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Re: Buying timeshares (even resale) (by Mary D.):

tim755 wrote:

danr84 wrote:

Here is a question: what are the advantages and/or dis-advantages to a floating week vs. a fixed week? We've been offerred a floating week for a top of the line 3BR suite in Orlando - unit is only 3 years old. The resort is owned by a Public Company. Our net cost would about $13K after we traded in our Northeast Red week in. All in network privaledges would remain and maintenance fees would be $700/yr. What do you think?

I can give you my experiences of floating vs fixed weeks. Others may be able to enhance what I say below.

My understanding of fixed weeks is that you can have the same villa for the exact same week every year. So, if you always will travel to your timeshare at the same time, you can be assured of that time slot and villa.

If you sould like to have some travel flexibility, then consider variable weeks where you can go during a week in a predefined range of dates defined by the timeshare company. What you must do in this case is contact your timeshare early to get your desired vacation week, especially if it is during a high demand season. When you arrive at your timeshare to use your week, you will be assigned a villa by the management staff.

So, you trade-off same week, same villa for flexibility to vary your week and different villa.

I own flexible weeks with Marriott timeshares and am pleased to have the flexibility to reserve weeks that fit my vacation requirements. Of course, I may have to reserve my villa dates at the earliest possible reservation date.

Hope this helps.

Tim

For a long time, Fixed Weeks were the only game in town with timeshares--and we did not buy because that seemed to be too limiting for the unknown future. Our first timeshare contract was based on a specific unit and date, but was floating within White Season. (Cheaper than Red!) We COULD have dibs on our contractual week, but were not limited to that. We were told that our White Week would probably turn Red as Branson became increasingly popular. (Branson is popular but our week is still White! We'd have been wiser to buy Red and access the entire year, not just our January, February, and early March!) Of course either the true fixed week or a week from a Float contract can be exchanged through RCI, II, or whatever exchange company your resort uses on a space available basis, but this involves exchange fees, guest fees, etc.

Then we encountered the resort points systems at Bluegreen and Fairfield. Oh joy! We can use our points anywhere in their large resort systems without exchange fees! We can choose to reserve 2 nights or whatever in the size unit we need on that occasion in any season. Points are like money. Plan carefully and they can go a long way. [NOTE: This does not refer to RCI POINTS. Their owners still pay exchange fees, though lower ones than RCI WEEKS.]

The questioner says he is considering a 3 bedroom. Will he always want to use something that large? Can he use it as three 1BRs, for example, at different times? Are there related resorts into which he can exchange at no extra charge? What are the "network privileges" mentioned? (MF of $700 may not be out of line for a 3BR or its points equivalent.) However, floating time period vs. fixed is not the only factor for him to consider. Think also of changing space and location needs as years go by. Timeshares are a long-term commitment. MD