New to TUG - Looking for help on what to buy

[kennuth]

Hi All! Really thankful that I came across TUG while researching about timeshares. Looking at picking up my first property for personal use and to share with family/friends. I live in Los Angeles so I'm thinking that a purchase in the San Diego might be good since its close enough for me to visit any year where I don't end up trading. Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions/feedback

1) Where do you want your home resort to be? - I would like to keep my first purchase in California. Since I'm in LA, I was thinking San Diego would be worthwhile

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'd like to trade and visit many places across the globe... so probably trade more than half the time

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations? Hawaii, Northern California, East Coast (Florida to NY), Maybe some popular cities in Europe (Paris, Venice)

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

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

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? - Yes

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time? - Yes, but I would also like the option to trade 3 or 4 days here and there.

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

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? - Anywhere between $3000-8000

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? - Would prefer to keep the maintenance fees under $500, but I'm open to more if the property and value is worth it

11) Are you a detail oriented planner? - Yes

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

 

[vacationhopeful]

Perhaps you need to shift UPWARDS your Maintenance Fee budget....esp if Hawaii is YOUR #1 choice vacation spot.

Your purchase budget is decent but if you want Marriott-type units, the MFs would be $1500+ for a 7 night vacation.

If you want the option to stay 3-4 nights, you should look at points based ownerships -- which generally run MORE in MFs over a weeks based system.

Shell vacation resorts have a decent presence in the Western US plus Hawaii. Very limited on in the Eastern US. Wyndham has a very strong presence in the Eastern US, with some options on the Western US and more in Hawaii, Many here would consider these resorts to be less than 4 star ... most being 3+ star. Buy in costs for Shell is like FREE (yes, smaller system not 5 star, but many matches to YOUR travel/drive to locations plus Hawaii).

As for East Coast ... Florida, particular Orlando, renting or trading is EASY and can be cheaper than buying there. West Coast of Florida has way fewer timeshares than the East Coast...higher demand ... fewer chain locations. Spot markets, like Race Week at Daytona, hard to book into with the points systems or trade via an exchange company ... just rent if once every 3-5 years. Trading off season into South Florida is possible ... booking Christmas thru Easter ... rent if trying to tag onto a cruise.. remembering, during Prime season, most of this regional is still based on Fixed Week ownerships with most checkin days being FRI or SAT; cruises come in & out every day of the week. Do a Sunday cruise and lose a day if a Saturday checkin (after 4PM) is not bad as the cruise will 'dump' you off the boat VERY EARLY (like 7AM).

Europe - not a lot of timeshares. Extremely hard to trade into. Mostly TS located in the countryside .. not the city. Europeans LIKE to vacation in the country; US travelers want to visit the cities.

 

[kennuth]

Perhaps you need to shift UPWARDS your Maintenance Fee budget....esp if Hawaii is YOUR #1 choice vacation spot.

Your purchase budget is decent but if you want Marriott-type units, the MFs would be $1500+ for a 7 night vacation.

If you want the option to stay 3-4 nights, you should look at points based ownerships -- which generally run MORE in MFs over a weeks based system.

Shell vacation resorts have a decent presence in the Western US plus Hawaii. Very limited on in the Eastern US. Wyndham has a very strong presence in the Eastern US, with some options on the Western US and more in Hawaii, Many here would consider these resorts to be less than 4 star ... most being 3+ star. Buy in costs for Shell is like FREE (yes, smaller system not 5 star, but many matches to YOUR travel/drive to locations plus Hawaii).

As for East Coast ... Florida, particular Orlando, renting or trading is EASY and can be cheaper than buying there. West Coast of Florida has way fewer timeshares than the East Coast...higher demand ... fewer chain locations. Spot markets, like Race Week at Daytona, hard to book into with the points systems or trade via an exchange company ... just rent if once every 3-5 years. Trading off season into South Florida is possible ... booking Christmas thru Easter ... rent if trying to tag onto a cruise.. remembering, during Prime season, most of this regional is still based on Fixed Week ownerships with most checkin days being FRI or SAT; cruises come in & out every day of the week. Do a Sunday cruise and lose a day if a Saturday checkin (after 4PM) is not bad as the cruise will 'dump' you off the boat VERY EARLY (like 7AM).

Europe - not a lot of timeshares. Extremely hard to trade into. Mostly TS located in the countryside .. not the city. Europeans LIKE to vacation in the country; US travelers want to visit the cities.

