How to Relinquish Holiday Inn Timeshares without huge fees

[Ronando]

We are looking for advice on relinquishing two timeshares to Holiday Inn without paying excessive fees. We combined the timeshare points to make one last trip in Oct 2023. But with health issues after the last trip, it is clear that our health will not allow us to use them next year or into the future.

We have no debt on either timeshare and the maintenance fees are paid up on both through the end of 2023. One is with Orange Lake in Fl and the other in Vermont. To our surprise, Holiday Inn said it would cost $1200 per timeshare for them to take them back. Plus they said the process would take 12-14 weeks, so we would be required to pay the next maintenance fee of about $1300 each. So this would cost over $5000 to give back two timeshares! We are shocked and worried about this unexpected and huge financial burden.

Does anyone have any suggestions on any way to relinquish the deeds without needing to pay so much to do it? And advice on another way to approach Holiday Inn?

We did begin to look into the possibility of giving the timeshares away privately on the marketplace, but it seems at minimum we would need to pay the $2600 for the combined maintenance fees on both contracts to do that. Then if we can’t give them in 2024, Holiday Inn will still charge us $1200 each to take them back and we would be in the same situation we are now with no other options. So we are hoping for some way to close this out sooner.

We are grateful for any advice.

 

[Passepartout]

You seem to have a pretty good understanding of the situation/options. Sadly, this late in the year, the necessity of being current with all fees makes it all but impossible to deed them back without further expense.

You can either book a couple of weeks and rent them out to cover the '24 MF then unload them, or if you are in no need of further credit, just stop paying, and ignore the possible credit score ding and tell 'em to pound sand. There's a good chance that nothing will come of it and eventually they'll foreclose and you'll be done.

Jim

 

[TUGBrian]

same 3 options for all owners Im afraid.

1. surrender it back (as detailed above)
2. offer it up for free on the resale market to see if someone would take it off your hands (though that would require fees as well, especially 2024 dues paid)
3. walk away

we wish there were other/better solutions for exit, but they all do really boil down to these 3 in the end.

 

[Patri]

Tell HI you are done, they can have them back however they choose to handle it, but you will not be giving them any more money. Also, do not pay any company that offers to help you get rid of them. They are all scams. You will be out the $ and still own the timeshares.
This is not the end of the world, so try to stop worrying. Focus on your health.

 

[Ronando]

Thanks everyone, I wanted to make sure we weren't missing some secret Holiday Inn specific move to get out this bind. But you all have given us some confidence to at least know where we are in the game. We'll see which play we choose to run in the end. TUG forums and articles have been really helpful to us. It's nice to get clear guidance in a murky industry. Bless you!