How do you keep your timeshare life organized?

[The Colorado Kid]

What works best for keeping all things timesharing organized?

Is there an app for that?
Google calendar?
Outlook?
Excel spreadsheets?
OneNote?

So much information to keep track of like:
Weeks owned
Weeks to keep an eye out to buy
Points owned
Points to keep an eye out to buy
Maintenance Fee amounts and due dates
Weeks listed for rent
Weeks listed for sale
Weeks to trade
Booking windows points/floating weeks opening dates/times/best practices
Deadlines for banking points
Deadlines for transferring timeshare points to hotel points
What credit cards to use for best value while traveling/paying MF's
What else?

 

[chapjim]

What works best for keeping all things timesharing organized?

Is there an app for that?
Google calendar?
Outlook?
Excel spreadsheets?
OneNote

So much information to keep track of like:
Weeks owned -- EXCEL, VERY STATIC IN MY CASE. I'VE DISPOSED OF FOUR WEEKS SINCE I STARTED ACQUIRING
Weeks to keep an eye out to buy -- CALENDAR, TWO MONTHS OUT
Points owned -- POINTS OWNED AREN'T THE ISSUE; POINTS AVAILABLE IS WHAT COUNTS AND WYNDHAM DISPLAYS NUMBER OF AVAILABLE POINTS
Points to keep an eye out to buy -- USUALLY ONLY AN ISSUE WHEN I'M BOOKING RESERVATIONS FOR JANUARY-APRIL (14 MONTHS BEFORE CHECK-IN FOR PRES RES AT BONNET CREEK, THIRTEEN MONTHS BEFORE C/I FOR ROYAL VISTA AND OCEAN WALK
Maintenance Fee amounts and due dates -- WYNDHAM MAINTENANCE FEES ARE BILLED MONTHLY TO A VISA CARD; NON-WYNDHAM RESORTS SEND BILLS. VERY OFTEN I PAY AHEAD TO BE ABLE TO MAKE A RESERVATION BEFORE THE RESORT BILLS ME
Weeks listed for rent - EXCEL SHEET. I'LL MAKE A BLANK ONE AND POST IT.
Weeks listed for sale -- NA
Weeks to trade -- NA
Booking windows points/floating weeks opening dates/times/best practices -- ON MY MAIN EXCEL SHEET, I LIST HOLIDAYS AND EVENT WEEKS FOR THE NEXT YEAR
Deadlines for banking points -- 11:59 PM, DECEMBER 31
What credit cards to use for best value while traveling/paying MF's -- NAVY FCU VISA FOR EVERYTHING. I HAVE A NFCU MASTERCARD THAT IS USED FOR RECURRING PAYMENTS. THAT WAY I DON'T HAVE TO CHANGE EVERYTHING IF MY VISA IS COMPROMISED. MY WIFE HAS A SACKFUL OF STORE CARDS. MINE ARE IN A DRESSER DRAWER.
What else? 1) NAMES, STREET ADDRESSES, EMAIL ADDRESSES, AND MOBILE PHONE NUMBERS OF RENTERS. KEPT AS A COMMENT ON THE EXCEL SHEET. I HAVE LOTS OF REPEAT RENTERS AND I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO ASK THEM FOR THE INFO REQUIRED FOR FOWYNDHAM'S GUEST CONFIRMATIONS.

2) FROM GOOGLE MAPS, TRIP PLANNING INFO: DISTANCE/TIME FROM HOME TO DESTINATIONS, DISTANCE FROM HOME TO INTERMEDIATE STOPS, DISTANCE FROM INTERMEDIATE STOPS TO DESTINATION. (MY INTERMEDIATE STOPS ARE LAKE MARION, SEVIERVILLE OR NASHVILLE, TN, AND SANFORD, FL (SOUTHERN TERMINAL OF AMTRAK'S AUTOTRAIN)

3) METICULOUS FINANCIAL RECORDS. I USE QUICKEN HOME & BUSINESS, WHICH HAS BEEN TOTALLY ADEQUATE FOR MY PURPOSES. I DOWNLOAD MONTHLY NAVY FED CHECKING ACCOUNT STATEMENTS AND THE TWO CREDIT CARD STATEMENTS AND MATCH TRANSACTIONS AGAINST QUICKEN'S ENTRIES. QUICKEN PRODUCES NICE SUMMARIES SORTED BY CATEGORY FOR TAX PURPOSES.

