Timeshare

[onedash]

Anyone here have a Timeshare from Fairfield properties?
I went and checked em out and they seem like a pretty good deal.
I bought a trial so I am a member instead of an owner.

If we like it we will probably buy. Don't want to finance though due to very high interest for 10 years and im sure they make a killing off that alone.

[JonH]

We have one from Fairfield. I must admit that we don't use it though. Beats me why we ever really bought it but, at the time, it sounded really good: I work for the airlines (so flying to a paticular destination is easy/cheap. The timeshare we have is one week in Kona, Hawaii so it's a "premium" destination (or whatever they call it) so we could trade for two weeks at a thousand other places. At the time we bought it we lived on Oahu and we planned on using it to spend time on the mainland each year. Well, 9-11 hit and I ended up getting sent to Los Angeles, then my in-laws health took an even worse turn (we take care of both of them) and then some other things happened, so we never use it.



Wanna buy ours?

[nadz]

timeshares

forgive my question- im young...

when you buy a timeshare, what do you actually own?

[wbsettle]

I've never purchased, but have attended a few timeshare sales events. The concept can make sense if it fits the way you like to travel/vacation. My wife and I like a little more flexibility and spontaneity in our travel planning. Of course, for extra fees, they were more than willing to work with us on scheduling flexibility. :-)

On our "tours", there seemed to be all sorts of additional fees on top of the actual "purchase" price...booking fees, swap fees, annual membership fees, do us a favor and take advantage of an empty room for a weekend fee, premium upgrade fee, etc.

Once you answer the lifestyle question, the best advice I've heard over and over is buy resells. Pennies on the dollar deals are possible. I think Clark Howard (www.clarkhoward.com) has a section on his site about timeshares. Googling should turn up positive/negative experiences as well.

-Brent

[onedash]

well from fairfiled now they sell points. In addition to the purchase price there is a maintenance fee for eternity. Its based on the amount of points you have. What you own is a portion of the property. Each place can sell so many points. I guess enough to book every room every day of the year. You get a deed and its yours to pass down or sell or whatever. You choose when, where, size and pay that many points for it. You get the same amount of points every year.
When we were newly weds and broke we only went back home to visit family. Now that we are making some $$ we have been trying to see new places every year. And even the nicer hotels we have stayed at do not compare to the smallest studio they have available.
Im sure vactations would be much more enjoyable staying in a place you can enjoy. Especially with grumpy teens and a crazy toddler cramped up in a tiny hotel room.
If you spread the purchase price over 20 or 50 years you are basically looking at the maint fees. ($28 a month for what im looking at)

[greencat]

I think you can save some money by buying a used timeshare. There are close to 1000 on ebuy. Here is an example
http://cgi.ebay.com/Florida-Fairfiel...QQcmdZViewItem

I think this is a deeded property which means you own part of the land (a very small part)

[wbsettle]

The RTI?? group that we toured in Williamsburg a few years ago worked on some sort of point system. The best guesstimate we came up with was about $1k a year...we weren't interested enough to get into more specific numbers with them.

When we stay in hotels, we're generally only concerned with safety and cleanliness...I'm usually on vacation to do and see, not stay in a hotel room...it's just a place to sleep and shower with no need for amenities like suites, hot tubs, and room service. On the other hand, I have a friend who looks at on site restaurant quality and room service availibility when her family travels. On an annual basis, we probably average less than $100/night per room.

Like I said, it depends on whether or not a timeshare fits your travel style. Roughly once a year we make a trip up to LI to see the in-laws. Last Christmas, we stayed at a Hyatt Regency for only $125/night. Most of the time it's a Comfort Inn for even less. Except for the inlaw visits, we're generally of the go here for a few days, then move on to there, and maybe stop one more time before returning home style. Maybe even throw in a few camping days for good measure...not to save money, just for the pleasure of it (blew the timeshare sales guys mind, we weren't fitting his script at all). Some years we'll spend more than our $1k estimate for the timeshare cost, most years we'll spend a little less and have increased scheduling flexibility. YMMV.

Maybe it's different with Fairfield, but beware the demo unit bait & switch. We did a tour in Charleston (they actually paid me $100 cash to listen) last year. I would agree the demo rooms, including the cheapest, were awesome. However, we paid attention when the door opened on a non-demo room when the residents were entering/leaving...much more pedestrian hotel looking than the demos. Later, somewhere in the fine print on one of the brochures, I found some legalese to the effect that not all rooms were identical.

Good luck!

-Brent