I'm truly surprised to see how many people are using their timeshares for exchanges, given the dwindling availability of desirable resorts available through RCI.
We began buying weeks (always resale at bargain prices) in the mid 1990's. We exchanged often, approximately 100 times, and have had wonderful vacations all over the U.S., Canada, Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, and Europe. Many of these vacations consisted of 4 weeks back-to-back in a specific area.
We live in the New York City area and hate the cold winters. For years we planned to buy a condo in Florida when we retired. We planned to spend about 4-5 winter months there. Many of our relatives and former co-workers do this.
However, we began exchanging into many timeshares in the southeast and the gulf coast of Florida in February and decided we liked the Ft. Lauderdale Beach Resort the best. So we gradually purchased 5 weeks back-to-back (2 bedroom lock-off units) (January to March)and have been using them every year as our "snowbird escape." It saved us the expense and responsibility of buying a full year condo. We can easily rent our timeshares for much more than the maintenance fees if we decide to go somewhere else one year. But that's not feasible now because my mother-in-law is 93 and must come with us when we travel. She is used to our FLBR unit and looks forward to going there every year. We get together with a lot of friends and relatives who either live in Florida full time, or spend several months there in the winter. We have met several people, including some TUGgers, who also own for personal use multiple weeks at our resort. It's VRI managed and they have done a wonderful job renovating it.
Last month while we were in the middle of our 5 week Ft. Lauderdale vacation, a very desirable timeshare in Ft. Myers Beach popped up as a last minute cancellation on the RCI web site. We confirmed it for about $300. out-of-pocket cost and rented our Ft. Lauderdale week while we were away.
We also own 2 beach front weeks near Atlantic City in July and 3 Cape Cod weeks in August. These are drive-to locations for us. We use them often and occasionally rent them.
I still own some weeks purchased in the mid 1990's that we bought as traders. They are nice resorts but we do not care to vacation there, mainly because of the cost and length of the air trip needed to get there. We occasionally trade them through SFX or TPI or Redweek. We are in the process of selling two of them to families who have rented them from us for a few years.
I will be so happy to reach the point where we use everything we own. If we want to go elsewhere in the future, we plan to just rent what we want from an owner. I'll be so glad to be rid of RCI.
