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Wondering what you think of the future of timeshare

trexmdr

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I’m just wondering what people think about the future of timesharing?
With Covid are you taking a wait and see attitude?
Thinking about selling some of your properties or add on as prices drop?
How many years of paying maintenance fees will you endure without taking vacations?
Will there be enough people to rent to if you decide not to go?
Just wondering how other vistana owners feel as I find the people and moderators on this forum the most insightful, wise and forward thinking to be found anywhere.
 

DanCali

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I think it really depends on who are are where you own.

We traveled this past summer to AZ and CA and it was great to do so. However, if you own in a place that is closed (like Bahamas) or a place that required a long flight (like Hawaii) then you may feel differently about travel. If I was 10 years older, I might also feel differently about travel during covid.

I am not thinking of selling but hope to be able to rent what I don't use, or bank for future use. I would add a couple of weeks opportunistically if the right resort came at a reasonably attractive (below "market") price. I have my metrics to evaluate what is a good deal from my perspective but I won't bore you with that.

Whether you can rent out your weeks or not really depends where and when. For example, you can't rent out Harborside if the Bahamas is closed. But I had a cancellation in one of Marriott weeks at Newport Coast and advertised it to re-rent at a relatively low price and had 20+ inquiries. It haalps having 20 million people with cabin fever within a 2 hour drive from the resort...

If I end up with many banked points I may just start to splurge in future years on booking larger units when available. Maybe a vacation with in-laws? :)
 

silentg

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We had plans that fell through because of Covid-19, but didn’t lose anything. We were able to postpone a couple of trips for next year and 2022. Took a close to home trip a few weeks ago. Have another timeshare vacation in a couple of weeks. Driving to a remote area with a golf course, it’s a Timeshare we own but haven’t visited yet. We are retired so our schedule is flexible. Looking forward to getting away. We got flu shots today and are wearing masks and social distancing as much as possible. I think timeshares will survive this Covid19 and come back better and safer than before.
 

Sea Six

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The thing that will be hurting timeshare is the travel industry. As much as I'd love to be in certain resorts, I'm not ready to go to an airport, stand in a check-in line, go thru security, wait in a terminal gate, line up to board a plane, then actually board and sit on a plane for hours. Then do it all over again when you arrive, not just baggage claim, but the rental car counter, check-in, and so many other things. The resorts will suffer because some people just don't want to go there. I want a system like Star Trek - beam me up!
 

jabberwocky

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As has been pointed out by others, there will be good demand for places that are a bit more "out of the way" and provide a chance to feel alone. Timeshares will probably do well relative to hotels since they are more spacious and usually include a kitchen, which limits the need to dine outside in the community. There is also usually less turnover at timeshares - guests stay longer than average.

Smaller timeshares that can be driven to (rather than requiring air travel) will do better than the large complexes on islands. I will prefer ones that don't have elevators or require me to go inside a public area to access my room.

I did buy a (non-vistana) timeshare this summer, it was something I had wanted and was waiting for a good entry point. Someone handed an opportunity to me so I took it. We bought my timeshares to use, not to rent.

Planning vacations definitely more challenging in this environment, but we remain optimistic and ready to travel.
 

CPNY

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I traveled during COVID starting in May, I just got back from Aruba. CLT was PACKED flying back on that Friday. My Connecting AA flight was completely full (middle seat included). While the resort and island was empty in Aruba, people were still traveling. As a matter of fact, I think timeshare owners and renters are conditioned to travel that they will get on a plane no matter what. The first few weeks in Orlando i can’t tell you the mix of people. Families, young adults, the “experienced” generation (my way of saying older folk). It will be back soon. Maybe not 100% in a month but by next summer I’d say 75% (as long as we don’t have a second wave in the news)
 

heathpack

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We had to cancel our big Maui trip this year but we haven’t paid MF and not been able to travel. We cancelled our 3BR Hyatt Kaanapali reservation, which in the Hyatt system turns that week into 2950 points. We deposited those in II and have already exchanged for a studio week at Four Seasons Troon North (Scottsdale) in Nov, a 1BR week at Sedona Summit (April) and a 1BR week at Marriott Mountainside next Labor Day. We’ll get another 1BR week out of that deposit.

We‘re planning on using the weekend of our Hyatt High Sierra (Tahoe) ownership next year because if falls on Memorial Day weekend and we converted the rest to HRC points and booked 4 nights in a 1BR at Hyatt Pinon Pointe in Sedona and 2 nights in a 1BR at Hyatt Highlands Inn in Carmel.

We have our Barony Beach week booked and might rent it or deposit it with II, haven’t decided yet. Our DVC points are banked and traded privately for a condo in Oregon next year. Our Marriott Mountainside week is EOY even, so next year is not a useage year for us anyway. We have some 120 day restricted use Marriott DC points that we‘re hoping to use in Park City next September, in conjunction with our already-booked II exchange.

And... Our SBP is always deposited and traded a year in advance, so next years week has already been used and the MF paid. We won’t be out anything if we don’t do anything with our SBP next year.

As to travel, the only travel we’re really interested in now is condo style (ie full kitchen separate bedroom/living room and laundry) travel to driveable destinations. Timeshares work really well for how we plan to travel for the next year or so. We can happily avail ourselves of timeshares in Tahoe, Carmel, Sedona, Park City and AirBnB travel to National Parks in California, Arizona, Utah and Oregon.

