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Got an email the other day from, I believe, the 'deal of a lifetime" in Durango Colorado.
Seems that some poor sap owns about 25 "interval units" (timeshares!) that he believes are worth some $1.5 Million! If you act quickly, you can own the whole deal for some $800,000
I am thinking...okay....I'll pay $100 for the whole lot and maybe I can sell one or two to a sucker for a couple grand. Original seller to pay all fees, and indemnify against assessments for some future period, or the deal is off.
What I figure is really going on is that some outfit swept up all the remaining "intervals" from a new development and is now trying to sell the bundle. They probably own them for peanuts (maybe a few thousand) and are now looking for a big sucker(s).
I figure they are basically worthless...but nice try.
I can't believe people keep getting duped by that "With fractional ownership, you are owning your vacation" line. With a timeshare, the so called buyer never ever owns anything. The maintenance fees last forever and the renter/buyer is always restricted on their usage. and the popular times book quickly. With regular vacations, the family can go anywhere and if they don't want or can't go, they lose no money.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - What if you bought a timeshare and could never use it?
A new lawsuit has claimed a Gatlinburg resort is selling dream vacations in the Smokies, but when you go to book that vacation, there are never any rooms available. And, it turns out, that's not the only surprise some consumers are getting.
This sounds like the RCI class action lawsuit a few years ago (they lost!).
RCI was renting the rooms at market rates and would tell time share owners the rooms were "not available" when you wanted to swap weeks for them or even use them.
This happened mainly on red weeks like ski season in Colorado or the summer in nice places on the beach.
RCI could make a LOT more money renting the rooms and not allowing the timeshare owners to use them.
Time shares are a huge rip-off, no surprise there.
So here's our experience with a timeshare. Never thought I'd want to buy a timeshare but we had rented a Four Seasons timeshare unit in Jackson Hole one year and as a result we received an offer to stay at their Scottsdale Residence Club for 3 nites for a nominal fee (IIRC ~$300) if we go thorough the 90 minute timeshare presentation. Since we live in driving range (San Diego) we decided to take the offer. FS also agreed to extend to 5 nites at the same rate (very nice of them) as 3 days was too short a vacation for us. All along thinking we'd never purchase but it was a good deal for a vacation. This was 2006/7.
Drove out to FS Scottsdale with our pre-school age kids. Being a Four Seasons the resort is gorgeous, in a great part of Scottsdale and the Residence Club units are huge (2 bed, 2.5 bath; 1700 sq ft) and beautifully decorated. We took the tour (FS babysat our kids at the Kids Club gratis) which was very low presssure. ~90 mins tour through a model unit and the pool, clubhouse, etc and the tour guide gave us her biz card and said call me if you're interested. (Very different from the high pressure Mexico tours I've taken for a free breakfast and some tchotchke.) Keeping the story short, we loved the resort and, likely against our better judgement, we bought a week in the "Gold" period, Jun-Dec, excepting Xmas week.
The math: cost of the unit was $30K for which we paid cash. Annual maintenance $1800; jumped to $2100 a few years in. So pretty much paying about $2700-3300 per year (interest on $30K plus annual maintenance), or ~$400-500/nite for a vacation. One could rent these for about $400-650/nite through Redweek or VRBO, though the Four Seasons rents them at >$1000/nite. About every third year we're able to secure Thanksgiving week which is a significantly more valuable week (though I can't find a comparable since it's always fully booked by owners with no FS rentals available). One year we exchanged for FS Residence Club Punta Mita. These are over the top beautiful and huge (2100 sq ft with a huge patio and plunge pool); we upgraded to a 3 bedroom (3500 sq ft) so that my brother and SIL could join for $100 nite. Renting through VRBO or FS would cost $1100 to $1500/nite (net). So I would say we're getting comparable to better value for the unit on a purely cash value basis. (BTW, I don't know about other timeshares, but at the FS, one gets full maid service daily, cleaning the entire unit as well as restocking toiletries and kitchen, coffee, etc; wife usually returns with enough Occitane to gift out the relatives over Xmas). There are also some golfing privileges at Troon North that have no value to us since we don't golf. Only took advantage of that once when another family joined us and my friend did a round of golf.
