It is hard to believe that it is September and labor day weekend is upon us. For many, it marks the end of summer. It is definitely bitter sweet that the end of summer is here, kids are back in school and the weather is about to turn into winter.
While this is definitely unfortunate, this is a great time to think about the past summer and what was great and what you would want to do differently next week. Perhaps you didn't take a vacation or didn't get the requested week off from work. Maybe you didn't do all the things that you had planned to do. With all these memories fresh in your mind, this is actually the best time to begin making plans for Summer 2017!! A lot of people just can't plan that far in advance but if you have any desire to get prime weeks and prime resorts, now is the time to begin the planning. Believe it or not, most of my entire summer is currently planned with various options laid out which will ultimately depend on whether certain exchanges comes through with my timeshare. As explained in this post concerning timeshare planning, it is essential to plan far ahead and have multiple options so that you can get the desired vacation and be able to travel to luxurious destinations in luxurious accommodations on a tiny budget. If you want to achieve this, here is what you need to do! STEP ONE: SET UP AN EXCHANGE REQUEST If you own a timeshare and want to make excellent trades, put in a Request First with Interval International or do an Ongoing Search with RCI. For Interval International, you can do a search for the desired week and include the specific resorts that you want to travel to. THINK BIG! Put in a request for the Four Seasons property in Carlsbad, California or the Marriott property in St. Thomas or the Westin in St. John or the Marriott properties in Hawaii. Request the ultimate vacation of your dreams. This is the fun part of vacation planning! When you make the Request First reservation, Interval will charge you the exchange fee of $179 and I highly recommend getting E-Plus as discussed here. This can give you even more flexibility down the road. Remember that this is fully refundable if the exchanges does not occur. The fees are refunded and your deposited points or week is refunded. For RCI, in order to do a Ongoing Search, follow these steps:
Again, THINK BIG and try for the Hilton in Waikoloa, Hawaii, Casa Velas in Puerto Vallarta or the Pueblo Bonito in Cabo San Lucas - all highly rated luxurious timeshare properties. STEP 2: SET UP AIRFARE ALERTS Use Hopper. As discussed here, Hopper is a great tool for monitoring airfare. Put in the various times, dates and destinations for the specific weeks that you requested above. Hopper will track the cost of all these flights. Ignore the cost of the flights for the moment as you will continue to monitor them until the point that the airfare reaches a price point where you are comfortable spending. Put in multiple destinations so that you can track costs for all potential options that you chose in Step 1. STEP 3: BOOK BACKUP HOTEL PLANS Book hotel accommodations for the desired weeks. If you end up booking airfare first, you will need to have a good backup plan in case the desired timeshare does not go through. Again, ignore prices at the moment but do make sure that the reservations are fully cancellable. I will discuss various methods on how to get hotel accommodations for reasonable prices so that you can truly have a good backup plan in case the the timeshare does not get confirmed. If you have hotel points, this is a great time to book a speculative week on points so that you are assured a free week of accommodations. Again, getting these points are achievable and we can discuss various methods to do so in other posts. STEP 4: SET UP GETAWAY ALERTS Set up Interval Getaway alerts if you are an Interval International member. I currently have a saved searched called "Summer" for 2017 where I inserted all the top properties within Interval so that I can view when availability comes up and I can make a decision on whether to book with cash immediately or continue to wait for the desired week or timeshare property to become available. Using this method, I already saw a prime week in Hawaii for a Marriott property where the one bedroom cost under $600 for the week. I didn't grab it and it disappeared within a few minutes. If you see a deal like that, book immediately. Be aware that these Getways are non-refundable and non-changeable so make sure you can actually use it before booking. STEP 5: RENT A CAR AND USE AUTOSLASH Use Autoslash if you will be wanting to rent a car. As discussed in this post, Autoslash is the ultimate car rental reservation tool. You can make a reservation without using any credit card and Autoslash will automatically track the reservation and either alert you of a lower price or automatically rebook you for the lowest price available. Make multiple reservations that coincide with the various destinations that you chose in Step 1. Since there are no fees, credit card requirements or cancellation fees, book multiple weeks and once everything comes together, you can cancel the unused rental reservations. STEP 6: MONITOR EVERYTHING Monitor everything. Since everything is generally now on autopilot, just monitor everything so that when a exchange gets confirmed or a Getaway becomes available, you can quickly review the flights and determine if the costs are doable. In other posts, I will explain how to obtain and use frequent flyer miles so that the flights will be free but for now, the above steps should work well in order to set yourself up for a fantastic summer for 2017. STEP 7: SIT BACK AND RELAX Remember the summer that just passed and be excited for next summer. Travel planning can be difficult but when you plan ahead, you have a much better chance of getting awesome vacations in luxurious places and resorts for a fraction of the retail cost. Make sure to follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more ideas, tools, opportunities and information. Also, subscribe below!!
