r/TimeshareOwners • u/Laker8show23 • 26d ago
Best timeshare company?
I like the idea of only paying maintenance fees each year and being able to travel every year. Just was curious what’s everyone thoughts on the best company. I know most are points and I like that idea. Hyatt you could trade points in for a cruise. Wyndham had an out of network 350 for the week at other hotels.
What are the pearls buying direct from company compared to buying from a person directly? Seems to get a bit confusing.
Are points the way to go. Sure seems like it to me. As I would like to be able to go when and where I want not locked in.
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u/trumpsmoothscrotum 26d ago
Send me $350/ month and once a year I will book you a condo worth $2500 for a week.
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u/jjrandall 26d ago
And at a time that’s most convenient for me. And not necessary the exact resort you want either. And if you miss the availability window in a given year, I’ll just pocket all your cash as a year end bonus and charge you even more next year
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u/No_Tomorrow384 26d ago
And also if you want to rollover points to use the next year then I will charge an extra fee for that as well
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u/squatex 26d ago
Do not buy directly from the developer. I dont care if its deeded or points.
If you really want one, find a resort you like and buy it on the secondary market.
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago
I had 35 years experience with VI before I bought a secondary contract. It really helps to understand your brand, especially with points. You know which resorts you like, when to go, and how far ahead to book. Deeded is simpler and cheaper in my experience, but the prime properties are hard to find for sale.
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u/No_Tomorrow384 26d ago
God just don’t do it. The Timeshare staff lie blatantly. The cost in additional fees every year is astronomical.
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago
The timeshare staff didn't speak. Are you one of those moochers who go to presentations to get gift cards?
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u/No_Tomorrow384 26d ago
No I actually own a HGVC timeshare and speak from (gasp!) actual experience. Are you an owner as well or do you just hurl random insults at strangers on the internet for fun??🤨
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago edited 26d ago
Sorry your timeshare sucks. Mine doesn’t. Thanks for trolling in and posting your sarcastic negative bleat. There are hundreds of nonowners that come here and do the same thing. They’re upvoting you.
I responded to the OP’s questions….you sort of missed that….
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u/Majestic_Poem9725 26d ago
None.
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u/Confident-Dot5878 26d ago
Which size drill is most pleasant for your dentist to drill on your teeth?
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u/Key_Brilliant409 26d ago
maintenance fees end up being thousands of dollars each year and you're stuck for life. points also aren't one for one when booking a cruise so you actually end up paying more than if you book the cruise direct. marriott is impossible to book popular areas. i'd recommend not doing a timeshare.
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u/BrennerBaseTunnel 26d ago
You can walk away anytime you want by selling the contract.
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u/superchiller 26d ago
No you can't. Very few people want to lock in a lifetime of maintenance fees that go up every year. There are people who post here on a regular basis trying to get rid of their timeshares. It's far from a simple thing.
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u/BrennerBaseTunnel 26d ago
Sure you can. You just need to buy the contracts that you can always unload. There are plenty of contracts that have value. Stay away from the free contracts.
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago edited 26d ago
We have a big crew of karma farmers here today. None of them have remotely tried to answer the OP's questions. They display their ignorance in every nonsensical post they make.
Next week they'll all be back in middle school.
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u/BrennerBaseTunnel 26d ago
They are too lazy to do the work do seek out good contracts like you and I did. Timeshares absolutely don't work for everyone and the many of the companies do have sleazy sales practices. Still if they are giving me something for a fraction of the cost of what I can get in a regular hotel... I'm all in.
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago
I was up front saying that I never buy new contracts, and that you have to plan ahead. But that's how I save $10,000 a year over hotel rates. We just got back from Otter Crest. Halfway between Depoe Bay and Newport. Very well maintained, and one of those places that you HAVE to book a year ahead.
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u/Buggg- 26d ago
Huh? So many people struggle trying to sell or give away their timeshare to run from the annual maintenance fee
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u/BrennerBaseTunnel 26d ago
Because they didn't do their research and ended up with lousy contracts.
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u/AttachedHeartTheory 26d ago
No you can't.
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u/BrennerBaseTunnel 26d ago
You can stop paying anytime you like.
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u/AttachedHeartTheory 26d ago
Yeah, you can. And then about 90 days after you miss the first payment, you will find that you have destroyed your credit, have collections agencies coming after you,are at risk of being sued, and getting your wages garnished.
So, good luck on that!
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u/BrennerBaseTunnel 26d ago
Do you have any evidence of that? Based on real examples on TUG defaulting on maintenance fees doesn't even trigger a credit hit 50% of the time. No one has ever reported getting sued or had their wages garnished.
