Who used to own timeshares and now just rents them?

[Fredflintstone]

I used to own 5.5 weeks of time with various timeshares I bought on ebay. All of them worked out fine until I just couldn’t take that much time off every year. I ended up giving all of them away and now rent only. I do enjoy the condo concept that timeshares offer. It’s like a home away from home. However, I like to have a NSA relationship with resorts and renting does that for me.

Many times I get lucky by having people who I know gift me a week because they can’t go or their points are expiring. I have been to Kauai and Maui many times staying in gifted rented timeshares.

At TUG, my hope is to take advantage of the 700 a week rentals here and there. I haven’t done that yet being New here.

So, do any TUGGERS rent only?


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[JohnPaul]

Not here. I use every minute myself.

 

[Panina]

I used to own 5.5 weeks of time with various timeshares I bought on ebay. All of them worked out fine until I just couldn’t take that much time off every year. I ended up giving all of them away and now rent only. I do enjoy the condo concept that timeshares offer. It’s like a home away from home. However, I like to have a NSA relationship with resorts and renting does that for me.

Many times I get lucky by having people who I know gift me a week because they can’t go or their points are expiring. I have been to Kauai and Maui many times staying in gifted rented timeshares.

At TUG, my hope is to take advantage of the 700 a week rentals here and there. I haven’t done that yet being New here.

So, do any TUGGERS rent only?


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I use all of them. I never rented one in all the years I own. If I had one I didn't use I would rent to a tugger.

 

[DaveNV]

"Only" is kind of a strong word. I own timeshares, but I have also rented. Most recently, I wanted to extend a trip to Hawaii two months ago, so after I had exchanged a California beach week into a great oceanfront place at Ka'anapali on Maui, I rented an oceanfront two-bedroom place on Kauai for less than the Tug $700 limit. Win-win.

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

I use all of them. I never rented one in all the years I own. If I had one I didn't use I would rent to a tugger.

I think he means to rent from someone else, not rent out what you own.

Dave

 

[bbodb1]

I'm with JohnPaul and Panina here, but I can where Fred is coming from on this.
When I started purchasing and enjoying TS vacations about 25 years ago, how I thought I would use TS is very different from the reality of how we used it. I suspect many of us could share that same story but as I get older I do start wondering how we will use TS in our late 70's and 80's. I can see the merit in what Fred suggests as we get older and start to sense the time we will not travel as much is approaching.

 

[DaveNV]

I should add, I have since sold that California beach week, leaving me with only my WorldMark account. It fits how I travel now (less than a week at a time, and more than once a year), so is a better fit for me than a Weeks ownership. If I need extra time, I will definitely rent. And if it ever becomes a budget issue, I'll sell the WorldMark, and just rent. Traveling for me now is kind of a moving target.

Dave

 

[Fredflintstone]

Yes, life change changes someone’s lifestyle. In my case, I could travel anytime and owned timeshares for just that purpose. Then, suddenly, my health slipped and I now cannot travel as much. It doesn’t make sense to own timeshares if health or other situations change because you pay fees whether you use them or not and pay to extend your weeks or points. In my cause, my kids have no interest in my timeshare ownership so I gave them away.

So, I only rent them now when health and time permit.

And yes, what I mean is are there any tuggers who rent only like me and don’t own any timeshare(s). However, I do appreciate those who use all their time. I also appreciate those who rent more time because they don’t have enough.


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[Panina]

I'm with JohnPaul and Panina here, but I can where Fred is coming from on this.
When I started purchasing and enjoying TS vacations about 25 years ago, how I thought I would use TS is very different from the reality of how we used it. I suspect many of us could share that same story but as I get older I do start wondering how we will use TS in our late 70's and 80's. I can see the merit in what Fred suggests as we get older and start to sense the time we will not travel as much is approaching.

I always have given thought to my portfolio trying to get desirable weeks I can give away when I no longer want them.

Meanwhile I will keep living the best I can using my timeshares, not thinking about the future and when I get older and can't then I will deal with it.

 

[LannyPC]

We used to own one. Now we just rent either TSs, motel/hotel rooms, or AirBNB units.

 

[WinniWoman]

We always use our 3 weeks and never rented them out and actually never traded two of them. We have rented additional time at timeshares through their owners.

This said we are considering- rather cautiously- giving away two of the weeks we have at one resort because of a program the resort is temporarily offering.

Will be there in another week as see how we feel about it.

 

[bizaro86]

We rented a few times, and then concluded that owning was cheaper for us. Now we own so many timeshares all our vacation time is spoken for...

 

[rapmarks]

We owned for twenty two years. I decided to get out and gave away every week. I still have some spacebanked tpus. I rent an occasional week, and decided to buy the week we rented. It is in the transfer process now. It was probably a mistake to do this.

 

[bluehende]

Like many here I use the two I own and supplement with rentals. In the last 3 yrs I have rented 8 weeks off the last minute board. I am happy to give people around their maintenance fees to even paying a premium to go to a place I do not want to visit every year. My guess is those 8 weeks were rented for a little under maintenance and well under what I would have to pay through normal channels. I own where I enjoy going every year as I can guarantee a good price and availability.

