TUG Survey for Timeshares! Please take a look and participate in the survey!

[jaclark1938]

All I have to say is "DUH" thank you

 

[pedro47]

Those are interesting results .

 

[deslagle]

Your questions missed an important question specifically. With our timeshares we eat breakfast, snacks and lunch at the timeshare. They all have kitchens. We eat out for dinner only.
Thereby we save money. We use 3 credit cards that give us travel miles or companion certificates. We bought our first timeshare and payed 50% price.retail. We kept saying "no" and my spouse caved in at half price. Kissimmee (Westgate a good company) . Sold it eventually as it had no power to trade. All other timeshares were re-sales at good prices. We have left Shell and Raintree because of retirement paring back on expenses and because of aggressive tactics by Wyndham. Wyndham/Worldmark is buying Raintree VC one unit at a time.

Last trip to Maui was 2021 and we were denied access to the island. We read Hawaii Safe Travels and applied and got our QR codes and the negative Covid tests.
We flew to Kauai and had a great time. Got on Hawaiian Air and went to Maui for the 2nd week. Buried deeper in the inter island part for locals was the catch that we needed a new
24 hour negative Covid test. We could not get out of the Kahalui airport. They claimed no where on the island did was there a test for the NAAT Covid test and we had a manadatory 10 day quarantine.
We could not leave the airport (OGG) could not rent a car but we could pay $100 plus for a taxi to get us to our timeshare but we had to stay within the four walls.
The piece of information we needed was under the rules for locals inter Island travel(Hawaii Safe Travels). the 2nd test was not mentioned on the Mainland to Hawaii section.
That means the Mayor of Maui was not allowing any one to get off the island because the NAAT test was not offered on Maui. They could fly to Oahu but not Kona or Kauia.
We hopped the next American jet back to Dallas Fort Worth to get out of the airport. We live in Washington State. Not exactly a direct flight.
I now have my daughter and son use the 2 bedroom unit (Maui). I was ready to sell it. But they wanted to use it. For $500 I got another Kauia unit and we now travel every other year and stay 2 weeks on Kauia. My kids are happy and so are my wife and I.

 

[TUGBrian]

approaching 400 answers very quickly! great to see so many folks participating via the newsletter!

at this rate we should easily get 500 over the weekend and thatll be the next stat update!

 

[sfcolliejr]

also please share this link in your timeshare groups/pages/etc. there is no advertising on it, nor any monetary gain for anyone...I will also share all the results publicly at various milestones like 100 responses, 200 responses yadda yadda depending on how popular it gets!

Pretty good survey, it will be interesting to see the results. Timeshare ownership is great if you understand what you are buying. We've used our timeshare every year. Hosted family and friends many times. Not an investment! Like buying a car, a depreciating asset!

 

[sfcolliejr]

Your questions missed an important question specifically. With our timeshares we eat breakfast, snacks and lunch at the timeshare. They all have kitchens. We eat out for dinner only.
Thereby we save money. We use 3 credit cards that give us travel miles or companion certificates. We bought our first timeshare and payed 50% price.retail. We kept saying "no" and my spouse caved in at half price. Kissimmee (Westgate a good company) . Sold it eventually as it had no power to trade. All other timeshares were re-sales at good prices. We have left Shell and Raintree because of retirement paring back on expenses and because of aggressive tactics by Wyndham. Wyndham/Worldmark is buying Raintree VC one unit at a time.

Last trip to Maui was 2021 and we were denied access to the island. We read Hawaii Safe Travels and applied and got our QR codes and the negative Covid tests.
We flew to Kauai and had a great time. Got on Hawaiian Air and went to Maui for the 2nd week. Buried deeper in the inter island part for locals was the catch that we needed a new
24 hour negative Covid test. We could not get out of the Kahalui airport. They claimed no where on the island did was there a test for the NAAT Covid test and we had a manadatory 10 day quarantine.
We could not leave the airport (OGG) could not rent a car but we could pay $100 plus for a taxi to get us to our timeshare but we had to stay within the four walls.
The piece of information we needed was under the rules for locals inter Island travel(Hawaii Safe Travels). the 2nd test was not mentioned on the Mainland to Hawaii section.
That means the Mayor of Maui was not allowing any one to get off the island because the NAAT test was not offered on Maui. They could fly to Oahu but not Kona or Kauia.
We hopped the next American jet back to Dallas Fort Worth to get out of the airport. We live in Washington State. Not exactly a direct flight.
I now have my daughter and son use the 2 bedroom unit (Maui). I was ready to sell it. But they wanted to use it. For $500 I got another Kauia unit and we now travel every other year and stay 2 weeks on Kauia. My kids are happy and so are my wife and I.

