As we have cold snow winters in Toronto Canada we used to love to escape to sun, beach, and warmth in Feb-March to Fort Lauderdale to stay in hotels. After a few trips, I saw a for sale sign on a small timeshare called Coconut Bay and bought a 1 bdrm suite with two fixed weeks 7&8 and started my timeshare life. I have 3 children and it was a bit cramped but we managed and loved the escape...actually driving from Toronto and back which added another week to travel.
One day there I saw an ad on a new timeshare going on market that was right on the beach and had 2 bedrooms, etc, at Marriott BeachPlace Towers. Toured it and bought a week to start the next year because it could be split into two parts to give us 2 weeks. Sold Coconut Bay that year and got what I paid for it resale. Then I bought another BeachPlace week so they could be split imto 4 parts total.
I went every year with my daughters but as they got older it got hardper to get them all to come every year, so my significant other and I split the 2 lock off suites and she and I stayed the 4 weeks mid winter...loved it.
I put all 6 of my Marriott weeks with my name and a daughter on 3 of them so that one day they would be an owner. They loved the idea. Maintenance was only about $450 a week back then, but almost $1700 now has turned my kids off timesharing ownership, and as I am well over retirement age now I feel the same.
Covid 19 has really hit us badly even though we didn’t get it...but as Canadians we can’t cross the border unless it’s for ‘essential’ reasons but Marriott still wants their maintenance fees.
TUG came to the rescue as I placed rental ads on it just to cover the maintenance fees and the two studios, two 1-bdrms, rented in the first week on TUG ... and the Canyon Villas 2bdrm took 2 weeks to rent...all to USA residents. Would have preferred to go but at least I broke even on costs.
My aging health changes may force me to cut back on vacations and sell the timeshares but timesharing has changed so much over the years it appears I won’t get anything close to what I paid for them.
Brian