Other Timeshares

[Noodlez]

Hi. I know this is off topic but I’d love the opinion of the people on here! As nearly all of our spare money seems to be spent on holidays I was thinking about researching other timeshare companies, but I’m not really sure where to start. Are there any others that people on here use or have heard are reputable? Are there any with points that transfer favourably into cruises, as we tend to do at least one cruise a year? Who should I definitely avoid?

I’m not hoping to get something that keeps its value in the way DVC does, but more just a way of prepaying for rooms and saving a bit of money. Where would people suggest I start?

Sorry if this is too far off for this forum, but I’ve heard others mentioned in the past on here but I wasn’t really paying attention at the time.

Thanks!

[StorybookCircus]

My MIL has an RCI timeshare that she has used to gift us a week at the Beach Club in 2016, a week at the Courtyard by Marriott (literally across the road from Disneyland in California) and a week’s cruise on the Disney Magic this year. I have no idea how it works but I know it works extremely well for her as she owns and runs a kennels and cannot go on holiday during peak times (that’s when she’s caring for other people’s dogs!) I know that you can purchase either “weeks” or “points”; she has points that she tops up with cash, for example when we spent 6 nights at the Beach Club she used her points to “pay” for the first five then paid $300 cash for the final night. I believe this was the standard room rate in October 2016. We stayed in the DVC section of the resort and didn’t have to move rooms after five nights.
Last year I had surgery and my partner broke his leg, it was a horrible time so she gifted us a special package which was a week’s hotel stay and a week’s cruise. Both trips had to be booked within 12 months or you could pay a £50pp admin fee to carry the trips over to 2020. As far as I know there were no other restrictions. I believe this cost her around £2200 cash, I have no idea how many points she spent in addition to that. By November 2018 we’d decided when and where to travel (Anaheim in April) We looked at the RCI resort catalogue online and picked 3-4 hotels in the Disney area that we wanted to stay in, including the Grand Californian Hotel on Disney property. This was sold out (boo!) but we got our second choice. We decided to add another two nights to our trip which we paid for ourselves at £250 per night. So assume the seven night stay our MIL bought with RCI would have cost £1750 cash.
That means we got a week long fjord cruise on the Disney Magic for a grand total of £500 plus RCI points :o
I don’t know how much points cost or how many my MIL gets per year; if the points roll over; if she has a “home resort” somewhere; how many years the contract lasts for. I do know her annual dues are around £400 (remember she has the option to buy more points and/or special packages like ours with cash)
I was extremely skeptical of timeshares before I met my MIL but it seems to me like she’s got the system figured out! My partner and I would never choose to put all our money into something we might not be able to use to its fullest (future kids would limit our ability to take holidays in term time, for example) But as a childless couple in our late 20s who could never afford to visit Disney by ourselves, it’s GREAT. My MIL is pretty much my favourite person

[caro]

It's a case of researching thoroughly before paying over any money. I have been a timeshare owner since the early 90's and have experienced the good, the bad and the ugly.
My first week was at the Radisson SAs resort in Malta. It was a beautiful hotel, maintenance fees were quite cheap and we used it and exchanged it many times. When my first marriage broke down I handed it back to the resort as I couldn't afford the maintenance fees on my own.
We now own two weeks at MacDonald Villacana in Estepona. I paid a pound a week on ebay This one is a bit of a tie and I wish I hadn't bothered. MacDonalds refuse to let owners hand back there timeshare without charging a huge amount. They also changed the rules and what was two weeks in August is now points and is more difficult for us to use. We are having to keep paying the maintenance fees and just hoping we can find a week we can use it on.
The other thing we own is a membership with Grand Sirenis hotels in Mexico. For me, this is better value because there are no maintenance fees and it doesn't matter if we don't use it for a year as you buy weeks that can be used at any time. If we return to the Sirenis resorts we have to pay the All Inclusive fees, but if we bank the week with RCI and swap it that is where the savings are made.
We have had many years of great holidays with Timeshare. You always get a good quality hotel (some better than others!) and I can always find somewhere to stay where we want to go. You just have to be flexible on area/hotel.
My advice would be always buy resale, but investigate how easy it is to give the timeshare back when you no longer need it. Never buy without knowing exactly what the fees are annually either. Some of the fees are ridiculous!
Oh and cruises are not good value through timeshare I'm afraid.
I'm hoping to exchange into Disney next year. Keeping everything crossed as it will be a huge saving if I can manage it!

[YorkshireT]

Another timeshare isn’t as good as DVC, but I see there are some decent options. Just make sure you don’t get trapped in a nightmare scenario of huge fees you cannot escape. Buyer beware.

[Noodlez]

Thanks very much for your responses everyone. Given the way we travel we’re definitely looking for a points system rather than location, so maybe RCI is the first one I should research.

Given how long it took us to buy DVC this definitely won’t be a spur of the moment purchase! I still think we got an amazing contract there.
:-D

I really appreciate all of the information you’ve given me. Storybookcircus, I’m so glad your experiences have been so positive. Is you MIL on any of these boards? ;-)

[Shooby doo]

There is a poster on here who owns both, Matt, he pops on every now & then- I know he bought his Marriott Points resale for something crazy like $200! Some if not all, have move to points based as opposed to set weeks. Personally I've always liked the look of the ones near Seaworld- Marriott I think- but I've no idea whether the company itself are any good
SD

[StorybookCircus]

My MIL is very technophobic, so she’s not on here unfortunately!
Shooby doo, I stayed in the Courtyard by Marriott in Anaheim and it was great! We could see Space Mountain and the Disneyland monorail from the lobby. Our room was huge, we had a fridge, a microwave, free WiFi and a tv with Netflix and about ten thousand American channels. There was a Starbucks in the lobby as well as a small store with snacks and essentials. Free iced water with fruit in the lobby. And best of all, a Pepper robot who circled the lobby telling people facts about the Disney parks! You can see what I mean here!
I wouldn’t hesitate to stay in a Marriott again

[NHH]

Not timeshare, but I’m in the Holiday Property Bond (hpb.co.uk) where you get points equivalent to the amount you put in, and “spend” those points with a user charge at properties in the Uk and Europe. The user charge is less than you would pay for an equivalent standard of accommodation, plus there’s also the opportunity to book “points-free” holidays at short notice or less popular times of year.

Points don’t translate to cruises, but they do arrange cruises and other more exotic tours, but that’s not something we’re ready for yet - at the moment it’s great holiday accommodation at a bargain price in the school holidays that appeals.

I inherited my points after my father died, I’m not sure if timeshares allow this, but being able to pass on the bond is one of the attractions of it.

Also similar (and with more properties, including Florida)is Swiss company hapimag.com. I stayed in one of their properties in Austria for skiing as they had a property exchange thing with HPB for a while.

[Saratoska]

We own at Disney dvc and a timeshare here in the
UK auchrannie.co.uk it is just as good as Disney infact standards wise might be better
We bought the UK one as there will be a point when we can’t travel abroad and it’s not for a limited time like the Disney dvc

[Sandraoh40]

We used to own in a points based timeshare. We owned for about 15 years. Where we went , Spain, uk , and Orlando , the quality was very good, but the yearly fees were getting unreasonable as far as we were concerned.
They were also trying to change the type of membership we had while trying to charge us extra for it. This was where I completely lost it with them ( I have to add that we loved our timeshare) and we left our membership. It wouldn’t have been worth anything if we had tried to sell our points, so for us the best thing was to just walk away.
It has opened up our holiday horizons though as the money we would have spent on the fees gets us a better, or second holiday now.