Timeshare general question

[phrogg108]

I am not sure if this is the place for this thread, so please feel free to move as necessary. Also, if all of this has been answered somewhere, let me know. I will go hunt for it, but did not see it real quick via the search feature.

For those of you that are timeshare holders/owners/whatever the terminology is:

1. How did you find the place in Aruba you decided to buy into?
2. How much does it roughly cost?
3. How often do you go (one week, two weeks, more)?
4. Is it a better option than buying something?
5. Are you happy with the decision?
6. How hard is it to get out of it should you decide you no longer want it?
7. How many places do you have one? Just Aruba or other places?

Lots of questions, sorry. I have a rough idea how timeshares work, but wanted to get some info straight from people who partake in them. I am not sure if a timeshare would be a good or if I should still try and hold onto the dream of buying a place someday or what.

[Andrea J.]

I am also going to copy this to the Aruba General category.

[WaltVB]

1. How did you find the place in Aruba you decided to buy into?
We found our timeshare at the Surf Club almost by accident. We went to Aruba our first trip and took the tour, the rest is history.
2. How much does it roughly cost?
We bought ours sort of pre-construction, the building we bought in originally wasn't open at that time. PM me for a better cost estimate.
3. How often do you go (one week, two weeks, more)?
We go for two weeks at the timeshare, we only bought one week, PM me for more details on that.
4. Is it a better option than buying something?
We didn't have the money to consider buying a home/condo, and after visiting for years, wouldn't be interested in owning.
5. Are you happy with the decision?
Absolutely!
6. How hard is it to get out of it should you decide you no longer want it?
Easy to sell on Redweek if needed.
7. How many places do you have one? Just Aruba or other places?
Just Aruba.

PM me for more info and to learn why we did what we did, and how we do it now.

[phrogg108]

Thank you, Walt!! I will send you a PM for the other stuff. I appreciate the info!

[Andrea J.]

We did own timeshare at Renaissance Ocean Suites.
We loved the Ocean Suites, but did not like the bullies and badly behaved kids during the week we owned there and also did not like the week that we were locked into week 32. (late 90s early 2000s) and sold in 2003.
We bought the unit for $1500 and got our money's worth over and over! I think we owned for 6 yrs.

We did own timeshare at LaCabana, numerous units, numerous weeks.
We did turn in most of those timeshares to Bluegreen for points.
Points were supposed to work better as we were no longer wanting to be locked into a fixed week due to our son then at college.

Fast forward to now. We dumped all of our timeshare beginning in 2008 and the last of it just a yr ago.

We were timeshare "poor". As being newly retired we could no longer live like we were working full time

We find MUCH BETTER deals as renters of timeshares instead of being owners.
We are going to AUA in late Nov and our 2 weeks rental is costing us under $1400.
That allows us to go 2x a year.

Timeshare is not for everyone.
Paul and I tend to get caught up in the moment and the excitement...........then eventually buyer's remorse sets in.

My advice......... be a renter.

[phrogg108]

Timeshare is not for everyone.
Paul and I tend to get caught up in the moment and the excitement...........then eventually buyer's remorse sets in.

My advice......... be a renter.

Yeah, this is what I am afraid would happen too. We would get caught up in all the excitement and then get stuck with something that sounded good at the time, but in the long run, was not the best decision.

The other option I toy with in my mind is buying a condo that can be rented out when we are not there, but that we could block off time for ourselves in and then it is kind of the best of both worlds - mostly. I had thought after our first trip that possibly buying a house someday was the way to go, but I think that might be more difficult than I want to get into. Since we stay at an Airbnb, it would be something like that if we did get a house, but I am not sure how easy it is to find a property manager for a house. Condos appear to be a lot easier from what all the owners here say.

[almaringola]

I love the Costa Linda , I rent because for me it doesn't make since to put out 11k or more when the maint fee isn't a fixed price. Back in the 90's I believe the fee was around $600 its up to $980 currently . My average rental fee from may1 to dec 1 is about $1350 a week. Same 2 bedroom units rent for $2000 -$2800 during the winter months. If i owned earlier in life I would have grabbed a few weeks . And maint fee is well worth the cost because it is completely renovated with granite countertops in kitchens and the grounds are always spotless. Good luck

[EDMLS1358]

I am not sure if this is the place for this thread, so please feel free to move as necessary. Also, if all of this has been answered somewhere, let me know. I will go hunt for it, but did not see it real quick via the search feature.

For those of you that are timeshare holders/owners/whatever the terminology is:

1. How did you find the place in Aruba you decided to buy into?
2. How much does it roughly cost?
3. How often do you go (one week, two weeks, more)?
4. Is it a better option than buying something?
5. Are you happy with the decision?
6. How hard is it to get out of it should you decide you no longer want it?
7. How many places do you have one? Just Aruba or other places?

