[ 2015 ] Requesting experiences living close to or full time in timeshares

[jebloomquist]

I would like to hear about the experiences of Wyndham Tuggers who live at least 4 months per year, up to full year round in just timeshare accommodations. I want to plan ahead, as I approach retirement, and imagine this as an appealing alternative to just living in one location.

Why, what where, when, and how do you plan, choose, reserve, and actually stay in the timeshares, to me has been an intriguing mystery.

I imagine that there are as many different approaches as there are people doing it. Are you Wyndham points, weeks, or a combination of both owners? Do you map out several months in advance, and how to drive from resort to resort? Do you use RCI or other timeshare organizations, as well? Are you choosing locations based upon costs, beauty, relatives, weather, geography, etc? Do you stay in one location for only a week or two, and then move on, or do you stay in one location for months at a time?

Since I am a Wyndham points owner, what are your experiences or estimates of the number of points that it would take to stay in just timeshares for a full year? Do you meet and plan with other owners? Is there a place or forum where year round or close to it owners share their experiences?

At the moment I rent to guests at least 500 nights per year. I would like to continue this activity, because it covers my maintenance fees, where I pretty much break even. If it takes several million Wyndham points to live full time in timeshares, I need to figure out how to do both activities.

So, any experiences and ideas that you have, I will read with a great deal of interest.

Jim

 

[DeniseM]

There are two Tugger who live full-time in timeshares - they both have blogs, but they aren't exclusively using Wyndham. I don't know of any Tuggers who do exactly what you are asking.

 

[winnipiseogee]

Can I ask if you currently have platinum/gold status? I will be following this thread with interest. I'm too young to travel but my work gives me a tremendous amount of flexibility. My wife and I have been talking about spending 3/4 months a year traveling.

Thanks for bringing the subject up!

 

[scootr5]

At the moment I rent to guests at least 500 nights per year. I would like to continue this activity, because it covers my maintenance fees, where I pretty much break even. If it takes several million Wyndham points to live full time in timeshares, I need to figure out how to do both activities.

Jim, I need to ask - are you saying you rent 500 nights per year and only break even? That seems to be a tremendous amount of work for no real benefit.

 

[Joe33426]

For a rough estimate, could you just take a figure like 200,000 points per week x 52 weeks per year = 10,400,000 points less VIP discount (assuming platinum) = 5,200,000 points x $5/1,000 = $26,000

I've looked at the blogs of the two full-time timesharing folks that Denise mentions and they mostly use RCI last calls, RCI sales, etc. Mostly off season weekly in over built areas on the cheap. Figuring an average of $400 per week their costs are probably are more like $20,800 per year.

Of course the $26,000 is assuming VIP discounts in an account that treats resale points like VIP if the account has VIP. If the Voyager thing ever comes out and can distinguish resale versus developer points, that should be interesting.

 

[spackler]

If the Voyager thing ever comes out and can distinguish resale versus developer points, that should be interesting.

I would assume that would be pretty devastating for the mega-renters.

 

[Bigrob]

I would assume that would be pretty devastating for the mega-renters.

Actually, it could be the reverse. The real mega-renters are the ones who have gotten many many platinum points owners to give them access to their accounts, and typically all of those points are VIP eligible points. Or conversely are working with points managers who similarly have gotten access to multiple platinum accounts.

For these true mega-renters, it might be a boon to have less competition.

 

[Bigrob]

For a rough estimate, could you just take a figure like 200,000 points per week x 52 weeks per year = 10,400,000 points less VIP discount (assuming platinum) = 5,200,000 points x $5/1,000 = $26,000

I've looked at the blogs of the two full-time timesharing folks that Denise mentions and they mostly use RCI last calls, RCI sales, etc. Mostly off season weekly in over built areas on the cheap. Figuring an average of $400 per week their costs are probably are more like $20,800 per year.

Of course the $26,000 is assuming VIP discounts in an account that treats resale points like VIP if the account has VIP. If the Voyager thing ever comes out and can distinguish resale versus developer points, that should be interesting.