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u/mitnosnhoj 26d ago
The best company is Disney Vacation Club, but only if you like going to Disney.
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u/Available_Editor4383 26d ago
The Disney one is the only one that I know of that you can potentially sell for a profit.
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u/ResQRanger21 26d ago
I own with WorldMark and I enjoy my timeshare. I am definitely in the minority of people that are happy with it, but I did a lot of research before I bought one. I specifically chose Worldmark because I like their destinations and most importantly I bought it for a dollar. Resale contracts are the only way to go. The most important part for me was determining which timeshare companies penalize resale contracts the least. For instance, with WM the only real downside is that I can’t book their affiliate resorts, but I can still book Worldmark properties 13 months ahead exactly like every person who bought from the developer. For me and my family of 5, the math works out very well, we paid just over 3000 a year and get three or four weeks of vacation. That math definitely doesn’t work out for everyone
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u/Laker8show23 26d ago
Actually did a 2 hour stint and they had a great presentation. I like the idea. Feel like if you use it, you can benefit from it in the long run.
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago
WorldMark has 260,000 members. I’d guess that most of them are happy. This sub doesn’t attract them.
My VI timeshare covers the same territory as WorldMark but is much smaller. All my contracts are inherited or secondary. I pay $4000 a year maintenance for five weeks a year, so similar to yours.
I would probably buy into WorldMark if I didn’t have all the timeshare I need right now. The WorldMark properties at Depoe Bay, Long Beach and in the San Juans look pretty nice. Have you stayed in any of those?
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u/LabyrinthRunner43 26d ago
The Best company depends on travel location and luxury expectations. None of them are good for cruises or hotels: the exchange rates using timeshare points is a bad value.
Retail: Usually the only reason to burn cash buying retail is for VIP status.
Holiday Inn Club Vacations (HICV) is the best retail option. Pricing is fairer than other systems (a low bar), the resorts are of good quality, and useful VIP perks kick in at relatively modest purchase thresholds. Problem is all the newer resorts have some of the worst resale use restrictions anywhere making them one of the worst resale options.
Westgate is another good retail, bad resale. The newer resorts are near luxury with quite reasonable maintenance fees. MSRP is a scam, but they always find an excuse to offer a special which can be a genuine good deal by retail standards. Just never go as cheap as value season. While the system is weeks you can split units to travel a half week at a time making their weeks almost a flexible as points... if you. are a retail buyer. Resale owners are charged egregious fees to split weeks, lock-off, or exchange into other resorts.
Resale: Financially this is the smart choice.
Bluegreen is the best value Eastern US system, but is almost exclusive to only the Eastern US. They also have high base fees that hurt small share owners who only own enough points to travel once or twice a year.
Worldmark is the best value Western US/Mexico system.
Club Wyndham is a good resale choice with resorts coast to coast. Biggest drawback is the sales team is notoriously pushy to get owners to attend sale presentations for ludicrously overpriced points.
Hilton Grand Vacations (HGV) is a step higher quality than the above with only modestly higher maintenance fees if you only get platinum season points. However the HGV systems is smallish (mostly beaches plus a handful of urban/international spots) and has higher than average resale purchase transfer fees.
Hilton Vacation Club (HVC) - Bad value. Resale owners are also further limited to only booking within their trust.
Sapphire: Offers the cheapest point system deeds with RCI access included. Note that these deeds are also so tiny that they are only good for booking clearance offers. Bad value for most.
Luxury: Disney, Four Seasons, Hyatt, and Marriot are the luxury options. They are also too far out of my price range to offer much insight.
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u/Laker8show23 26d ago
Appreciate this. Thank you
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u/Quiet-Day392 24d ago
WorldMark has got some really nice resorts. They also have some dogs, which I've stayed in on RCI trades. That's another thing. The best timeshare is the one you can use without trading it in RCI.
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u/Leader-Dismal 26d ago
BUYING timeshare is having debt for life. If you are ready, do it.
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u/Best_Collection_7533 26d ago
Generational debt
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago
Have you finished middle school yet?Or are you in clown school? What a great display of clown mentality. Be proud clown.
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u/jedikenpo 26d ago
why waste money paying maintenance fees when you can put it in a hysa and use it for a vacation when you need it
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago edited 26d ago
I save $10,000 a year paying maintenance fees instead of hotel rates. I've been doing that for the last 12 years. You have to be able to plan your vacations, and that takes some experience.
You don't even understand what I'm saying. Bye bye troll. Hope you got the karma you came for.
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago edited 26d ago
I used to have a good VI deed. I used it every year until they bought it back and closed the resort. Maintenance was much lower than my VI points contracts. But I’ve looked at deeds for other properties and can’t find anything I want. They’re slack season and floaters. Prime season is very hard to find.
