thetimeshareguy
TUG Member
When I was on holiday last week in Puerto Vallarta, I read a book entitled "Timeshare Vacations for Dummies." I've read several For Dummies books in the past and found them useful, and I happen to have a lot of respect for the Frommer's brand, of which this is a part.
But the editors appear got "taken in" by the author Lisa Ann Schreier who is a timeshare salesperson and consultant. As I wrote in a review on Amazon (and in a letter to the publishers at Wiley), what purports to be a book benefiting the consumer is, in fact, a thinly veiled advancement of the very worst self-interested ideas of resort developers and retail timeshare salespeople. Her conflict of interest jumps out all over the place.
It's too late to prevent this book being available, but I hope that if more of us write to complain, the For Dummies folks won't publish a second edition, or anything else from this author. The book is extremely misleading and is in fact filled with errors that anyone who knows about timeshare would spot quickly. And they're not the usual errors of omission or sloppy research. They're statements meant to help this author boost her own credibility as the "go to" person in the retail timeshare industry, while not being helpful to the consumer.
Let me give you two specific examples.
First, savvy timeshare owners know that you should virtually never buy a timeshare new, as they trade at discounts of 60 per cent or more in the (large) resale market. Nowhere in the book does the author mention that as much as 60 per cent of the cost of a "new" timeshare interval is the developer's marketing costs (all those free theme park tickets, etc.), so if you sell your timeshare (and people do -- the average period of ownership is just five years) you stand to lose a lot of money. Whenever this author mentions resales, it's usually to say something negative. She ought to tell people to seriously investigate the resale market, and give them tips in that regard. Instead, she offers this howler from page 181: "Timeshares can and do increase in value," she writes, "however, but inflation may negate any gains you make." Wow!
Another example (and I could provide others) is not an innocent mistake: on page 135 she tells readers that if they buy at a "standard" resort they can't ever exchange into a more upscale (five-star, gold crown, etc.) resort. "You can always trade down," she writes, "but you cannot trade up." Say what? That is false and is exactly what salespeople say to get people to overpay for fancy timeshares. I own two weeks at "standard" resorts and exchange them all the time into top-rated 5-star places like Sheraton's Vistana or the Star Island resort in Orlando. This single piece of disinformation not only destroys the author's credibility but is a real disservice to readers.
It's just awful that this thing got (and remains) in print.
But the editors appear got "taken in" by the author Lisa Ann Schreier who is a timeshare salesperson and consultant. As I wrote in a review on Amazon (and in a letter to the publishers at Wiley), what purports to be a book benefiting the consumer is, in fact, a thinly veiled advancement of the very worst self-interested ideas of resort developers and retail timeshare salespeople. Her conflict of interest jumps out all over the place.
It's too late to prevent this book being available, but I hope that if more of us write to complain, the For Dummies folks won't publish a second edition, or anything else from this author. The book is extremely misleading and is in fact filled with errors that anyone who knows about timeshare would spot quickly. And they're not the usual errors of omission or sloppy research. They're statements meant to help this author boost her own credibility as the "go to" person in the retail timeshare industry, while not being helpful to the consumer.
Let me give you two specific examples.
First, savvy timeshare owners know that you should virtually never buy a timeshare new, as they trade at discounts of 60 per cent or more in the (large) resale market. Nowhere in the book does the author mention that as much as 60 per cent of the cost of a "new" timeshare interval is the developer's marketing costs (all those free theme park tickets, etc.), so if you sell your timeshare (and people do -- the average period of ownership is just five years) you stand to lose a lot of money. Whenever this author mentions resales, it's usually to say something negative. She ought to tell people to seriously investigate the resale market, and give them tips in that regard. Instead, she offers this howler from page 181: "Timeshares can and do increase in value," she writes, "however, but inflation may negate any gains you make." Wow!
Another example (and I could provide others) is not an innocent mistake: on page 135 she tells readers that if they buy at a "standard" resort they can't ever exchange into a more upscale (five-star, gold crown, etc.) resort. "You can always trade down," she writes, "but you cannot trade up." Say what? That is false and is exactly what salespeople say to get people to overpay for fancy timeshares. I own two weeks at "standard" resorts and exchange them all the time into top-rated 5-star places like Sheraton's Vistana or the Star Island resort in Orlando. This single piece of disinformation not only destroys the author's credibility but is a real disservice to readers.
It's just awful that this thing got (and remains) in print.
