My story is too long. But in a nutshell, we bought a resort in Colorado in the early 1980's (only 24 years old), tried to rescind it, but they wouldn't let us. Still enjoyed it but it was where we were stuck on vacation for a long time. Then we bought another in Frisco. Still own at both places but own much better weeks. I think we mostly fell in love with the size of the unit and the fact that we had land we always wanted to build a cabin on, but this made more sense. We still own the land and it still sits vacant.
Then in 1987 we tried exchanging the first time and went berzerk over exchanging. First stays were so incredibly perfect (Lawrence Welk 2 bed in Escondido and a week on the ocean at Point Brown, Washington state). We decided exchanging was the way to go. We haven't stayed a full week in our timeshare in Colorado since the last time in 1986.
We traded into a few Hawaii resorts in 2000. Wow! We loved Hawaii and thought we would only go one time in our lives, so we did it big and had our kids and their significant others with us. We stayed at Point at Poipu on Kauai and Paniolo Greens on the Big Island. Big units, 2 bedrooms. Still just used our Colorado owned weeks to exchange into these gorgeous properties. Further reason for us to buy some more weeks at our home resort. Now we own 7 weeks in Frisco, two weeks at Fraser/ Winter park, 3 bedroom units all. Fees are still reasonable on those.
Once again, we traded into Kauai in 2004, Pahio Bali Hai Villas, just the two of us, and I decided we had to own Bali Hai. We bought some resale, and not cheap, either. We bought quite a few, actually, over about 3 years, including a 3 bedroom, a couple of 2 bedrooms and a one bedroom. I wanted enough for our family to stay with us for a big family trip.
We traded into Maui in 2005, a cute little place called Gardens at West Maui. Also bought a week there via resale for $6,000 with closing costs included. It was easy to purchase a week on Maui and we kept it for quite a while. We stayed in our owned week in May of 2005, our daughter and her husband stayed in the exchange (and had roosters crowing all night behind their unit). While on Maui, we attended a timeshare presentation for Fairfield/ Wyndham. I was intrigued. I was also surprised that Wyndham would have a presentation on Maui, when they own nothing on Maui (and still don't own anything on Maui). Our daughter was not intrigued at all and cut the meeting short.
The salesperson did tell me about TUG, so I found out about TUG on a timeshare presentation.
In 2007 we stayed in our owned week at Bali Hai and attended a timeshare presentation. PAHIO sold out to Wyndham, so once again Wyndham enticed me into converting our weeks at Bali Hai to Wyndham. It was cheap to do it, and I was encouraged on TUG by Jya-Ning and BocaBum99 to go ahead and convert. We did it a second time about a year later after accumulating a few Shearwater and some more Bali Hai weeks. Now we have two platinum Founders' accounts.
Some timeshare choices have come about as a result of recommendations from friends. The only timeshares we stay in every year that we own are our Hono Koa oceanfront units. There are only 4 of 27 units that are oceanfront. We own three weeks. Our friends bought one week, and we saw their view and had to own that view. We love our Hono Koa weeks. Those will never be deposited into any exchange company.
I love Florida, but we don't own anything but some Wyndham points in Florida. We trade into Disney and beach locations. It's worked okay so far, but I am considering beachfront Florida.
We are Wyndham mega-renters. I don't feel at all guilty, and no one can make me feel badly about it. I followed advice on TUG and our daughter made a living renting what we own.
Now we own a lot of weeks at Sheraton Broadway Plantation near Myrtle Beach. We rent those, too. I pay the fees way ahead and reserve a full year out. I use mostly Sheraton to book exchanges to various resorts we love to stay.
I have no regrets at all. I advise anyone who asks for my advice. I advise sticking with II and buying Sheraton Desert Oasis or Sheraton Broadway Plantation. Not that those are the only weeks that work great, but those are the ones that I know work great for exchanges. I think there are other great traders out there.
I made some mistakes along the way. I got out of those easily enough. I bought Foxrun weeks to trade into Disney. I would not advise buying a generic resort for trading. It's an unknown what you can get with it. I know this because I still have Blue Ridge Village in my II account, which is supposedly a better trader than Foxrun, and I have had zero luck in getting any exchanges with that week. I can always take a week at a Marriott in Orlando with it, rather than to let the week expire. It's not terrible, but it's nothing like my Sheratons.