Nobody likes it when the time comes to pay your maintenance fees. They usually are more than last year and it always feels like a surprise even though you knew it would be arriving. In order to get the maximize value out of your maintenance fees, it is essential to use the proper credit card. All maintenance fees are generally categorized as “travel” within the credit card category and many credit cards provide bonus points for expenses relating to travel. However, most of the major timeshare companies such as Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood each have their own branded credit cards. All of these co-branded cards give you bonus points for spending at their properties. The best secret is that the maintenance fees will generally trigger this bonus! If you use the right credit card to pay your maintenance fees, you can generally receive a free night at many hotels. Depending on the how you choose to redeem that night can essentially result in a 10-25% discount off your maintenance fees. In some circumstances, you can get even more value out of a hotel redemption. In order to show you how this is possible, I will assume that the maintenance fees are $1200 per year. Based on this amount, if I owned with Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt or Starwood and I used a specific co-branded credit card, I would receive bonus points. HILTON: The Hilton Hhonors reserve card is one of the Hilton branded hotel cards. It currently offers 2 free weekend night certificates after making $2500 in purchases within 4 months of the account opening. I have this card and used the initial bonus at the Grand Wailea in Maui. We can discuss the value of the initial bonus later but this saved me close to $1000 off hotel nights.
For these purposes, the Hilton Hhonors reserve card provides 10 HHonors Bonus Points per $1 spent on hotel stays within the Hilton Portfolio.
A $1200 spend would result in 12,000 Hilton Hhonors points. As per the following chart, 12,000 Hhonors points would get you almost to a free night in a category 2 hotel. There are approximately 76 category 2 hotels to choose from. Based on a few examples, I would say that this easily equates to about a $120 hotel room, therefore saving 10% off your maintenance fees.
MARRIOTT:
The Marriott Premier card is one of Marriott’s branded hotel cards. It is currently offering 80,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. 80,000 bonus points is quite good as this is on the high end of recent bonuses.
For these purposes, the Marriott Premier card provides 5 Marriott bonus points per $1 spent at over 4,000 participating Marriott® locations worldwide.
A $1200 spend would result in 6,000 Marriott points. As per the chart here, 6000 bonus points would almost get you into a category 1 hotel or would definitely get you in on a pointsavers reward night for a category 1 hotel.
Assuming that you can secure a pointsavers night in a category 1 (this is not difficult), I would value the Marriott points at about $100, potentially more depending on the redemption. In this scenario, I would say that paying with a Marriott Premier card would result in about an 8% discount to your maintenance fees.
Additionally, you should be aware that card members receive an annual free night for category 1-5 hotels which can be very valuable. HYATT: The Hyatt Credit card issued by Chase is the only Hyatt branded credit card. It currently offers 2 free nights in ANY hotel worldwide after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months. The initial signup offer is fantastic since there are no restrictions on use. These two free nights can be used at very expensive hotels such as the Hyatt Ka’anapali in Maui, the Park Hyatt New York or the newest arrival, the Park Hyatt St. Kitts. Nightly rates can be close to $1000 per night so this initial signup bonus can be tremendously valuable.