We are in WA state also. We have hosted family many years on Maui at the Westin Kanapali north. We have Westin Flex and it's been good. Take care.

 

[Larry M]

Good series of questions. But it presumes we bought at retail from the Developer, so questions are a bit skewed. There were no questions about whether we bought resale. I've owned a number of timeshares, both weeks and points. I never bought from a Developer, so didn't ever have a salesperson lie to me about maintenance fees increasing, etc.

Also, question 44 asks what other types of vacations I take. It only accepted one answer, even though several applied.

Dave

Also, Gifted one, gave it back to the association, bought a different one (different association at the same location!). There were some questions where the full answer would have been Yes for #1, No for #2, etc.

 

[TUGBrian]

blew right thru 400, well on the way to 500!

 

[LastMinutePacker]

I loved the "word cloud" and would like to see more.

 

[TUGBrian]

we crossed 500 overnight, so heres that update:

46/30/24 split now for buying a timeshare (retail/resale/both)
67% own more than 1 timeshare
80% have owned timeshares for more than 10 years (93% more than 5 years)
25% are currently interested in selling their timeshare
14% are currently interested in buying a Timeshare
72% have NOT made an effort to or are looking to sell
78% have NOT been in contact with a company to help sell/rent/etc (still surprised by this one!)
78% chose to not use said company
of those that did use said company, 70% claim the company was NOT successful
8% claim to be victims of a timeshare scam
95% of respondents claim to be aware that timeshares have little to no resale value
80% did not contact resort / developer for help selling
51% of those who did contact resort for help claim they were successful!
90% do NOT think it is simple or quick to sell a timeshare
83% feel their timeshare was a good purchase
52% would go back and NOT buy again at sales presentation (still surprised this is a near 50/50 split)
Hawaii easily the most popular answer for top vacation destination (still)
71% plan vacations more than 6mo out (only 7% plan less than 3mo out)
32% think the average nightly cost for a room is over $250! 65% answered 100-250
64% were not aware you could buy resale when they bought their timeshare. (96% do now though!)
biggest complaint - maintenance fees/increases
most popular answer on "what would you change about your timeshare" - "nothing"
45% use their timeshare multiple times a year (44% answered every year)
69% actively exchange
63% dont feel exchanging is difficult!
50% answered they felt misled by salesperson (this is literally a perfect 50/50 split now, literally identical numbers for both answers)
13% feel ashamed or hesitant to tell others they own a timeshare
37% use RCI, 32% use ii, 18% exchange within resort system
24% would consider buying more points/weeks at their home resort
42% use TUG to get help about timeshares. (19% from resort, 10% from facebook, 14% internet search)
81% are aware of developer deedback/surrender programs
28% bought timeshare to exchange (54% claimed they bought it to both exchange and use)
69% do not rent out their unused timeshare
19% do make guests pay their share when traveling with them.
47% claim their salesperson did not make it clear about increasing maintenance fees.
12% consider their timeshare an investment
65% do not currently have a plan to exit their timeshare
45% claim they still attend timeshare sales presentations
42% said they also still take regular hotel stay vacations. (next highest was cruise at 28%)
55% prefer points to weeks
80% claim they take more vacations as timeshare owners
81% feel they save money on vacations with their ownership


word cloud for "what advice would you give someone interested in buying your timeshare"

 

[TUGBrian]

about to cross over 600 surveys completed!

 

[pedro47]

TUGBrian, this survey have spark an interest from the TUG community.

 

[TUGBrian]

certainly has for sure!

i hope it reaches outside of TUG in that most folks who are TUG members have a much different view/knowledge base on Timeshares than the average owner!

 

[pedro47]

Can you put it on Facebook?

