My Survey

[SeansGravy]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?
No, I prefer to go to new destinations each vacation.

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?
Trade.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, North Africa, Asia

4) How many people do you usually travel with?
2

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?
Any

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance?
No

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time?
Yes

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars?
4

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?
$10,000

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?
$1,500

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?
No

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

 

[Karen G]

Based on your answers, it appears that you might be a better candidate for renting than owning timeshares. Buying something for the specific purpose of trading it most of the time doesn't really offer you any guarantees that you'll be able to trade for what you want when you want it. Plus, there will be additional costs involved in trading if you use RCI, II, or some other exchange company. In addition to your timeshare maintenance fees, you'd have to pay the exchange company their membership fees and costly exchange fees that seem to go up every year or so. Also, timeshares work best if you can plan a year ahead to get the best weeks, best units.

 

[DeniseM]

Agreed - based on these answers, you are not a good candidate to own a timeshare:

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?
Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, North Africa, Asia - difficult exchanges

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? - advanced planning required
No

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? - No

- timeshare ownership and trading requiries attention to detail - you would find it frustrating

 

[SeansGravy]

Thank you for the replies. We were pitched by HICV on the flexibility of points and using Last Call. Is there any system that has this flexibility without a ton of surcharges to exchange?

 

[DeniseM]

There is no system that works well for last call, unless you are happy with the leftovers - this is why: You are competing with all other owners for the best reservations, and other owners do not wait until last call. The best stuff gets reserved 12 months out. The reservations that are leftover for last call are almost always the reservations that no one wants.

Timeshare sales people lie - they will tell you whatever you want to hear, so they can make a sale. Don't rely on anything you were told.