For these purposes, the Hyatt credit card provides 3 points per $1 spent on purchases at all Hyatt properties.
A $1200 spent would result in 3,600 Hyatt points. 3,600 points is just shy of minimum of 5,000 points for a category 1 hotel. However, 3000 points does get you a club upgrade on a paid night which can be very valuable. Club rooms do get you access to the Regency club which offers complimentary food, beverage (sometimes alcohol) and breakfast.
Based on a few examples, I view the upgrade as potentially worth $150. If you assume that that you will obtain the additional points for a free night at a category 1, I would view this to be worth about $150, again, potentially more depending the redemption.
The Hyatt card also offers an annual free night for category 1-4 properties. This can easily be worth a few hundred dollars, again depending on its use. I personally have this card and typically use my free night for a ski trip in Park City, Utah which usually would cost $500 per night in a hotel. STARWOOD: The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express is the credit card for Starwood. Their current signup offer is 25,000 bonus starpoints. It has gone as high as 30,000 but this is generally their signup offer. Starpoints are very valuable currency as there are not as many ways to receive starpoints as other hotel currents.
The initial bonus offer is very valuable and could offer you 8 nights in a category 1 hotel, 6 nights in a category 2, 3 in a category 3 or 2 nights in a category 4 or 5. The award chart is found here:
The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card provides "you up to 5 Starpoints® for each dollar of eligible purchases at participating SPG® hotels – that's 2 Starpoints for which you may be eligible as a Card Member in addition to the 2 or 3 Starpoints for which you may be eligible as an SPG member. Get 1 Starpoint for all other purchases."
Basically, you will receive 2 Starpoints for each dollar and potentially receive an additional 2 or 3 points per dollar if you have Starwood Status. For this example, we should assume that we don’t have status. A $1200 spend would result in 2400 Starpoints. As per the chart above, 2400 starpoints is just shy of a free night in a category 1 hotel. Based on a review of their category 1 hotels, I would view the free night to be worth approximately $100. Again, this gives you an 8% discount off the maintenance fees. CHASE SAPPHIRE RESERVE: If you are involved in the credit card travel game, you have definitely heard about the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. This is a new awesome card that offers 3x points on Travel and Dining. The initial signup offer is huge and gives you 100,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points. Chase Ultimate Reward Points are transferrable currency that allows you to transfer into frequent flyer accounts and hotel award programs. While it carries a $450 annual fee, it provides a $300 annual credit for travel related charges. A key perk to the Chase Sapphire Reserve is that the travel credit applies towards your maintenance fees! Basically, this is a very easy way to get $300 off your maintenance fees. The travel credit gets replaced in January so if you get the card now, you can save $300 now and $300 again in January. $600 easy savings! The initial bonus is easily worth $1500 but if used properly, can be worth thousands. Without too much work, this can easily be worth $3,000.
In our example, a $1200 charge for your maintenance fees would be categorized as travel and you would earn 3,600 Chase Ultimate Reward Points. This can be used for travel and redeemed for $54.00 through Chase or can be transferred into various programs including Hyatt.
I would value 3,600 Chase Ultimate Reward Points at about $75 but this is just a guestimate. The value would depend on how you use them. You could transfer them directly to Hyatt and get a club upgrade as discussed above. Chase Ultimate Reward Points are very valuable and in later posts will describe how to use these in relation to timeshare vacations. This is a stellar card and is highly recommended. The 100,000 sign up bonus is huge as it is rare for sign up bonuses to be that high. CITI PREMIER: The Citi Premier card is a solid card that earns Thankyou Reward Points. You can earn 3 points per $1 spent on Travel including Gas plus 2 points per $1 spent on Dining Out and Entertainment and 1 point per $1 spent on other purchases.
Citi’s Thankyou Reward program has gotten much better in recent years and you can now transfer points into various partners. These can provide tremendous amount of value if you redeem them properly. The Citi Premier is not offering any signup bonus so I would not apply at the moment but wait until a bonus appears.
