Need help determining the type of T/S is best for me

[faustiano]

Newbie Alert:
First of all, let me apologize for the long post. I have been doing a LOT of research on Time Shares and I am trying to figure out if Time Shares would be a good investment for me and the way I vacation.

About my vacationing style:
• I like to take several weekend or long weekend trips. Usually, with short notice within 45 days or less.
• I always use Hotels.com or Hotwire to find 3.5-star and above hotels (typically around $100 - $120/night). So I am not tied to any specific hotel, but I do want something on the nicer side.
• I like to travel internationally
• I do like to go to Disneyworld and stay on-site.
• Most of my week long trips are planned within a few months (not typically planned out over 6 months).
• I do not have any children at the moment, so it is just myself and my girlfriend that travel together.
• I live in Southern California near the beach cities, and I take a few short local getaways to San Diego, Temecula, Palm Springs, etc.

What I have been considering:
Small RCI Point T/S: (like a triennial from Grandview ~ 16,667 pts every year, with a MF of ~$100 a year)
PROS:
• This would give me access to the RCI “Last Call” to purchase low price last minute trips.
• The MF are very low
• The MF to Point ratio is good

CONS:
• Only receive 16,667 pts/year which does not offer much in the way of travel options especially if I wanted to convert points to get a DVC trip. I definitely would want to leverage points for DVC to possibly take a trip to DVC every other year.
• Since Grandview is relatively new, the MF is expected to go up.
• Last Call only offers full week stays, but I would only do short trips. While the Last Call may only be $300, if it is at a good T/S it may be a better deal than a 2-3 night hotel stay from Hotels.com/Hotwire.

QUESTIONS:
• Does Last Call allow for Thursday or Friday arrivals?
• How concerned should I be about the MF increases on Grandview?
• Given this is a Triennial that provides points annually, how do you bank points? Are you only allowed to bank 1 year (total of 33,334 points), or do you bank in 3 year increments (50,000 for 3 years + 50,000 for 3 years = total available bank of 100,000 points)?
•

T/S with Red/Premium Week and Lock-off: (find a ~ premium with lowest MF for easy trading and have a lock-off to get be able to trade two rooms for possibly two vacations per year)

PROS:
• Allows me two rooms that could be traded.
• Choosing a more premium location would allow for good trades.
• Having a dedicated week means there is no need to register a floating week (this may be more valuable to a trading company?)

CONS:
• MFs are higher (even though I would like to keep my MF @ or below $500)
• Not easy to determine which trade partners go with which property.
• Not sure how TPU would be calculated for the property that is chosen to make sure I pick the right property.

QUESTIONS:
• If I am not intending to use the property (may use it once in a great while), would it make sense to use it as a trader?
• Is there any way to determine the TPU so I can select a good trader?
• How would I determine which trade partner would be available for each property type?
• How is a Wyndham T/S (which supports for RCI and II) compared to other properties? I heard they are good traders within RCI, but you cannot use the online trader, you have to call them to make trades. Do you still have access to Last Call?


DVC T/S

PRO:
• Easiest way to get into DVC.
• Great trader
• Easy to resell the T/S if no longer wanted

CONS:
• Very expensive (requires a large payment upfront). Not sure if I would be willing to make that payment even at a reseller price.
• The MFs are very high compared to the points that you get.
• May not be worth the cost if I do the math of staying at hotels for my trips, and staying at Disney properties through the Disney Hotels instead of DVC.

QUESTIONS:
• I am having trouble understanding when DVC is actually a value. Maybe if you intend to go to DVC every year, it is worth the investment.


Does anyone have other recommendations or ideas? I am still reading all the different posts throughout the forum and gathering more and more knowledge.

Thank you for your time!

 

[ronparise]

Id look at Worldmark,

any day check in
cheap mf
short stays ok
strong trader
lots of west coast locations
you can buy a small account and if you need more credits rent them, at not much more than mf, from another owner

 

[puppymommo]

Quote:
How is a Wyndham T/S (which supports for RCI and II) compared to other properties? I heard they are good traders within RCI, but you cannot use the online trader, you have to call them to make trades. Do you still have access to Last Call?