How will timeshares be impacted? It’s hard to say. I think there are lots of folks who own timeshares in a fly-to location who are disenchanted right now. I bet many of them reevaluate timeshare ownership and decide to sell next year. I think there will also be those who figure out acceptable alternative uses of their TSs and realize TS travel meets their new needs to a “T”.
 

Sea Six

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I suspect a lot of people will default on their MFs this year.
 

The Colorado Kid

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Great topic!

I'm optimistic about the future of TS. For our personal travel TS has allowed us to stay in waaaaaaay better accomodations than we ever have before, plus plan ahead and vacation more frequently than ever before in our 35 years of marriage. As we teeter on breaking free of the work/school calendar (my wife is a speech pathologist for a local school district) we see even more efficient travel in our future.

With the expertise shared here on TUG I am using a buy-low...use local strategy. I monitor several timeshare resale sites regularly and over the last 4 months have seen increasing listings for under $500 PP and often $0 PP....sure some are junk but some are not as people appear to be just wanting to get rid of their annual MF's.
 
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carpie99

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I traveled during COVID starting in May, I just got back from Aruba. CLT was PACKED flying back on that Friday. My Connecting AA flight was completely full (middle seat included). While the resort and island was empty in Aruba, people were still traveling. As a matter of fact, I think timeshare owners and renters are conditioned to travel that they will get on a plane no matter what. The first few weeks in Orlando i can’t tell you the mix of people. Families, young adults, the “experienced” generation (my way of saying older folk). It will be back soon. Maybe not 100% in a month but by next summer I’d say 75% (as long as we don’t have a second wave in the news)

How was Aruba? We leave in two weeks. Where did you stay and do you have any restaurant recommendations?
 

bogey21

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Developers will sell fewer Weeks/Points...
There will be a lot of MFs not paid...
Deed Backs will become more difficult...
Resale prices will decline...
Points will build in Owner's accounts...
Over time it will all work out...

George
 

Don Springett

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As others have said, timeshares should do better than other aspects of the travel industry. I would imagine some people will stop paying MF‘s but many will keep paying. Airlines and hotels I am sure are faring worse. Island destinations will Be challenged until COVID is fixed. We own in Kierland and Maui and are 5 star elites. We used some Maui points for recent stays at the WRF and Sheraton Steamboat. We have been flexible with allowing folks to cancel so now have a ton of points this year. What to do with them? We never converted to hotel points under Starwood and Marriott has really deflated the value of the hotel points. Would anyone here advise converting to hotel points? Banking is certainly an option but I am concerned a lot of people will be banking so availability could be a challenge. Would be interested on advise on how to take advantage of our premium properties inside interval? Thanks in advance for all the Tugger collective wisdom!
 

CPNY

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How was Aruba? We leave in two weeks. Where did you stay and do you have any restaurant recommendations?
I cooked in the room a lot only ate out three times in 2 weeks. I grilled most nights. I’ve only been to Aruba twice so I’m def not the one to ask lol. I stayed at the Marriott surf club. It was pretty empty although lots of locals spending the day or getting cheap rentals and doing staycations. I think now that school is in session there will be much less people. There were times I had the serenity pool to myself for over an hour. I rented a car and went to arashi beach most days. I liked the water and secluded feel vs the resort beach.
 

Ckhawaii

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As others have said, timeshares should do better than other aspects of the travel industry. I would imagine some people will stop paying MF‘s but many will keep paying. Airlines and hotels I am sure are faring worse. Island destinations will Be challenged until COVID is fixed. We own in Kierland and Maui and are 5 star elites. We used some Maui points for recent stays at the WRF and Sheraton Steamboat. We have been flexible with allowing folks to cancel so now have a ton of points this year. What to do with them? We never converted to hotel points under Starwood and Marriott has really deflated the value of the hotel points. Would anyone here advise converting to hotel points? Banking is certainly an option but I am concerned a lot of people will be banking so availability could be a challenge. Would be interested on advise on how to take advantage of our premium properties inside interval? Thanks in advance for all the Tugger collective wisdom!

You are 5* Elite so you have until the end of the year to bank or 10/1 to turn into Bonvoy points. I may be wrong but you also don’t have to pay any fees to bank or convert. If you were to turn one of your weeks into Bonvoy points, I would go with the Kierland since your MF is the lowest and cost per point would be lower than your Maui weeks. It’s not the best way to use your ownership but given the situation this year, if I had multiple weeks I would do it. The points have a six year life span compared to banked options which will expire at the end of 2022.
 

MOXJO7282

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I think it’s possible domestic TSs will actually get a boost in demand As many elect to stay close to home. I know I saw it with HHI units I listed for rent for last week Aug. very high demand and I rented at non virus rates.
 

trexmdr

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My timeshare in on Maui, WKORV. I bought this one from the developer pre-construction.
Had lots of great vacations there but the last five years rented it out.
personally I don’t want to travel on a plane for five hours as we live in Los Angeles and I can’t imagine a longer flight from the Midwest or east coast but my kids are both college age and they might want to go with their friends so I keep it as it’s my only TS. I think older people won’t want to fly as much as younger now that I’m one of them. Great input from everyone. Thank you.
 
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