Timeshare Points vs. Weeks

Dont you have to pay extra to upgrade to a 3 bedroom? Dont you pay to book you unit? Dont you pay maintenance fee and taxes? Even after the pay it off you still pay about $800 to $900 per year in fees and taxes to stay there. You can get a place just as good right on a beach in Florida for that must. If RCI get you a place for a very affordable price then it was either already over priced or you can find something cheaper than they have. Sorry I have learned my lesson about time shares. They make you think you are getting a deal but believe me you can find a better deal every time,

Donnie you are right about one thing you can probably get it cheaper online. For maybe a one Bedroom unit. But two or three bedroom timeshare is still cheaper. And another thing time share are mostly condo. They have a kitchen, dinning, parlor and one or two and half bath. Two TV , Jacuzzi. And finally more room to blow farts oh I forgot some have Balcony to do that. : ) Privately for two couple even in the one bedroom unit. Sure you can go half on a hotel one bedroom with two double beds and no privacy. I rather pay the same or a little more for the two couple privacy even though the second bed is a fold out couch. J.M.H.O. (Just my humble opinion.)

Joe a bigger questions is how much do you pay for the condo? By the time you spend thousands for the week plus all the extra fees and taxes. How much are you really paying to go to the same place every year? Why not try something different? and cheaper?

Donnie, what you are saying is true about buying a timeshare from a developer. But if you have already bought a ts or if you can find the right one for a bargain price and it fits into where and when you want to go it can still work out for owners.

I paid $17,000 for mine in 2009, I take two vacation every year both Vacation Village resorts One in Weston, FL I use every year to see Pats play Miami and my airfare is free with the southwest card. And I take a week up north (drive 90 minutes) to Hancock MA, another Vacation Village resort for skiing on Martin Luther king weekend. The Jimmy peak ski is right across the street. Plus I just got back from Italy for 28 days of accommodation only cost me $1,000.00. One of them accommodation was Capri try and get that for a week for an exchange fee of $200.00 And if family or friend come I make them pay half It's only fair because I have prepaid for years of vacation and yearly maintenance fees. I figures I got most of my $17,000 back on the Italy and Paris trip. Italy trip cost me $6,000 ( not including airfare) and my daughter and her boyfriend was with( foot most of the cost) us for two of the four weeks I was there. One thing about timeshare and this is a fair statement it forces you to take Vacations. Not counting the $17,000 For me to book a week If you figure the yearly fee $800.00 plus exchange fee for Rci $139.00 my home resort you get it 60.00 off exchange regular rates so $939.00 / 7 days = Comes to $135.00 a week for a one or two or 3 bedroom unit. Like I said the one bedroom almost the same as a hotel if I get two bedroom and make family or friend help pay a little I get it cheaper then online. Now if I only go myself and no family or friend come. The Hancock mass. I would pay the 139.00 exchange fee. My two weeks cost me $800 +139.00+139.00 / 14 nights= Brings my total to $77.00 a night. I have better accommodations and if I do this for 10 years I would recoup all of my cost. I will be going back to Italy in 2015 Daughter getting married. I will probably stay a month again. So Timeshares works for me. Plus if I really wanted to get my prepaid money back faster. I can Book Vacation Village for 8 weeks per year. so $800+$1112.00 exchange fee /28nights= $68.00 a night include heat or AC, water,cable, electric, that I also save for two months not being in my house. Also been to Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Las Vegas another Vacation Village resort and Airfare for free Southwest goes there too. So Don what do you think? J.M.H.O

Timesharing has taken on so many different faces that it is hard to keep up. Basically, it's a shell game now. What was promised has not been delivered. They keep trying to "upgrade" your membershp by charging you more money for things you will never be able to use. Also, whether points for weeks, it's all supply and demand. Read your contract carefully and hold them to it. Buy resale, don't buy destination points through Marriott, don't convert weeks to points. If you look at the RCI directory, there's very little to trade for.

There really nothing in the contract. They don't tell you about RCI and all the added fees if you want to go somewhere different. You would have to make your own contract up and hand it to them. And say you agree to this I will buy your timeshare. This probably will get you out the door in an instant. But you can beat the lies by going on a lot of Vacations. My goal is to go on so many exchange vacations that they will want to buy me out. : ) My resort always has a Extended Vacation sometimes for the exchange fee of 199.00 but most of the time its $244.00 So I would not need to Deposit my week to go to my resorts. If I go to my week which is May Week 18. They mislead me about the floating week. They didn't tell me I had to go thru RCI to get the floating week and cost another 139.00 in exchange fees. If I knew this before hand I would have told them I want floating week with no extra charge. But they duped me. I will be going to my timeshare and try to get the week change to closer to winter months. I live in RI why the f*&k would I buy a timeshare in MAY. If I knew it didn't matter what week I bought with a floating week. See they never explain how the floating week works. They get around it by saying you mean Floating unit. See they mislead you.