WHENEVER I HAVE EXCEL FILES WITH A BUNCH OF TABLES, I START THINKING ABOUT CONVERTING TO MS ACCESS. I KNOW MS ACCESS COULD DO ALL OF THIS BUT SETTING UP ALL THE TABLES AND ESTABLISHING THE RELATIONSHIPS IS TEDIOUS. ACCESS IS VERY COMPLEX AND YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW PROGRAM AND YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE DATA AND HOW THE DATA BEHAVES. IT'S HARD TO DO BOTH.

IN THE LATE '90s, I MAINTAINED FINANCIAL RECORDS FOR A $3 BILLION NAVY AIRCRAFT PROGRAM (F/A-18 PROGRAM WITH THE SPANISH AIR FORCE) IN ACCESS BUT HONESTLY, DESPITE THE DOLLAR VALUE, IT WAS LESS COMPLEX THAN MAINTAINING TIMESHARE RECORDS. FEWER TABLES, FEWER THINGS TO DEAL WITH, NO TAX RECORDS.

EDIT: TUG won't let me attach an Excel file. Comments don't show if I Save As or print to a .pdf. PM me with an email address and I'll send it.

 

[bogey21]

Back when I owned 6 Weeks I had all the information on each on a 3x5 card. Any other information I wanted to review (car rentals, air travel, etx.) I also put on a 3x5 card. I always made sure the most current thing (or the thing I was most interested in tracking) was on the card at the top of the pile. When I sold or lost interest in something I threw its card away. I'dshuffle through the cards every week or so. This system worked for me for years...

George

 

[The Colorado Kid]

Wow thanks very detailed @chapjim

 

[The Colorado Kid]

Back when I owned 6 Weeks I had all the information on each on a 3x5 card. Any other information I wanted to review (car rentals, air travel, etx.) I also put on a 3x5 card. I always made sure the most current thing (or the thing I was most interested in tracking) was on the card at the top of the pile. When I sold or lost interest in something I threw its card away. I'dshuffle through the cards every week or so. This system worked for me for years...

George

Excellent, keep it simple and mobile! Thanks @bogey21 !

 

[chapjim]

Wow thanks very detailed @chapjim

PM me with an email address and I'll send an annotated Excel sheet. I can't attach Excel files here and if I print or Save As as a .pdf, I lose the annotations.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Excel is your friend here.

I have a excel workbook for each club that I am in: Wyndham, Hilton, Holiday Inn, and I have one for RCI TPU tracking, and my Tradewinds points that are RTU. Once the spreadsheet are set up. I most often use these to individual track those clubs bookings, overall points management and MFs costs, for each year of ownership. I need to be able to calculate the MF per point, so that I know exactly what my costs are. I also have weeks in SFX, where I occasionally make a deposit if I have points left.

Since I don't have to pay a reservation fee for any Wyndham, Tradewinds and some Hiltons, I will speculate on bookings in these systems. I have a fee for HICV and RCI bookings so these are not systems that I will book and hold looking for an opportunity to rent. These are specific needs and only booked then. So most bookings that I decide to keep and manage then get added to a different workbook.

Since I now have to track reservations made in multiple systems, I have created an exchange management workbook, with pages for each calendar year, one for each year. I list the system, dates, cancellation deadline, points use, if it is for my use or others usage, if rented, have they paid me, etc. I do this so that I have all bookings that I kept that I have to manage all on one page. I have a summary of the current MF per point for each system summarized at the top of each calendar year. I use this workbook to keep a worksheet with a list of renters I have had in the past, so I have address and contract information handy if they rent again. I do have a few regular renters, so this is easier to manage in one place as well. Once a item goes on the management workbook, a reminder for the cancelation date goes into my calendar about 3 days prior to the final cancellation date. I also have added a strategy page that I plan out and look at what I have in all systems, what is expiring and what I want to do about it. I like to have an overall plan in place for each system. Covid has obviously made moving points to future year more of the planning effort than it has been in the past.

For items I do have requests for or for bookings I want to try to obtain, those also go on my calendar so that I know exactly the date the booking window opens so I have a better chance to obtain those bookings. Keeping on top of dates is important, as missing a date could mean you either don't get a rental or missed a cancelation date and lose points.

