Why own lots of timeshares?

[bnoble]

Kauai Beach resort was having problems with erosion

That’s not the issue with the weeks Denise is talking about. (We own at the same resort.)

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

I own 3.5 weeks on the Big Island Hawaii, it's been fun, and I love being warm in the winter. But I'm in my late 60s, and the flight to Hawaii is looking more and more daunting. I won't fly "sardine class" and $2-4K a person for premium economy or First Class is a lot of money. i use them as a surrogate "second home", I'm not interested in the various exchanges. (Add up the costs, you know, all those "little" costs for exchanges.) I'm not much of a traveler, plus I've gotten back into a hobby of my youth, tropical fish. More money to see they are taken care of.

So I'm cogitating over the situation. Staying in CONUS, and renting timeshare "lites" (1 bedroom suites, with full kitchen. Readily available most everywhere.) Travel then becomes a variable cost, not a fixed one. Typical year - San Antonio for the "January warm-up" and visit my sister. San Antonio as base for wild flower season in the end of March, Shreveport for The American Rose Society huge rose garden in May and October, Galveston in mid September for the beach (still warm water and off-season). All within one day driving range. Slip in some fossil hunting in the winter. All for significantly less than my timeshare/Hawaii travel/Car rental combined costs.

But I don't know. . .

 

[jasontugaccount]

we rent out our DVC and WorldMark points to help pay for our own travel.

Do you have tips on making this work? I'm wondering what I'd do if I end up with more WM then I can use in some years.

 

[pec@ssp]

I once had HGVC and 3 Wyndham timeshares and sold them when I moved to Myrtle Beach. I now live near Tampa, FL and discovered Anna Maria Island. I bought 1 annual and 3 semi-annual resales there and use them all to put our feet in the sand.

 

[rosco1e]

I bought 8 weeks in a row at the same resort (slowly over time). Maintenance fee was really low -$350, no taxes, high trading power, and hot year round. The thought was lay in 2 months straight across Jan/Feb and have a 2 bedroom winter snowbird location year after year for 1/2 the price of any comparable rental. And, it saved me from buying a $200,000 place for use only part of the year and worrying about hurricanes, break ins, upkeep, net, phones, AC and all that. Great trade off. Well, right up until they started to keep raising the maintenance fees year after year. After a few jumps I got rid of them all. Now, that math makes no sense unfortunately.

 

[heitmullerj02]

Love my timeshares (2) it gets me a nice vacation in a place where I could not afford a second home , Carlsbad & HI. It’s prepaid so I use it every year, I can bring a friend,who will usually offer to cover some of the expense. A good deal all aroun, have owned since 1998.

 

[heitmullerj02]

Also, much easier to get adult children to join you on vacation then sitting around my living room. We all have a good time and I’m pretty much guaranteed to have some time with my grandson. A win for all of us.

 

[The Colorado Kid]

Also, much easier to get adult children to join you on vacation then sitting around my living room. We all have a good time and I’m pretty much guaranteed to have some time with my grandson. A win for all of us.

Grandkids are a huge reason we own multiple timeshares as it really is a draw for spending time with them. My evil plan is when they get a bit older for DW and I to take the Grands one or two at a time with us even if their parents can't go.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Do you have tips on making this work? I'm wondering what I'd do if I end up with more WM then I can use in some years.

There are quite a few WorldMark resorts that are very desirable, several in summer and spring break, and if you book those 12-13 months out, they are usually very rentable. I have had to cancel some that didn't rent, but I book something else to replace the one I cancel.

Look for Wyndham to change the rental rules for WorldMark. It will happen. Then it won't work anymore. Wyndham has its dirty hands on everything.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Grandkids are a huge reason we own multiple timeshares as it really is a draw for spending time with them. My evil plan is when they get a bit older for DW and I to take the Grands one or two at a time with us even if their parents can't go.

None of our kids will let us take our grandkids anywhere. I am hoping to take our granddaughter to Maui someday. She is now 16 and is going to Oklahoma City for a ballet summer camp.

 

[1Melanie]

As Denise said, she owns weeks, not points.

Will they allow conversions to points?

 

[sfcolliejr]

Excuse my ignorance...I am new to this timeshare world. I see people posting about being owners of 20+ timeshares and see also that most profiles people owns 5-6 timeshares. Is this for business purposes? Unless you are a wealthy retiree who can afford paying maintenance fees, taxes etc for a large amount of timeshares? Can someone please provide some commentary about the reasoning/business for owning more than 2 timeshares?

We don't really own several but, with Westin Flex, we have access to multiple home resorts: Maui, Kauai, Scottsdale, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Avon. We have spent most of our time on Maui or Palm Desert. I think this is a decent "deal" for many of us. We rented out a week on Maui at the Westin Kanapali this year for almost $3,000; about half of our yearly maintenance fees. Last year, with the pandemic, we had a lot of time to use. I rented 2 weeks on Maui at the Nanea for $8,000; more than our maintenance fees. For renting, I like to use RedWeek as they have a full service option for a decent price. They do everything but changing the renter's name (I do that) for the week or weeks renters are at the property.

 

[RiesTravels]

We own a number of weeks primarily to support our needs for family reunions at either of two resorts, OceanWatch and Newport Coast. We also venture out to some other resorts we own. This is fine for our extended family and builds great family relationships. There is something to be said for having the grandchildren return to the same favorite resorts year after year - kind of like having a very nice home at the beach.

I think timeshares are in transition from owning weeks to the points-based system and it will be interesting to see how this works 10 or 20 years out. We may be old fashioned but considering our needs, the point system doesn't work well for us. It's just too hard to get prime reservations. So, I'm hopeful the family will just sail under the radar and continue what works for us today.