That said, when pre-school kids get to school age kids, ones flexibility for choosing dates for vacation drop dramatically. We'd typically go at end of June (or Thanksgiving when we could get it). We've been able to secure our preferred dates but it does take some vigilance (i.e. reserving one year out). Also, after about half-a-dozen years the kids get bored of going to the same place. Wife and I would gladly return to Scottsdale annually since the resort us beautiful and we're happy to just relax. Kids, not so much. That said, we've traded for some very nice places. FS Punta Mita, internally, and Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta, Cancun, south of Spain, Euro-Disney through Interval International. The FS Residence Clubs trade at the highest level in Interval. So our two-bedroom (1-bdrm suite plus hotel room lock-off) can be split into two weeks at a lower quality resort, each for a two bedroom, usually. Again, the downside being that with kids, the available trades are limited when you only have a few weeks every year when you can vacation. So we haven't been able to take full advantage of the trades. (As an aside, we've twice received free bonus weeks through Interval for reasons I don't understand. Not sure if that's because we're FS members, lucky, same as everyone. Anyone else had this happen??)
So all tolled, would I do it again? Most likely not. I don't like the lack of flexibility now that our kids are older. On the other hand, it hasn't been a disaster, operationally or financially. In general, we get what we're paying for, or better. We could unload the unit for $5,000 to $10,000. We choose not to because we estimate that we get more value out of it than we're paying. That said, I suspect that the Four Season experience is likely to be better than pretty much all the other timeshares, fractional ownership, vacations clubs, etc.
See this is a prime example of the rationalization to try to make the money seem like it works. You say "we'll pay in maintenance fees this year roughly a third of what we would have paid for our accommodations retail." The key words here are "our accommodations" and "retail." First, your accommodations at WDW have grotesquely overpriced full retail pricing. They can't even rent the ones they have available at those rates and they consistently have 30% to 35% discounted rates on those particular resorts. Secondly, with those resorts being overpriced, when we do stay onsite we typically stay in a moderate and get the discount with a rate around $139 to $169 per night depending on season. When we go down to do other things besides just WDW, we often stay offsite. Offsite with other hotel chains, I can get excellent top tier accommodations that rival WDW's deluxe resorts for less than half the price and I can get a very good hotel for a third.
I missed the bus on purpose by my on choice. I am glad we didn't buy DVC because we are not locked into Disney vacations. Since we took the DVC tour, we have been all over the country on various vacations. We have been to numerous west coast and east coast beaches, the Grand Canyon, Painted desert, petrified forest, Oatman AZ, Las Vegas, Hoover dam, San Diego and many other places. We have been to London and are going to Europe again in the next year or two. In between various trips, we have also been to WDW and stayed onsite at Port Orleans, The Boardwalk and The Swan for the same or less than the annual dues would have cost us for a DVC resort.
The only way DVC with Disney works out is if you are willing to dedicate yourself to a Disney vacation or cruise basically every year. Outside of that, it is just another timeshare people get sucked into believing they are getting a good deal. I am not and will never be willing to lock myself into dealing with Disney every single year, especially now that they have all the pre-planning of fastpasses and dining and all of that. It is extremely aggravating to even plan a Disney World trip now and I find myself going less and less. I am in the middle of dealing with an upcoming trip for a special event at WDW right now and I am about ready to pull my hair out.
The DVC is and has been marketed primarily to Floridians who are already going to WDW on a yearly basis. These are the people who already have/maintain the annual or seasonal passes and go several times a year because it’s an easy drive.
My parents joined in the mid-‘90s and it has been well worth it for them. They even got a second one later in preparation for retirement because it’s an easy trip for them without the hassle of a long drive or plane ride. Sometimes they don’t even go into the parks and will just go to stay at the resort, go to the outlets, or eat at the restaurants. My sister usually comes to stay with my parents with her family once a year (she even did this before she had a child). We have all been on the rides so many times that it really doesn’t matter if we go on one ride or not. We don’t care, and if we miss out on a new ride, we can go the next time. The thing with DVC is that you have it ALL THE TIME, so if you can’t go this time, you can go the next time, or the next. There is no pressure like the one-time vacationers to cram everything in to one vacation.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - What if you bought a timeshare and could never use it?