If you're planning ahead, you should also be able to figure in the upgrades, so you'd be looking at the cost of a smaller unit rather than the 200K 2-3BR unit. And if you're traveling off-season, you may have additional savings. I was thinking about this exact topic a few days ago and figured somewhere around 3.5-4M points ought to be enough to do it.

 

[jebloomquist]

Can I ask if you currently have platinum/gold status? I will be following this thread with interest. I'm too young to travel but my work gives me a tremendous amount of flexibility. My wife and I have been talking about spending 3/4 months a year traveling.

Thanks for bringing the subject up!

I am VIP Platinum.

Jim, I need to ask - are you saying you rent 500 nights per year and only break even? That seems to be a tremendous amount of work for no real benefit.

I got into the rental game because I was asked by a fellow Tugger if I wanted to work together. I provide the points and the other VIP Platinum owner does all of the work getting the business, basically using my points. When this started I was VIP Gold, and used this idea to move to Platinum and then to begin acquiring additional resale points. I have to do some amount of work, but I don't do all the work that is required to get the renters. I think that it has worked out well for both of us.

Jim

 

[55plus]

We travel 2 to 3 months per year during the winter. We stay at Wyndham Smokey Mountains for a couple nights on our way from Wisconsin to Myrtle Beach. We stay at Wyndham Westwind in Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach has plenty of vacancies in the winter so it's at half points with free upgrades. From there we're off to Wyndham Ocean Walk in Florida.

At Wyndham Ocean walk we use full points for Daytona 500 and Daytona Bike Week timeframes because of the demand, but we are able to get half point reservations at Ocean Walk between the two events. We usually go to Star Island for a week or so for a change and then back to Ocean Walk.

On our way home we spend a week or two either in Panama City Beach and/or Destin, depending on which Wyndhams are available at discounted points. From there it's Wyndham Nashville for a couple night and then home to Wisconsin.

The key is planning ahead and booking reservations at 60 days out to take advantage of discounted points if you qualify. The older Wyndham (Fairfield)resorts like Westwinds, Star Island, Ocean Walk are cheap when it comes to points. There are also cheap points and some of the Wyndhams in Destin.

We always have plenty of points after our travels to rent. This pays for our travels costs and maintenance fees. Life is good living in Wyndham timeshares for several months at a time, but there is no place like home...

 

[Rent_Share]

Assuming your at break even for your and your kids vacation needs based on your prior post, wouldn't just be simple math to calculate how many additional weeks/nights you would have to rent to stay the additional weeks beyond what you are currently using for your personal stays

Assuming 70 weeks rented @ Platinum Points ~ 5 million Points

However many weeks you want to travel/the number of weeks you are currently traveling times your current points holdings should tell you what size your account should be.

The question is if that factor is 10, is the FRBO model scalable to 5,000 nights rented to keep the dream self supporting.

 

[ronparise]

Ive given this some thought before, but only as an academic exercise. and usually after reading an article that tells me I can live a life of luxury on my social security income. So I set out to answer the question...can I live at a resort on my social security income. I also want to be able ti live without a car,

So lets look at my favorite resort Avenue Plaza in New Orleans Its an urban property, right on the streetcar line, so I can easily get to shopping, doctors, recreation without owning a car. A studio here is either 126000 or 112000 points, depending on season, The total for a year is 6,300,000 the one bedrooms are 140000 and 126000 for a total of just over 7 million

so 13 million points to to reserve a studio and a one bedroom for every week of the year. assuming cwa rates thats about $71000 a year.

The idea would be to cancel rebook and upgrade every week, to stay in the one bedroom at half the studio rate, Do this and at end of the day Ive used 3 million points, and generated 10 million in cancelled points

Like Jim I am currently using a points manager and being paid $6/1000 points. That would be $60000 toward my $71000 maintenance fee bill

Bottom line for $1000 a month I have a place to live, including elec, heat, air conditioning, cable, internet and phone. I have a swimming pool, hot tub, gym and coffee every morning, and one afternoon a week, ice cream. And there is plenty left from my social security to buy groceries.

 

[ronparise]

The question is if that factor is 10, is the FRBO model scalable to 5,000 nights rented to keep the dream self supporting.