In this example, a $1200 charge for maintenance fees would result in 3,600 Thankyou Reward Points. Redeeming these points for travel expenses would result in them being worth $45 since Citi values them a 1.25 cents when redeeming for airfare and other expenses. As discussed in other posts, you could also transfer these points to Citi’s partners that could result in better redemption rates. CONCLUSION: As stated above, if you use the proper credit card, a $1200 maintained fee would result in the following amount of points and potentially give you a material discount on your maintenance fees.
As shown, using the right credit card for your maintenance fees can essentially result in a significant discount. You should definitely make sure to use the right credit card when paying your maintenance fees.
Even if you own a timeshare not affiliated with the companies stated above, these charges still are categorized as travel and you can earn at least 3x the amount of points which can easily result in a meaningful discount. This blog is not meant to show you how to maximize frequent flyer, hotel or credit card points. There are already plenty out there to do so. However, if you travel each year, which I anticipate you must if you own a timeshare, you need to get reasonably versed in these types of program. They can be complicated but I know that they save me thousands of dollars per year in travel and you can use these tools for your advantage and to travel to some great destinations for much less or even free. More importantly, they provide me with the ability to travel to exotic locations for free. Over time, I will discuss the basic mechanics of these programs and how to use these programs, miles and points to complement timeshare ownership to allow you to travel in luxury for less. Additionally, as discussed in other posts and as I will discuss later, you always need to have a Plan B for timeshare planning. Since availability can be difficult to get in prime weeks or resorts, you need to be able to book airfare reasonably in advance to secure reasonable prices or use your frequent flyer miles. You can use hotel points to book a hotel room for the desired destination and be confident in your ability to book non-refundable airfare. We will discuss these types of strategies in other posts but it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, if your desired week becomes available, the cost of airfare can quickly derail that vacation and you will need to start the planning all over again. I started this blog because I really enjoy using our timeshare. I find that I get tremendous value out of the systems and can travel the world for a fraction of the cost of staying in hotels and with more space and with the conveniences of having more space and a full kitchen. As I researched advertising for the site, I was googling timeshares, timeshare information, timeshare blog, etc. and 99% of the results came back with how to sell your timeshare, how to get out of your timeshare contract and advertising from attorneys who claim to be able to help you get out of your timeshare. Based on my google research, I was apparently the minority who actually enjoyed our timeshare. In starting this blog, I am either completely on the wrong track or there is a need to understand the pros and cons of timeshares and figure out how to maximize their use so that you can get more value out of them than the initial cost and maintenance fees. In searching through the various complaints, the common theme that came up was that timeshare owners could not exchange into the desired weeks and were surprised by the constant stream of fees that you need to pay in order to make reservations, exchange, upgrade sizes, etc. These are all valid complaints and will complain with the rest of them. Like most businesses, timeshares have become fee happy along with airlines and hotels. My family and I have enjoyed many great vacations with our timeshare but definitely understand why timeshares have such a bad reputation. Exchanges are difficult, you need to be flexible on your travel plans and destinations, you need to constantly search, you need to always calculate whether the timeshare exchange makes financial sense and you need to learn complicated systems and multiple sets of rules. Timeshare developers generally do not disclose any of these issues which can quickly create buyer’s remorse. They make it seem that you can travel around the world in nice resorts at any time without issue. My goal is to explain how to actually do this. It is not easy but I have had many great trips and you can too. Each timeshare system is different