My husband and I were in the timeshare sales side of the biz for over 40 years. We have also owned timeshare weeks for many years and use them intermittently when appropriate. We are heading to Garza Blanca in Puerto Vallarta in a week on an exchange. We returned from Paris a month ago, where we used Hyatt points (not timeshare points, but business points) to reduce the rate of the Hotel du Louvre. Sometimes we swap and sometimes we rent, it depends on the scenario.
Having read this entire thread something jumps out at me. POINTS. The points seem to always be the issue as you own NOTHING and must trust the club to not only simply exist but give you a vacation that you can use. Whereas years ago you bought week 14 at the Merriweather on Fort Lauderdale Beach and that is where you could show up and vacation every year if you wanted to. You actually owned something and thats where you began. I have two week 14's on Fort Laud Beach because they are either Easter week or in the zone and I get more from them if I wanted to trade them versus a week in September. However I could use them without having to ask someone for something. The resort is an old resort from the late 70's but its run as a well oiled machine, super clean and even remodeled - great management can be rare! My mf is $675 a week so when I trade for two weeks at Cliffs Club, I can easily justify the money.
IF you like Hawaii, FIND A LOVELY OLDER RESORT THAT IS WELL MAINTAINED that is in RCI with WEEKS for sale and buy a resale week that works for you. DO NOT rely on trading to get what youd like. Not sure if this animal exists these days but on paper thats what I suggest. Are there fixed weeks in Hawaii?
I used to live 20 minutes from my resort in Fort Laud so trading was my intention, BUT I also vacation via WILD CARD. Meaning that I dont care where I go as much as what the resort is like. Ill go anywhere that offers a nice resort and dont care that much about where it is. I never decide on a location and date, I type in a location and leave the dates blank, so I can see what comes up. Type in Hawaii and hit SEARCH, in RCI. I trade with maximum flexibility. OR if we want to go somewhere in May, I type in a date range and hit SEARCH to see what in the world is available in May. Broad based exchanges yield happy results.
In places like Florida, Hilton Head Island, California, HAWAII, there are such strict or even regulations for building and the insane price of land has limited new construction as there are height restrictions, that there are likely older resorts from the 80's that have been sold out for years and are run well by the management company. I would not hesitate to buy an old resort resale unit in a nice location if I wanted a place to return to. But to give people many tens of thousands of dollars of my money to hold UP FRONT and hope they give me what I want each year, is truly getting into bed with an unknown entity.
Back in the day, we begged people to buy a timeshare week for 7500 but they actually got to use a lovely resort for 20 or more years. These days with people giving Disney or Vidanta fifty thousand plus dollars for NOTHING seems insane to me. I was always a top salesperson back in the day but I dont know HOW anyone sells anything to people at todays prices or justifies a $1800 mf on top of the price. I can always find a $500 night hotel - pay my $3500, and walk away. I dont need a condo that badly that I would ever pony up fifty grand up front. I have friends who lost over 150k on the Solaz debacle with Marriott - I vacationed there three times on RCI exchange, which is three times more than they got to stay there. Please dont give these developers these big numbers - I cant see paying more than 20k for even a fixed week somewhere I liked for 10 years - even though that math isnt that bad.
