Total newbie

[nbd650]

Please forgive my idiocy with my first post.

I am interested in buying a timeshare in the US. I am mostly interested in using it at Hilton hotels for pleasure travel, like the LondonHouse hotel in Chicago.

Most of the offerings I see are for resort like properties in Hawaii. Can you use your points to pay for a regular non-resort Hilton? I know nothing and can’t seem to find listings for sale that aren’t a resort style property. It seems as though there are very few listings for non-resorts in the US, unless I’m missing something.

 

[jp10558]

Please forgive my idiocy with my first post.

I am interested in buying a timeshare in the US. I am mostly interested in using it at Hilton hotels for pleasure travel, like the LondonHouse hotel in Chicago.

Most of the offerings I see are for resort like properties in Hawaii. Can you use your points to pay for a regular non-resort Hilton? I know nothing and can’t seem to find listings for sale that aren’t a resort style property. It seems as though there are very few listings for non-resorts in the US, unless I’m missing something.

Don't buy timeshares to use to stay in hotels - it's not at all financially worth it. There's no "trick" to stay cheaply in hotels, just either earn points/FNC with a co-branded credit card or stays, or use things like priceline to sometimes get lower prices.

 

[zentraveler]

Please forgive my idiocy with my first post.

I am interested in buying a timeshare in the US. I am mostly interested in using it at Hilton hotels for pleasure travel, like the LondonHouse hotel in Chicago.

Most of the offerings I see are for resort like properties in Hawaii. Can you use your points to pay for a regular non-resort Hilton? I know nothing and can’t seem to find listings for sale that aren’t a resort style property. It seems as though there are very few listings for non-resorts in the US, unless I’m missing something.

Timeshares are oritnetd primarily around people who want to go to a nice resort/condo with a kitchen and activities. There are exceptions for shorter stays and some wayt to earn enough for some hotel stays, but agree with @jp10058 that they are wonderful for people who care about space (I.e. more than a hotel room), kitchens and activities.

Some others can weigh in about the value of using TS for hotel rooms (with the costs and fees), but agree it will not be great. Credit cards and picking a hotel system and building up status likely the best way.

 

[nbd650]

Sounds good, thank you both for the advice. Seems like this is really meant for resort style living

 

[sue1947]

Also, on a practical level, using your timeshare for points to use for a hotel is almost always (and the almost is only in there because maybe there is an exception out there someplace, but I doubt it) a bad deal. The exchange rate is usually lower than your maintenance fees for the timeshare.
Timeshares and hotels in the hotel brands are usually (always for the ones I'm familiar with) separate companies. They may be under the same brand umbrella, but operate as separate companies. That is why you aren't finding any hotels as a timeshare. There is some crossover; you may be able to earn points by paying your TS maintenance fees with their credit card or you may be able to convert your timeshare points to hotel points. The latter is likely to be substantially below maintenance fees; for Worldmark into Wyndham hotels, it's about half MF. Simplified: I can book 6 nights at a full condo with kitchen and washer dryer plus more space with my timeshare points, or I can book a hotel room for 3 nights. Yeah, not a good use of your money. The only reason to do this is if the points are going to expire and something is better than nothing.

If you want to stay in a motel room, then work the various points options through the hotel company. If you want to vacation with a full condo with full kitchen, washer dryer etc, then buy a timeshare.

 

[iftravel]

Plus timeshares are only good if you can plan ahead, like a year in advance. No one does that with Hotel rooms and more often you find a last minute hotel deal and cancel your prior booking. It’s usually not happening to timeshare unless you are super flexible or only travel to Orlando.