 

[Egret1986]

I've been a timeshare owner since 1984. Things have changed for me and I am currently liquidating my timeshares. I may keep two that have low maintenance fees and are located at beaches that I vacation at regularly. My plan is to drop my exchange company membership that I have had since 1984 also.

I look forward to renting from other owners. Our children are grown and we will be retiring in 2-3 years. We have flexibility and have seen options that weren't always available. Looking forward to other travel options that we haven't explored because we have used timeshares exclusively for 34 years. Things change and I'm ready for it.

I told another Tugger that rented two of my weeks on the LMR Board this week that I plan to get rid of my timeshares so that I can take advantage of the "deals" out there.

 

[bluehende]

I've been a timeshare owner since 1984. Things have changed for me and I am currently liquidating my timeshares. I may keep two that have low maintenance fees and are located at beaches that I vacation at regularly. My plan is to drop my exchange company membership that I have had since 1984 also.

I look forward to renting from other owners. Our children are grown and we will be retiring in 2-3 years. We have flexibility and have seen options that weren't always available. Looking forward to other travel options that we haven't explored because we have used timeshares exclusively for 34 years. Things change and I'm ready for it.

I told another Tugger that rented two of my weeks on the LMR Board this week that I plan to get rid of my timeshares so that I can take advantage of the "deals" out there.

And this tugger appreciates the deals.

 

[rickandcindy23]

RCI could easily turn me off on exchanging. I have so many TPU's built up in RCI I haven't used, and that is entirely my fault, and I know it. The thing I am doing is reserving my own owned weeks and renting them out in many cases. That is my way of leaving the exchange companies, but I still have to belong because I have those weeks I continue to combine. It's ridiculous.

 

[Panina]

RCI could easily turn me off on exchanging. I have so many TPU's built up in RCI I haven't used, and that is entirely my fault, and I know it. The thing I am doing is reserving my own owned weeks and renting them out in many cases. That is my way of leaving the exchange companies, but I still have to belong because I have those weeks I continue to combine. It's ridiculous.

It is ridiculous. I always have difficulty finding trades that I want in my private tpu RCI account. I just broke down and combined them all. Hopefully now I can get what I want. I keep saying when I am done using them I will stop being a private member of RCI but these tpu’s never seem to get used.

 

[Fredflintstone]

RCI was the main reason why I only rent. In my view, they fee to death on any and every transaction. Their exchange fees are very high and you can’t find what you want unless you pay extra for platinum membership and do an ongoing search. Their Mexico timeshares are terrible because they have mandatory inclusive fees or 150 to 200 per day per person where cervesa and food is cheap. The icing on the cake is when you find thousands of dollars worth of weeks point gone because you weren’t told they were about to expire and again need to pay an exhorbant fee to stop, in my opinion, theft of your weeks.

Grrrrr.


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[DAman]

I sold my RCI affiliated timeshare. I did not want to pay the membership and exchange fees any more. Now I use II exclusively.

 

[Egret1986]

RCI could easily turn me off on exchanging. I have so many TPU's built up in RCI I haven't used, and that is entirely my fault, and I know it. The thing I am doing is reserving my own owned weeks and renting them out in many cases. That is my way of leaving the exchange companies, but I still have to belong because I have those weeks I continue to combine. It's ridiculous.

I stopped depositing to RCI Weeks a few years ago, instead deciding to rent out my weeks. All my TPUs were used up a couple of years ago. I removed several of my RCI Points contracts from points so that they became traditional weeks so that I could rent those out. I bought RCI Points from other owners to do my exchanging. My target date for ending my RCI membership was next June when it expires. Unfortunately, that plan just got upended. My last RCI Points contract was just sold. The buyer decided to keep the ownership in RCI Points, and wants the 2019 usage reserved. In order to do that, I have to pay another year of membership in order to reserve that August week. I'm not happy about that. However, it's worth it to me to pay one more year of membership in order to sell the week. I know I won't have to pay any more fees other than that additional year of membership since I won't be exchanging, combining or extending.

It is ridiculous. I always have difficulty finding trades that I want in my private tpu RCI account. I just broke down and combined them all. Hopefully now I can get what I want. I keep saying when I am done using them I will stop being a private member of RCI but these tpu’s never seem to get used.

Fortunately, I have never had issues in exchanging with RCI. I've always been able to use up what I had deposited and always have been happy with all my exchanges. I think the reason is because we never really have specific places or time frames that we require. In 34 years of membership, I've only used an ongoing search once. I've had better results with RCI Points vs. Weeks. I never had issues with the exchanges that I received from RCI. We've been on vacations to many enviable locations during prime times. Desirable locations during desirable seasons dictate our travels vs. picking locations to travel to and trying to get an exchange there. It has worked well for us. We never settled just to use up TPUs/Points. For the most part, we travel to new locations vs. returning to the same locations. It has served us well over the years. We have been to so many fantastic places over the years.

