LuvToEscapeNewEngland
newbie
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2021
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 4
THIS IS SO AMAZING!!! First, let me just say Thank You for creating this, and to all members for keeping it alive. When we first moved to Rhode Island I couldn’t find anyone who knew a thing about steam heat and found a website called Heating Help that taught me all I needed to know. This seems much the same in terms of timeshares. What a find! So, our survey is below and any responses would be greatly appreciated.
1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
YES. We live in New England and travel to Florida all the time as we have family near Tampa and LOVE Disney. We were annual passholders to Disney before the pandemic and are considering it again but DVC is probably out of the cards for us due to cost and kids eventually getting older. We will still take trips there often, to escape the cold for cheap. We also like to go to Martinique (been 5 times when flights were cheap on Norwegian) and Europe, especially as we get older and the kids grow. Hawaii and Wine Country/CA are our other favorites, but HI especially is a beast of a flight, so every year may be too much for us.
2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?
I think we would trade more than half the time, if not almost all of the time. This is why we love the idea of “points” programs and are thinking if RCI or II were available without an ownership requirement at all, we might do that. We just want a reliable source for discounted vacation rentals that don’t involve strange transactions and a bunch of cash and wiring fees, etc, like a lot of the international VRBO and AirBNB places seem to have. Also, we like the safety and security of a big resort with an awesome pool and dining options, and having a “guaranteed” vacation at least every 2 years is kind of fun.
3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
I’m guessing this means destinations in general? Orlando, Hawaii, France (including Martinique), Western Europe in general, and California Wine Country
4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself?
Usually it’s our family of 4, sometimes it’s just my wife and myself, and if we get a timeshare, it will possibly be with in-laws or another family, too, if there’s room.
5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
We are pretty flexible here, pulling the kids out of school for a few days to make a great trip happen, flexible all summer, and also doing weekend getaways when we can.
6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
No, not really. We’d rather have flexibility as we’ve been burned with forced cancellations for weather and other reasons.
7) Can your vacation for a full week at a time?
Yes, usually at least 2 full weeks a year, either as two one-weekers or one long vacation, plus a couple long weekends when we can.
8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
4+. Five is great, too, but we’d rather have a nice place with a great pool that allows us to cook our own food and do laundry over a 5-star hotel room with no laundry or kitchen and an ocean view. We’ve been to a few places that are supposedly “4 stars” where people litter and are disrespectful to other guests, blasting music, etc. We’d like to avoid those kinds of places. For reference, we’d consider Kings Land a 4-star place. Just got back from there, and it was great.
9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
Since HGVC is our only real reference, we’ve been looking at finding the best way to get somewhere between 3,500 and 7,000 points, either Annually or EOY, with the lowest possible MFs. Hoping to spend <5k to close, plus annual MFs. Florida and SC locations do make us a bit nervous due to elevation and hurricane risk, especially long-term. We’d like the kids to be able to use these, too. Another reason why we like points, but not if our home resort has to be rebuilt or is destroyed and leads to big MF hikes.
10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year?
Based on what we have started looking for, I think $1,000 seems reasonable, but lower would obviously be better. This is probably the thing we want to keep the lowest. Would rather a place that costs 3k to buy, but has low MFs and low expected longer-term MFs, than a place that’s free but has higher MFs or ends up needing a massive renovation that the reserve can’t cover.
11) Are you a detail-oriented planner?
Yes, unfortunately, for everyone involved.
12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
Yes. We do hope to give it to the kids and so had a couple questions here. If we want to put it into our trust, should we have the trust buy it (can you do that, or does that make it more difficult to buy?) or should we just transfer it into the trust later? And if we want to protect the kids from having to deal with it at all, can’t we just leave it out of our trust and will it to someone or some organization that we hate? Thinking maybe to will it to the Dodgers organization.
Final Thoughts/Concerns:
From what we’ve learned so far, HGVC seems like an awesome deal, especially with a secondary market purchase. We love the flexibility of points, and it seems like the 9month vs 12month thing isn’t a huge deal for booking, even in Hawaii, so the plan would be to get something stateside with low MFs, and book Hawaii maybe every 2 or 4 years in the off-season using our points. In a way, we like the idea of the extra stuff through RCI the best. Some great deals to be had just by being a member, right? Seems like RCI, for a fee, takes the guesswork out of whether a rental is legit or not, while also giving you access to tons of properties. If that’s true, in reality, we just want to get a timeshare for that alone, and the ownership thing is a nice bonus. But we don’t want to get a timeshare that’s a money pit, just to have access to RCI. That’s why we were thinking to get something like 3,500-7,000 points EOY, and do one big trip planned every 2 years, and use RCI for good deals in-between. This also cuts our MF in half as it’s only EOY.
Are we on the right track thinking HGVC is the best fit for us or is there a better way to get access to RCI? We don’t really want to get stuck with a timeshare that we HAVE to use, or a company that goes belly-up, or with a contract that ends up requiring assessments or huge MF hikes. Realizing there is no guaranteed, it seems like HGVC checks most of the boxes there and has the best trade-in value for points, but please let us know if we’re totally blind to a way better opportunity, or if you think ownership doesn’t make any sense for us at all. My personal favorite brand is Marriott for their beds, but we have the Hilton Amex Card and love the value it delivers, so we've kind of turned into Hilton people even though they have stiffer beds.