Most Wyndham properties are RCI or II not both.

Wyndham used to be a good trader with RCI, not not so much. It makes more sense for a high end trade like NYC or DVC. For average trades it is a waste of points.

You can make RCI trades with Wyndham points online through Wyndham's RCI portal of the Wyn website.

I'm a Wyndham owner and love using my points within the Wyn system, I do not use it to trade through RCI. I second Ron's suggestion that you look into Worldmark.

 

[zcrider]

Maybe no timeshare

Honestly for the way you like to travel right now you will probably not enjoy being locked into a timeshare. Sure it will give you nicer (bigger) accommodations, but you lose flexibility. Later if you have a bigger family and more set vacation schedule a timeshare would be excellent, but right now for how you like to travel it doesn't sound like the best fit.
I love my timeshares, but there are lots of places that don't have timeshares or other types of vacations like camping and cruises too. If your vacation days are limited and you prefer more last minute long weekends I say don't buy a timeshare right now.
My recommendation is TRY timeshares for short stays for cheap by contacting the various brands and booking their trial packages. It does require a timeshare tour during your vacation, but as long as you have no problems saying "no" then you might not mind. Diamond resorts sends me 3 night offers all the time and I know Marriott and Hyatt both offer trials on their websites and the locations vary during the year. You are usually limited to 3 of these trials with each brand of timeshare and usually have to wait 6-12 months between using the same brand trail again, but there are so many brands you can have fun trying them out for a few years this way.

 

[Icc5]

Not an investment

Good morning,
You started out by saying you wanted to make an investment and I would say you need to look at timesharing differently. It is not an investment. Most likly if you buy and go to sell it later you won't get hardly anything for it.
Just keep this in mind when deciding. We bought to vacation and have been doing so for 20 years. Originally we bought weeks and unless we want to put more money out we need to use those weeks (they are also two bedroom) and now the kids don't travel with us very often. We do invite friends and still enjoy but not the same as years ago.
Bart

 

[PassionForTravel]

I agree given your vacation style you probably should avoid time sharing right now. With that being said I used to vacation like you always last minute and always looking for a deal. When I met my gf and discovered she owned a timeshare (worldmark) I thought we'll that's dumb. A funny thing has happened over the last few years I've really gotten into it and am buying more worldmark credits on the resale market. The change for me has been a healthier eating style so I like not having to use restaurant all the time.

If you decide to go for one pick up a worldmark, you can pick up a 6 or 10k credit contract pretty cheaply on the resale market and for a 10k contract the mf are about $500. Most 1 bdr takes 10k for a week. You can rent (1 time use from other owners for $.06 per credit if you ned more in a year. But what you would be looking for is bonus time (travel within 10 days for cash) and inventory specials (off season for cash). Big bear and Indio are available regularity, San Diego, Oceanside, Anaheim, solvang less so but sometimes. We do big bear and Indio about 2 times a year each on bonus time. Even when using credits if you book within 90 days you can stay for any length of time and check in on any day of the week if its available. For more info on the wm system check out wmowners.com

 

[SOS8260456]

OP,
Like others have said, I am also not quite sure if timesharing is for you. However, if you do decide that you want to try it and you mentioned that you are flexible with last minute stuff, this is what I might consider if I were you.

1. I would lean toward points rather than any fixed weeks at this point in time. Reasoning: because you like long weekend trips.

2. I would stay away from RCI points for now because of the extra exchanging fees plus from what I understand some resorts can really hit you hard with housekeeping fees on less than 7 nights stays. You may have housekeeping fees with other point systems, but the fees are uniform. Where, from what I understand, in RCI, they are all across the board and it is really up to the individual resort.

