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Bill Rogers quoted in Sun-Sentinel

tigerdog

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The South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran an article about timeshare on Feb. 26 and quoted Bill Rogers in it. Did anyone see it?

Time-share rental "is one of the true travel bargains today," said Bill Rogers of the Timeshare Users Group at Tug2.net, which was created by time-share owners.

"If I were getting involved with time share again from the start, knowing what I do now, I would not buy a time share but rent from current owners instead," said Rogers. "Usually you can find great rental deals just about anywhere you want to go and at prices that are sometimes near the annual maintenance fees" that owners pay to their resorts.
I wonder: knowing what YOU know today, would you still buy timeshare, or would you rent instead?
 

Dave*H

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tigerdog said:
I wonder: knowing what YOU know today, would you still buy timeshare, or would you rent instead?
Both buy resale and rent. For some of the destinations and times I travel, I rarely see rentals, and when I do, they are priced significantly over the MF and/or at the wrong time. Other destinations have plenty of rentals so it makes more sense to do that.
 

wbtimesharer

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Its funny how people seem to forget that in order for there to be cheap timeshare rentals, there needs to be owners. I prefer a mix of own and rent, but stay away from Developer purchases in favor of the more economical resales. Of course, in order for there to be resales available, someone has to buy from the developer. I just prefer it not be me.

The author also forgot the advantage of owning in that it allows you to exchange units.


Bill
 

Walt

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You can rent timeshare weeks without a RCI membership

brennumtimesharer said:
Its funny how people seem to forget that in order for there to be cheap timeshare rentals, there needs to be owners. I prefer a mix of own and rent, but stay away from Developer purchases in favor of the more economical resales. Of course, in order for there to be resales available, someone has to buy from the developer. I just prefer it not be me.

The author also forgot the advantage of owning in that it allows you to exchange units.


Bill


You can rent timeshare weeks at Snap Travel. If you charge to your American Express or Delta credit card you get a 30% discount. This usually is less than Extra Vacation from RCI.

Walt :)
 

timeos2

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Buy to use - rent to "trade"

tigerdog said:
I wonder: knowing what YOU know today, would you still buy timeshare, or would you rent instead?

For resorts and resort groups such as Fairfield that I wanted to utilize regularly I would still buy. It guarantees access which is what I wanted to begin with. I would not buy if my intention was to trade all around the world. Renting makes much more sense financially, for control of availability, use period and unit type than any type of exchange can.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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timeos2 said:
For resorts and resort groups such as Fairfield that I wanted to utilize regularly I would still buy. It guarantees access which is what I wanted to begin with. I would not buy if my intention was to trade all around the world. Renting makes much more sense financially, for control of availability, use period and unit type than any type of exchange can.
I agree with John here. If you can find a resort group that has resorts at locales you want to visit - and it is a well run, reliable organization, it probably makes sense to buy.

If you just want to travel, rental will often provide better value.

A couple of related provisios, though:

  • If you are interested in visiting a specific resort regularly and there is good rental availability at the resort at prices close to annual fees, then rent instead of buy.
  • Sometimes you can find an owner in a resort group who regularly rents units from the resort group at attractive rates. Then make arrangements to rent regularly from that person. (E.g., we routinely split our Raintree Vacation Club membership and rent at least one half of it. We recover our maintenance fee from both halves by renting one of the units. We now have a mailing list of eight people who have rented from us in the past and wish to continue to rent in the future.)
  • If you're a workaholic, purchasing a timeshare is a way of forcing vacations to get scheduled. Many people with workaholic tendencies put off vacation planning and it never happens. Buying a timeshare forces them to schedule and plan the vacation and commits them to making vacations. In such cases, the more expensive option (owning a timeshare) may actually be more valuable and worthwhile.
 

caribbean

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Nope - still way ahead even trading through RCI

OK had to do the math yet again. We are booked in TS for a total of 57 nights this year. All but one week of that is exchanging through RCI. I totalled up my 5 MFs, RCI annual fee, RCI exchange fees for these days, plus a portion of my initial purchase price. Comes out to $4300 for this year. $4300 / 57 nights is about $75 a night or $528 a week.

1 week Residences at the Crane, Barbados - 1BR w/ pool ($758+tax/nt)
1 week DIVI Carina, ST Croix - 1BR
1 week Sunterra Flamingo Beach, ST Martin - 1BR
1 week Sunterra Royal Plam Beach, ST Martin - 2BR
1 week Affinia Manhattan (RHC), New York City - 1BR ($399+tax/nt)
1 week Sandpiper Beach, Sarasota - 2BR
1 week 4 Sails, VA Beach - 2BR penthouse
4 days at Fairfield Atlantic City - 1BR
4 days at Las Olas - 2BR


No way I can do this anyway near this cheap renting!! And none of them for less than $528 a week. Call me a Happy Timesharer. And as long as I can keep doing this through RCI, I'll keep trading with them.
 
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karenvit

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Patty--where are you getting your rentals--especially those in St. Martin/ Thanks so much.

Karen
 

caribbean

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Karen-

They are not rentals. All of them are exchanges through RCI, except the Affinia Manhattan which is through Royal Holiday Club that I own. That was my point. I have made a lot of exchanges, very inexpensively. All for less than what one week at Crane ( from management website ) would cost. So at least in my case, owning and trading timeshares is much cheaper than renting. It all depends on what you own, what you paid for it, and to a large degree where/when you want to travel. As you can see, I prefer nicer units in the Caribbean, which you couldn't rent for what it is costing me to own TS and trade through RCI. There are other less expensive places you can go where rentals may well be cheaper, esprecially if your outlay for MF on your unit and your initial outlay costs were higher. But TSing is working very well for me.
 

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The only thing I don't understand about the article is.. How does Bill always have time for interviews and promoting the site, but never has time to post or address member concerns?
 

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I have to say I agree with CaliDave. I am greatful that Bill started this site, but it's sad that he doesn't participate here. It's also sad to see him telling people that buying timeshare isn't worthwhile.

As for whether I'd buy given the current state of timeshares, I just agreed to buy another timeshare last Friday. I bought my first timeshare in 2004 and am now up to owning six, so I certainly think owning a timeshare is worthwhile. I'm staying in a one bedroom, two bath unit at the Manhattan Club in a few weeks, which I got for 28,500 RCI Points + $149. In the past year, I've stayed at Vistana Villages for 7,500 RCI Points + $149, Disney's Boardwalk on an AC, Disney's Beach Club on an AC, and in a two-bedroom at Lawrence Welk Escondido from for DAE $350. Can't do that by renting...
 
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