At Timber Lodge this week - any questions?

[korndoc]

Thank you for your replies.

Yes, I have checked the link about Marriott advice. Thanks.

Craftr: I realize I can use the points for some great trips, but is it really a value compared to just holding on to and using the weeks I would be giving up for those trips.

ciscogizmo1: I know the time share purchase is for pleasure and is not an investment, but I still feel the need to know I am getting $31,500 in value. You do not use the points, so from that I could assume buying on the resale market for $7500 less makes sense to you. Both you and Craftr have said you have gotten good trades from Timber Lodge, so that is good. I can also see from the list of time shares you own, that you like Marriotts.

As far as buying where I would want to go, I really enjoyed our stay at Tahoe last week, and would certainly return. However, there are no locations we would return to year after year. That is why I want to use the time share for trading and feel a good trader is essential.

Thanks again for your replies.

Jeff

 

[jerseygirl]

Have you looked at Ebay?

This one would trade just as well:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HAWAII-MARRIOTT...464400833QQcategoryZ15897QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

With a little patience, this one would trade pretty close to the same:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Marriott-BeachP...456841255QQcategoryZ15897QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[korndoc]

I checked out the e-bay sites. WoW... quite an eye opener. Thanks

 

[caesarv]

We love TL and Grand Residence, but we thought the price was too steep. Instead we purchased a Marriotts in Vail for $2k and used it to trade for Tahoe. In the 2+ years we have owned it, we have successfully traded to Tahoe twice, and yes, we did get free parking. Our second trade is coming up in July and I was hoping the construction would be done, well,...at least the loud construction.

There are advantages of buying at TL, but you do pay a steep price. We don't particularly care about points, so buying on the secondary market is not an issue for us. In our case there was a huge disadvantage of buying in Vail as the building we bought into just quit the Marriott system, so now we are buying into yet another building there that just signed a 5-year contract with Marriott. This is costing us another $2k.

 

[korndoc]

so now we are buying into yet another building there that just signed a 5-year contract with Marriott. .

Summer in Colorado has been suggested on this thread. Which ones? Stick with Marriott?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[caesarv]

I would stick with Marriotts, but do some research first.

I see you gave up on your Tahoe purchase. With interest rates at 5%, you could earn $1600 a year from your proposed purchase price. Add to that, the $700 in MF and you could spend $2300 per year and not be saddled with a timeshare that is worth only half of what you paid for it. I believe that 1 week rentals at TL are going for about half that amount. See:
http://cgi.ebay.com/MARRIOTT-TIMBER-LODGE-LAKE-TAHOE-CA-2-BR-VILLA-RENTAL_W0QQitemZ6632590043


Of course, this does not include the value of any points.

 

[Steve]

The Marriotts in Colorado are far from being the top resorts in the Marriott system. I used to own a week (in the Birch building) at Marriott's Streamside at Vail...and while I really enjoy staying at that resort (in the Evergreen building)...it's not one I would suggest purchasing.

There have been a lot of management issues, and the maintenance fees are very high. There have also been several special assessments. Two of the five buildings (which all have separate HOAs) recently decided to leave Marriott. They are now managed by VRI. There is some (legitimate, in my opinion) question about whether the remaining three buildings will stay in the Marriott family long term. Four of the five buildings were not built by Marriott (only Evergreen was), and none of them are up to Marriott's current standards.

The other Marriott in Colorado is Mountain Valley Lodge in Breckenridge. This resort was not built by Marriott, either. I have not stayed there yet, but I have seen the resort. This resort has no two bedroom units and it has very high maintenance fees. While I will consider staying there in the future, it's clearly not one of the more elegant Marriotts. Reading the reviews here on TUG will bear this out.

Marriott is just beginning construction on a Grand Residence Club in Keystone, Colorado. This will be fractional ownership, however, not weekly timeshare. I'm sure it will be a beautiful resort, but that is a much more costly prospect...and Keystone is a much inferior location compared to Vail and Breckenridge, in my opinion.

So, for these reasons...plus the fact that summer is not prime season in Colorado so you will not have top trade power (good, but not top)...I wouldn't suggest buying one of the Colorado Marriotts.

Steve

 

[caesarv]

So Steve,

I will grant you that it may not be the best Marriotts to buy,
BUT....,
It is only $2k and we are only going to use it for trading purposes.
So far we have had 100% success with trading for what we wanted (2 for 2.)
Since the Birch building has just signed a 5 year contract with Marriotts, I am hoping that this will make it more desireable. In any case, do you really think that this is not a good deal? I am really hesitant to sink $10-30k into a timeshare right now; but $2k is trivial. I would be curious as to your opinion on this.

 

[Steve]

So Steve,

I will grant you that it may not be the best Marriotts to buy,
BUT....,
It is only $2k and we are only going to use it for trading purposes.
So far we have had 100% success with trading for what we wanted (2 for 2.)
Since the Birch building has just signed a 5 year contract with Marriotts, I am hoping that this will make it more desireable. In any case, do you really think that this is not a good deal? I am really hesitant to sink $10-30k into a timeshare right now; but $2k is trivial. I would be curious as to your opinion on this.

If you can spend only $2000 and trade into what you want, then of course I'd say it's a good deal. Even if the Birch building and/or Streamside as a whole is dropped by Marriott a few years down the road, you will have done well.

Of course, that's assuming there aren't additional maintenance fee increases and/or special assessments. The maintenance fees on my red 2 bedroom Birch unit increased to over $1200 this past year. Ouch! With those fees, even though I had only paid that same amount ($1200) to purchase the week, I felt it was a bad value. The fees increased from about $850 a week to over $1200 a week in ONE year. I know all the reasons and rationale behind it, but that's just not good management...especially considering the hefty special assessments of just a couple years ago.

So, in summary, I felt that my red two bedroom Marriott Birch week (that I only paid $1200 for) was a bad value. Many people might think that any red 2 bedroom Marriott week at that price was an incredible deal, but under the circumstances, I did not...and I sold it for a profit. So, obviously, the buyer thought it was worth more than I did. Different people see value differently, which is good or I'd still have that week.

Steve