Giving back timeshare unit
Several years ago, after getting scammed by resellers with upfront fees, I approached our resort to see if they would handle a resale. The answer was no, but if we were to sell it ourselves, they would only charge $100 to affect the transfer. Then, after a couple of years of asking, the resort put into its website an offer to take back any units and they would pay $1 to make the transfer valid. This is a much better deal than the $4000 we were asked to pay at a meeting with a group that offered to take a timeshare week off our hands and arrange the "difficult and costly transfer" and make sure that we never had to pay maintenance fees again!!
Last year I wanted to get rid of 2 of our 3 weeks before the next annual maintenance fees were due. I managed to sell one of our weeks in a local free internet ad (sorry, but my ads in TUG didn't get any response in time), but ended up giving back the second week for the $1 offer. Both transfers went through without a hitch.
Today I was quite surprised to see an email from my resort that had the following message:
"Dear Vacation Owner Members:
Many members have asked us over the past two years about the resale market for their week ownership. We understand there are resellers in the market but that they can be expensive, require money up front and of course, do not guarantee results.
Last fall I asked for feedback on the creation of a “Clearinghouse” and many members responded enthusiastically. Based on this member feedback, we are implementing a “Clearinghouse” site where Vacation Owners will be able to post their week for sale.
Starting next week, you will be able to find this new feature on our website under the Vacation Ownership menu, listed as “Vacation Owners Clearinghouse”
Your first step is to enroll in the program by providing your Member Number, last name, an email address and creating a password. To do this, click on the first item on the “Owners” menu, which will take you to the Login screen. At the bottom of that screen is a link for first time visitors to create an account.
Once enrolled you will be able to create a listing for your week.
Anyone will have access to the Shoppers menu, where properties being offered will be listed for viewing and for contact with the owner.
When creating your listing you will find fields for both Contact Information and Confidential Email Address. If you prefer not to make your contact information public, please fill in only the confidential email address. By doing so, all inquiries will be generated to you automatically by the system and that email address will not be divulged."
This was followed by sample ads.
We are actually quite happy with our resort, Calabogie Peaks, and often go there for hiking, skiing, or swimming, even when we don't book into our remaining timeshare (it's only an hour drive from home).
It would be nice if other timeshare resorts would be as good about helping with the seemingly difficult task of getting rid a timeshare obligation.
khs