The timeshare industry tends to have a bad reputation because the fees and financial responsibilities of the owners are generally not highly discussed during the purchase period. Only afterwards, when the owner begins getting bills do they fully understand the financial commitment of a timeshare. As a timeshare owner, you will be responsible for annual fees to your home resort each and every year, regardless if you use the timeshare or not. This basic understanding seems to be a surprise for a lot of people as all timeshares are not a pay as you use system. Each year, the owner will be billed for maintenance fees regardless of use. The maintenance fees generally include the owners pro-rata portion of all operating expenses of the resort as well as reserves for future upgrades and maintenance. Operating expenses include property taxes, furniture, management fees, landscaping, advertising, and basically any other expenses that the resort incurs. The resort passes through all expenses to the owners. In addition, resorts reserve the ability to access its owners special assessments. These are non-budgeted or unplanned expenses that are incurred by the resort and need to be paid for. These can include damage from storms, flooding, roof replacements, pool refinishes, or any other large scale expenditure that was simply not in budget. These special assessments are usually an unwelcome surprise to timeshare owner since it is an unexpected expense. Most timeshare companies recognize that this is not a popular way to build trust with its owners so they generally only do special assessments in those truly unforeseen circumstances that warrant immediate expenditures. Maintenance fees can vary widely and will depend on the size of the unit, resort location, operating expenses of the resort, age of the resort and other factors. Since maintenance fees are a recurring expense that will almost always increase over time, it is extremely important to understand the financial commitment before going forward with a purchase. Maintenance fees almost always increase year by year so do not assume that the expense will remain the same at the time of purchase. Maintenance fees and special assessments are definitely not the best thing about timeshares but you need to understand them and understand the ongoing financial commitment. Timeshare ownership is not for everyone. However, for those people who do travel every year and know that they will travel, timeshare ownership can make real financial sense and save you money over time on accommodations. Exchanging for prime weeks or for highly sought after timeshare resorts or destinations can easily exceed the maintenance fees as compared to nightly rental rates. Make sure to subscribe to the Guru Deals to keep informed of valuable exchange opportunities and other travel deals to show you how to maximize timeshare ownership and take advantage of the various systems and exchange opportunities. One fantastic perk of owning a timeshare is the ability to reserve additional weeks through the various exchange programs. RCI and Interval International both have programs where you can reserve a week with cash instead of exchanging your timeshare. You have to be a member of RCI or Interval International to be able to reserve a week but it is well worth it. Today, I want to review the Interval Getaways. Interval Getaways allows you to reserve a week in a studio, 1, 2, 3 or more bedroom units at timeshare resorts throughout the world. The inventory that they make available is different that if you exchanged your timeshare. The pricing for these getaways can be absolutely fantastic. They have some weeks that you can reserve for as little as $277 a week. Yes, $277 PER WEEK, ONLY $40 PER NIGHT. I challenge anyone to find a better deal that this for a hotel room. Interval Getaways have recently changed so that you can reserve a week up to 18 months in advance. Inventory constantly changes so it pays to constantly check. In order to be able to reserve a getaway week, you need to be a member but it does not take any points from your account. Here are some current deals that I can locate at the moment. Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino Apr 07 2017 - Apr 14 2017 0 2 2 $399.00 $374.00 $349.00 Marriott Grand Chateux in Las Vegas Mar 25 2017 - Apr 01 2017 1 4 4 $857.00 $832.00 $807.00 The Grand Bliss in Riveria Maya, Mexico Aug 28 2016 - Sep 04 2016 0 2 2 $329.00 $304.00 $279.00 There are tons of other opportunities available at 5 star resorts throughout the world. Many times a week vacation will cost as much as one night in a 5 star hotel. Interval Getaways offer fantastic opportunities to stay in great resorts around the world and could offer better opportunities than exchanging your timeshare. It is definitely worth it to check out Getaway options before exchanging your unit to see if you can save money by using a Getaway instead of exchange options. Exchanging into any timeshare during Christmas vacation is difficult since it is the most popular week to travel. While it is difficult, it can be possible with enough planning and flexibility.
We were just informed that I was able to exchange one of my timeshares into a one bedroom unit at the Westgate Park City - a ski-in / ski-out timeshare during Christmas Week. We have stayed at this timeshare before and it is located on the base of the mountain. The facilities are top notch. Due to the construction, the property is quite a maze and it takes a few days to orient yourself but it is a vice nice property with all the amenities you would expect from a 5 stay hotel. I was able to trade my timeshare using the request first option which I will cover in more detail in later posts. In reviewing the applicable prices on Priceline, the same accommodations would have cost over $7400!!! Summary of Charges Room Cost (details)$926.14 Rooms1Nights7Room Subtotal$6,482.98 Taxes & Fees$758.52 Total Priceline Charges$7,241.50 Resort Fee*$174.65 Total Cost$7,416.15 For the particular timeshare that I traded, I pay maintenance fees of approximately $1200 for a 2 bedroom unit. I only had to trade enough points for a one bedroom unit so I still have enough points to reserve a full week in a studio. Basically, in doing the math, the portion of my maintenance fees was about $800 for this week plus interval international's exchange fee of $239. For basically $1000, I was able to reserve a unit where the going rate is over $7400 resulting in over $6000 in savings for this week. This is just one of many examples of a successful exchange and an example of how timeshare ownership can really save you tons of money. Please reach out at theofficialtiemshareguru@gmail.com to share your exchange successes. 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. |
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