 

[TUGBrian]

it is posted on the TUG facebook pages yes.

anyone can also share the link in the first post on any facebook pages they are in.

 

[dioxide45]

it is posted on the TUG facebook pages yes.

anyone can also share the link in the first post on any facebook pages they are in.

I just posted it to a Facebook group (2,100 members) that I am an owner of!

 

[bjones9942]

Good questions, but the one about being an investment is a little hazy. I answered yes, because I consider mine an investment in my happiness and peace of mind - but not a financial investment. While I'll likely at least break even when I sell them, I won't need to be running to the bank

 

[TUGBrian]

around 700 submissions sofar! keep em coming!

final update at 1000 if we can get there!

 

[pedro47]

I hope this survey will add to the TUG Membership Numbers

 

[TUGBrian]

submissions have started to taper off with only 1 or 2 per day coming in now (likely due to my signature line)....so I think with 800 plus surveys sofar....thats a pretty healthy sampling! at this rate it would take awahile to get to 1000 and im not sure another 160 would skew things all that much at this point especially when the difference in results from 500 to now 840 was always less than 5% points with MANY results having next to no change at all (which surprised me)

going to start crafting these results into a new article...going to make for some very creative headlines depending on if you want to highlight the good....or the bad!

7/13 update - (roughly 843 surveys)

50/25/25 split now for buying a timeshare (retail/resale/both)
68% own more than 1 timeshare
80% have owned timeshares for more than 10 years (92% more than 5 years)
25% are currently interested in selling their timeshare
14% are currently interested in buying a Timeshare
72% have NOT made an effort to or are looking to sell
78% have NOT been in contact with a company to help sell/rent/etc (still surprised by this one!)
76% chose to not use said company
of those that did use said company, 69% claim the company was NOT successful
9% claim to be victims of a timeshare scam
92% of respondents claim to be aware that timeshares have little to no resale value
80% did not contact resort / developer for help selling
45% of those who did contact resort for help claim they were successful!
90% do NOT think it is simple or quick to sell a timeshare
83% feel their timeshare was a good purchase
55% would go back and NOT buy again at sales presentation (still surprised this is a near 50/50 split)
Hawaii easily the most popular answer for top vacation destination (still)
68% plan vacations more than 6mo out (only 7% plan less than 3mo out)
33% think the average nightly cost for a room is over $250! 64% answered 100-250
67% were not aware you could buy resale when they bought their timeshare. (96% do now though!)
biggest complaint - maintenance fees/increases
most popular answer on "what would you change about your timeshare" - "nothing"
44% use their timeshare multiple times a year (44% also answered every year)
69% actively exchange
64% dont feel exchanging is difficult!
53% answered they felt misled by salesperson
14% feel ashamed or hesitant to tell others they own a timeshare
36% use RCI, 31% use ii, 19% exchange within resort system
22% would consider buying more points/weeks at their home resort
40% use TUG to get help about timeshares. (20% from resort, 9% from facebook, 14% internet search)
78% are aware of developer deedback/surrender programs
26% bought timeshare to exchange (56% claimed they bought it to both exchange and use)
32% rent out their timeshare when not in use
18% do make guests pay their share when traveling with them.
49% claim their salesperson did not make it clear about increasing maintenance fees.
13% consider their timeshare an investment
68% do not currently have a plan to exit their timeshare
45% claim they still attend timeshare sales presentations
96% prefer timeshares to hotel rooms
42% said they also still take regular hotel stay vacations. (next highest was cruise at 28%)
55% prefer points to weeks
79% claim they take more vacations as timeshare owners
81% feel they save money on vacations with their ownership

 

[Mongoose]

53% answered they felt misled by salesperson

This is surprisingly low. Must be a result of aftermarket buyers. Can you add conditional questions so certain questions are only asked of retail or aftermarket buyers?

 

[TUGBrian]

well based on an earlier question, 75% of responders have bought at least ONE timeshare retail...which would imply attending a sales presentation.

still more than half of everyone who buys a timeshare feels lied to....thats a pretty sobering statistic in 2022 where the industry has supposedly cleaned up their act in regards to retail sales presentations.

this exact topic is the first one I plan on diving into as well for an article/story.