and each has the own unique sets of rules, points systems, valuations and sweet spots. Timeshares are really complicated. If you are not well versed in the particular program or the rules of the various exchange programs, you quickly can become disenchanted. Also, the biggest secret in the timeshare world is that it is very difficult to sell your timeshare and if you actually can, the price is materially less than the original purchase price. Timeshares are like cars, they quickly depreciate and will ultimately become worthless. With the secret out, you must be asking yourself why anyone would purchase a timeshare. As I explained in other posts, a timeshare is not a financial investment. I would argue that it is a lifestyle investment. Some things that may not have monetary value may have a different type of value. I value being able to travel around the world in nice accommodations with my friends and family. I also argue that the actual cost of using the timeshare is far cheaper and superior than hotel accommodations even when factoring in the purchase price and maintenance fees provided that the initial purchase price is not astronomical. I know that I will be taking 2-4 weeks of vacation every year. I know that I will be paying my maintenance fees each and every year and I know that like everything, they will increase. Every year, my maintenance fees go up about 10%. It is a lot! I am not happy about it but the average price per hotel room has gone up even more. Add resort fees, taxes, upgrade fees, fees to use the fitness room, fees for rollaways, fees for fridges, etc. While I will continue to complain about my maintenance fees, I find the hotel fees to be even more obnoxious. Resort fees are the worst where they want to charge me $40 a night for a resort fee on top of my $300 nightly rate so I can use the pool??? Come on! Even with the purchase price and annual maintenance fees, I still think that a timeshare is worthwhile. I can stay in nicer accommodations for a fraction of the cost of a hotel. I can use exchanges to get at least three weeks out of my one timeshare week and stay in resorts where one week would cost more than my annual maintenance fee! I have provided multiple examples of this and will continue to do so to show you how to truly leverage your ownership. The word “timeshare” has definitely become a four letter word. All the major “timeshare” developers no longer use the word timeshare but now market under the terms “vacation clubs”, “residence clubs”, “membership”, “fractional ownerships”, etc. At the end of the day, they are timeshares with new fancy terms. There is nothing wrong with that provided that you understand this and recognize the limitations. Timeshares or whatever you want to call them have increased in popularity. In addition, as the ARDA report detailed here, the demographics of the timeshare owners have changed. Timeshare owners are not purchasing a timeshare on a whim but timeshare owners are smart, diligent, financially savvy and educated. Most will not purchase at the first meeting but will review and do their research. It is essential to do your research before purchasing! The marketplace is changing as the previous system of a specific deeded week is waning and flexibility is becoming more pronounced. Instead of weeks, developers are selling points that can be used at different resorts for stays of one night or more. However, the systems are still complicated and still requires a lot of patience and flexibility to get what you want and to maximize the system for your own benefit. I have personally succeeded in navigating these systems and hope that you can too. My goal is to show you how. If you change your thinking about timeshares and recognize their issues, it is possible to use them and exchange into great vacations. Timeshares are not for everyone but if you know you are going to travel each and every year, a timeshare can actually make financial sense. I do not get compensated from any timeshare developer or property so I have no ulterior motive in posting this information. Transparency is important as I do not want to be viewed as another timeshare salesperson looking to make a quick buck. That is not me. Make sure to subscribe below and ask any questions you may have. I will be very happy to answer them! The Timeshare Guru theguru@thetimeshareguru.com
One of the perks of vacationing in timeshares is that the accommodations usually have a full kitchen with all the tools and necessities to be able to cook. Instead of being stuck in a resort and paying for $20 hamburgers, you can save a lot of money by cooking within the timeshare.