3. I would look into either Wyndham, Bluegreen or Worldmark point systems and this would depend on where I lived. At one point in our timeshare learning curve we owned Worldmark and I really like their system, but most of their resorts are on the west coast and we live on the east coast. That made it most inconvenient for long weekend getaways. We eventually threw our money to Wyndham because of the resort locations and we liked the system. To me Wyndham vs Bluegreen would be a toss up, again depending on what resorts were close to my location. The upfront costs on Wyndham and Bluegreen are very very very low, just make sure you consider the ongoing maintenance fee costs. I know that you cannot buy additional points if needed from other Wyndham owners. You can buy some from Wyndham at their inflated prices. Not sure how additional points would work in Bluegreen. I don't think you can transfer them, but not sure. With Worldmark, your upfront costs are alot higher (not Marriott higher though), but I am pretty sure that your maintenance fees are lower plus and this is a BIG PLUS, you can purchase a small package and then purchase additional points/credits from other owners inexpensively as needed.

4. If you love staying onsite Disney, then consider picking up a small DVC contact on the resale market. You can use up to 3 years points in one year between banking and borrowing and you can stretch that into quite a few studio nights in the right season. The cost may average out to be the same per night as a stay in a value resort on property. However, you will be staying at deluxe resorts for the same price as a value resort. That is where the benefits of DVC are, using the same amount of money for the better accomodations.

I just want to emphasize that by staying with a mini-point system like Wyndham, Bluegreen, Worldmark and DVC, your best bet will be making reservations within those systems and by doing that you avoid the extra costs of exchange fees. You do have the option of using those mini-system points within RCI or II (depending on which system). However, with DVC, while you do have the option of trading withing RCI, it is the absolute worst way to use DVC points. You buy DVC points only to use at DVC properties if you want to make the best use of your vacation dollar.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!

 

[Renny30]

Honestly for the way you like to travel right now you will probably not enjoy being locked into a timeshare. Sure it will give you nicer (bigger) accommodations, but you lose flexibility.

As others have said, I'm not quite sure why you'd want a timeshare. It's only the two of you and hotels seemed to have worked well for you. Timesharing requires longer planning.

I don't know much about Worldmark, but as Ron said it could be a good choice for you since there are no housekeeping fees for short stays. I'm not sure how well the points would do pulling you units outside of the U.S. and Mexico. You'd need to research that.

Good luck to you!

 

[faustiano]

First of all let me just say WOW... I do not think I have ever been on a forum that offered so much advise for a single OP. Thank you all for your help.

As you can tell, I am trying too figure out if T/S is a good way for me to go, and you have given me a lot of information to ponder. I think the idea behind the T/S is a good one for families (which I may have sooner than later), so it is something that would be beneficial in the future.

Today, as a few of you have suggested, the T/S may not work for my current travel style. Although after doing some research on Worldmark (and living on the west coast). It may provide some opportunities for some shorter stays over the course of the year.

I have started to review information on wmowners.com (thanks for the tip - great info here).

I especially liked zcrider idea for trying out the different timeshare brands. I think that would be a good way to experience some of the values of the time share.

I am not in a huge rush, so I will bide my time by doing more research. It is good to know there is so much support on the site. Thank you all for your valuable feedback.

 

[massvacationer]

I, too, also think that Hotels may continue to be the way for you to travel. However, if and when you throw kids and a family into the mix, the whole game changes. We have two young kids, and having two bedrooms, a kitchen and a washer/dryer is priceless.

Since you live in California, I would echo Ron and say Worldmark is the system you should take a look at, if you do want to try timeshares.

 

[frankf3]

Great, well thought out OP and very helpful replies (also to other newbies like myself).

At some point I may want to post a similar question, specific to what (I think) I'm looking for.

Frank

 

[Renny30]

First of all let me just say WOW... I do not think I have ever been on a forum that offered so much advise for a single OP. Thank you all for your help.

.

I only belong to one other forum that's as active and informative. Most forums are full of lurkers. Tug is the best.