What should I buy?

[PointusMaximus]

Hi everyone, I am strongly considering getting into the timeshare life. I currently travel a lot for work, am married, and do not have any kids. We are based out of Chicago, so would ideally like a non-stop flight to our home resort. We just got the sales pitch from the team at Westin Kierland but turned down the offer as we heard resale was a much better option. I currently have an abundance of SPG, Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Amex, and younameit points as well as status. We love to travel to new places and it sounds like certain timeshare programs can help us do that. I am excited to hear what you all think!

1) Where do you want your home resort to be? Anywhere direct from Chicago. Maybe the Caribbean, Colorado, or Mexico?

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time? Definelty trade at this point in our life.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Ideally international, Europe, Asia, or just about anywhere.

4) How many people do you usually travel with? 2-4 (if friends come along)

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? Yes, we can travel anytime.

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? Probably not. This would be difficult but not impossible.

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time? Yes.

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars? The nicer the better but we wouldn't want to go less than 3.

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? ~$20k

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? The lower the better, but we wouldn't want to spend more than $2k max. Hundreds would be ideal!

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? The wife is.

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do? Yes

 

[vacationhopeful]

I would look at a good travel club or find a very good travel agent.

I got started travelling with the old Eastern Airlines Travel Club and then, the TWA Weekender Travel Club.

My closest big airport is Philadelphia. I used to get weekend special trips options .. like 5 nights to Ireland with others club members ... I think we drunk our way around the pubs of Ireland ... as we bribed our bus driver and the tour host with ... we all would 'walk' (aka RUN) thru each 'tourist trap' gift shop and then we HAD to stop at a REAL pub before we 'walked' thru the NEXT gift shop. The second bus ... other members of the club ... only saw the inside of gift shops (who paid a portion of their sales back to the bus company/travel company).

Another trip was an offered 5 night to Oahu ... with being able to add 2 nights on (for $700) which just offer flights & hotel room. Did a flight over to the Big Island to see the active volcano (rented a car for the day). Wish I had taken way more pictures ....

I did other trips ... but those 2 trips were adventures I quickly recall without researching my photo albums.

 

[Jan M.]

We have made good use of our RCI points, we own at Grandview Las Vegas and the maintenance fees per point ratio are excellent. I see a lot of options for travel outside of the U.S. and hope to explore some of them after my husband retires later this year.

BTW we haven't stayed at Grandview Las Vegas yet as we use the points to go to other resorts. We have a lot of fantastic options. We are staying this week at Disney's Animal Kingdom in a savanna view one bedroom condo that I was able to book with my RCI points. We have stayed on Sanibel and Captiva Islands here in Florida a number of times also.

If you live in Chicago you can get dirt cheap direct flights on Spirit Airlines. We use them a lot as our son lives in Cleveland. I paid the $69 a year to join their Spirit Club and get flights as low as $23.10 each way with a checked bag being $21 each way. My husband and I are easily able to share a checked bag, which is cheaper than a carry on, and what we are able to fit in our personal item that goes under the seat. The timeshares almost always have a washer and dryer in the unit so if we run low on clean clothes I throw in a load of laundry. Last year we flew non stop from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas sharing a checked bag and the total bill for the two of us was $134.40. I can buy a bottle of water or fill up an empty water bottle after I get through security to save several hundred dollars! We never pay to select our seats and are 5'6" and 5'9" so need extra leg room.

 

[PointusMaximus]

I would look at a good travel club or find a very good travel agent.

I got started travelling with the old Eastern Airlines Travel Club and then, the TWA Weekender Travel Club.

I like the idea of a travel club vacationhopeful, but I am having a hard time finding them. Mostly I am just finding groups of people who like to travel together (which isnt a terrible idea). Do you know of any like you are referring to that are still in existence?

 

[PointusMaximus]

We have made good use of our RCI points, we own at Grandview Las Vegas and the maintenance fees per point ratio are excellent. I see a lot of options for travel outside of the U.S. and hope to explore some of them after my husband retires later this year.

BTW we haven't stayed at Grandview Las Vegas yet as we use the points to go to other resorts. We have a lot of fantastic options. We are staying this week at Disney's Animal Kingdom in a savanna view one bedroom condo that I was able to book with my RCI points. We have stayed on Sanibel and Captiva Islands here in Florida a number of times also.

