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The New York Times: My Timeshare Is an Albatross. How Do I Get Rid of It?

artringwald

artringwald

TUG Review Crew
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Location
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Resorts Owned
HVC: The Point at Poipu, 3 deeded weeks, 1 is in The Club.
Last edited by a moderator:
Behind a paywall.
 
Behind a paywall, couldn't read it.
 
Could it be the same as this? I was told it was not a useful article and it is behind a pay wall.

tugbbs.com

The New York Times: My Timeshare Is an Albatross. How Do I Get Rid of It?

“The short answer is because they’re worthless — that’s why you can’t get rid of them,” said Joe Solseng, a lawyer at Schroeter Goldmark & Bender in Seattle. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/realestate/sell-timeshare.html
tugbbs.com tugbbs.com
 
Here is the comment I just added. [ July 6 ]

In my opinion one of the best sources of information is :
Timeshare Users Group / tugbbs.com
*************
Here are some points I learned from reading TS owners post in the
Users Group Forum.
1) Timeshares like cars are a depreciating asset - and both can be
bought used for a much lower price.
2) The value in timeshare is in use. Family vacation memories and / or
personal relaxation can be priceless.
3) Effective timeshare use requires advanced planning and
sometimes making reservations 6-12 months ahead. Think 4th of July
week in a 2 bedroom unit ;with a kitchen for less than the price
of a hotel room.
4) You are not required to accept an " inherited" timeshare.
 
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As of 2 pm eastern Sunday July 6 the NYT comments section is open for additions [ if you are a subscriber ]
I am sure @TUGBrian would appreciate more mentions of TUG & links due to the article's media visibility in the NYT
 
I posted a couple comments and referenced TUG.

EDIT: It is always so disappointing to see so much bad / wrong information in the comments, and for that matter in the article. I think almost 50% of the comments that discussed details still thought that TS were fixed week fixed location, and apparently never heard of an exchange.

It's really funny when people tell me - "you must love going to the same place the same time every year" and I say, I've been to probably 30 places and only gone back to 2. Though it's also surprising to me that so many people never want to go back to a place - I grew up with my family wanting to go to Lake George every summer. I've become quite fond of Orlando and parts south in the winter.

It really is a bit of lifestyle, but when you can now afford to go on 10+ weeks of trips a year, sometimes you want the comfort of an area you know well and enjoy, and sometimes you want somewhere new, and so far I've been able to get both from TS. I wonder if some of it is people struggling to pay for a hotel for a week every other year or something, so of course there's huge FOMO when you don't get a bunch of "bites at the apple" as it were.
 
jp10558 said:
It really is a bit of lifestyle, but when you can now afford to go on 10+ weeks of trips a year,....
Click to expand...
That's the key (IMHO) why timesharing works for some but not for the remaining 99% of the population, myself included. We don't have the means and liberty to "go on 10+ weeks of trips a year". And that's why you see articles such as the one in the OP. And that's why so many people come on social media platforms and diss TSs and the TS industry. Of course, unscrupulous sales people and various TS systems and companies don't help the reputation of the TS industry either.

BTW, I am not one who disses TSs and the TS industry. For those of you who do own TSs, I say, "Great! Enjoy your timeshare."
 
Albatross! Does it come with wafers?

Almost as silly as this NYT (a former newspaper) article and the comments.

Worthless? Only if not used ...
Yes, 'worth less' than developer sales price, possibly 'worth less' than annual maintenance fees.

Comments conflate sales of TS product with the product itself. As previously stated, a lot of bad/wrong info ... along with gratuitous political snark.
 
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So many people think anything called a "timeshare" is a worthless scam. And many people DO get taken advantage of. But I don't think of timeshares as a scam, I think of them as a math problem, with the knowledge that most people are incompetent at basic math.

It doesn't matter if you travel 10 weeks a year or 3 days a year, or if you travel to a different place every year or the same location... If it saves you money and/or aggravation compared to what you were doing before, it's a win. That's where timeshares make sense.

In my case, my family likes to ski & snowboard in the winter & spring. Over the last 20 years we've watched as we've been completely priced out of rentals in resort areas. It isn't that we can't afford it, it's that rentals have become completely absurd. I can't enjoy a trip if my family is crammed into a tiny hotel room for $700 per day! So, we looked at the value proposition of ownership (remember, it's all just a math problem, and I like working the math from all angles). After running all the expenses a resort condo owner has to pay, I came to the conclusion that the only people in resort areas who get ripped off more than renters are the owners. It's their fault though, they're the ones choosing to pay $2000 per square foot for their own personal "albatross".

Aside from the skyrocketing cost of renting, the reality is that so many people don't care about the cost, and gobble up reservations a year in advance. My family can't plan that far ahead, we barely know what our schedule will look like one month ahead of time. Which means by the time we can search for a place to stay, everything is sold out and I end up searching 2x per day on multiple sites for last-minute cancellations. Frustrating.

Deeded fixed-week ownership at a locally owned and managed resort changed all of that for us. We own every week we could realistically ever use for travel, and when we can't use any of our time (either a full week or a few days of our week), we just have the resort rent the unused days for us. With the 65% of the rental income we get from this arrangement, we're able to stay in one of the most expensive resort areas in the world for almost nothing, and we never have to struggle to find last-minute reservations again. I believe timeshares are the hidden secret of vacation bliss for those who are capable of understanding what they're getting into.
 
WanderingHiker said:
So many people think anything called a "timeshare" is a worthless scam. And many people DO get taken advantage of. But I don't think of timeshares as a scam, I think of them as a math problem, with the knowledge that most people are incompetent at basic math.