Last year I farmed out over 50 million points...so yes its scalable

 

[jebloomquist]

Assuming your at break even for your and your kids vacation needs based on your prior post, wouldn't just be simple math to calculate how many additional weeks/nights you would have to rent to stay the additional weeks beyond what you are currently using for your personal stays

Assuming 70 weeks rented @ Platinum Points ~ 5 million Points

However many weeks you want to travel/the number of weeks you are currently traveling times your current points holdings should tell you what size your account should be.

The question is if that factor is 10, is the FRBO model scalable to 5,000 nights rented to keep the dream self supporting.

Yes, it is simple math just to make a theoretical estimate. But, things many times don't end up that way when travel times, availabilities, and cancel/rebooks can sometimes fail. So, getting the actual experiences of others who have tried is of a great deal of importance.

Most of my rentals are at one resort, Bonnet Creek where on average it has taken 9,000 points per night for usually a 2 bedroom deluxe or better. We have been very successful at getting these at the 1/2 1 bedroom points level. This success may not convert to a retirees' resort hopping throughout the year. If someone is looking for a reservation and my partner and I cannot find one, they go somewhere else. When I will be traveling, I need to know that there is a reservation available.

 

[Rent_Share]

Last year I farmed out over 50 million points...so yes its scalable

Back on Ignore

To think you have implied you have no impact on availability to owners

 

[ronparise]

Back on Ignore

To think you have implied you have no impact on availability to owners

David with Wyndham points are symbolic of ownership. There is a real timeshare that I own (deed and everything) backing up every one of those points.

We are not renting anything that we dont own, and nothing is taken from any other owner

 

[Fern Modena]

Live and let live

Ron, Let that person ignore you. Who cares? I, for one, am interested in the information you share with us.

Thank you.

:::sigh:::Still written with a stick, reclining, but working on improving my situation.

Fern

David with Wyndham points are symbolic of ownership. There is a real timeshare that I own (deed and everything) backing up every one of those points.

We are not renting anything that we dont own, and nothing is taken from any other owner

 

[silentg]

There should be archive threads "Travels with Ray" he was a pioneer in full time timeshare travels. I had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife Darlene. He is missed!
TerryC

 

[markb53]

Full Time Timesharing

I've been thinking about doing the same thing when I retire.
For the last 2 years I have been doing virtual year long trips using RCI specials and Last Calls just to see if it is possible to go from timeshare to timeshare and always have a time share to go to. I have proved to myself that it is possible.

The first virtual year I started on April 20 2013 at Mizner Place, Westin, FL and ended on March 14 2014 at Grandwiew, Las Vegas. It was all RCI Last Calls and RCI specials. Total cost for the virtual year was $11,050.06. My goal for that year was to try to move every week if possible.

I did another virtual tour the next year starting March 1 2014 at The Cliffs at Peace Canyon in Vegas and ending on March 13, 2015, at Grandview, in Las Vegas. My goal for that year was to try to stay in one place for multiple weeks if possible. It would have worked also, at a cost of $11,791.00.

There is a problem with using RCI specials to to this. In both years I would have had to come up with almost half of the money for the RCI Specials before I left on the trip, which is a problem.

I think is is an interesting idea. Don't think my wife will agree to do it for real, however. Probably have to start with something less ambitious. Maybe three months instead of a year.

 

[Mike&Edie]

Ron and Joan are full-timers, and so are we (Mike & Edie). We are in our second year and use mostly RCI Extra Vacation Sales to book up for several months in advance. We also use EBay and AirBnB. We try to post our expenses (but lately we've been doing some cruises so it costs much more).

Mike&Edie
www.fulltimetimeshare.com

 

[cyseitz]

This is very interesting. My husband and I have the same thoughts going on in our heads. Our youngest will graduate in a couple of years and we plan to spend most of our time traveling and living in timeshares.

 

[Mike&Edie]

Ron and Joan are the other couple, their blog is:

http://ronandjoanjourney.blogspot.com/

 

[chriskre]

I plan on doing this over the summers to live at the beach.
So far I'm only at around 6 to 8 weeks at the beach, mostly thru exchanging of my CMV UDI, fixed weeks owned, Wyndham points and HGVC points.

