What are your views on the "Time Share" principle

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Just wondered what you thought.

I wouldn't go near it.

[Rookiekookie]

Wouldn't take one if it was free - and it is so hard to believe that people are still falling for these scams - surely everyone must know that they are a no go by now

[annie_d]

Ditto and Ditto.
A woman who works for me has one in Tenerife for the 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year but is not allowed to have this time off at work. I really don't understand it.

[BENIDORM]

Rick,
Likewise, I wouldn't entertain anything to do with Timeshare,and now I notice they are coming up with different names to try to make it look more upmarket...still the same scam though..!

[Rookiekookie]

And one of the scams where you win on a scratch card and are "invited" to sign up for a holiday home - how stupid is that

[annie_d]

So then, why have so very many people got timeshares???

[Rookiekookie]

I think it is a mixture or reasons - some not realising the implications of only being able to go at a set time - for instance if you are retired it does not matter when your "slot" is

[MrsP]

If you own a timeshare you don't have to use it, you can exchange your slot for another one. They have a sytem where you bank your week and take another one. We had a timeshare in the UK and you could swap the week for virtually anywhere in the world paying for the flight of course. There were so many in the US we could swap our week for 2 weeks.

[Rookiekookie]

I sit corrected - I did not know that they were as flexible as that

[katy]

I just don't understand why intelligent people fall for timeshare. Have a relative who bought one cos he thought it was a bargain and he is a Bank Manager! Yes he can swap...but only by paying more money and the maintenance fees each year are at least 300 pounds, you can get an apartment for that anyway. So, in theory they are paying a lump sum to get something that their yearly fees would buy them anyway. When they are staying at the place they are pestered all the time from staff trying to sell them more weeks or "points" which is even more of a rip-off than time-share.

[ValL]

Have known a few people with various ones from years ago and they want to sell they cant ! their org company has been bought over and the system changed to points and they are useless. One couple came down to Spain to try and sell theirs and ended up being conned into keeping it and upgrading ( for lots more money) so it suits them better

As said why do normally intelligent people fall for it and also as said if you add up the costs you can get a good holiday ( on better) for same yearly amount by buying it yourself whenyou want/can go.

Woud not touch it with a barge pole !

[Angie P]

We had a 'special offer' sent to us at work once, due to the organisation we worked for, we could have a week in a 1 bed apartment in Benalmadena at a place called sunny beach apartments ( i think!).. Should have been £7500, ours for only £1500.. also, again because of who we worked for, there was a extra special bonus offer of buy a week, get a week free...

Looked into it more closely
The weekly maintenance fee was £175, for the one you bought and the same for the free one... If you bought a week in high season, the free one was in winter.. so basically, they were over charging you for a weeks rent in a 1 bed apt and making you pay for a week in winter that no one else wanted!! At the time, we were only paying £110 a week for a 1 bed apt and could choose when and where we stayed..

Needless to say, we never took them up on the offer and soon afterwards bought our own apartment there has had been intended originally.

Its madness that some people are still pleased when the wife scratches the top prize on the scratch card, and they have won the taxi ride up to the presentation 'just to collect your prize'

Some people are obviously born to be conned!!

[jazper]

Well a few years ago we got persuaded to buy a timeshare at a weak moment. This was on a narrowboat on a canal in the midlands. The main reason for persuasion was that we were told we could have a complete refund 3 years later if we did not want to keep it. As it happened, this refund promise turned out to be complete b******s. However, because it has a high rating we can exchange our week for another peak season week at almost any other resort in the world. Recently we have rented it out at a price which exceeds the maintainance fee so it is not a complete loss.

For those people who know timeshares, it is possible to pick up some bargains on the open market. Sometimes at one sixth of the price the agents sell at.

[wendyakemp]

My parents turned the tables and went on the free inspection trip, avoided the rep all week and then announced that they hadnt bought any credit cards and were homeless and penniless retirees ( a lie.)It was the last day so didnt even care about getting the cold shoulder.!!

[pete_l]

Well, it's not my cup of tea - but there must be something in it.
Item on TV (BBC1 breakfast) that Butlins have just built a timeshare
block at their resort in Minehead.
TV prog. said that 1 week in August would cost £20k for 30 years, oh yes
in addition there's £9k in maintenance. The apartments did look quite nice
though.

[jennyshaw]

Saw last night on T.V. that you can buy a room in a top London hotel for £240,000 then rent it out and get back a percentage of the profit, did any one else see the advert?

[laclotte]

I had, some time ago, looked into buying a cabin/suite on the cruise ship The World. Travel the world in style, excellent service, wonderful facilities and see all the places I wished to etc. My only problem was that I was quite sure, on the brochure I received, they had included a zero to many Starting prices were over USD 1.000.000
Needless to say I did not buy....still hanker after my cabin (notice I have already down-graded from the suite) and it will go on my Xmas 'wish list' again this year!
...I had a dream........

[julian]

timeshare is not a scam, it is the press who ,as usual, have piCked up on a small % of timeshare that have had problems and made the public believe that all timeshare is a scam, there are some very professional companies with some excellent timeshare projects, and the system works well for some people . Before you ask..no I don´t sell timeshare, a yes I do own a timeshare week (in a ski resort in the french alps ,since about 1985)

[spanish hopes]

I personally would not buy a timeshare, though we have friends who bought one just a few miles from where they live in Spain. It is on a luxury complex.
They as owners have membership of all facilities and use the Gym, Restaurant and Club regularly.
They also use their timeshare to swap for holidays in other countries where they sometimes get 2 weeks for one. For them the system works.

[Marina]

We have owned timeshare for years now and have stayed in some excellent accommodation which we could not have afforded otherwise for our family of five.
If you are able to plan well in advance or take last minute bargains timeshare can work very well.
You certainly don't need to be tied to the same place or period each year and if you do your homework and buy at a resale price it can be worthwhile.