We do own points and can generate lots of points from enrolled weeks to meet any points reservation need for weeks we don't own.

Tug is an interesting forum as it shows a wide spectrum of timeshare owners and uses.

Considering our love for OceanWatch, I would not be surprised to see our family buy more weeks.

I've thought about doing it for this reason. Just got a week in Williamsburg for a 4bd and am looking forward to using it. We went last year and those of us who went had a blast.

 

[suzannesimon]

I own 10 weeks in 7 different resorts. We will use 5 of them this year and the rest will be rented and will cover the maintenance on all 10. They were purchased because they were resorts we love with the added benefit that they rent for at least a $1000 over maintenance.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I own 10 weeks in 7 different resorts. We will use 5 of them this year and the rest will be rented and will cover the maintenance on all 10. They were purchased because they were resorts we love with the added benefit that they rent for at least a $1000 over maintenance.

Used to have that all figured out with our Wyndham points. Now I have to actually USE the Wyndham points ourselves. Kind of sucks. I despise Wyndham's changes, which affected our lifestyle so drastically.

We have to get rid of a bunch of our weeks that we have owned for years because we cannot use them anymore. There is only so much budget for our vacations.

 

[CP4]

We own more than we can use (and we can use a lot since I have a very flexible job -- I think we'll have used about 8ish weeks of timeshares for ourselves this year).

I am in the process of divesting of two weeks (fortunately, for a fair amount more than I paid), but I think I will hang on to everything else for the time being.

I have planned several group gatherings in some really great locations:

My FIL joined us for 3 weeks in Kauai over Christmas Break 2022 / 2023
My extended family (32 of us) will be staying at Newport Coast Villas to kick off summer in 2024 (June gloom and all)
I booked several units at Marriott's crystal shores for 20+ of my family in June of 2024
I'll be going to Crystal Shores and Hyatt Coconut Plantation with 2 other families for our fall break 2024
My friend and his family will be joining our family at HGVC Kingsland over the fourth of July 2023
My wife took several friends to beaver creek in a couple of units in May of 2023

I couldn't do this if I didn't own as many weeks as I do.

Are you exchanging them through RCI or what group are they part of?

 

[CP4]

Some of us are diehards. I have been here since 1997. This is the 3rd version of the BB I believe.

Clearly most of us hope we have learned a lot, at least for me in those intervening 25 years. Hasn't lowered my ownership any, as a matter of fact I got another one last year. LOL

At least my TW ownership is dwindling. I have some friends who want me to use up there points first, but because of how their system works now I am just going to wait until I need more points after my current points are up next year, and my friends points are done in 2027. I haven't yet decided if I got the RCI route with them or just buy more points, or buy someones existing membership. Given the transfer charges it all depends on how many points are left, and IF I plan on more Late Breaks which is the primary reason for owning directly (Late Breaks are bonus time for members.)

Which timeshare company has late breaks?

 

[CP4]

Love my timeshares (2) it gets me a nice vacation in a place where I could not afford a second home , Carlsbad & HI. It’s prepaid so I use it every year, I can bring a friend,who will usually offer to cover some of the expense. A good deal all aroun, have owned since 1998.

Do you own at seaport Carlsbad? How do you like it?

 

[ruhskis9713]

We own 2 weeks in Hawaii (one at Marriott Maui Napili and one at Waiohai), an every other year oceanfront at Marriott Kauai Beach Club, and 3000 points. We always spend two weeks in Hawaii every year and one the years we use Kauai Beach Club, we turn one of our weeks into points and travel elsewhere. We have visited almost all of the Marriot Timeshare locations and particularly enjoy Palm Desert, Newport Beach and the Pulse Clubs in San Diego and New York. The main advantage of timeshare ownership for us is that it FORCES us to take vacation time. A second advantage is that it is a significant savings over the cost of hotel stays. I have kept track since 2005 and the cost saving over renting the same units at the Bonvoy rates is in excess of $100,000, even including the purchase prices of the timeshares we bought, most of which were on resale.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Which timeshare company has late breaks?

Late breaks are a Trade Winds specific thing. Only available to members.

 

[Carolinian]

Over the years I have collected fixed oceanfront units. It is the only way I can afford to own and stay at an OCEAN FRONT apartment. To buy an OCEANFRONT house or condo is way out of my affordability!

All of our OBX weeks have been at oceanfront resorts, including the two we currently own. We are looking forward to going down in July and again in August. If we need to rent one due to a schedule conflict some year, we can rent it for at least twice the m/f. It is an affordable way to enjoy a nice week on the ocean.

When we were in the exchange game, we looked at trading power versus m/f to find the best options for trading but all of those weeks are long gone.

 

[jules54]

I’ve been to AA meetings. No one there wants just one.

OMG you made me laugh out loud.
Whats the staying “one is too many and a hundred is not enough” yep that sums up timeshare.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Will they allow conversions to points?

When you own oceanfront at a particular resort that shuts down, maybe you don't want Wyndham points to book Princeville resorts as a replacement. Princeville has different weather. The better choice for replacing the weeks would be Marriott, Sheraton or Pono Kai. Those are not Wyndham, but of course Wyndham does have Beach Boy, which would be a great alternative, but Shell owners get first crack at OF. So far, they haven't taken Shell owners' rights completely since the takeover.

 

[travelhacker]

Are you exchanging them through RCI or what group are they part of?

This is a combo of Interval, the Marriott Points System, as well as Hyatt Points.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Are you exchanging them through RCI or what group are they part of?

Compared to II, RCI is expensive and doesn't have the same quality of resorts that II has. That's my opinion after exchanging for 36 years in both systems.