I do around 4-6 weeks in Orlando depending on the year, using Wyndham & DVC points and lots of II exchanges with CMV UDI for mainly Marriotts, Grande Vista being my go to place.

Just recently "retired".
I'm just as busy now as before I retired. :hysterical:

It also helps that I live in FL, the land of plentiful timeshares.
If it wasn't for my cats that I love and miss dearly, I'd try longer stays, but for now I get away every 2-3 weeks for a week or less at a time.
When they are no longer with me I may try taking this show on the road full time and rent out my place.

 

[ronandjoan]

I've looked at the blogs of the two full-time timesharing folks that Denise mentions and they mostly use RCI last calls, RCI sales, etc. Mostly off season weekly in over built areas on the cheap. Figuring an average of $400 per week their costs are probably are more like $20,800 per year.
.

HI everyone
To clarify: we are one of the two full-timers and we each are timesharing differently. And yes, we usually use Wyndham points!
We sold our home in Ohio in 2008 and have been on the road ever since: therefore, we are truly HOMELESS.
Mike and Edie are the other full-timers, still own their home and rent it out and also have other properties on their site in CALIF and drive back and forth each year and stay on site for a while, especially for doctors’ appointments. As they haveposted, they usually use Extra Vacations. Their travels are tracked on their BLOg (and we have become great friends as well.)
We feel that we needed to book more ahead and could not “trust” Extra Vacations since we had to know in advance where we were going to stay…or else we had nowhere. We were also tied down to family and reunion dates (military), not offering last minute flexibility. In 2003, we started buying timeshares, so before going full time, we had already purchased weeks at two resorts, the Townhouses at the St Augustine Beach and Tennis Club (TAS) and Telemark in Cable, WI, both properties purchased sight unseen on eBay – and they have worked out fabulously—they have become our favorites! We have extended our inventory to 8 weeks at St Augustine and 3 weeks in Telemark – and Telemark has so many owner bonus opportunities, one being that we can rent extra weeks for $199/week that it sufficiently prorates our MF to better rates.
And then we bought lots and lots of Wyndham points.
Then we saw that since we were gone from the house 8-9 months a year anyway (we also had to go to Seattle every 6-8 weeks to check on my mother – for that we flew), we decided that it was foolish to keep the house: why have that expense? We had read about Ray Harper, who was full time for 6 months, and started thinking about doing it, so we downsized, spent 2 summers repairing and staging the house and it sold within 3 days.
In addition, we use exchange companies- but usually not RCI and we dropped II some years ago. Therefore, we greatly utilize Platinum Interchange, SFX, and DAE all of which have great bonus week programs as well.
So.. to clarify: each year we stay at our owned weeks at TAS and Telemark, and the rest of the time we stay in Wyndham resorts or exchanged weeks using Wyndham resort deposits (or occasionally TAS/Telemark deposits). We figured once that if we were able to “stretch” our points to the maximum – which we almost always do anyway, (can’t stand to use full points!!), we would have a total of 72 weeks per year to use.
We have met a couple who spend 4 months in Bonnet Creek – Jan – April – just moving from unit to unit as needed – and they also work at Disney during that time – we’d sure like to do that, but our family responsibilities have prevented utilizing that long term opportunity.
Many TUGGERS already timeshare many many weeks or even months – so it is only a short step – and commitment – to say, OKAY, we’ll sell the house, and…
My BLOG tells how we set it up, etc – start at the beginning which is at the end – the newer posts are first.
Timesharing Today also asked for an article from us about full timing and I have sent it in and they say they will be publishing it – we’ll see and keep you posted.

 

[SmithOp]

We recently retired also, selling our house this spring and I have considered using TUG LMR and Rentals Wanted to fill in some gaps I have in the following six months. I have last three weeks of May in Hawaii, then first three weeks of June at CA beaches, I need filler for July/Aug, then I have Sept in UK. At that point we either rent somewhere back in CA, buy another downsize house, or go full time. I like the idea of having a house that rents and pays for itself, there is a show on HGTV about buying vacation rental fixers.


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