turn that one week into at least three weeks of vacation at resorts around the world that would normally cost over $2000 per week.  This blog is meant to provide education on how you can do this yourself as well as provide you with alerts for exchange opportunities, amazing flight deals and other travel tips and ideas so that you can maximize your timeshare ownership.  

I also want to explain the use of frequent flyer miles, hotel points, credit card opportunities and other tricks and tips that can help you travel the world without breaking the bank.  

The other goal of this blog is to answer questions.  I want to be a resource for timeshare owners to ask questions concerning their timeshare.  The timeshare model is generally simple (purchase a week and travel to the destination for that week) but the complexity occurs during exchanging for other weeks, units and programs.    

E-mail me at theguru@thetimeshareguru.com for specific questions that you may have.  Also, please subscribe to my newsletter so that you can be alerted first to great travel opportunities.