Say WHAT?
I just became a member of TUG today and I admittedly know zilch about any of this. But I am also not stupid. ALL responses came from people who have posted a minimum of 2,000+ times (and up to 30,000 posts). These CAN'T be Owners. These are people/entities who may 'own' timeshares - but AS BUSINESSES. Why would I want advice from a timeshare business about legitimacy of the timeshare business? That's like asking the fox how to best protect the chickens! I joined thinking I was going to get advice from peers - other individuals looking to sell a timeshare or who successfully sold theirs.
Am I wrong here? If you respond to this, please state up front how many timeshare deeds or agreements you currently own - or don't waste my time.
I have a different view of whose time might be "wasted" by bothering to even respond to the above
at all, but I'll foolishly bite anyhow...
There are people posting in the TUG discussion forums who own a lot of timeshare deeds and / or points who clearly (and quite openly) attempt to conduct something of a "business" with rentals of some of those ownerships, as is their prerogative. That being said however, the number of posts anyone may have placed in these discussion forums has absolutely
no connection or correlation of
any kind to whether or not that person actually has any such "business" involvement or intent.
Speaking only for myself (at nearly 5,000 posts on a site and a subject of personal interest to me, I assume that I somehow qualify as one of your "business suspects"), we have owned and used timeshares for over 30 years now ---
solely for vacation access and
never as a "business". In 30+ years, we have probably rented out a week or two about a dozen+ times in collective total --- usually at the last minute and usually for only
or for less than our annual maintenance fee cost (...clearly not a very good "business" practice), when illnesses or other pressing family matters suddenly and unexpectedly precluded our own travel or timeshare use.
All of our purchases (all were bought
only for our own use) have been at reasonable prices in the resale market. Nonetheless, we've rarely realized any "profit" on any timeshare week we've ever sold. We've usually about broken even when selling off a week --- and have certainly
lost money several times selling off unwanted weeks.
That's clearly neither a "business" nor a very good "business model" to emulate.
Not that it's actually any of your business, but since you've asked the question so diplomatically and politely
,
we currently own 7 weeks (or 7 deeds, if you prefer), distributed among 3 different timeshare facilities. That's a deliberate 50% reduction in our timeshare ownerships, pared down over the past 5-6 years, partly to control costs in our reduced-income retirement years. These ownerships are for personal leisure travel --- nothing else. We had no timeshare "business" formerly, we have no interest at all in conducting a timeshare "business" now and certainly won't ever develop any timeshare "business" interest or intent at any time in the future.
Welcome to TUG. You might consider toning down the accusations, attitude and / or uninformed conclusions while seeking timeshare knowledge and information here.
After all, by your own above-quoted statement, you "know zilch about any of this" coming in the door. People here are generally quite willing to voluntarily share their topic knowledge and experience --- they will likely be more inclined to do so if you demonstrate a bit less "attitude" and make fewer grossly incorrect accusations.
Just my own unsolicited personal opinion, to accept and adopt or to just ignore summarily, as you may see fit.