Which timeshare to buy from

[Mixxx008]

This probably has been answered. However after reading all the hoops to jump through with different companies buying from the secondary market. And learning how many points you need to book a week. What company is the easiest to deal with when buying from the secondary market. Because for a week no matter what company looks like you need to buy 2000, 200,000. Depending on the company’s just to afford one week anywhere

 

[vacationtime1]

This probably has been answered. However after reading all the hoops to jump through with different companies buying from the secondary market. And learning how many points you need to book a week. What company is the easiest to deal with when buying from the secondary market. Because for a week no matter what company looks like you need to buy 2000, 200,000. Depending on the company’s just to afford one week anywhere

Hilton, Hyatt, and Vistana, subject to limitations.

Hilton treats resale owners fairly, although there is an enrollment fee of a few hundred dollars. With Hyatt, you should limit yourself to Hyatt legacy weeks and avoid both Welk weeks and Hyatt's new points program. With Vistana, buy mandatory properties only.

Yes, required points to reserve a week vary wildly between them (the currencies are not interchangeable). Plus, the number of points needed also varies by location, unit size, and season.

 

[Bill4728]

We bought Marriott weeks resale at a resort (newport Coast) we want to visit every year. THe current resale price is about $4500.

But if you want to go to many resorts within a point system then Hilton, Hyatt, and Vistana are a great choice.

Before buying, look into all your options, buying is easy and selling something you no longer want can be very hard.

 

[ScoopKona]

This probably has been answered. However after reading all the hoops to jump through with different companies buying from the secondary market. And learning how many points you need to book a week. What company is the easiest to deal with when buying from the secondary market. Because for a week no matter what company looks like you need to buy 2000, 200,000. Depending on the company’s just to afford one week anywhere

Not nearly enough information to offer solid advice.

The problem with asking "what should I buy," is that most of the answers are going to be "this is what I bought -- so you should, too."

1) Don't assume time shares are the answer. In fact they probably aren't the answer. Most people loathe their timeshare and wish to be rid of them. It takes the right kind of traveler AND the right kind of timeshare for that person to be happy. So, first you have to identify what kind of traveler you are. And maybe then one of the programs will turn out to be a winner. (But probably not.)

2) As Hyatt owners just learned, the rules can change at any time and arbitrarily. What worked yesterday may not work today.

3) You are absolutely correct that the number of points doesn't matter at all. If I own a timeshare that's worth three points; and each point can be spent on a week's vacation; that's a pretty-good program. If I own a timeshare that's worth three million points; and a week costs 10 million points; that's not.

4) If a timeshare is going to work for you; it's probably going to be on the strength of its member resorts. A timeshare program which has dozens of resorts in places you don't care to visit isn't useful, no matter how attractive their internal trading program is.

 

[montygz]

This probably has been answered. However after reading all the hoops to jump through with different companies buying from the secondary market. And learning how many points you need to book a week. What company is the easiest to deal with when buying from the secondary market. Because for a week no matter what company looks like you need to buy 2000, 200,000. Depending on the company’s just to afford one week anywhere

Timesharing is purposely made complex, but doing research can reward you with good value.
People have different needs.
- Some people want to visit the same resort over and over during a peak week.
- Some want to exchange and spend the least amount of maintenance fees and exchange fees to do it. They want the "most weeks for the $$$ spent."
- Some only want to stay in top brands, for example Marriott and higher
- Some are less picky about the brand and just want value and location
- People have different target areas to travel in, such as the East Coast, West Coast or Hawaii.

I would say that acquiring timeshares is easy, but the real work is getting rid of them when you want to move on. This site recently published the most bought and sold list of timeshares, which is a good guide for that.

Before acquiring any timeshares, I suggest people rent them first. Renting is easy and you can explore many timeshare brands and get a good feel for what quality level you want access to. You can also identify what your travel habits would be.

 

[chapjim]

Before answering the question, "What should I buy?" one should consider the question, "Should I buy anything at all?"

 

[jp10558]

I'll throw in that Wyndham is about as easy to buy resale as Hilton was, and so far seems to have the same access for resale owners IME. They're worth less resale, often nothing, but I still think for decent point amount contracts it's not impossible to get rid of. They also currently treat anyone better in terms of no fees for booking properties with points, whereas Hilton charges a booking fee and often a resort fee on top of the points unless your home week. Where Wyndham falls down IMO is they crack down hard on renting, so DO NOT plan to rent out a Wyndham, Hilton seems to let you rent out home week(s) no questions asked.

I feel like the independents are the hardest to sell or give away down the road, most likely to have a unexpected big special assessment, but also usually let you use whatever trading company you're a member of and want to use, and some few have really good exchange power for maintenance fee costs so ...

You ought to look at the "questionnaire" in Buying and Selling timeshares forum and go from there. Once you decide you DO want to buy, and from WHERE, the specific forum can tell you how to get the best out of it.

 

[RENTER]

PM sent

 

[Mixxx008]

As of now our TS is Woodstone at Massanutten and we will probably never be staying there again. (nothing wrong with the resort) We vacation 1-2 times a year but the goal is to stay all over my wife has a sub goal of visiting all the National Parks so not having a home week is not important will there be places we will stay more then once probably! but we love to bring people on vacations or giving friends the chance to take a vacation! so that's were we see the value in our timeshare because to us its us saving for a vacation more so than trying to find a 2 bedroom or more to stay at paying full price every year. Problem with wood stone our value for that is weeks credit for only 8 points to to go anywhere in the dwindling weeks RCI locations we have to usually save for 2 years and hope we get a place we would like to go. I am researching the locations of a lot of different "clubs" to fine ones that have a lot of potential to stay in "club" to save on conversion fees to RCI.

 

[jp10558]

Wyndham really hits your requests IMHO. They're cheap to get into (often free), they pay for an RCI account that as far as I can tell uses a point conversion (though you do have to deposit points with RCI before you can book with them), and to book in the club is just points in most cases. So far there is no booking fee and you get 2 guest certificates a year for free, and some number of housekeeping credits based on your point level. If you book weeks I don't think you *can* run out of HK credits. And you can always fall back on RCI Extra Vacations.

 

[SML123]

Ive been around timesharing for going on 40 years. We have owned a $0 resale deeded Easter week on Fort Lauderdale beach for 35 years that we use to trade. Maintenance fee was $600 when we bought it and its $770 this year. We have had a great time with it and just before covid decided to buy another one at same resort. It was $500 for another week 14 in a 1 bedroom unit.

We traded and fell in love with the Garza Blanca in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and waited to find a great resale deal so we could use it every year without worry, so for $1000 we bought resale points in the Tafer system that we can use in an oceanfront studio for about 10 days each year. We bought another points contract at same resort a few months ago for another $1000 so we could now stay in a 1 bedroom condo for about 20 days at one or more of the Garza Blanca resorts in Mexico. I dont think I will ever put that membership in RCI as we LOVE Garza Blanca and look forward to going there every year.

Bottom line is that if you'd like to exchange and are really really flexible and open to going to new places and are a forgiving happy person, buy something people want that is in short supply so you get a lot of mileage for what you own. BUT ONLY BUY A RESALE for a next to nothing and make sure the maintenance fee is below 1200$. The other circumstance where its good to own, is if you love a particular resort, you can guarantee your vacations there by buying a resale. Those are really the only two circumstances where you come out ahead. Pretty much everything else, you'd be better off keeping your money in your own bank account over giving it to a developer and renting beautiful hotels and suites when you want and where you want.