We have all been to resorts where the food and drinks are outrageously priced but you have no choice but to pay the prices. Food and drinks can easily make up a significant portion of the budget. While being able to cook in the timeshare is one important draw of timeshares, the downside is the inevitable supermarket run that you need to do. The supermarket run can take hours away from your precious vacation time. In addition, almost always, there are leftovers that simply go in the trash. Even with the leftovers, cooking some meals on vacation can literally save you hundreds of dollars. However, my family has been using a service called Hello Fresh which sends you, via UPS, a box of food with the specific amount of ingredients and portion size to cook excellent meals. Hello Fresh provides everything you need to cook the meals with the exception of perhaps oil or salt and pepper. It gives you detailed instructions with pictures on how to prepare and cook the meal. Most meals will take between 30-45 minutes to prepare and the food has been terrific. We have been very happy with Hello Fresh. Although we do not use it every week, we have been happy with the food and quality of the meals. After getting these boxes for a few weeks, it occurred to me that this is absolutely perfect for timesharing! Instead of going to the supermarket and spending you precious vacation time planning for various meals, you can arrive at the resort with a box of food ready for your use. The box comes with freezer packs and stays good for at least a couple of days in not more. The package the food very well. You can schedule the delivery on the certain days so you can have it arrive on the day of check-in. You can also pick the specific meals that you want to cook. This will avoid overbuying of groceries, planning for various meals and will save you hundreds of dollars so you can avoid having to eat out for all your meals. Before going forward with this, I would make sure to call the resort and see their policy on accepting packages. Most will do so without issue but some might have an issue so it is best to call ahead. In addition, I would try it out at home first to make sure that you like it so there is no disappointment on vacation. There is no obligation to continue and you can skip as many weeks as you like. This is only for the continuous US so this program will not work internationally. Another perk of signing up is that you will receive $40 off your first delivery using this code: YEUGRS With $40 off your first box, the first delivery for 3 meals for 2 people would only cost $30, less than the cost of one person's meal in a nice resort. I think this is a great program and think that this can be highly beneficial for timeshare vacations. Let me know what you think! Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe below!
Bulk deposits are when resorts deposit multiple weeks at once to an exchange company. This can occur in RCI or Interval International. Many times, a single resort may deposit multiple weeks at one time which provides vast amount of availability for exchanging into that resort. Other times, a developer, such as Marriott, Hilton, Westgate, Hyatt and so on will do a bulk deposit for many of their resorts within their system. In a split second, highly rated and recommended resorts become available.
There are some theories that bulk deposit do not always trigger a request first, deposit first or ongoing search matches. Sometimes, the bulk deposits occur and it will only be at a later time when a match is confirmed using these methods. The importance of these bulk deposits is that you can grab an highly sought after resort or week and potentially even bypass those other timeshare owners who have a ongoing search. Neither RCI or Interval International provides an advance warning on when such bulk deposits occur. If and when they do occur, the weeks are usually grabbed very quickly. In regards to Interval International, it is very advantageous to get E-Plus with your exchanged week as discussed here since a bulk deposit could become available at a nicer resort or at a hard to come by destination. E-Plus will allow you to make that exchange without an added exchange fee. As stated, these bulk deposits will show up and will likely be gone quickly so subscribe below to be alerted to these exchange opportunities.
While there are many ways to actually purchase a timeshare, a question normally arises on whether you should finance the purchase. While a home purchase will almost always involve a mortgage, a timeshare is different. While the various programs tout that the timeshare is a deeded real property interest, as explained here, a timeshare is a different type of real property and is completely different than a home purchase or other real property where you own the ability to use it 365 days a year.
All the major developers of timeshares do offer some type of financing option. Upon review of a few major developers, most will offer financing to qualified purchasers for a ten year fixed rate term for about an 11-15% interest rate. As a comparison, mortgage loans are currently around 3.5% for a 30 year term. I believe that a timeshare is a luxury item that should only be purchased by those that can afford the initial fee and the ongoing maintenance fees. While financing options are available, the interest rates are very high and any monthly fee that you will be required to pay the loan will be in addition to the maintenance fees. This can make the timeshare purchase not affordable or even more expensive that renting hotel units or other condo properties. Generally, you should not finance a timeshare purchase. There are many ways to purchase a timeshare and whatever way you choose, you should be able to afford the initial price. As argued in my other posts, the initial purchase should be treated as a sunk cost or looked at as a initiation fee or membership fee. You should be able to afford that price without financing. If you cannot and you go forward with a financing option, the monthly payment for the initial loan and ongoing maintenance fees will likely be a financial hardship and it will be difficult to maximize the ownership of the timeshare with a large financial overhead. A timeshare is a luxury item but it is also vastly different that true real property. I believe that timeshares are worthwhile to own but financing the purchase is generally a bad decision. Make sure to subscribe below! The Trials and Tribulations of Travel Planning with Timeshares: "Fail to Plan is a Plan to Fail"8/31/2016
As my father tells me, Fail to Plan is a Plan to Fail.
