Why would anyone buy?

[suzyblake]

Looking at timeshares available - why would anyone buy a timeshare with annual fees over $1000?
The cost of most fees are higher than actually renting a location. Sure you get a set schedule, but the annual costs are outrageous for the most part.

There are many timeshare facilities with reasonable annual fees - which make them cost effective to own, deposit, and have an annual vacation - less than what most timeshare annual fees cost.

Can anyone explain the reasoning for high annual fees?
Cheers,

 

[theo]

I don't know where you like to vacation, but anywhere that we would want to spend a week in a spacious, fully equipped condo (we don’t want to vacation out of hotel rooms) is certainly going to cost more than $1,000 to rent for a week.

Very low maintenance fees can (and often do) reflect underfunding of reserves, deferred maintenance, low "trade" value, minimal amenities --- or maybe all of the foregoing.

Shorter answer -- to each their own personal standards and objectives.

 

[jwalk03]

Looking at timeshares available - why would anyone buy a timeshare with annual fees over $1000?
The cost of most fees are higher than actually renting a location. Sure you get a set schedule, but the annual costs are outrageous for the most part.

There are many timeshare facilities with reasonable annual fees - which make them cost effective to own, deposit, and have an annual vacation - less than what most timeshare annual fees cost.

Can anyone explain the reasoning for high annual fees?
Cheers,

Have you looked at hotel prices lately? You cant stay at a Fairfield Inn for a week for $1000 let alone a 2BR villa at an oceanfront resort!

 

[RX8]

Be sure to compare apples to apples. A hotel room compared to a two bedroom condo with a full kitchen is not a fair comparison. And don’t forget, renting or hotel or a condo will result in sales tax and in some cases resort fees. With a timeshare, you don’t have to pay that (although exchanging may result in paying resort fees). That said, you hit the nail on the head (although I don’t agree that it is most) when you state “The cost of most fees are higher than actually renting a location.” If you can find a place you like to vacation and the cost of renting all-in is less than the maintenance fees, then one should never buy a timeshare at that resort. For me at least, I couldn’t rent where I own for what I pay in maintenance fees.

 

[b2bailey]

I used to feel $100/night was the threshold number for measuring a "good deal" for a night's stay. Those days are gone.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

explain the reasoning

not that there is any specificity in your question other than the nice round # $1000, but ...
a) it costs a lot to build a hotel or a TS
b) it costs a lot to run a hotel or a TS
c) it costs a lot to maintain a hotel or a TS
and 2nd-level thinking
d) some people make lousy decisions about where to build and how much capital to put in. in that case, their costs may outrun any feasible price they could put on staying there
e) some people make lousy or corrupt decisions about how much to spend on maintenance or salaries (as in their own)

Simplest answer: nobody is making anyone buy. Somebody somewhere is making a lousy purchase decision in all parts of life every day. Most people just love love love to spend money. So ............................... there it is ........... a salesperson's dream

 

[WinniWoman]

I'm renting a 2 bedroom timeshare in Florida for just under $700 for 4 nights in April. Booking.com. Use of all amenities and the resort fee is included in that price.

For 7 nights at our 2 bedroom loft (so like a 3 bedroom) timeshare in NH that we own in August, the maintenance fee is $967. Owned since 2015. Day use throughout the year is another benefit of that ownership.

On the other hand, we are also renting a small one bedroom log cabin 7 nights at a resort in Vermont in June and it is $2000 and use of the few amenities: small pool, kayaks and canoes on pond on site. And that is off season for Vermont.

I could probably rent a one bedroom timeshare 7 nights from an owner at smugglers notch resort which is in the same area for about $1000 to $1200 or so for that June week- with no use of all the amenities, including a pool if the building the rental is in doesn't have one of it's own- but directly booking with the resort for the off season in June would be about $1400 with use of the pool and some other amenities.2 adults.

Go in the height of summer an rent directly from Smuggs for 7 nights in a one bedroom and it would be $4600.00 with use of all amenities! 2 adults.