Thanks, Linda! Your feedback has me rethinking all of the answers.

Was hoping TS would be a good way to explore Europe as a US traveler, but I didn't realize Europeans try to get out of the cities and into the country areas. With this in mind, I will focus more on being able to visit areas in North America.

Hawaii, Northern California (Napa/Sonoma or San Fran), Mexico, Florida, Vegas, and NY would be the places I would want to visit the most. Would it be better for me to look into a weeks based system? For most of these areas I would want to spend a full week visiting, however with places like Vegas or NY I would only go for an extended weekend which is why I wanted an option for a shorter stay. But if it makes more sense to go with a weeks based system, I could always try to do short stays through the TUG Rentals section.

I understand that Hawaii is expensive, so I'm open to raising the MF threshold to $1800. The thing is... I probably wouldn't go to Hawaii every year. Airfare alone is expensive, even for us who live on the west coast. Would it make sense (or even be possible) to buy into a point system or a cheaper weeks based system where I could skip a year of using the TS and roll over the usage into the following year so that I have more points to cover a week in Hawaii?

Given this additional information, do you still recommend Shell? Or is there another that you may recommend?

Also, wondering if buying into a property with a week based system might be good so that you're always guaranteed having that property available to you every year... Especially if the property is only a couple hours away (like in San Diego).

Thanks again!

 

[taterhed]

My 2 bits:

Marriott's are great: great to use, great to trade, great benefits (Marriott preference and II for trades). But, they come at a cost.

I might suggest starting easy and working your way up. If you bite-off on a Marriott to start, you'll be stuck with some high MF's and learning the hard way. Plus, weeks are not the most flexible for 3-4 day stays. So.....

I'd suggest starting with a smaller Worldmark contract and exploring. If you are very flexible on dates and can travel on shorter notice etc.... you can take advantage of some amazing deals inside 59 days. You can use WM on both RCI and II and can stay at many of the West coast resorts--for a short or longer number of days.
Best of all, WM is cheap to buy (.30-.40 cents per point, all-in, for a fully loaded contract), easy to sell (use the points and sell at bargain; it will sell), and easy to rent (in or out) more or less points. Also, the MF's are quite reasonable. Inside of 60 days, you can snag a great Hawaii vacation (using eplus) and come out smelling like a rose. Or, just grab some easy Cali weeks for 4000 pts a week and stay at the Shell or Welk resorts while paying less than half the MF's.
IMHO

 

[VegasBella]

When I read your responses and see that you want to travel to many different places and you want your stays to often be shorter than a week it makes me wonder what is your primary goal? What is your interest in timesharing?

Perhaps it's better to just rent when you want timeshare accommodations.

 

[kennuth]

My 2 bits:

Marriott's are great: great to use, great to trade, great benefits (Marriott preference and II for trades). But, they come at a cost.

I might suggest starting easy and working your way up. If you bite-off on a Marriott to start, you'll be stuck with some high MF's and learning the hard way. Plus, weeks are not the most flexible for 3-4 day stays. So.....

I'd suggest starting with a smaller Worldmark contract and exploring. If you are very flexible on dates and can travel on shorter notice etc.... you can take advantage of some amazing deals inside 59 days. You can use WM on both RCI and II and can stay at many of the West coast resorts--for a short or longer number of days.
Best of all, WM is cheap to buy (.30-.40 cents per point, all-in, for a fully loaded contract), easy to sell (use the points and sell at bargain; it will sell), and easy to rent (in or out) more or less points. Also, the MF's are quite reasonable. Inside of 60 days, you can snag a great Hawaii vacation (using eplus) and come out smelling like a rose. Or, just grab some easy Cali weeks for 4000 pts a week and stay at the Shell or Welk resorts while paying less than half the MF's.
IMHO

Many thanks for the suggestion to look at a Worldmark contract! I will definitely take a look. I think starting small and not jumping into something with high MFs for my first property is definitely a smart idea.

 

[kennuth]

When I read your responses and see that you want to travel to many different places and you want your stays to often be shorter than a week it makes me wonder what is your primary goal? What is your interest in timesharing?

Perhaps it's better to just rent when you want timeshare accommodations.

Primary goal would be to use the TS for whole week stays. The reason I wanted a short stay option is for locations like vegas where it's really convenient for socal residents to visit on a whim for a weekend. But I'm starting to realize that short stay options aren't what TS owners should be looking for. I'll reserve the idea of renting for the short term stays. Thanks!