• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

TUG turns 27 this month!

TUGBrian

Administrator
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Florida
27 years ago this month my father and a group of other Timeshare Owners began to organize what was originally a Prodigy Bulletin Board System (where TUGBBS came from) composed of a handful of Timeshare owners discussion resorts and Timesharing, into what we now call TUG.

TUG was/is actually one of the very first commercial sites on the Internet and the very first website period relating to Timeshares! not sure how many of you remember back to 1993, but the internet wasnt nearly as popular as it is now. The TUG website is older than any other Timeshare related website (and the vast majority of all websites period!)


Over the last Twenty Seven years, TUG has helped tens of thousands of timeshare owners, many to this day remain to pass on the gift of knowledge they likely received themselves many moons ago through the various websites and TUGBBS forum installations we have had over the years.

With Millions of dollars worth of Timeshares sold and rented by TUGGERS, over 48 million in the past few years alone!

On top of that, literally millions of dollars worth of money saved just from folks finding TUG in time to discover the resale market.... over 15 million recorded in just this version of the forum!

More than that though is the unimaginable value of information passed on and learned year after year through nothing more than Timeshare owners helping each other understand and best use this product that comes with no instruction manual. I have even heard in the past TUG is the "handbook" for Timeshares, and believe it to be true to this day.

This community is truly one of a Kind, providing Timeshare owners a place they can truly get help and advice without having to worry about being scammed or ripped off!


other minor historical events that ALSO happened in 1993!

Politics: Apartheid finally ended in South Africa.
The Top Song was Dreamlover by Mariah Carey
The Big Movies included Jurassic Park, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Fugitive
Price of Bayer Aspirin in 1993: $3.84/100
Sony (radio) Walkman: $29.98
The World Population was ~ 5,477,000,000
US Life Expectancy: Males: 72.2 years, Females: 78.8 years
The Pentium Processer was invented in 1993.
The 1993 VHS release of Aladdin sold 10.6 million copies in its first week.
Toronto won the world series
Dallas won the Superbowl
Florida State won the National Title in Football beating nebraska
Pete Sampras / Steffie Graf won Wimbleton
In 1993, total Internet traffic amounted to approximately 100 TB for the year. As of June 2008, Cisco Systems estimated Internet traffic at 160 TB/s. In other words, the amount of Internet used per second in 2008 exceeded all of the Internet used in 1993.
 

TravelTime

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2018
Messages
8,091
Reaction score
6,460
Points
499
Location
California
Resorts Owned
All Resale: MVC DPs, Marriott Ko Olina, Marriott Marbella, WKOVR-N, Four Seasons Aviara
Happy 27th Anniversary to TUG! This is a great accomplishment. Thank you to TUGBrian, his father and all the moderators for keeping TUG alive all these years! :thumbup: :)
 

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
28,438
Reaction score
17,176
Points
1,299
Location
Twin Falls, Eye-Duh-Hoe
Happy Birthday TUG! And Best Wishes for Many, Many MORE! CONGRATULATIONS!
 

vacationtime1

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2006
Messages
5,154
Reaction score
2,746
Points
649
Location
San Francisco
Resorts Owned
WKORV-OF (Maui)
WKV x2 (Scottsdale)
Happy Birthday, TUG.

and many more
 

DaveNV

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
21,990
Reaction score
29,185
Points
1,348
Location
Mesquite, Nevada
Resorts Owned
Free Agent
Another 1993 Event to add to the list: DaveNV retired from 20 years of Active Duty in the US Navy. :D

Congratulations to TUG and all associated with this excellent site! You have provided a life-changing service to many, many people.

Dave
 

SmithOp

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2010
Messages
7,600
Reaction score
3,392
Points
499
Location
Huntington Beach, CA
Resorts Owned
HGVC King's Land 2BR Premier 23.040K Points.
Congrats Brian.

Another event, my son was born in 93.

I was a sysop on Compuserve, a competitor with Prodigy. It gave me free access to the service, the internet was not cheap and ubiquitous as it is now.

What a long strange trip its been.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 

nerodog

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
2,441
Reaction score
1,573
Points
523
Location
Portugal
One of my fave sites and over the years I have really learned so much and I hope, have given back to others. It's my go to and a big Birthday wish for many more years !
 

alexadeparis

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2008
Messages
1,762
Reaction score
514
Points
474
Location
Phoenix, AZ
Resorts Owned
Points: Hilton EVEN, Hyatt ODD Annual: WSJ, HRA
Happy birthday TUG! I have gotten so much information and so much camaraderie out of this group - thank you!
 

