# A Note Of Thanks



## WalnutBaron (Apr 25, 2017)

To Brian, the creator; our amazing moderators who share their knowledge, encourage us, and keep us all in line--and all for enviably high compensation; and to my fellow TUGgers who have shared from your vast wealth of knowledge over these past many years--

I just wanted to offer my sincere thanks to all of you. My DW and I entered the timeshare world in the spring of 2008--just months before the Financial Crisis broke, and with an expensive retail purchase of a beautiful resort in Hawaii. We didn't know that Westin Princeville was not a mandatory resort within the then-Starwood system, thereby severely compromising the eventual resale value of our first purchase. Heck, we didn't even know there was such a thing as mandatory vs. voluntary and the implications of those vastly different types of ownership.

I found TUG after the rescission period had ended, and didn't realize what a wealth of information and good advice I had stumbled into.

Now--some nine years later--I can't thank you all enough for your generosity, kindness, and--especially--your great advice over the years. Through you, I was able to learn a ton about the two systems we now own in--Hyatt and Hilton. And unlike the first purchase, everything since has been done through the resale market and not before doing a lot of reading on these boards and gathering information so that we felt like we had a thorough knowledge of what we were buying and the relative advantages and disadvantages of the resorts we own in, the systems we were buying into, and the risks.

We all get swept up in seeing how beautiful many of these resorts are that we visit during a vulnerable time when we're on vacation, "living the dream". And the sales weasels (one of my favorite TUG terms) know that--and we're like lambs to the slaughter. We don't really know what we're buying, but we do know we want a little piece of paradise. And then the grim reality of what we just did begins to dawn on us once we get home.

That grim reality is then replaced by the realization that--for one-fifth of the price we paid to the developer--we can go out and buy multiple weeks or properties at the same resort or other beautiful resorts as long as we take the time to learn what we're buying by simply marinating ourselves in the TUG community for a few weeks to read, absorb, ask questions, and become students of what is admittedly a pretty complex industry with tons of rules, nuances, traps, and opportunities. And once we are confident we know what we're buying, that's the time to strike and enter the resale market.

All the negative things one reads in the popular press about what a slimy business timesharing is is both well-deserved and incredibly misleading. Scam artists abound in the timeshare industry, and those who are uninformed or unprepared to make the best use of their purchase.

The original purchase we made in 2008 was sold in 2014--at a humbling loss. But I'm happy to report that our vacations have been greatly enriched by being able to stay in some beautiful resorts in beautiful surroundings, in units three times the size of a typical hotel room with many more amenities, often at prices that are well below the cost of a hotel room. 


Congratulations, Brian, on the 80,000th TUG BBS participant. May TUG live long and prosper!


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## TUGBrian (Apr 25, 2017)

thank you for the wonderful read...made my morning =)


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## ronandjoan (Apr 27, 2017)

Amen to all of that!!!!!


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## Panina (Apr 27, 2017)

Well said, always was and always will be thankful for our tug community.


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## ravenna (Apr 28, 2017)

I'm a new joiner who heartily agrees.  Great site.  Thank you, Brian, and everyone who runs this site and/or contributes their experience so those of us with questions (hi!) aren't left to stumble in the dark.


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## planzfortomorrow (Apr 29, 2017)

Honestly, without TUG I wouldn't have bought my first timeshare.  I read an article in Forbes about how people found them to be a huge burden because of the MF & how some were being sold for as little as a $1... I'd always been interested but never could get over the huge initial buy in amount.  Further research lead me to this website & I've spent hours reading all the ends and outs for the systems I own in.  I've certainly gotten my moneys worth out of my membership!  So I too say "THANKS!" to Brian & all who contribute their knowledge.


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