 

[jp10558]

Looking at timeshares available - why would anyone buy a timeshare with annual fees over $1000?
The cost of most fees are higher than actually renting a location. Sure you get a set schedule, but the annual costs are outrageous for the most part.

There are many timeshare facilities with reasonable annual fees - which make them cost effective to own, deposit, and have an annual vacation - less than what most timeshare annual fees cost.

Can anyone explain the reasoning for high annual fees?
Cheers,

I'd love to see the comparison where you're getting a week renting for less than $1,000. Even a Hampton Inn single hotel room averages $170 a night randomly in the US. That's $1,200 before taxes. And you usually don't even have a fridge anymore in the room. So you're paying to eat out and can't bring back leftovers, and even if there's a tiny fridge, it's impractical to eat anything in a hotel room - believe me, I've tried during COVID or on certain trips. And eating out is outrageous now - granted, it's vacation, but if you bring stuff back to the fridge and heat it up for a second meal, that's serious cash you're potentially saving because you have a kitchen. Now consider cooking some meals in the kitchen... even cheaper.

Then there's the non-financial reasons:
Issues people have with restricted diets - as time goes on I see more and more people unable to just "eat whatever" at a restaurant, and it's often not possible to get meals at chain or random restaurants that meet the dietary restrictions.
Trips with more than one couple so like having two or more rooms, just having an actual living room, couch, table, etc for comfortable stays.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

To the OP. Perhaps you stay in a low star hotel during low season in a crappy location with a room view of a parking lot. Power to you if you call that a "vacation." I would rather stay home.

The locations we visit rent for $700/night peak season plus resort fees. We save a lot of money on our timeshares with ocean or mountain views vs. renting in places like Scottsdale, Hawaii, Cabo, Ski season, Vegas & NYC.

 

[moonstone]

The maintenance fee on our Florida beach week timeshare has just gone up from about $800. to close to $1000. but to rent the same unit is between $1500 + $1800. so we are ahead. With our RCI Points one, the one maintenance fee gets us 3-5 vacations, all 7-13 nights long by exchanging, so even when adding other costs (exchange fee, RCI membership...) our nightly costs are always well below $100., often closer to $80. It is hard to find a cheap motel on a FL beach for that.

~Diane

Edited to add; - if you get the timeshare for free to start with that lowers your costs even more since you have no loan payments.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Our maintenance fees are much higher than $1,000 on almost all of our timeshares. We have one, Grand Palms, Myrtle Beach, and it's fees for 2024 are $1,188. That's a summer week in a 3 bedroom lockoff that sleeps up to 12 people. That's our best bargain on timeshare MF's because we can lock it off and use each side of the lockoff separately for use or for deposit.

Our Foxrun week 52 is lower, just under $1,000. Twin Rivers is very reasonable, but it's kind of a dump. It would be better sold as wholly-owned condos.

Our Marriott and Sheraton fees are higher, of course, but the trades we get with the one bedrooms after locking those off into two deposits, those are certainly worth the fees. I bought most to trade.

 

[LannyPC]

Can anyone explain the reasoning for high annual fees?

Inflation; delinquent owners; property taxes; cost to maintain a vacation resort property such as electricity, maid and cleaning service, painting, appliance repair/replace, furniture repair/replace, front desk staff, wi-fi, replace flooring every so often, repair/replace the roofing, garbage collecting services, rec facilities (eg., exercise room, pool, jacuzzi, etc.);

If you're an owner at a particular resort, you have the right to see the annual budget as to what expenses there are and what the MFs are being used for.

 

[davidvel]

Another drive-by

Looking at timeshares available - why would anyone buy a timeshare with annual fees over $1000?
The cost of most fees are higher than actually renting a location. Sure you get a set schedule, but the annual costs are outrageous for the most part.

There are many timeshare facilities with reasonable annual fees - which make them cost effective to own, deposit, and have an annual vacation - less than what most timeshare annual fees cost.