RCI was the main reason why I only rent. In my view, they fee to death on any and every transaction. Their exchange fees are very high and you can’t find what you want unless you pay extra for platinum membership and do an ongoing search. Their Mexico timeshares are terrible because they have mandatory inclusive fees or 150 to 200 per day per person where cervesa and food is cheap. The icing on the cake is when you find thousands of dollars worth of weeks point gone because you weren’t told they were about to expire and again need to pay an exhorbant fee to stop, in my opinion, theft of your weeks.

Grrrrr.

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I share your view and it is one of the reasons that I have decided to move on and drop my RCI membership. I really don't know how the "average" timeshare exchanger can make this membership work for them. I have actively "worked" the system throughout my membership. As stated by Cindy and Panina, "it's ridiculous". All these fees are appalling. My future vacations will not require RCI and its obnoxious fees. Bye, bye, RCI.

While I have never had a complaint about the exchange opportunities, there are just too many other options out there now. Like you, Fredflintstone, I will be renting time from other owners and exploring non-timeshare travel options in the future. We have two RCI exchange vacations for next year, then we start a new era of vacationing. I have no regrets about timeshare ownership or exchanging, but I am ready to move on to new opportunities.

 

[dickgregory]

Using “Getaway” program offered by timeshare exchange companies is a great way to safely get good rental rates. We’ve done this a few times and prefer it over giving our $$$ to someone we don’t know.

 

[Fredflintstone]

Using “Getaway” program offered by timeshare exchange companies is a great way to safely get good rental rates. We’ve done this a few times and prefer it over giving our $$$ to someone we don’t know.

Yes, you are right there. I have had some nice rentals and great prices with the Getaway programs.

Another reason I rent now is I feel more in control of costs. The main problem I see with owning is I can’t control costs. Special Assessments, Maintenance fees, club fees, exchange fees, etc. With renting I can shop around, get the best price and can use whatever platform. With exchange systems, I felt I had to use their systems only because my points are there and should they up the fees I felt hostage.




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[cgeidl]

I used to own 5.5 weeks of time with various timeshares I bought on ebay. All of them worked out fine until I just couldn’t take that much time off every year. I ended up giving all of them away and now rent only. I do enjoy the condo concept that timeshares offer. It’s like a home away from home. However, I like to have a NSA relationship with resorts and renting does that for me.

Many times I get lucky by having people who I know gift me a week because they can’t go or their points are expiring. I have been to Kauai and Maui many times staying in gifted rented timeshares.

At TUG, my hope is to take advantage of the 700 a week rentals here and there. I haven’t done that yet being New here.

So, do any TUGGERS rent only?


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Until last year we had the use of five.Four of them we had the right to use and we just gave the right to use back to the HOA The other we owned and that cost us $250 for Diamond Resorts to take back the week.. Now we are 78 and have none. We still use them and find it easy to get weeks from Hot Deals in Trading Places and II keeps giving us accommodation weeks .We now have five in the bank but they are mostly useless. We also have done the Tugger rental at whatever price is asked as most Tuggers are losing money at $700 per week and we don't feel right in trying to beat down a more than fair price as we can afford the payment. We also USE AFVC for RCI weeks a bit. Our children did not want the weeks so we are now happy campers able to use weeks but not owning any.We probably used over 200 weeks over the last 30 years and to us it was a great value as we had low cost maintenance weeks that were good traders and almost always got an extra week from making a deposit.

 

[DaveNV]

My future vacations will not require RCI and its obnoxious fees. Bye, bye, RCI.

I tried that. My RCI membership expired this year, and I was not planning to renew, since I haven't deposited anything to RCI in years, I no longer own a Weeks timeshare, and even if I did, I'd never again deposit anything to RCI because of their outrageous fees. But while my membership was still active, when reserving an Extra Vacation week with a guest certificate for a coworker for this Fall, I found out that even though it was all a cash purchase, and no exchange or deposit from me was involved, I couldn't do that since it was for a time after my membership would have expired. I don't agree with RCI's logic, since the deposit I was renting was already in their inventory.

They said, "Why should we allow you to rent something for a period after your membership expires?" (Excuse me? That is why it was a FUTURE reservation, like a plane ticket is reserved in advance. If purchased during my membership period, why is that so hard for RCI to understand?) "What if there is a problem and we need to contact you? If you're not a current member, how could we get hold of you?" (Really, RCI? Then why do you have all my information included in the reservation? You send me an email, or make a phone call. How hard is that?) And the end of it all, the answer is Nope, you can ONLY travel, or do anything else, while your membership is active. So if you're going to make a reservation for a year from now, you MUST be a member of RCI when that travel date comes up.

I'm not sure if I was being blown a smoke screen or not, but the "Supervisor" I spoke to (not certain it was really a supervisor - she was VERY rude to me, when all I wanted was clarification) claimed that was "just the way it works." I still don't understand the logic, since everything happened while my membership was current. (And as I think of it, she was the one who called me an "a$$hole" at the end of the call, when she thought the line had already disconnected. What a b*tch.)

At any rate, I renewed my account for one more year, and told my coworker this is the last time I will be able to reserve for him. I am beyond done with RCI. I'm a nice guy, but there comes a point when you have to push back a bit. RCI has been pushing and pushing for a long time, and it's time for me to move on.

Dave