[ 2012 ] How Many Timeshares Do You Own?

[dansimms]

Timeshares Owned

We have a 2 BR Lockoff in Platinum / Red Season at all of the following with Marriott........Desert Springs I , CA (1994).....Ocean Pointe, Palm Beach Shores, FL (2001).......Grand Chateau - Las Vegas EOY (2008)........Beach Place Towers - Ft. Lauderdale - EOY (2014 on a resale) In order to attain Premier Plus we also purchased 2500 Trust Points (2014) This has allowed us and our family to make a lot of great memories for two decades now. Invested about $87,500, not including maintenance fees and loan interest... and now carry a maintenance fee load of close to $5000 a year. Not inexpensive, but glad we have set this up for first rate accommodations. We take the 125,000 points on Desert Springs to pad our Hotel account every other year, when we can.....since it is a long trip for us. Ocean Pointe gives us the best return on Destination Points, but we end up going there most frequently. We have probably stayed or at least walked the property at close to 40 of the Marriott Vacation Clubs. Phuket was probably the most elegant we have stayed at. We like the Premier Plus benefits............<60 day notice stays and the Ritz Properties in shoulder seasons. We are not the type to have a second home, so that is how we justify the expenditure. We like the Buy 4 get 5 day Hotel Rewards, as well as Point Savers when we can. Also enjoy the lower categories for the hotels when we are just staying a night or two to visit friends across the country or to break up a longer drive. Glad Marriott is financially sound and we don't have to worry about quality slipping in the future or unpleasant surprises.

 

[Ridewithme38]

now carry a maintenance fee load of close to $5000 a year.

How much vacation time do you get for that $5000?

 

[derb]

10 down from 14

 

[dansimms]

Vacation time for $5,000

With what we own, as a couple with no kids, by using lock offs......it could be as much as 7 weeks in high season if we never book any of the 2 BRs. If we redeem Palm Desert to pad our Marriott Rewards account with 125,000 points and used only the 2 BR's for extended family trips we would be down to 3 weeks or less. The beauty of the Marriott program is that if we wanted to cut it to 1 week and exercise all our point conversion options, we can pump over 400,000 points into our Marriott rewards in preparation for one of the fly and stay packages that generally start at 230,000, for the ones we would be interested in. The Hotel Points don't expire. With Destinations, I could also stretch and put over 29,0000 Destination Points into a year by borrowing from a future year. There is an extensive Guided Tour of Australia and New Zealand for 24 days and a lot of meals that would require 30,000......so that would be an example where two years worth of my Destination and Trust points could be targeted toward one 'grand' 24 day trip. I would have to add air fare of course, AND would need another 1000 Destination Points which I could rent at about 50 cents a point, so that would be NO small addition. At Premier Plus we get a nice discount on trips booked in less than 60 days....we do that for driving trips like Galloway, NJ (Atlantic City) and Boston or to South Florida that many times can offer a competitively priced air fare. Often we avoid Friday nights and Saturdays to get the use of the Villas for a lot less.....stretching our vacation time. Weekends we look for point savers and use the Hotel Points, or pay for Hotels that will replenish the Marriott Rewards account. We figure a destination point to be worth about 45 to 50 cents each and the rewards points to be worth about 9/10ths of a percent. This allows us to quickly decide whether to spend $ or one of the flavors of points we have. A roundabout way of answering your question. We do have a tradition of using week 52 in high demand areas or in going over 7 days on a vacation.......so something like that will cut into vacation time........at times severely......when perhaps a garden view is sold out and we have to grab ocean view. One of those weeks can cost 5,000 to 6,000 destination points and we don't nearly get that amount from any one of our Legacy weeks. In summary.......I guess 3 to 6 weeks is about the average for the $5,000 outlay for Villas. When Interval International gives us a bonus week for depositing, that is a pretty economical way to add on an additional week on top of what I mentioned. It is plenty for us and as a result we, at times book concurrent weeks so that family or friends can have their own place to stay.......making our vacation a little more lively. With Destinations, if they can't take a full week, we can book them as little as a single night, or turn a 7 night stay into something longer if we don't mind an additional check in; an intra-resort move. Let's call it 5 weeks @$1,000 a week for a Platinum 2 BR. If you are flexible, right here on TUG, you can often find something like this for a mere $700 or less......same goes for Interval Getaways! For us, Time Share is often a good way to go when you like or need more space. If we were to use the City Explorer option at high end hotels in major cities or if we were to use a Ritz Vacation Club in it's High Demand Season like week 52 our points in a given year wouldn't even reach two full weeks. A 3 BR Ritz in Aspen would take two years worth of our points for a single week........but that is not how we roll. Our max for padding the Marriott Rewards account in a TWO year period would be 125k +110K +110K +110K +60K +60K if that is what we were focused on in those years (575,000 Marriott Rewards Points in exchange for giving up Four 2 BR Platinum Weeks and 3750 Trust Points) That is like getting $1,200 for each week. Weeks that with proper planning I have rented out on Redweek for about $2,000 each......so it is a convenient option to have, but costly.