I considered writing a database and program to manage it better, but I have never gotten around to it, although I did create a data model for what that data would look like and how it would be related to each other. But I have yet to make that program, as spreadsheets do manage it fine for me.

 

[jabberwocky]

Excel all the way. When we had a single week it was pretty easy to manage. Two units wasn’t too bad. When we added the third things started getting more complicated.

Everything for me is in a single workbook with multiple tabs. I have a tab for each unit owned as well as its historical information (purchase date, price, vacations booked, MF by year etc.). The spreadsheet calculates my cost per point.

I also have a planning tab for each TS system that I own (Vistana and HGVC). It projects the available points from each system for the next three years. I can then plan when/where I would like to book. If I make a booking, I record which unit or banked year those points came from (very useful this year with restricted StarOptions). This allows me to identify where the points would return to if cancelled. This probably isn’t as useful for my HGVC as I have only a single week there.

If there is something calendar sensitive (MF payment, booking window opening or banking deadline for points) I’ll usually just set up a task with a reminder in Google Tasks. That then gets added to my Google Calendar. Of course my bookings (both TS and flights) automatically get added to my calendar when gmail receives a confirmation - artificial intelligence at its finest.

 

[vacationtime1]

The calendaring items go on my calendar. Most are repeating annual items, such as last day to bank StarOptions, last day to elect DC points. Fairly easy, as I play in only two systems.

I also calendar the dates I may want to make a reservation, typically 13, 12, or 8 months in advance -- even if I am not certain I want to do the trip. Seeing the reminder in my calendar gets me to the yes/no decision.

I track ownership on Excel spreadsheets. One shows cost (ROI on upfront cost + MF's + system fees + trading fees), because that's important. Another shows how we used the property, rented the property, or what is pending, by year, so I don't overlook weeks and can bunch Hawaii weeks for fewer, longer trips. A third summarizes my results with the various traders I have owned (SDO, SBP, WKV-37000) -- confirming the value of the Vistana to Vistana trading preference.

I've owned 12 units over the years (currently 5) and this gives me enough information. If I tried to run it as a business, my "business" would be paying me less than minimum wage for my efforts.

 

[jabberwocky]

I considered writing a database and program to manage it better, but I have never gotten around to it, although I did create a data model for what that data would look like and how it would be related to each other. But I have yet to make that program, as spreadsheets do manage it fine for me.

I’m impressed you got that far. Everytime I think about about something like this I remember it would probably take me 10X longer to do the programming for this.

VLookup is a very good friend, and allows you to emulate a lot of database functionality. Not as pretty as a custom database, but it works.

 

[JohnPaul]

Anything I book goes on the Apple calendar. Everything else is in my head or the timeshare website. We are on the road 6 to 9 months a year- mostly in timeshares.

I own:

25,000 WorldMark credits
17,000 Shell Vacation Club points
500 Vacation Internationale points
88,000 EOY Vistana points
12,450 HGVC New York points
144,500 RCI points

 

[The Colorado Kid]

Excel is your friend here.

I have a excel workbook for each club that I am in: Wyndham, Hilton, Holiday Inn, and I have one for RCI TPU tracking, and my Tradewinds points that are RTU. Once the spreadsheet are set up. I most often use these to individual track those clubs bookings, overall points management and MFs costs, for each year of ownership. I need to be able to calculate the MF per point, so that I know exactly what my costs are. I also have weeks in SFX, where I occasionally make a deposit if I have points left.

Since I don't have to pay a reservation fee for any Wyndham, Tradewinds and some Hiltons, I will speculate on bookings in these systems. I have a fee for HICV and RCI bookings so these are not systems that I will book and hold looking for an opportunity to rent. These are specific needs and only booked then. So most bookings that I decide to keep and manage then get added to a different workbook.