A new lawsuit has claimed a Gatlinburg resort is selling dream vacations in the Smokies, but when you go to book that vacation, there are never any rooms available. And, it turns out, that's not the only surprise some consumers are getting.
The DVC is and has been marketed primarily to Floridians who are already going to WDW on a yearly basis. These are the people who already have/maintain the annual or seasonal passes and go several times a year because it’s an easy drive.
My parents joined in the mid-‘90s and it has been well worth it for them. They even got a second one later in preparation for retirement because it’s an easy trip for them without the hassle of a long drive or plane ride. Sometimes they don’t even go into the parks and will just go to stay at the resort, go to the outlets, or eat at the restaurants. My sister usually comes to stay with my parents with her family once a year (she even did this before she had a child). We have all been on the rides so many times that it really doesn’t matter if we go on one ride or not. We don’t care, and if we miss out on a new ride, we can go the next time. The thing with DVC is that you have it ALL THE TIME, so if you can’t go this time, you can go the next time, or the next. There is no pressure like the one-time vacationers to cram everything in to one vacation.
No, they market them to everybody that visits. They have been marketing to us for over 15 years now with direct mail, email and also inserts/flyers in our paperwork at check in or advertising left in the room. We have been bombarded with marketing for DVC.
I get it, it works for some people. You basically have to be dedicated to going to WDW regularly to get value from it. We considered it when we used to go 2 or 3 times a year but now we have expanded our vacation destinations and travel all over. We have been to WDW so many times I have lost count. We went to Disneyland in Anaheim for a couple of days while we were out west a couple of years ago. We travel to Europe now every couple of years. Besides that, I am very unhappy with the changes Disney has made and now has all the pre-planning and scheduling resulting in a very inflexible rigid schedule while you are at WDW. That is one of the things I considered when looking at DVC....what if they make changes I don't like and then I am stuck with going there? Anyway, there are so many great hotels and resorts all over the Orlando area and we have stayed at many of them. We never have a problem finding a good deal on a great room whenever we want to go.
I didn't really want to turn this thread into a Disney DVC debate but it is just another timeshare. Disney just does a really good job with their marketing propaganda and convince people they are getting some sort of fantastic deal on vacations for the next 50 years. As I had mentioned, people find ways to rationalize these things in their minds so they feel like they are getting a deal. We have a couple of examples already.
The DVC is and has been marketed primarily to Floridians who are already going to WDW on a yearly basis. These are the people who already have/maintain the annual or seasonal passes and go several times a year because it’s an easy drive.
My parents joined in the mid-‘90s and it has been well worth it for them. They even got a second one later in preparation for retirement because it’s an easy trip for them without the hassle of a long drive or plane ride. Sometimes they don’t even go into the parks and will just go to stay at the resort, go to the outlets, or eat at the restaurants. My sister usually comes to stay with my parents with her family once a year (she even did this before she had a child). We have all been on the rides so many times that it really doesn’t matter if we go on one ride or not. We don’t care, and if we miss out on a new ride, we can go the next time. The thing with DVC is that you have it ALL THE TIME, so if you can’t go this time, you can go the next time, or the next. There is no pressure like the one-time vacationers to cram everything in to one vacation.
We bought DVC about 15 years ago and it's worked out very well for us. When our kids were younger we would take them every year during one of their school vacations (DVC doesn't sell dedicated weeks so you can go whenever you want based on availability). As they got older we started go every other year or every third year as they got busier and rented out our excess points to friends. At this point our maintenance fees are paid for by our rentals so any points we use are essentially "free" now since we paid in cash when we initially purchased our contracts.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - What if you bought a timeshare and could never use it?
A new lawsuit has claimed a Gatlinburg resort is selling dream vacations in the Smokies, but when you go to book that vacation, there are never any rooms available. And, it turns out, that's not the only surprise some consumers are getting.
If the customer's are complaining about not being able to book in the last two years, well I know the reason. Every building at this resort except one burned to the ground in the big Gatlinburg fire two years ago. That's probably the reason they couldn't get rooms. They had to rebuild the place.
Scroll down this story to the aerial photo of the resort after the fire.
Those charred rectangles are the foundations of the condo buildings.
If it was happening for a decade as alleged, then it's just your normal timeshare ripoff.
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