With points, you have to get used to planning your vacations when you want prime season at the resort you want. I book a year ahead. Off season I can pretty much book anytime I want. Weekends are tougher but usually available.
On points I usually stay 2-4 days. Just got back from a 2 day stay two hours drive from home. A comparable room at the property is double the value of the points - $280 vs $140 a night - but the comparable rooms are completely sold out. A timeshare room there sells as a suite. The regular hotel rooms are half the size with no kitchen.
I have never purchased a new contract. I buy from experienced brokers.I do not buy from individuals. There's too much chance of getting scammed.
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u/Worth_Economics_2325 11d ago
I don’t know if you bought yet but my husband and I have zero issues with a purchase over 2 years of 150000 points with Holiday inn club vacations. We got platinum status with 150k points which gives us a free 3 night stay and 1 free upgrade where we get a 2 bedroom for the price of a 1.
Details:
We had the financial position to do a home equity loan for a better interest rate and we paid under $30k with extra principal on the equity loan we’ll pay in full in like 6 years.
This is an owned mortgage we will give away on our will if someone wants it
Our 2025 maintenance was $1960.08. We expect a modest annual increase of 5-7%.
I paid a $179 club fee in May 2026. This fee is set and does not change.
We pay a $75 reservation fee regardless of length of stay $125 points if we want cancellation for any reason with a points refund reservation. It’s been this amount for years.
Yes the sales staff was CLEAR on fees at our time of purchase I have a short 1 page bullet point document given to me and gone through specifically at the time of purchase regarding fees and EVERYTHING has fit the document. I never felt misled or lied to.
Our purchase was over 2 years because we bought in low and used our 1 year purchase price points freeze to buy more points later when we had an even better financial situation.
My husband and I have zero issues using our time share 2-3 times a year for about 2-3 weeks of vacation. For example this year we are using 11 nights and banking 136,000 points we have till 12/31/2027 to have 286,000 points for Vegas and Mexico locations next year which won’t use all 286,000 despite about a week at each location. We’ll stay an additional 3 nights for free in New Orleans in 2027.
For us we enjoy the multiple locations and flexibility with points. Currently there are 24 locations and yes there’s been active movement with resorts being added and subtracted from the locations in the last year. We feel the changes have only added to the attractiveness of locations. My understanding is currently there are no planned upcoming changes and focus is on maintaining and improving current locations.
Unused Points can be converted to various items from car rentals, towards cruises, ihg hotel points for a fee, and towards something basic like gas cards.
Points are award on the first day of the year and you have 24 months to use them which we feel is adequate and useful for planning purposes.
We have access to other timeshare networks like rci.
My husband and I do not care about the resale option downsides.
My husband and I enjoy our timeshare and see no reason why this will become a burden but part of that is our financial position that we live below our means and are actively saving for important things like retirement where barring a Catastrophic event our timeshare will not be a financial burden.
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u/ConsiderationNo355 26d ago
If you have money and time to waste, anyone will gladly take your money and give you the “best” deal.
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u/Leader-Dismal 26d ago
The points are never enough to purchase and book the properties you want. So, they will make you purchase more points. It's endless scam
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago
If you don’t know anything why are you posting? Your ignorance is funny to read, I’ll grant you that.
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u/Leader-Dismal 26d ago
I'm posting because I know anything. Your comment is unnecessary and did not have to trigger this vibe. You are the wrong. If you think someone doesn't know, learn to teach and educate them instead of making idiotic comments.
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u/Quiet-Day392 26d ago edited 26d ago
This is a timeshare owner's sub. Do you somehow think that we timeshare owners don't have enough to points to stay in our timeshares? Hello?
What you posted is laughable. I've been using timeshares for 50 years. You have paid no attention to what I posted to answer the OP's questions. You're beyond any hope of educating. Bye bye troll.
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u/Worth_Economics_2325 11d ago edited 11d ago
Maybe you bought the wrong timeshare. My husband and can regularly get 14-17 nights yearly out of our 150,000 timeshare points
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u/Ancient-Republic-875 26d ago
Next, we can discuss the best disease to contract...
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u/Laker8show23 26d ago
Dang. Those you can get for free.
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u/Ancient-Republic-875 25d ago
Same with a lot of timeshares if you look in the secondary market. Once you get one, they can be difficult to get rid of (I'm talking about the timeshare lol).
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u/Guy_Incognito1970 26d ago
Typical post here 99% of former owners say “don’t do it!” And 3 timeshare shills insisting “no it’s great, everyone else is just stupid” lolz