It doesn't matter if you travel 10 weeks a year or 3 days a year, or if you travel to a different place every year or the same location... If it saves you money and/or aggravation compared to what you were doing before, it's a win. That's where timeshares make sense.

In my case, my family likes to ski & snowboard in the winter & spring. Over the last 20 years we've watched as we've been completely priced out of rentals in resort areas. It isn't that we can't afford it, it's that rentals have become completely absurd. I can't enjoy a trip if my family is crammed into a tiny hotel room for $700 per day! So, we looked at the value proposition of ownership (remember, it's all just a math problem, and I like working the math from all angles). After running all the expenses a resort condo owner has to pay, I came to the conclusion that the only people in resort areas who get ripped off more than renters are the owners. It's their fault though, they're the ones choosing to pay $2000 per square foot for their own personal "albatross".

Aside from the skyrocketing cost of renting, the reality is that so many people don't care about the cost, and gobble up reservations a year in advance. My family can't plan that far ahead, we barely know what our schedule will look like one month ahead of time. Which means by the time we can search for a place to stay, everything is sold out and I end up searching 2x per day on multiple sites for last-minute cancellations. Frustrating.

Deeded fixed-week ownership at a locally owned and managed resort changed all of that for us. We own every week we could realistically ever use for travel, and when we can't use any of our time (either a full week or a few days of our week), we just have the resort rent the unused days for us. With the 65% of the rental income we get from this arrangement, we're able to stay in one of the most expensive resort areas in the world for almost nothing, and we never have to struggle to find last-minute reservations again. I believe timeshares are the hidden secret of vacation bliss for those who are capable of understanding what they're getting into.
Click to expand...

I’m curious which resort has this great rental program with 65% pay off. I’m thinking the same. a couple of week 51/52 means you always have a vacation place to go without paying too much and hands free rental makes it very flexible.
 
iftravel said:
I’m curious which resort has this great rental program with 65% pay off. I’m thinking the same. a couple of week 51/52 means you always have a vacation place to go without paying too much and hands free rental makes it very flexible.
Click to expand...
Swan Mountain. There are some week 51's currently available, but like you, I'm patiently waiting for a week 52 to become available.
 
WanderingHiker said:
So many people think anything called a "timeshare" is a worthless scam. And many people DO get taken advantage of. But I don't think of timeshares as a scam, I think of them as a math problem, with the knowledge that most people are incompetent at basic math.
Click to expand...
This is also very very true. I think the biggest problem with TS is the wrong people buy them, and for some reason legally the TS salespeople can lie for an hour and a half to convince the unwary to buy one at insane rates.
LannyPC said:
That's the key (IMHO) why timesharing works for some but not for the remaining 99% of the population, myself included. We don't have the means and liberty to "go on 10+ weeks of trips a year". And that's why you see articles such as the one in the OP. And that's why so many people come on social media platforms and diss TSs and the TS industry. Of course, unscrupulous sales people and various TS systems and companies don't help the reputation of the TS industry either.
Click to expand...
I agree - and there's really nothing wrong (or IMHO unexpected in late stage capitalism) with a niche product. My general distaste isn't railing against lying salespeople. That should be illegal. What bothers me is the apparent perception of completely wrong things about the current TS products in the comments. You can argue it doesn't work for you, you can argue you were mislead or lied to. What you can't argue is untrue things.

As others have stated - it seems like many people miss out on many cost saving or performance multiplying things all the time. Tangent here but (non-medical) insurance is one where I'm flabbergasted more people don't consider some of the less well known but extremely affordable options out there to make life much better. I especially like the low rate mechanical breakdown offerings for cars and household stuff, and the inland marine scheduled coverage for camera gear. For premiums of under $50 a year for cars you can get 7 year / 100k mile coverage for major failures/breakdowns. Downside is you do have to buy the car new and add the coverage at that time. Compared to extended warranties the premium is negligible. Even adding in the deductible, you'd have to expect extreme amounts of broken stuff to get anywhere close to the extended warranties I've ever seen offered. For household appliances etc, again, a premium of less than $50 a year, to cover ALL your appliances, well pumps etc... Yes, they tend to have a $500 deductible, but most decent appliances are more than that, often 5x that IME. And the way I see it - eventually any appliance is going to die. This limits your cost to about $500 to replace it.

The camera coverage vs Inland Marine is even better - about a $200 a year premium for $13k of camera gear. If you just google camera insurance you're looking at $600-$2k for the same coverage as an amateur.

The whole thing is - these coverages aren't always (or ever) advertised really. You have to actually talk to an insurance agent or maybe read a flyer that comes with your house insurance renewal. And you need to be willing to jump through the insurance companies hoops. You might argue that these hoops aren't worth it, but I'd argue actually having trusted repair people are probably something you should have anyways - it's probably a lot more expensive to just blindly pay whatever a shop claims is necessary on your car or replace an appliance because you don't know how to even figure out if it's really a $100 repair or so broken it's not worth it for repair.
 
well, just based on numbers alone with MILLIONS of timeshare owners, if it were a scam the industry likely wouldnt sustain multi billion dollar a year revenues.

not ignoring or pretending there arent major problems with how timeshares are sold, but there are many millions of perfectly happy owners out there!
 
I started reading the comments and was going to respond to one of the many "I'm not sure why people are still falling for this" sort of posts. Then I realized that, with 768 comments at present, it was just going to get lost in the noise and fall on deaf ears. I came here to comment instead :)

Cheers.
 
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