Lots of questions, sorry. I have a rough idea how timeshares work, but wanted to get some info straight from people who partake in them. I am not sure if a timeshare would be a good or if I should still try and hold onto the dream of buying a place someday or what.

If you want to email me please do. We are actually looking to get rid of our time share after our last visit. Any one looking to but a 2bdr ocean view gold season at the Surf Club , feel free to contact me. edmls@comcast.net

[Traceyd14]

We did not purchase a timeshare - although we did research it and try out different places for about 5 years. I want to tell you what our thought process was. I highly recommend you stay at places as a renter for a week around the same time of year you plan to use it before you buy.

For those of you that are timeshare holders/owners/whatever the terminology is:

1. How did you find the place in Aruba you decided to buy into? We started our research by walking through the properties we were interested in, not on a tour. We asked at the front desk if we could see a room before we stayed there and were able to see a room without a sales presentation - all they can say is no. Next, we rented a week from an owner to truly see how we liked 3 different places.

2. How much does it roughly cost? We mainly looked at 1 and 2 bedroom units - resale costs were between $8K-$15K for the units we wanted.
3. How often do you go (one week, two weeks, more)? We planned to purchase 1 week.
4. Is it a better option than buying something? Are you comparing to buying a house or condo, if so it is a much more affordable option. We prefer renting from owners.
5. Are you happy with the decision? We did not purchase, my husband is happier with the decision than I am. I am a planner - knowing that we had a week that we had to use would take so much of the questions out of the planning process.
6. How hard is it to get out of it should you decide you no longer want it? Depends on the season. The resale market seems to have so much availability, I would assume you would take a loss.

Things that factored into our decision:
Our 2 favorite places were Costa Linda and Playa Linda. Both are fixed weeks, Friday to Friday or Sunday to Sunday respectively. We don't like being locked in to those as our travel days. If we leave on Friday, we feel like we have wasted 2 weekend days and if we leave on Sunday we feel like we need Monday as a recovery day. We usually add on days to our week but the logistics with of flights and days off work those days do not allow us to maximize days off for the trip.
We also tried Aruba Beach Club but did not enjoy the beach, the unit (since refurbished), or the owners that were there the week we usually go.

Aruba Surf Club was another one we like - amenities are great, flexible check in dates, but it seemed to me that you had to book pretty far in advance to get the week you want and that doesn't always work well for my husband's job. We decided renting there works better for us.

For us there are so many things we like about both Palm Beach and Eagle beach and we didn't want to be locked in to staying in one area every year. We came closest to pulling the trigger on a Playa Linda unit, but I did the math - I added up the cost of the unit and the annual maintenance, then divided by what we typically spend to rent from an owner and determined that it would take us 8 years to break even. So much can change in 8 years, we felt like renting made more sense for us.

[robin]

We have sold our timeshares since we bought the condo, but:

1. How did you find the place in Aruba you decided to buy into?
We had traded into the Renaissance and fell in love with Aruba.

2. How much does it roughly cost?
We bought a resale. The cost of a timeshare will depend on the size of the condo, and season.

3. How often do you go (one week, two weeks, more)?
We owned one week because I was still working. We have bought extra weeks through II when we wanted to go for a longer period of time.

4. Is it a better option than buying something?
It depends on what you are looking for and how you plan on using it. We owned several timeshares in different places. We traded a lot. We also owned a Marrott that gave us the ability to trade a week for points and used them for the expensive weekend stays when my older son was in college(parents weekend, graduation, move in, etc).

5. Are you happy with the decision?

We used our timeshares mostly for trading. We also gifted use-for honeymoons, a bonus for hubby's assissantant, or rented them out.

6. How hard is it to get out of it should you decide you no longer want it?
We owned three with Marriott and the one at the Renaissance. Marriott had right of first refusal. In two of our sales, they exercised that right-which was good for us. One they just bought back from us-actually for more than we had paid for as a resale. The final one was the Ren and we had no problem selling it. We didn't get a ton of $$ for them, but we did get back the full purchase(3 were bought as resales and only one directly from Marriott) + all the yearly fees, II fees, etc. in the value of our trips. Hubby kept a spreadsheet of all our costs and what each vacation would have cost if we had to pay for it.

7. How many places do you have one? Just Aruba or other places?

We first bought a 3 bedroom lockoff at Marriott in Orlando directly from Marriott. Then we bought a 2 bedroom lock off as a resale at the Marriott Grand Chateau in Vegas. Then we bought the Renaissance in Aruba resale and last a one bedroom lock off at Marriott Kauai Beach Club with every other year usage as a resale. We mostly traded.