If anyone asks me if they should buy a timeshare, I say no unless they're ready to commit to a lifetime of ever increasing maintenance fees.
I hear this remark all the time and feel compelled to address it, so again I'll disagree with the premise.
So if they take your advice (desiring to still take that yearly vacation) and decide to only pursue rack rate vacations,
do you then tell them that the rack rates will never increase similarly? and that if they desire to avoid ANY
"commitment to rising costs", then their only other choice is to annually (and continually) scale down the quality
of the rack rate vacation so that the cost remains totally static?
I believe the best bang for the buck still exists within the timeshare system (via resales) DESPITE the rising maintenance fees
(granting that some fees experience "higher-than-needed" increases and need to be better controlled, but that doesn't negate my point).
As you know, after a few short years we only encounter the mf, which typically is about half the rack rate nowadays
in my experience, so we're still taking nice vacations in a 2BR condo for that lower fee, relatively speaking.
I am delighted to pay my mf's annually, because there's no way I could find anything comparable for THAT cost.
And yes, I've bought a few resales to keep a good thing going.
But I'll tell you flat out, I have ZERO friends who enjoy 2BR condos for what I pay in a maintenance fee alone
in my timeshare system, and they are very envious for the top-notch places we enjoy,
and the frequency, and the size of the accommodations.
Not to mention the MANY other perks we obtain by virtue of ownership, which add even more to the total experience,
which a rack-rate payer will NEVER enjoy.
(For a moment there, I mis-typed "palaces" for "places" ....obviously a Freudian slip.)
So yes we play in vacation "palaces" now for the cost of a maintenance fee, and I'm quite happy to do it.
When you can show me the rack rates for "similar" vacations have stopped increasing, I'll retract my post.
And even if that happens and they remain constant, which they won't, my "half" deal will still continue.
P.S.....Matter of fact, a friend of mine is JUST NOW THIS WEEK starting the process of owning his first timeshare on my advice.
He's getting the best deal I've ever heard of (which I found for him) for a fantastic resale week at Grande Ocean/Hilton Head
in Gold season (which includes the first two weeks of June).
I would have bought it if he hadn't, but he's thrilled, and so are his wife and family.
And another thing---I just looked it up.....
I'm at Grande Ocean right now for the third consecutive week. My cost is about $1400 in mf per week = $4200. Looking at Redweek rentals the cost would be about $8400 (and that's far below the rack rate through Marriott as a non-owner, and about the same as a Chairman's level owner discount).
THERE'S NO WAY I'd pay that $8400 to stay here under any circumstances other than my timeshare ownership. And low and behold the rental prices have indeed gone up each year as I've witnessed.....but for me, THAT'S AWESOME!!!!
As James Brown said so eloquently, "GET ON UP!"
....and that's because I rented 3 of my weeks this year.