If you live in Chicago you can get dirt cheap direct flights on Spirit Airlines. We use them a lot as our son lives in Cleveland. I paid the $69 a year to join their Spirit Club and get flights as low as $23.10 each way with a checked bag being $21 each way. My husband and I are easily able to share a checked bag, which is cheaper than a carry on, and what we are able to fit in our personal item that goes under the seat. The timeshares almost always have a washer and dryer in the unit so if we run low on clean clothes I throw in a load of laundry. Last year we flew non stop from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas sharing a checked bag and the total bill for the two of us was $134.40. I can buy a bottle of water or fill up an empty water bottle after I get through security to save several hundred dollars! We never pay to select our seats and are 5'6" and 5'9" so need extra leg room.

Jan, you are speaking our language! We currently have the Southwest Companion pass, which makes traveling domestically very inexpensive, but I fear that if/when we stop traveling for work we will be looking at a lot of Spirit or Frontier.

I have been doing most of my research on Starwood/Hilton/Marriott. In what program do you earn points through RCI currently (and I assume own the TS in Vegas), and what made you choose that route? Thanks for the advice, and if you have any other tips, I would be more than appreciative!

-Tim

 

[Jan M.]

Jan, you are speaking our language! We currently have the Southwest Companion pass, which makes traveling domestically very inexpensive, but I fear that if/when we stop traveling for work we will be looking at a lot of Spirit or Frontier.

I have been doing most of my research on Starwood/Hilton/Marriott. In what program do you earn points through RCI currently (and I assume own the TS in Vegas), and what made you choose that route? Thanks for the advice, and if you have any other tips, I would be more than appreciative!

-Tim

In 2010 my husband took a job in Florida. Prior to that we lived in Pennsylvania. We could drive to the DC area in about 6 hours and Myrtle Beach in 11 hours to use our Wyndham timeshare but everything else required us to fly and rent a car. Once I figured out there were so many resorts that we could stay at in Florida that we could drive to I bought two 98,000 point weeks at Grandview Las Vegas, This year the maintenance fees on those weeks is $765 for each of them. I pay $230 for each week that I book with my points and am often able to use those 7500 point weeks that show up in the last 2-3 weeks before check in. We stayed at resorts on Sanibel, Captiva and Marco Islands and also Stuart, Florida that are HGVC, Hilton Grand Vacation Club, resorts.

I don't know anything about the Marriott and Hilton timeshare systems. RCI is a trading/exchange company for resorts and resort systems. Vacation Village Family (that is what Grandview Las Vegas is part of) and many others like HGVC, Wyndham Vacation Resorts, Sheraton exchange/trade in RCI so you have a lot of options. I do know that when talking to owners at the HGVC resorts we've stayed at their maintenance fees are $1100-$1400 a week.

With owning a points week you still own a deeded week but you have the options of using it for points instead of having to trade a fixed week and get TPU's, trading power units. There is a lot more inventory available to points owners that fixed week owners don't even see. If you were to stay at "your resort for your week" you would have to arrange that something like 10-12 months in advance and you wouldn't have to pay the $230 exchange/booking fee but you also would get only one week instead of being able to get several weeks with those points.

With RCI you have access to sale weeks. They run $199-$349 and you don't use any points to book them nor is there an exchange fee either. We were recently in Arkansas for two weeks and stayed at the Wyndham resort Fairfield Bay in a two bedroom unit with those sale weeks. My husband was working in Arkansas and his company was willing to reimburse him for the cost as he had a receipt he could submit. We are staying next week at Vacation Village at Parkway in Orlando with another of those sale weeks but only a one bedroom this time. I stayed there about 6 weeks ago with our granddaughter and she loved it because they had so many activities for her so we are going back. It's hard to beat $200 for a week.

There are frequently 49,000 point weeks that people are giving away, sometimes even paying the closing costs. The mf's are $385 for the year on those weeks. This would be a great way to try it out with a minimal investment. You would have to also pay RCI an annual fee to belong as they give the best deals if you pay for 3 years at a time. The current deal is $327 for 3 years vs $124 if you pay for just a single year. As it would be the first time you would have a week with RCI there is a one time charge of $224 and any future weeks would only be $99 to enroll. I used to say this last was something the buyer always had to pay but lately I've seen a few listings where the sellers even paid that.

Vacation Village Family (that is what Grandview Las Vegas is part of) and many others like HGVC, Wyndham Vacation Resorts, Sheraton exchange/trade in RCI so you have a lot of options.

 

[bizaro86]

The problem with buying a top tier hotel hair timeshare in the US with hopes of using it internationally (other than carribean/mexico) is that just about everything would be a downtrade.

There are a few exceptions (Marriott in Thailand/Spain, HGVC in Scotland and Italy) but mostly that's true.