Since I now have to track reservations made in multiple systems, I have created an exchange management workbook, with pages for each calendar year, one for each year. I list the system, dates, cancellation deadline, points use, if it is for my use or others usage, if rented, have they paid me, etc. I do this so that I have all bookings that I kept that I have to manage all on one page. I have a summary of the current MF per point for each system summarized at the top of each calendar year. I use this workbook to keep a worksheet with a list of renters I have had in the past, so I have address and contract information handy if they rent again. I do have a few regular renters, so this is easier to manage in one place as well. Once a item goes on the management workbook, a reminder for the cancelation date goes into my calendar about 3 days prior to the final cancellation date. I also have added a strategy page that I plan out and look at what I have in all systems, what is expiring and what I want to do about it. I like to have an overall plan in place for each system. Covid has obviously made moving points to future year more of the planning effort than it has been in the past.

For items I do have requests for or for bookings I want to try to obtain, those also go on my calendar so that I know exactly the date the booking window opens so I have a better chance to obtain those bookings. Keeping on top of dates is important, as missing a date could mean you either don't get a rental or missed a cancelation date and lose points.

I considered writing a database and program to manage it better, but I have never gotten around to it, although I did create a data model for what that data would look like and how it would be related to each other. But I have yet to make that program, as spreadsheets do manage it fine for me.

@Sandy VDH Thanks for sharing these details - impressive!

 

[Panina]

Where as I use my computer for almost everything for tracking timeshare info I do Tracking the old fashioned way For most of it.

I have a monthly datebook (The dollar store one is what I use). I mark each week from 1-52 and put all the timeshare I own in it in pencil.

There are pages for telephones where I put what I am looking for and additional info. Once booked or traded I put it in my datebook Or erase if needed.

I use my reminder on my phone if I have to get a trade in before 60 days with II, or to remind me hgvc 9 month outfor a trade I want,

 

[alexadeparis]

What works best for keeping all things timesharing organized?

Is there an app for that?
Google calendar?
Outlook?
Excel spreadsheets?
OneNote?

So much information to keep track of like:
Weeks owned
Weeks to keep an eye out to buy
Points owned
Points to keep an eye out to buy
Maintenance Fee amounts and due dates
Weeks listed for rent
Weeks listed for sale
Weeks to trade
Booking windows points/floating weeks opening dates/times/best practices
Deadlines for banking points
Deadlines for transferring timeshare points to hotel points
What credit cards to use for best value while traveling/paying MF's
What else?

Oh wow, lots of questions. Weeks and points owned go on a spreadsheet with several tabs. There is a master sheet with everything listed and then tabs for this years bookings, bucket list of desired exchanges, current deposits in each exchange company and when they expire, and general calendar year scheme of when to use each ownership.

I don’t rent out but may in the future, if I do I will have to start a new spreadsheet just for that I think. As far as what I might want to buy / swap out / adjust in my portfolio it is something that I keep in my head, and weigh pros and cons from time to time. I have eBay searches set up for whatever I am after at that moment and if something good pops up I will bid. After all these years, booking rules/timeframes are basically memorized, but all specific dates and deadlines go on my work google calendar. I also have a physical binder that I am working on for the future generation and it’s not ready yet, but I am writing down the basics of each system along with putting copies of deeds, and an overview sheet for each system where to pay online, login info, booking windows, etc. I never turn in my points for hotel points as it’s almost always a poor use of points. As for credit cards, I personally try to put everything on my American Airlines card for the miles. We do at least 6 trips a year and the airfare adds up. Every little bit helps.

 

[Eric B]

One more vote for the Excel workbook with multiple tabs. I use individual tabs for each year, each point system (Wyndham, RCI, WorldMark, Vistana) and one to compare the costs, which is helpful for making add/shed decisions. The cost analysis is also helpful for "arbitraging" resorts (e.g., depositing a non-II resort in RCI, Exchange Plussing it to WorldMark credits, then depositing those credits into II, getting a very low cost week with good trading power; similarly, I can PIC a 4 BR week into Wyndham for 254K points there, then deposit an equivalent number of Wyndham points into the Wyndham-RCI portal and capture the VIPG upgrade in points deposited for a quiet studio to a quiet 1 BR = 80% increase in points seven times to get 450K Wyndham RCI points, which goes further than one week in a 4 BR LO).

 

[CPNY]

I guess I don’t own that much. I have 3 units in vistana at the same resort in the same season so I just lump all of those together as one in my mind and now an RCI points account. That one may be tricky due to the use year being March.

 

[Luvtoride]

The calendaring items go on my calendar. Most are repeating annual items, such as last day to bank StarOptions, last day to elect DC points. Fairly easy, as I play in only two systems.

