Marriott Timeshares - What and where is the best long term value for a Timeshare purchase?

[M Wyo]

Appreciate your analysis. My only comment is that you should qualify your general statement above (emphasis added is mine) to reflect your specific situation which is that you bought Abound (formerly DC) points from the developer. I didn't see anything in your analysis that mentions resale deeded weeks? Perhaps resale deeded week owners many prove otherwise. I know our resale Vistana deeded weeks have been a fantastic deal compared with renting in Hawaii and, although the maintenance fees have risen significantly in the past 2 years, we are still at a significant savings compared to renting and and can sell for about equal to what we originally paid. If we eventually sell at a loss, we are still way ahead.

Great comments! I made a few qualification edits.

 

[Dean]

Our advice would be to not purchase anything. Especially from the developer. Timeshares are just not good value.

I'm going to disagree for some situations. Certainly buying blindly from a developer is an extremely poor choice. However, there are other ways to own as your edit notes. IMO owning resale weeks to use routinely and/or weeks to trade can be a great value for the right situation. It does highlight the need to be well informed up front and tailor the choices to one's situation. Timeshares certainly are a specialty choice that don't work for a majority of folks. Even a developer purchase can make sense for very limited situations with MVC but the times it does make sense are so limited that a blanket statement of never is not unreasonable esp given 2023 information.

 

[Michigan Czar]

I'm going to disagree for some situations. Certainly buying blindly from a developer is an extremely poor choice. However, there are other ways to own as your edit notes. IMO owning resale weeks to use routinely and/or weeks to trade can be a great value for the right situation. It does highlight the need to be well informed up front and tailor the choices to one's situation. Timeshares certainly are a specialty choice that don't work for a majority of folks. Even a developer purchase can make sense for very limited situations with MVC but the times it does make sense are so limited that a blanket statement of never is not unreasonable esp given 2023 information.

I agree I have received a great value from my Maui resale weeks and the couple times I couldn't use a week I was able to rent it on Redweek for at least 2 times maintenance fees.

 

[robleland]

Then should you not increase your prices? That is what other businesses do when costs go up. Last time I looked, Marriott rents what you own for over $9k per week on Marriott.com. You probably can’t get what they do because they benefit from the Marriott reservation system and brand, but why not increase your price to $7k to protect your margins? If your answer is, “I can’t do that because Redweek won’t be able to rent my week because others are cheaper,” then that seems to me like a basic flaw in the whole Redweek business model. If it’s so competitive that you have no pricing power to respond to cost increases, then that seems like a basic flaw in the business. If someone has a premium product to sell, they should sell it at Nieman Marcus, not Walmart.

I have raised prices however perhaps not enough. Typically renting 2 bed now about $6,500 and 3 bed $7,500. ocean front. I think those are inline with others on Redweek, but need to check again. I have some weeks early January to rent so i will find out soon!