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Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
I own 5800 points at MarBrisa and I'd like to get more points because I really want to go to Park City because I'm a avid snowboarder. My timeshare is paid off and i pay about 1300 a year for MFs. What would you be better do you think? Sell my timeshare and use the proceeds to buy the 8400 points needed to go to the Sunrise Lodge and only pay one MF? Or buy like 3400 points at like the Flamingo and pay the extra 700 to 900 in MFs?
I'd also like to hear any other possible options to consider, like homeweek reservations and so on...
I would buy 4800 points with the same maintenance fee for just a little more money than 3400 points. That would be the easiest thing to do with the lowest cost to you right now. In the long term, you will pay more in maintenance fees each year, but it will cost a lot more to sell your Timeshare and purchase 8400 points and pay all the associated cost for both of those. Also, as you get older, you might not need as many points and can sell one of the Timeshare’s.
I own 5800 points at MarBrisa and I'd like to get more points because I really want to go to Park City because I'm a avid snowboarder. My timeshare is paid off and i pay about 1300 a year for MFs. What would you be better do you think? Sell my timeshare and use the proceeds to buy the 8400 points needed to go to the Sunrise Lodge and only pay one MF? Or buy like 3400 points at like the Flamingo and pay the extra 700 to 900 in MFs?
I'd also like to hear any other possible options to consider, like homeweek reservations and so on...
Being you want to got to a specific resort for snowboarding I believe having a home advantage might be needed. Looking now at January to March there is nothing available. Hopefully another tugger can chime in and say whether inventory is available at 9 months out. My question is are you mostly going use the home advantage at Sunrise. If the answer is yes sell and get what you will use. Then you know you always have it.
If you will be looking to book a specific ski week at Sunrise, then I would definitely recommend purchasing a deeded ski week there. If you are very flexible, then you should be able to book something there during club booking right when the 276 window opens. I personally would lean towards owning a ski week there.
I too would think home resort priority will be key. Even if the points cost less elsewhere if that is really where you want at a high demand time home resort is what you need.
I checked a few sites but didn’t see many resales for Park City. There was a one br 6200 points platinum that had a good mf/points ratio. Park City is fairly new still, not many resales.
I agree with the others, you will need home resort advantage to get prime ski season. You didnt say what size, 8400 sounds like 2 br. If you only have 5800 at Marbrisa that sounds like gold season. Upgrading to platinum is a better value for points/maint fee.
I sold a couple of gold season eoy contracts and purchased a bigger platinum resale package a few years ago rather than add on points. My reasoning was that I still had 20 years of use planned and the lower point cost / maint fee came out cheaper in the long run. Run a spreadsheet if you want to compare expected use years.
Sunrise is getting harder and harder to acquire during Jan - Apr. I think all these passes (IKON / EPIC) and combining mountains is adding to the demand. Keep an eye out for cancellations, but a home week would definitely be more advantageous.
I sold a couple of gold season eoy contracts and purchased a bigger platinum resale package a few years ago rather than add on points. My reasoning was that I still had 20 years of use planned and the lower point cost / maint fee came out cheaper in the long run. Run a spreadsheet if you want to compare expected use years.
I'm facing (well, have been facing for a year or so now) this same dilemma:
We have two 5000 Gold packages at Flamingo for 10,000 total and 2 MF
Thinking of:
1. Selling 1 and buying a 7000 point Platinum (loss on the sale, higher purchase cost, same MF). Then we'd have 12000 points
2. Selling both Golds and buying 1 Platinum (more loss on the sale, but only 1 MF). This would yield 7000 points
3. Maybe selling both Gold buying two Platinum (loss, higher pricex2, 2 MF). 14000 points
At present 10000 points are comfortable. Sometimes hard to use all, but we can find ways. However, come a few (never really sure how many ) years from now when retirement happens, even 14000 will be useful.
Haven't yet done anything, because just not sure which way to go.
I admit I don't know anything about the way HGVC works. From what I am reading here is sounds compicated...
What I do know is that for about 12 years I owned Fixed Weeks/Fixed Units at the places I wanted to visit every year. All I had to do was plan my transportation, pack my bags, show up, and pick up the key to my Unit. No pain, no strain. Timesharing the way is should be...
I admit I don't know anything about the way HGVC works. From what I am reading here is sounds compicated...
What I do know is that for about 12 years I owned Fixed Weeks/Fixed Units at the places I wanted to visit every year. All I had to do was plan my transportation, pack my bags, show up, and pick up the key to my Unit. No pain, no strain. Timesharing the way is should be...
Timesharing the way it should be...if you want to go to the same place(s) at the same time(s) every year. Many (Most?) of us don't, so that approach sounds like everything that is wrong with timeshares (read: Locked In!).
The proper way of buying can be a little complicated. The flexibility and use of the system is very straightforward. We own points at once place and go anywhere in the system we want to, whenever we want to (obviosuly space has to be available, and that is an issue in some places). Definitely no pain.
What I do know is that for about 12 years I owned Fixed Weeks/Fixed Units at the places I wanted to visit every year. All I had to do was plan my transportation, pack my bags, show up, and pick up the key to my Unit. No pain, no strain. Timesharing the way is should be...