I also calendar the dates I may want to make a reservation, typically 13, 12, or 8 months in advance -- even if I am not certain I want to do the trip. Seeing the reminder in my calendar gets me to the yes/no decision.

I track ownership on Excel spreadsheets. One shows cost (ROI on upfront cost + MF's + system fees + trading fees), because that's important. Another shows how we used the property, rented the property, or what is pending, by year, so I don't overlook weeks and can bunch Hawaii weeks for fewer, longer trips. A third summarizes my results with the various traders I have owned (SDO, SBP, WKV-37000) -- confirming the value of the Vistana to Vistana trading preference.

I've owned 12 units over the years (currently 5) and this gives me enough information. If I tried to run it as a business, my "business" would be paying me less than minimum wage for my efforts.

Vacationtime1, how do you calculate and track ROI? Interesting concept but not sure I would view a timeshare the same way you would view an investment. What is your “target” ROI? If it doesn’t achieve that is that when you sell? I’m just curious.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[klkaylor]

I use an excel spreadsheet that handles the finances so - MF, Taxes, assessement and VC points for the year. I use this to determine the average yearly cost of a point so that when I rent points I can have a basis. My GR in Tahoe has a varible amount of points each year so our point total changes each year.

I used to track every entry on the points list but with renting points it got too busy. Needed to be able to download it like a bank account so now I just confirm a ballance with MVC website every so often

I use apple cal that I share with my wife for my trip schedule, reservation deadlines, etc. . I put the MF due dates in ical as well as I have 6 different due dates for MF.

My best trick is that for each planned trip I open a drop box folder and put in airline reservations, hotel reservation, etc by either moving a pdf or exporting email threads. I share the file with the wife until about ready to travel and then with my nephew (no kids) so they have some data on where we are. I built a separate Travel Doc folder that has copies of our Pass ports, driver lic,, scuba cards, immunizations and even visas if obtained. For each trip these folders get copied to a mini thumb drive that I take with us. I also make my dropbox folder into a read offline folder so that if wifi is out then I still can get the data. This has been more helpful now that I have these health entry form PR code sheets that we need for immigration. Having the reservation data has saved me more than once when a hotel or car rental agency says what reservation

 

[vacationtime1]

Vacationtime1, how do you calculate and track ROI? Interesting concept but not sure I would view a timeshare the same way you would view an investment. What is your “target” ROI? If it doesn’t achieve that is that when you sell? I’m just curious.

I use ROI to compare the economics of owning vs. renting. If we can rent for cheaper than owning, why own? But what is the total cost to own (we know what it costs to rent)? In addition to MF's, there are club fees (Vistana and Marriott for us) and trading fees. And capital costs.

My "target" ROI is 10% after taxes. That is very high, but timeshares are very risky -- and illiquid. Management companies can raise MF's at will, change reservation rules, or sell out to Wastegate (omg) -- each of which diminishes owners' value. Plus, timeshares (almost) never increase in value, so anticipated depreciation must be built-in (our Waiohai and Kierland units purchased in 2007 are now worth half of what we paid for them).

Let me give a concrete example. For ten years, we owned a 1bd OF unit at the Kauai Beach Club (wonderful place). MF's were about $1,200 when we bought in 2010. MF's are now up to $2,080 plus a club fee of $250 (yes, being in the DC has benefits, but it does cost money). We paid $5,700. So I calculate my cost-to-use at $2,080 + $125 (half the DC fee; we owned two enrolled weeks), plus $570 imputed capital cost; total = $2,775. But I can rent 3325 destination points -- enough for a week in a 1bd OF unit off season, which is when we visit -- for about $2,100 (@$0.64), without being required to visit exactly once a year for exactly seven days starting on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. The reason we sold the unit this year was because we had too many weeks, but the reason we sold this unit rather than one of the others was that our ownership was economically inefficient compared to our other ownerships.

Do I consider timeshares to be a financial investment? Of course not. But I want to know whether they are a small money pit vs. a large money pit.

 

[The Colorado Kid]

I use an excel spreadsheet that handles the finances so - MF, Taxes, assessement and VC points for the year. I use this to determine the average yearly cost of a point so that when I rent points I can have a basis. My GR in Tahoe has a varible amount of points each year so our point total changes each year.