Can anyone explain the reasoning for high annual fees?
Cheers,

Without the specificity of what resort/season/view you are referencing, your question cannot be answered any better than the generalities above.

 

[Venter]

I'm renting a 2 bedroom timeshare in Florida for just under $700 for 4 nights in April. Booking.com. Use of all amenities and the resort fee is included in that price.

That is $175 a night or 1225 per week, which sounds like a fair deal. In what system is the timeshare? Marriotts in Florida have way higher maintenance fees.

 

[WinniWoman]

That is $175 a night or 1225 per week, which sounds like a fair deal. In what system is the timeshare? Marriotts in Florida have way higher maintenance fees.

It’s Legacy Vacation Resort on Palm Coast. I used booking.com for the rental.

 

[Hindsite]

If yo can't find value for how you vacation then don't buy. Timeshares aren't suitable for everyone, possibly not many people, so just go with what works for you if you have found it.

 

[TolmiePeak]

I feel somewhat the same way as the OP. We stayed at Marriott Cypress Harbour in early December. I'm guessing this is about the slowest time of the year there. We rented on the Marriott website for $200 a night. Seems like the maintenance fees would be more if we owned a week here.

 

[theo]

We stayed at Marriott Cypress Harbour in early December. I'm guessing this is about the slowest time of the year there. We rented on the Marriott website for $200 a night. Seems like the maintenance fees would be more if we owned a week here.

Maybe, but... was early December really when you would have preferred to be there? Both space availabilty and rental cost would likely have been very different in "prime time".

 

[TolmiePeak]

Maybe, but... was early December really when you would have preferred to be there? Both availabilty and rental cost would likely have been very different in "prime time".

Yes. We were going to DisneyWorld and I can't take the late August heat. Early December is almost as slow in the parks. We would never consider going during Christmas week. I get what you are saying. From my limited knowledge it seems like timeshares are a great deal if you are doing during a high demand period where the hotels are all charging top dollar.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Early December is almost as slow in the parks

Have you been recently? It’s really not anymore. Meanwhile Christmas isn’t as bad as it used to be (although still bad). They’ve done a pretty good job at using pricing and park reservations to smooth demand.

 

[dioxide45]

I feel somewhat the same way as the OP. We stayed at Marriott Cypress Harbour in early December. I'm guessing this is about the slowest time of the year there. We rented on the Marriott website for $200 a night. Seems like the maintenance fees would be more if we owned a week here.

Your one resort and time of year is mostly anecdotal, especially in a high supply location like Orlando. For something like Orlando, owning there to stay there on your owned week doesn't make sense. There are hundreds of other locations, resorts and dates where the numbers are completely opposite.

 

[claraj]

We rented on the Marriott website for $200 a night.

TS owners with access to II can rent a week (7 nights) at at a Sheraton or Marriott resort for as little as $450 (for a studio.) I'm not sure about December but I was able to for October and May.

 

[bnoble]

Orlando isn't the best example. There are so many high-quality lodging options that it is hard to charge top-shelf room rates. I'm going next week--this is a "tweener" week that is after President's Week but before the Spring Break season really gets cooking, and typically moderately-busy for Orlando. A 2BR at Cypress Harbour for a week is about $2,025 with the extended-stay discount directly from Marriott. That's still a good $350 over fees (which look to be about $1675 give or take).

 

[TolmiePeak]

Have you been recently? It’s really not anymore. Meanwhile Christmas isn’t as bad as it used to be (although still bad). They’ve done a pretty good job at using pricing and park reservations to smooth demand.

It was pretty slow when were there during the first week in December. Magic Kingdom was crowded some days but we went to that park on the days it was closing at 6p for a Christmas party. Those days are far less crowded.

 

[TolmiePeak]

Your one resort and time of year is mostly anecdotal, especially in a high supply location like Orlando. For something like Orlando, owning there to stay there on your owned week doesn't make sense. There are hundreds of other locations, resorts and dates where the numbers are completely opposite.

Exactly. I'm new to this and watching your and Cliff's videos are very helpful. Thanks for the excellent resource.