Sandy VDH

TUG Review Crew: Elite
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
9,842
Reaction score
4,224
Points
648
Location
Houston, TX
Resorts Owned
Wynd VIP Plat GF, HGVC Elite, WM, HICV, +
Been a member since '97 or '98. I have lost track.

Congratulations, and more more years to come.
 

slip

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2011
Messages
11,114
Reaction score
14,517
Points
999
Location
U'alapue/Kaunakakai, Hawaii
Resorts Owned
Pono Kai, 20 wks; Maui Schooner, 1.5 wks; 1 week Ke Nani Kai; WaveCrest Condo, Molokai, HI
Happy Birthday TUG, what a great community!
 

pittle

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2005
Messages
4,033
Reaction score
2,142
Points
599
Location
Goodyear, AZ
Resorts Owned
Vidanta Grand Luxxe
Buganvilias Sky Suites
Pueblo Bonito Em Bay
Happy Birthday to TUG! :banana:

FYI - anyone with a Joined Date of June 6 or 7, 2005 was on the old system. This style BB was a significant upgrade!!! (They continue to upgrade when necessary.) Brian's Dad invested lots of time & money getting TUG where it is today. When he retired, Brian took over as Administrator and has kept up the family tradition.

So, for all you Guests out there - Please Join and become a Member. The $15 per year or $30 for 3 years helps with the expenses. Websites are expensive to keep up and current! That could be your Birthday Gift to TUG! :)
 

10spro

TUG Member
Joined
May 12, 2018
Messages
687
Reaction score
602
Points
204
Location
Napa Valley
Resorts Owned
Marriott DSV-I (x3)
Marriott DC Points
Westin WKORV OFD
Happy Birthday to TUG! This is such an awesome community with a great wealth of collective knowledge. I joined the TUG party only a couple years ago and now you all are part of my every day life.
 

kaljor

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2012
Messages
487
Reaction score
398
Points
273
Location
CT
Resorts Owned
Wyndham Nashville
Wyndham CWA
Fairfield Bay
You should be very proud of all the good this site has accomplished. Especially saving families from financial disaster or at least distress. The many first posts we see that start "We just spent thousands of dollars on a timeshare. Please help us get out of this".

Also for running a site with user generated content that has remained helpful and civil for so long. I know that's due to the unsung efforts of the moderators. They keep it a pleasant place to read and to post.
 

ROSALIND7

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2013
Messages
18
Reaction score
5
Points
213
Location
GEORGIA
27 years ago this month my father and a group of other Timeshare Owners began to organize what was originally a Prodigy Bulletin Board System (where TUGBBS came from) composed of a handful of Timeshare owners discussion resorts and Timesharing, into what we now call TUG.

TUG was/is actually one of the very first commercial sites on the Internet and the very first website period relating to Timeshares! not sure how many of you remember back to 1993, but the internet wasnt nearly as popular as it is now. The TUG website is older than any other Timeshare related website (and the vast majority of all websites period!)


Over the last Twenty Seven years, TUG has helped tens of thousands of timeshare owners, many to this day remain to pass on the gift of knowledge they likely received themselves many moons ago through the various websites and TUGBBS forum installations we have had over the years.

With Millions of dollars worth of Timeshares sold and rented by TUGGERS, over 48 million in the past few years alone!

On top of that, literally millions of dollars worth of money saved just from folks finding TUG in time to discover the resale market.... over 15 million recorded in just this version of the forum!

More than that though is the unimaginable value of information passed on and learned year after year through nothing more than Timeshare owners helping each other understand and best use this product that comes with no instruction manual. I have even heard in the past TUG is the "handbook" for Timeshares, and believe it to be true to this day.

This community is truly one of a Kind, providing Timeshare owners a place they can truly get help and advice without having to worry about being scammed or ripped off!


other minor historical events that ALSO happened in 1993!

