what is a timeshare is it worth it.?

Answer 1

A timeshare is a prepaid annual vacation week. There are various arrangements for them - fixed weeks or floating weeks, ownership or right-to-use, single location or choice of several locations.

Pros: You pay for a week of vacation time. It can be traded, exchanged or rented. Its value depends on where it is (location) and when it is (Christmas break is very popular). It runs about $100/day for condominium-type accomodations and can represent a good value.

Cons: Use it or lose it. Annual maintenance fee applies. If you own it, you probably won't get back what you paid for it when you sell. Wherever you go, it's a single location for one week. If you want to travel around during that week, it's not as beneficial.

Answer 2

Oh boy, timeshares!

Basically, a timeshare is purchasing yourself a week of vacation at a certain place for the rest of your life. You pay a certain amount of money for a selected week and then you are able to vacation for that week every year.

Some of the good things: You can get a nice large condo for your stay. So you have plenty of room to relax and enjoy yourself. There is usually quite a bit of things offered at the timeshare property for you to do and/or they are in a good location with things near by. Also, that week is yours, so you know that week is yours for vacation every year and you don't have to worry about nothing being available.


Some of the not so good things: You pay a huge amount upfront, most of them around $30,000 and up. That is quite a large investment to make for your vacations (for most people) and sometimes you are very limited on where to stay. You have to pay fees every year for maintence and upkeep, whether you go that year or not. It can be over $1000 a year and they go up a little each year as well. This fee can cost some people more than they would actually spend on their vacation otherwise. You are kind of stuck with your timeshare, if you don't like it, it can be very hard to get out. Finally, the timeshares usually don't look very good very long. Most companies will invite people to stay with them for a very low rate, offer other benefits, etc. to see what they are like. All you have to do is go to a presentation where they try to sell you one. But most of these companies offer this when they are new and looking great, you don't see it very often from the older companies. I've gone to some of the places where my parents had considered purchasing a timeshare years ago and they really have been run down, after seeing that I am glad my parents didn't buy into them. I remember one condo we stayed at years ago because some friends owned one and we went on vacation with them. We reserved our condo, when we arrived they put us in their old section of their rooms, they didn't have anything left in the new buildings and we left (I've never been in a hotel like that since then or before that) It is sad to say (especially considering how much money people invest in these) but way too many of them end up looking awful, and become places I would never stay at.



I know way too many people that have purchased a timeshare and wish they never had done and have a very hard time trying to get out. The costs can really add up, adding in the cost of the initial fee, it can be bad. The main benefit of a timeshare is to save money, but most of the time it doesn't save you anything.

Answer 3

there are a lot of t.s. that are , and a lot that aren't. take several tours but don't buy ( at least 10) then once you're fairly well educated on it, go back and buy one. just don't believe everything they tell you, remember the sales people get paid on commission and on how much they sell. strictly.