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My survey

lllGurulll

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1) Where do you want your home resort to be?
To be honest, I'm not really sure I want a home resort. But, if I did, it would need to be something within 12 driving hours of our home in Kansas.

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?
Trade more than half the time.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
Orlando, Las Vegas, Hawaii, anywhere else with a beach.

4) How many people do you usually travel with?
It is either myself and my wife or the entire family of 6.

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

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
I prefer it that way.

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?
would prefer at least 4 stars

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
Depends really but minimum $2000

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?
$600

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
Yes

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
 

Passepartout

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You won't find nice units that will accept 6 with an annual fee of $600. You also need to budget $100 for exchange membership + $250 to exchange if you are not staying at a 'home' resort. Better budget $200/mo for TS vacations. Actual travel expenses will be on top of that.

Jim
 

lllGurulll

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You won't find nice units that will accept 6 with an annual fee of $600. You also need to budget $100 for exchange membership + $250 to exchange if you are not staying at a 'home' resort. Better budget $200/mo for TS vacations. Actual travel expenses will be on top of that.

Jim

Depending on the resort I'm willing to go higher on the maintenance fees. Is the $100 and $250 you referenced annual or monthly?
 

Passepartout

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Depending on the resort I'm willing to go higher on the maintenance fees. Is the $100 and $250 you referenced annual or monthly?

Exchange membership is annual, and exchange fee is each. As in per exchange.
 

tschwa2

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A few in S and VA, a single resort in NC, MD, PA, and UT, plus Jamaica and the Bahamas
$600-$700 in a 2 br is going to put you in 3 star range. Beachfront will be more even in 3 star. 4-5 star 2 br timeshares are going to be in the $1000-$2000 per week range. It is possible to buy a nice 3 star lock off resort during high season and exchange it for one 3 or 4 star exchange but you would still be looking at that $700 MF+$90 exchange membership+ $200 exchange. With luck you may be able to turn it into 1 prime exchange and 1 shoulder exchange or prime studio exchange with just an extra $200 exchange fee.

If you are really set on the 4 star and don't want to go down to 3 star you will probably need to buy a hotel named timeshare and expect to pay at least a $1000-$1400 total annual on MF plus exchange related expenses.

At those prices you may want to look into renting for the next few years to get a feel for different timeshare systems.
 

sue1947

TUG Review Crew
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Worldmark and VI
Your preference to try different locations makes you a good candidate for a points system, except:
Your need to vacation with the school holiday makes you a better candidate for a fixed week.
With a points system, you can choose from a variety of resorts and don't have to stick with a week. However, you are competing with all the other owners who also need to stick to the school calendar and beach locations will be booked within minutes of the booking window opening up. There are more people than space available. For beach locations during school vacations, it is better to have a specific week at a specific resort guaranteed; i.e. a fixed week. The same problem is true with a floating week, i.e. more people will want the school holiday weeks than there is space.
With 6 people, you will need at least a 2 BR and that means somebody is sleeping on a sofa sleeper. You really need a 3 BR and those are less common.
There are lots of timeshares in Orlando and Las Vegas and Hawaii. Look at what is available in the less common areas. For a beach location 12 hours from Kansas, that probably means Texas and the Gulf Coast? I'd look at VRI.

Sue
 

theo

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My own two cents' worth to the OP is to strongly recommend renting instead instead of buying anything at this time.

By renting, OP can go where / when desired (as available), with guaranteed occupancy --- and without purchase costs or eternal annual maintenance fee obligations.

If renting timeshares verifies that timeshare is indeed your cup of tea, that's the time to then look at purchasing. Just my personal opinion,. YMMV. :shrug:
 

lllGurulll

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My own two cents' worth to the OP is to strongly recommend renting instead instead of buying anything at this time.

By renting, OP can go where / when desired (as available), with guaranteed occupancy --- and without purchase costs or eternal annual maintenance fee obligations.

If renting timeshares verifies that timeshare is indeed your cup of tea, that's the time to then look at purchasing. Just my personal opinion,. YMMV. :shrug:

We were members of a vacation club for awhile but we just were not using it enough to warrant the annual fee. Fortunately they allow for pausing the service until you need it so we put it on hiatus for the last couple years. We may just renew it. The main issue with had with it was the inability to get partial week condos. You had to get a full week at a time. Sometimes we just don't want to travel that way.

We had purchased the Holiday Inn Vacation Club program but rescinded. I liked the idea of not having to have a home resort and being able to vacation the way we wanted. However, thanks to this site, I found out that the program would not work the way we would have wanted it to.

I do agree with most of you that timeshare may not be the best for us just because we don't want to be tied to going to the same resort every year. Maybe every third year but not every year.
 

theo

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<snip> The main issue we had with it was the inability to get partial week condos. You had to get a full week at a time. Sometimes we just don't want to travel that way.

I do agree with most of you that timeshare may not be the best for us just because we don't want to be tied to going to the same resort every year. Maybe every third year but not every year.

Full weeks are generally the name of the game on Planet Timeshare, but a points-based system certainly works better if you frequently want to use only a few days at a time. However, the issue / hurdle of space availability where and when you want to travel still remains.

Also, just using Wyndham as one specific example, the nightly expenditure of points will significantly exceed 1/7 of a full week's annual points allocation, so the annual points allocation can get eaten up pretty quickly in the "nightly stays" approach.

The wrinkle with a fixed week is that you indicate likely wanting to use it only every third year. You would then have to either become a "landlord" or "deposit and exchange" two out of every three years. We stopped playing the "exchange game" at all, regarding it as an unreliable, inconvenient (...and not cheap) roll of the dice and, as already pointed out by others, for you there is plenty of competition for those school vacation weeks --- demand simply exceeds supply in desirable places.

There are few easy or fully satisfactory solutions to the complexities of Planet Timeshare. Proceed slowly and with caution, fully informed. Good luck!
 
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Passepartout

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You might consider the Branson TS currently available in Bargain Deals. It's a 2 bedroom lockoff in Red (any) season. You have to pony up $1500, but that is for paying MF in advance, which would pay you up for almost 3 years at the $541/yr it currently costs. I know it isn't a beach, but Missouri is a reasonable drive from Kansas. The lockoff feature would give you and the wife 2 weeks a year, or 1 week with the whole tribe.

It would seem a good offering for you based on your survey answers. Not perfect, but a reasonable TS to start with.

Jim
 
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