Politics: Apartheid finally ended in South Africa.
The Top Song was Dreamlover by Mariah Carey
The Big Movies included Jurassic Park, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Fugitive
Price of Bayer Aspirin in 1993: $3.84/100
Sony (radio) Walkman: $29.98
The World Population was ~ 5,477,000,000
US Life Expectancy: Males: 72.2 years, Females: 78.8 years
The Pentium Processer was invented in 1993.
The 1993 VHS release of Aladdin sold 10.6 million copies in its first week.
Toronto won the world series
Dallas won the Superbowl
Florida State won the National Title in Football beating nebraska
Pete Sampras / Steffie Graf won Wimbleton
In 1993, total Internet traffic amounted to approximately 100 TB for the year. As of June 2008, Cisco Systems estimated Internet traffic at 160 TB/s. In other words, the amount of Internet used per second in 2008 exceeded all of the Internet used in 1993.

Happy birthday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

TamaraQT

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2009
Messages
425
Reaction score
161
Points
404
Location
New Jersey
Resorts Owned
Vacation Village
Woodstone
The Colonies
Happy Birthday TUG. Thanks for EVERYTHING you have done to educate us about the timeshare industry. I look forward to many more years to come!!!
 

T_R_Oglodyte

TUG Lifetime Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
16,103
Reaction score
8,059
Points
1,048
Location
Belly-View, WA
I joined in 1999. I first found the site in July 1999 when we were staying at the Marriott in Kauai, and we sat through our first timeshare sales presentation, and signed up to buy 2 one-bedroom units. That evening I took out my laptop computer, hooked up to the phone in the room, and went on line to do research.

In reviewing the history, we need to also give a shout-out to the late Fern Modena. She played a big role in getting the BBS part of TUG going, along with Doug Wilson and some others. The orginal BBS software code was written by a TUG member - commercial software for BBS didn't exist at the time. Bill Rogers, Brian's Dad, then focused on getting the other parts of the site, particularly resort reviews and Help Topics put together.

If I recall correctly the stories from those days, the impetus for Bill to put together what became TUG happened after having made a trade into a resort that was in poor condition. So Bill's vision was to create a place where timeshare owners could post and share resort reviews, so that people would be better informed when making trades. So he fell naturally to that side of the site. Then somehow Fern got connected, and I think she had been hosting AOL chats for timeshare owners, and became the genesis of the bulletin board.

In 1999 when I joined there were still weekly Sunday evening chats going on that were hosted by Fern.
 
Last edited:

AnnaS

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2008
Messages
2,161
Reaction score
1,207
Points
523
Location
NY
Happy 27th Anniversary/Birthday TUG!!! Thank you to all!!!

Cheers to many, many more!!!
 

TTSDavid

newbie
Joined
Jul 21, 2020
Messages
70
Reaction score
64
Points
18
Location
San Diego, CA
Resorts Owned
TheTravelSecret
Congratulations TUG! Especially, congratulations to all the team behind TUG!! Happy 27th Anniversary
 

The Colorado Kid

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2020
Messages
1,380
Reaction score
871
Points
173
Resorts Owned
Westin Riverfront
Christie Lodge
Apollo Park
Grand Timber Lodge
Indian Palms
Massanutten
Park Regency
Valdoro Mountain Lodge
Marriott Surfwatch
Wow happy anniversary TUG! Such a valuable resource for me and many others for sure!
 

Wright17s

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2020
Messages
107
Reaction score
98
Points
88
Location
Minnesota
Resorts Owned
HGVC Elite Premier; Valdoro x6, Trump, Paradise, Sunrise Lodge
Happy birthday TUG! I have learned a lot and really appreciate the community; a special mention to all of the moderator's and other helpers who keep everything running smoothly. :clap:
 

susieq

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
1,208
Reaction score
240
Points
424
Location
Massachusetts
Resorts Owned
Bay Voyage, Jamestown, RI
:cheer::cheer:Happy Birthday TUG!!! :cheer::cheer:
 

lockewong

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2015
Messages
237
Reaction score
247
Points
153
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Resorts Owned
Marriott Maui Ocean Club, Marriott Kauai Beach Club, West 57th, The Central at 5th, HGVC Bay Club, Tahoe Seasons
Happy Birthday, TUG! Thank you for all the advice and work on keeping this Website and Community going!
 

silentg

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2005
Messages
6,181
Reaction score
3,255
Points
649
Location
Central Florida
Resorts Owned
Fitzpatrick's Castle Holiday Homes,
Enchanted Isle.
Happy Anniversary to TUG. I was on the original tug, off and on early days was dial up as I remember. Only had one week of timeshare, but got so much information and guidance . Have owned 10 weeks, buying, selling, exchanging, mostly thru TUG. Down to 3 timeshares and still learning . Thank you Brian and your Dad for starting TUG, it’s been a wonderful resource for me and others!
 
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