I agree, this is a very interesting thread.
We went to a Westgate presentation in Orlando years ago that was so ridiculous that we still laugh about it. Whatever, we got our free tickets and the experience reinforced our opinion that timeshares were a ripoff.
Then my cousin started working for DVC. We started to think timeshares were not a ripoff but we figured we could never afford one.
Then we moved to California & got a cheap long weekend at Hyatt Highlands Inn. We had to do the sales presentation and it sounded really sweet. Just too expensive.
So by now, we knew about Hyatt & DVC. We went to a pre-sale sales pitch at Disneyland for Villas at Grand Californian. We were pretty sure based on these two experiences that we would want either a Hyatt or a DVC if we could afford it.
I read a bunch about both systems on TUG & Disboards. Eventually, we decided to buy an 1880 pt week at Hyatt High Sierra in Tahoe. We've still never been there, though. It's a great trader. We use it to book partial weeks in the Hyatt system- Carmel multiple times & Sedona once. But I used the heck out of that Hyatt week as a trader for a few years.
We liked it so much, the fact that we could leverage one week into many studio weeks or partial weeks. We travel a lot & had some great trips. We saved up money & were considering even buying Villas at Grand Californian direct. The economy was booming and VGC was going to be offered to DVC owners first. Rumor was it might sell out before being offered to the general public. So we bought a 25 point contract at Hilton Head Island, just to be owners.
Then the economy tanked & we put VGC purchase on hold- for awhile. Contracts were going cheaply on the resale market, so we bought an 85 point contract for $92/pt. Has hugely appreciated. It was awesome for awhile, when APs were cheap for SoCal residents. Now they are so expensive that we have to borrow/bank & push 3 years of stays into one year. Then we get sick of Disneyland. But we find it hard to part with this one. We love a lot about it.
By now we wanted to go to Maui and the big drawback to Hyatt is that you can only search 12 months out, which is a little late to try for a Westin & also use FF miles for the flight. The ecomony was still bad & we got a SBP unit for free. Great trader so far. I just used my 2017 week this morning to book a Hyatt Highlands Inn week in Carmel. (So much for Maui in 2018, unless SFX comes through.)
And then, at the very tail end of the bad economy, we wanted to buy a week to actually use- something on the east coast that would force us to go back & visit relatives there. We like beaches & ocean swimming & picked up an EOY Marriott Barony Beach gold week. Garden view, so it was pretty reasonable. Turns out our relatives don't like the beach that much (or going anywhere, it turns out!), so who knows what we'll do with this one. We had a great stay in 2015, loved the resort, so we hate to give it up.
For us, we like trading and traveling lots of places. The kitchen is a huge plus- allows us to be more mellow & relaxed, eat simply and have healthier food. Units with washer/dryers are swell- I've become an avid cyclist and it's nice to be able to wash my cycling clothes on a trip. Extra rooms for the bike(s) is a plus too. As is the lack of housekeeping- we'd prefer no one enter our room while we're out, especially if we have bikes in the room.
We're totally happy with our timeshares, although we have probably one too many right now. Hard to part with any of them though.