 

[jallen121]

I own five weeks total. All resales. 2 fixed annual, 2 float annual and one EOY float. We use two weeks to beat the winter weather in Jan/Feb. The others we use or exchange as needed to travel w/friends or family. Went to G'burg for a wedding in April, used 3 banked weeks simutaneously for the wedding party. We all stayed at the same resort. What a deal.

 

[SunandFun83]

Help, I am addicted and I can't pass up (the next purchase)

Hyatt Coconut Plantation 6 weeks platinum and diamond
Hyatt Pinon Point 2 weeks

Marriott Oceana Palms 3 weeks
Marriott Grande Vista 1 and 2 EOY
Marriott Grande Ocean 2 Gold OF
Marriott Canyon Villas 6 and 1 EOY

Up from 4 total in 2011.

Even my sick timeshare friends advise me that I am sick, just before they offer to sell me a week.

 

[chellej]

I am down from a high of 26 weeks to one fixed week, one float week and shell points. And a palace resort membership (which we have never used but only paifd $1 for and and you only pay maintenance fees if you use it.

I am tired of how high exchange fees have gotten and have settled in to owning where we want to go. When my current rci deposits are used....rci will be history for me.

 

[bbakernbay]

We deeded back to Wyndham our Fairfield Glade one week in Stonecastle section several years ago. We bought it cheap on eBay and decided to let it go as MFees were increasing much more than inflation. We still go there on RCI Last Call Sales.

Our 4 weeks at Lago Vista at Buenaventura Lakes have been allowed to lapse as we refuse to pay the MFees which have skyrocketed due to a very high delinquency rate. The Resort is presently expected to sunset in 2021 and 90% of the units are presently rented out to long term residents.

 

[silentg]

Not sure if I posted to this thread before?
We had 7 timeshare weeks
We now have 4
One week 23 at Fitzpatrick’s Castle Holiday Homes Dalkey Ireland 2 bed/2 Bath
One week 24 at HIVC at OL 2 bedroom ( use mostly IHG)
One week 29 at The Pines in Bayse, VA 1 bed/1 bath ( mostly trade RCI )
One Week 48 at Oyster Bay Sebastian, FL 1 bed /1 bath ( newest purchase)

Sold 3 actually gave them away.
Previously had sent back SA
Lost Punta Gourda ( never stayed there but traded)
RTU on Seasons at Sugarbush VT
Trying to cut back, since we will be retired and don’t want the maintenance fees and exchange fees.
Using Marketplace for trades and rehoming weeks.
Eventually will have only 2 timeshares, working on rehousing the Pines, but used all TPUs until 2021.
Silentg

 

[DaveNV]

I started this seven years ago, and was surprised to see it resurrected today.

My own inventory has changed a lot since then. All my Weeks ownerships are gone, sold or given away. I now own only WorldMark, a pure points system with no underlying deeds. Bought on eBay for a steal of a good price, I am very happy with this ownership. After all those years of owning Weeks, and all the great vacations, I'm finding WM is giving me even better vacations, and is much more easily managed. I'm happy with this.

So the answer to my initial question in this thread is: One. And I'm okay with that.

Dave

 

[DrQ]

We own five weeks, but it looks like it is going to go down by two. It looks like Inverness by the Sea is going to become Inverness by the Dodo.

