I should start by saying I'm an opera and classical music and museum nut and a retired teacher (read serious budget limitations). All TS bought on secondary market. When I first started with timeshares (2000), I was still working in Los Angeles and found Inn at the Opera (still a private boutique timeshare) right across the street from the opera house in San Francisco. I could go with a friend to a one bedroom and stay in SF for about $400 each in a perfect place. I love SF and bought a couple more at other places, some to use during opera season and sometimes to rent. Found them difficult to rent and eventually disposed of those. I love Sedona and bought at Los Abrigados. So, Inn at the Opera is now run by Wyndham and Shell Vacations (a subsidiary of Wyndham I think). And not run very well I think - but it is still right across the street from the opera house and while the MFs have about doubled (thanks Wyndham), the cost of hotels in SF is so high that sharing with a friend for $700/week isn't so bad. Los Abrigados was part of ILX, which went bellyup during the 2008 depression and was bought by Diamond. Luckily I got out fast. I wouldn't touch anything with Diamond with a 10 foot pole.
Following my interest in cities, I started picking up points with Royal Holiday. I have enough that my MF is as low per point as you can get. That allows me to stay for a reasonable price in New York during opera season (depending on time of year, a one bedroom can be under $175 including tax and fees), additional San Francisco,weeks, San Diego..... RH also has contracts in Paris, London, Rome, Brussels, and other European cities and I've used those a lot. I also occasionally have stayed in mountain communities. I picked up a Hyatt in Carmel and I do like how it trades with Interval - I've gotten the Marriott Boston twice - and I was able to reserve a week in Aspen this summer for the music festival (which is so not happening). However, the Hyatt points system takes an advanced degree to understand and there are extra charges for everything! Charge to reserve; charge to cancel; cleaning charge if you stay less than a full week. And that is just for starters! And in the two years I've owned there, the MF increased about 20%. I'll be getting rid of that soon - will probably keep it one more year hoping for Aspen music festival next summer! With all the timeshares I own and use, though, I'm looking at whether it costs me less to stay in a decent (or better) place than it would to rent. I am fine with airbnb, though I did cancel out of one in Santa Fe this summer - we both agreed we didn't need to be in each others' spaces. I'm not much of a golfing or beachy person; love the mountains but I'm still fine with camping there - and condos aren't so hard to rent in summer. For nature, I like road trips and camping or any cheap motel.
This is a rather long way of saying that what you should own depends on your own travel budget, where you like to go, and how often you want to go there. If you don't want the inflexibility of a fixed week, better to go with points or at least something that floats. If you are going somewhere that generally has too much hotel space, rent on the tug site. If you are going somewhere that has lots of airbnb, consider doing that. If you want to be in Hawaii with an ocean view at Christmas, you'd better buy it!