Tracy you are 100% right. Wish I had bought my timeshare in the secondary market. 17,000 thousand dollars for a 8/8 in Weston Fl. I own the Mizner place in Weston fl the newer of the three resorts Vacation Village has. But I can buy the Old one Bonaventure for a penny in the secondary market. I think the cheapest mine going for is $2,999.00

I whole hearty agree with joolvera. Don"t buy points get weeks. If I want to go to my resorts cost me 139.00 a week if I want to go somewhere different cost me 199.00 a week. Screw the points they never give you enough to go to Europe or outside the U.S. Except for Mexico and the Caribbean. Every timeshare presentation I go to they try to get me to convert to points by entice me with lower maintenance fees. I tell them show me the RCI directory book first I want to see what available in Europe and how many points I need to get a week and two bedroom. That kills the deal. There's never any available maybe Christmas week but not for two bedrooms. But I know it only going to cost me 199.00 a week. Points sucks.

Updating my post. I went to the timeshare meeting to changed my week. They said there was no weeks in inventory, just one Week in March. I told them I wanted an off peak week anything from October to December. (Football season weeks). He tried to entice me with converting to points for $7,000 more. I told them you lied the first time why would I give you a cent more. Then he counter with giving me the max points $92,000 and I still keep my RCI weeks program for the same $7,000.00. I told him this is probably another lie. And ended the meeting by saying I can get alot of resorts better than this, for a Penny on the secondary market. And I also told him I can come to Mizner place on an Extra vacation and don't need to own the Mizner place. Saving on MF and deposited week. I have another Vacation club that's affiliated with RCI

Just want to alliterate my above post. Now that I been to my home resort week (first time since purchase 2009). I am happy I didn't change my week. It is beautiful and dry in Florida at that time in the year. Plus I think I can get selling and renting value because May is playoff week for Hockey, Basketball and maybe see a marlin game at the same time. Plus Golf tournament the Sawgrass is around that time. So I guess I should be happy with my purchase.

Well it is Nov.2014 and vacation village in the Berkshires is twisting my arm to convert to points. They want $5000. I am going to retire in a few years and plan on traveling. I own a week in July and they are telling me the cost to convert will keep going up so I should bite the bullet and do it now. I am very unhappy with the idea of paying $5000 and wouldn't you think the conversion cost should go down as more people convert? What should I do?

Don't pay $5000 to convert. If you are happy with the exchanges you get then don't worry. If you really want points then look into giving your TS away and getting an already converted week. Grandview another Vacation Villages property in Las Vegas have prime point weeks that sell for less than $3500 and get more points then you would get from your conversion.

How to use points

kathys941 wrote:

How to use points

I'm assuming that this is a question even though there is no punctuation. So, assuming that this is a question, the answer is kind of complicated. Remember, different points systems have different values, rules, and procedures. Your title mentions "Welk Points". I'm not personally familiar with Welks points. However, most points systems follow similar basic procedures.

Each year you have a certain amount of points. When you want to book a unit, it requires a certain amount of points. The amount has many varying factors:

1) Size of the unit. A 2-bedroom unit will usually require more points than a 1-BR unit. Fairly easy.

2) Demand or time of year. A unit booked during high holiday season such as Christmas will likely require more points than booking that same unit in September.

3) When you book it. As you get closer to check-in date, the timeshare company will probably worry that the week will go unclaimed so it might lower the point value needed to book that week.

4) Number of days or days of the week. One advantage to points instead of weeks is that you can book the number of days you need or want. If you want three days, you can book three days which will obviously require fewer points than booking seven days. Also, it usually requires more points to book on a weekend than on a weekday.

These are a few things to consider when using points instead of weeks. But again, keep in mind that Welk points are in no way connected with RCI points, Wyndham points, or any other points system.

I have points units for years and I see no problem with the system. If I do not use my pints I can convert them into Holiday inn point and they do not expire and can be exchanged for airfare or car rental or exchange them for a hotel which they get through expedia

Any experience with Marriott Destination points and how well they sell out?

You may want to go to tug2.com. They have a forum just focused on marriott. It is a good source of info.

The different between RCI points to all other club points including Wyndham Hilton worldmak etc. RCI points you can't buy, you get them every year depends on your ownership and how much RCI need your week. For example if I owne in vegas a two bedroom I will get a very high point value. In a club the more money you spend the more points you get so the priority goes by how much money you spend the priority with RCI goes by what you own where when size and season. You don't have to be rich, be smart.

Based on RCI experience If you are buying into points make sure you have a deed that states a specific resort and room. Why? Inflation. If you only bought a set number of points the resorts can raise the number of points it takes to book a room, your points never go up. RCI determines how many points your specific resort and room are worth. Therefore, in theory if the number of points your room at the resort is valued at goes up then so should your RCI points and you should have more points to keep up with point inflation. We shall see how this plays out. Already seeing were people that bought wynn points are needing more points to book the same room.

To each their own, of course, but I am personally a big fan (and an owner) of fixed week / fixed unit ownerships instead of "points", owning where and when I would be glad to travel in any given year. The OPTION to "exchange" always exists, but need not be utilized --- my reservation is always sitting right there, fully guaranteed --- unless I CHOOSE to do something different with those units / week in any given year.

"Points" ownerships require considerable advance planning and advance reservation efforts and gyrations. That particular enterprise is not for everyone (and it's not for me).

Again, "to each their own". That's why there are lots of different ice cream flavors too!