Thank you so much!!
1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
YES. We live in New England and travel to Florida all the time as we have family near Tampa and LOVE Disney. We were annual passholders to Disney before the pandemic and are considering it again but DVC is probably out of the cards for us due to cost and kids eventually getting older. We will still take trips there often, to escape the cold for cheap. We also like to go to Martinique (been 5 times when flights were cheap on Norwegian) and Europe, especially as we get older and the kids grow. Hawaii and Wine Country/CA are our other favorites, but HI especially is a beast of a flight, so every year may be too much for us.
2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time?
I think we would trade more than half the time, if not almost all of the time. This is why we love the idea of “points” programs and are thinking if RCI or II were available without an ownership requirement at all, we might do that. We just want a reliable source for discounted vacation rentals that don’t involve strange transactions and a bunch of cash and wiring fees, etc, like a lot of the international VRBO and AirBNB places seem to have. Also, we like the safety and security of a big resort with an awesome pool and dining options, and having a “guaranteed” vacation at least every 2 years is kind of fun.
3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
I’m guessing this means destinations in general? Orlando, Hawaii, France (including Martinique), Western Europe in general, and California Wine Country
4) How many people do you usually travel with - total, including yourself?
Usually it’s our family of 4, sometimes it’s just my wife and myself, and if we get a timeshare, it will possibly be with in-laws or another family, too, if there’s room.
5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
We are pretty flexible here, pulling the kids out of school for a few days to make a great trip happen, flexible all summer, and also doing weekend getaways when we can.
6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
No, not really. We’d rather have flexibility as we’ve been burned with forced cancellations for weather and other reasons.
7) Can your vacation for a full week at a time?
Yes, usually at least 2 full weeks a year, either as two one-weekers or one long vacation, plus a couple long weekends when we can.
8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
4+. Five is great, too, but we’d rather have a nice place with a great pool that allows us to cook our own food and do laundry over a 5-star hotel room with no laundry or kitchen and an ocean view. We’ve been to a few places that are supposedly “4 stars” where people litter and are disrespectful to other guests, blasting music, etc. We’d like to avoid those kinds of places. For reference, we’d consider Kings Land a 4-star place. Just got back from there, and it was great.
9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
Since HGVC is our only real reference, we’ve been looking at finding the best way to get somewhere between 3,500 and 7,000 points, either Annually or EOY, with the lowest possible MFs. Hoping to spend <5k to close, plus annual MFs. Florida and SC locations do make us a bit nervous due to elevation and hurricane risk, especially long-term. We’d like the kids to be able to use these, too. Another reason why we like points, but not if our home resort has to be rebuilt or is destroyed and leads to big MF hikes.
10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year?
Based on what we have started looking for, I think $1,000 seems reasonable, but lower would obviously be better. This is probably the thing we want to keep the lowest. Would rather a place that costs 3k to buy, but has low MFs and low expected longer-term MFs, than a place that’s free but has higher MFs or ends up needing a massive renovation that the reserve can’t cover.
11) Are you a detail-oriented planner?
Yes, unfortunately, for everyone involved.
12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do?
Yes. We do hope to give it to the kids and so had a couple questions here. If we want to put it into our trust, should we have the trust buy it (can you do that, or does that make it more difficult to buy?) or should we just transfer it into the trust later? And if we want to protect the kids from having to deal with it at all, can’t we just leave it out of our trust and will it to someone or some organization that we hate? Thinking maybe to will it to the Dodgers organization.
Final Thoughts/Concerns:
From what we’ve learned so far, HGVC seems like an awesome deal, especially with a secondary market purchase. We love the flexibility of points, and it seems like the 9month vs 12month thing isn’t a huge deal for booking, even in Hawaii, so the plan would be to get something stateside with low MFs, and book Hawaii maybe every 2 or 4 years in the off-season using our points. In a way, we like the idea of the extra stuff through RCI the best. Some great deals to be had just by being a member, right? Seems like RCI, for a fee, takes the guesswork out of whether a rental is legit or not, while also giving you access to tons of properties. If that’s true, in reality, we just want to get a timeshare for that alone, and the ownership thing is a nice bonus. But we don’t want to get a timeshare that’s a money pit, just to have access to RCI. That’s why we were thinking to get something like 3,500-7,000 points EOY, and do one big trip planned every 2 years, and use RCI for good deals in-between. This also cuts our MF in half as it’s only EOY.
Are we on the right track thinking HGVC is the best fit for us or is there a better way to get access to RCI? We don’t really want to get stuck with a timeshare that we HAVE to use, or a company that goes belly-up, or with a contract that ends up requiring assessments or huge MF hikes. Realizing there is no guaranteed, it seems like HGVC checks most of the boxes there and has the best trade-in value for points, but please let us know if we’re totally blind to a way better opportunity, or if you think ownership doesn’t make any sense for us at all. My personal favorite brand is Marriott for their beds, but we have the Hilton Amex Card and love the value it delivers, so we've kind of turned into Hilton people even though they have stiffer beds.
Thank you so much!!