Yes, a fixed week TS is very simple. As you said, just show up on your week. What is wonderful about HGVC is the flexibility of the system. You can purchase a fix week or a floating week. You can use either to book at another resort. Of course, there are rules, which does require some learning to understand the system. But it does make the system very flexible and gives each of us variations on how best to make it work for how we want to travel.
Timesharing the way it should be...if you want to go to the same place(s) at the same time(s) every year. Many (Most?) of us don't, so that approach sounds like everything that is wrong with timeshares (read: Locked In!).
AND if you only want to vacation in exactly 7-day increments AND always have the same unit size. Sorry, but I absolutely love the flexibility of HGVC or any other good point system. The ability to vacation from a Wednesday to a Sunday, or a 11-day vacation in any size from a studio to a 3BR was a must when we got into timesharing. Different vacations have different needs.
Now that said, I own three HGVC weeks: one "normal" points week and two fixed-week, fixed-unit weeks (51 & 52). But with HGVC, it gives me the best of both worlds -- I can either use those fixed weeks, or I can turn them in for points to use for anything. Call me a happy owner!
I'd run the numbers in a spreadsheet, taking into account what you paid for the original units and what you could reasonably get (if anything) if you sold them off. Accounting for MF as well.
In my case, it worked out better to add on (since I saw a really good deal on a 7000 point unit) as I'd get nothing (or close to it) for the 3400 and 5000 point units I have and it would only lower my MF/point ratio by like $0.02, while costing me about another $10,000-12,000 for the # of points I was looking at.
But that doesn't mean that a "sweet" deal can't be found with patience. I think someone here has like a 9600 point or something at Las Vegas with like a really good MF/point ratio. But I've only ever seen a similar unit on resale once in the past few years. But it can be done.
When I first purchased we used our home week every year, just like George suggests it was easy peasy and HGVC can work like that if you want. Then I joined TUG and learned how to really take advantage of HGVC. Now that we are retired and don’t need the same 2 br every year I can go other places and stay 3 weeks in 1br units for the price of one maint fee.
Timesharing the way it should be...if you want to go to the same place(s) at the same time(s) every year. Many (Most?) of us don't, so that approach sounds like everything that is wrong with timeshares (read: Locked In!).
AND if you only want to vacation in exactly 7-day increments AND always have the same unit size. Sorry, but I absolutely love the flexibility of HGVC or any other good point system. The ability to vacation from a Wednesday to a Sunday, or a 11-day vacation in any size from a studio to a 3BR was a must when we got into timesharing. Different vacations have different needs.
I agree with these sentiments as well - fixed weeks are generally too inflexible. We prefer the ability to book in different places and for different stay lengths. While there may be situations where a specific fixed week could conceivably make sense for us sometime, so far, we haven't seen one that really made sense.
But sentiments like George expresses are not all that uncommon for folks who cut their teeth on timeshares before the advent of floating time and points systems. They love the traditional fixed week approach and often see the same families there on "their" week year after year. But time marches on, and the old model became limiting for younger travelers who valued vacation variety over predictability. So the developers created floating time first, and later point-based systems so they could attract these new, savvy buyers.
And the model continues to evolve. Most timeshares have been traditionally built in beach/resort areas, but now with Millennials and some empty nesters wanting the travel to urban cities instead of just the beach, we see urban timeshares being developed by both HGVC and Marriott Vacation Club. Different strokes for different folks and more options.
I admit I don't know anything about the way HGVC works. From what I am reading here is sounds compicated...
What I do know is that for about 12 years I owned Fixed Weeks/Fixed Units at the places I wanted to visit every year. All I had to do was plan my transportation, pack my bags, show up, and pick up the key to my Unit. No pain, no strain. Timesharing the way is should be...
I have a fixed summer week at Grand Pacific Palisades in Carlsbad, CA. While I have the fixed week I do have the option to reserve a specific unit 90 days out. I also have the flexibility to swap my week out for 8400 HGVC Points to use anywhere is the HGVC world. I feel lucky to have these multiple options.
I'd run the numbers in a spreadsheet, taking into account what you paid for the original units and what you could reasonably get (if anything) if you sold them off. Accounting for MF as well.
In my case, it worked out better to add on (since I saw a really good deal on a 7000 point unit) as I'd get nothing (or close to it) for the 3400 and 5000 point units I have and it would only lower my MF/point ratio by like $0.02, while costing me about another $10,000-12,000 for the # of points I was looking at.
But that doesn't mean that a "sweet" deal can't be found with patience. I think someone here has like a 9600 point or something at Las Vegas with like a really good MF/point ratio. But I've only ever seen a similar unit on resale once in the past few years. But it can be done.
Thanks @hurnik. My main concern is the yearly MF payments overall. Getting 7000 points for the same MF payment as 5000 is about a 30% savings, although that looks to work out to only about a nickel a point. So, yeah, the spreadsheet approach (I live in spreadsheets and do all analysis there before actually doing anything...surprised I didn't think of doing it here before even posting ) is a very good idea.
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) years from now when retirement happens, even 14000 will be useful.