I used to track every entry on the points list but with renting points it got too busy. Needed to be able to download it like a bank account so now I just confirm a ballance with MVC website every so often

I use apple cal that I share with my wife for my trip schedule, reservation deadlines, etc. . I put the MF due dates in ical as well as I have 6 different due dates for MF.

My best trick is that for each planned trip I open a drop box folder and put in airline reservations, hotel reservation, etc by either moving a pdf or exporting email threads. I share the file with the wife until about ready to travel and then with my nephew (no kids) so they have some data on where we are. I built a separate Travel Doc folder that has copies of our Pass ports, driver lic,, scuba cards, immunizations and even visas if obtained. For each trip these folders get copied to a mini thumb drive that I take with us. I also make my dropbox folder into a read offline folder so that if wifi is out then I still can get the data. This has been more helpful now that I have these health entry form PR code sheets that we need for immigration. Having the reservation data has saved me more than once when a hotel or car rental agency says what reservation

@klkaylor VERY nice!

 

[The Colorado Kid]

One more vote for the Excel workbook with multiple tabs. I use individual tabs for each year, each point system (Wyndham, RCI, WorldMark, Vistana) and one to compare the costs, which is helpful for making add/shed decisions. The cost analysis is also helpful for "arbitraging" resorts (e.g., depositing a non-II resort in RCI, Exchange Plussing it to WorldMark credits, then depositing those credits into II, getting a very low cost week with good trading power; similarly, I can PIC a 4 BR week into Wyndham for 254K points there, then deposit an equivalent number of Wyndham points into the Wyndham-RCI portal and capture the VIPG upgrade in points deposited for a quiet studio to a quiet 1 BR = 80% increase in points seven times to get 450K Wyndham RCI points, which goes further than one week in a 4 BR LO).

@Eric B WOW those are MAD TS Skills!

 

[rickandcindy23]

I use Excel and have several spreadsheets. I rent a lot of timeshares, and our daughter rents our Wyndham. I am rather disorganized with my timeshare stuff. Rick laughs at me because I get behind and have to fill in my rentals after I have done a bunch of them. I rent ski weeks at Val Chatelle for the HOA. It's quite difficult for a scattered brain like mine. I also forget to close out documents, my computer dies, and sometimes I just lose what I put in the spreadsheet and have to do the same thing all over again. Then I remember to save it.

Maintenance fees are on a spreadsheet for easy tax info, but Rick doesn't trust me with it and checks our credit cards and our checking accounts for payments to the various timeshares we own. He knows I am disorganized. Payments via PayPal are a pain. I had to tell him after he paid taxes in July that he forgot the incoming payments from Paypal, so he had to plug in those numbers and pay more taxes. He just loves it when I do that to him.

 

[ruhskis9713]

PM me with an email address and I'll send an annotated Excel sheet. I can't attach Excel files here and if I print or Save As as a .pdf, I lose the annotations.

I use an Excel spreadsheet too and I'd love to see yours. Email me at shopping@ruhskis.com

 

[alexadeparis]

Oh wow, lots of questions. Weeks and points owned go on a spreadsheet with several tabs. There is a master sheet with everything listed and then tabs for this years bookings, bucket list of desired exchanges, current deposits in each exchange company and when they expire, and general calendar year scheme of when to use each ownership.

I don’t rent out but may in the future, if I do I will have to start a new spreadsheet just for that I think. As far as what I might want to buy / swap out / adjust in my portfolio it is something that I keep in my head, and weigh pros and cons from time to time. I have eBay searches set up for whatever I am after at that moment and if something good pops up I will bid. After all these years, booking rules/timeframes are basically memorized, but all specific dates and deadlines go on my work google calendar. I also have a physical binder that I am working on for the future generation and it’s not ready yet, but I am writing down the basics of each system along with putting copies of deeds, and an overview sheet for each system where to pay online, login info, booking windows, etc. I never turn in my points for hotel points as it’s almost always a poor use of points. As for credit cards, I personally try to put everything on my American Airlines card for the miles. We do at least 6 trips a year and the airfare adds up. Every little bit helps.

Also I forgot to mention Tripit as the way to manage travel plans. I put estimated dates for future trips on there To keep track of my future vision.

 

[clsmit]

Most definitely Excel!