Silverleaf was absorbed by the Borg (HICV), which was not necessarily a bad thing, so we converted our two weeks there to points AND they allow us to convert our Westgate (Ramada Vacation Suites -> Leisure (Suit Larry) Resorts -> Celebrity Leisure Resort -> Westgate Leisure Resort) to HICV points.

 

[chellej]

Inverness by the sea wasn't in good shape a dozen years ago and that was before hurricane Harvey so it doesn't surprise me.

 

[b2bailey]

I started this seven years ago, and was surprised to see it resurrected today.

My own inventory has changed a lot since then. All my Weeks ownerships are gone, sold or given away. I now own only WorldMark, a pure points system with no underlying deeds. Bought on eBay for a steal of a good price, I am very happy with this ownership. After all those years of owning Weeks, and all the great vacations, I'm finding WM is giving me even better vacations, and is much more easily managed. I'm happy with this.

So the answer to my initial question in this thread is: One. And I'm okay with that.

Dave

When I saw this was an post reappearing, I thought it was something you had unearthed on your stroll down TUG memory lane.

 

[DaveNV]

When I saw this was an post reappearing, I thought it was something you had unearthed on your stroll down TUG memory lane.

Nope. Happy coincidence. My first posts on Tug were in 2006. This thread started in 2012. But some topics are still relevant, I think. This thread shows how things can change over time.

Dave

 

[pittle]

We now own 3. If we need to go more than that, we use VRBO.

At one time, we owned 10. But, when we first retired, we took multiple 3-4 week vacation a year and we often had friends or family joining us and they reimbursed us for the MF for the units they used.

 

[RX8]

0

0 owned now and never owned one

I am surprised at how many own multiple TS. I would have guessed that ONE would be the most common.

I have been studying for about a year and a half so far. I have made the leap with one purchase attempt that fell through, another attempt in which i was second in line for a freebie (and I suspect the one who got it is going to flip it for a profit because it was worth something), and one offer that is pending.

I think I am crazy to be considering a TS. Maybe I need to slow down and do some more research...

I am quoting myself from 2012. At that time I was a naive youngster who did not yet own a timeshare and was amazed at those who owned multiple timeshares. I was committed though to researching all that I could.

Fast forward to today and I find myself with multiple timeshares, two to be exact. My first timeshare purchase was just a few weeks after that original post. Purchased Grand Pacific Palisades with 8400 HGVC points. Used what I learned about buying where you wanted to go and, in fact, we have gone to GPP every year since then. Once the kids get older we can then start expanding our vacation options with the HGVC Points.

The second purchase was in September 2018 and one that I wish I would have done earlier, and that is DVC. We wanted points to use at VGC Grand Californian. I understood that home priority was needed as VGC is near impossible to get what you want at the 7 month mark. Within two months of starting my search for VGC resale I found a great deal on 160 points. I made our first reservation about 10 months out and had no problem reserving exactly what I wanted.

Maybe another 7 years from now I’ll quote myself again to explain how I ended up with 10 timeshares. To be continued...

 

[pedro47]

We only own now two (2).

 

[WinniWoman]

We have 3 deeded weeks at 2 resorts. Two of the weeks are fixed, consecutive- one at Smuggs and one at Pollard Brook. 2 hour drive from one to the other.

The other week is a Smuggs preassigned, off season floater each year that is "attached" to the fixed week ownership/

Smuggs we owned since 1999 and bought from the developer. Pollard we got for free from Timeshare Nation in 2015. Both are two bedroom 2 bath top floor, corner units.

 

[bbakernbay]

4 weeks at Lago Vista at BVL in Kissimmee
1 week at Fairfield Glade - Stonecastle bought on ebay
1 week at Palm Beach Resort & Beach Club - bought for $1 on ebay incl. closing costs
1 week at Club Sevilla - Points -

Never wasted a week in almost 25 years
Have been all over Canada & USA exchanging with great results every year.

We are now down to 2 weeks. Successfully used Wyndham Ovation program to exit Fairfield Glade at no cost and gave back our 4 weeks at Lago Vista as 40 year Sunset Clause is looming in 2020 when I expect timeshare will cease operation.