If money was not an issue, travel planning would not be an issue at all. You choose flights, irregardless of costs, and choose accommodations, irregardless of cost. Unfortunately, I do not have that luxury and most people do not as well. Exchanging your timeshare can unleash tremendous value and you can end up staying in properties that far surpass the quality of your own timeshare or those available to you through the internal exchanges. While there are opportunities to make great exchanges, availability for specific weeks and destinations can be extremely hard to come by and may never become available. The issue with vacation planning with timeshares is that you need to plan very far in advance. Some timeshare systems allow you to reserve weeks 2 years in advance of the actual week. Most people do not plan ahead and typically only plan vacations a few months in advance. As I will detail below, if you plan to exchange into prime weeks, this strategy may not work very much and you will quickly become disgruntled with timeshare ownership with the claim that your desired week, destination or resort never becomes available. The goal of my site is to help you avoid this fate and get the maximize value out of timeshare ownership. Further complications with travel planning with timeshares involve airfare if you are traveling to a destination outside of driving distance from your home. Airfares fluctuate and destinations during prime travel weeks can easily far exceed the budgeted amount for the vacation. I personally use frequently flyer miles to get airfare for free but frequent flyer miles can be even more complicated than timeshare exchanging and having availability with free airfare along with the desired week and resort can be next to impossible. However, I have successfully navigated this system for many years and it is doable with diligence, planning, patience, flexibility and websites such as mine! In order to get the two goals to meet up requires a ton of time, work and flexibility. My goal is to give you some tips on how to navigate timeshare exchanging in order to get the desired weeks. I will also detail some basic tips on how to get frequent flyer miles and use them to get airfare for free! TIP ONE: PLAN AHEAD, WAY AHEAD AND BE FLEXIBLE: The first tip is that you must plan ahead. One of my vacation rules is to always have a trip planned. This keeps me motivated to work and keeps me excited to see new destinations and spend quality with my family. Generally, I plan one year in advance and put in a Request First with Interval International or an internal request with one of my timeshare programs. (i.e Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, etc.) I put in a request with various top quality resorts around the world that I would like to travel to. You need to make sure that you choose the specific resorts that you want and not just put in a destinations. There are some crummy timeshares out there so you need to make sure that you choose the high quality luxurious ones. I make sure that the potential destinations have decent flight paths from my home airport so that I can make sure to only have one stop and to make sure that there are no overnight stays. We travel with young children so an overnight stay or more than one stop can be more difficult than desired. Request First with Interval International is a great tool and highly recommended since their system will constantly check their system and automatically confirm you into the desired resort for the specific week. I always make sure to use E-Plus which provides three free exchanges for a one-time fee of $54. This is absolutely necessary for added flexibility as without E-Plus, the reservations are non-cancellable except for a large fee for cancellation as well as the re-booking fee. I will discuss E-Plus in more detail later but this is an absolute must to give you the needed flexibility to change destinations Many times I change destinations because nicer resorts become available or fantastic airfare deals become available. SECOND TIP: HAVE A PLAN B The second tip is that you always need to have a Plan B. Most hotel reservations allow you to make reservations and cancel up to 24 hours before check-in. Once I put in a Request First, I also review hotel options in the desired areas of travel. I will make a few speculative bookings for the desired weeks so that there are options for accommodations in the event that the timeshare accommodations do not come through. Booking directly through the major chains is preferable as they generally make it easy to reserve and cancel your reservations with a few clicks. While I highly prefer timeshares for many reasons, you need to make sure that there are viable hotel options. One of my favorite ways to have a Plan B is to use hotel points to reserve a week in the desired location. I can reserve a hotel room that is fully cancellable with hotel points so that the week will be free in the event that the timeshare option does not become available. I will explain in later posts how to arm yourself with hotel points so that you too can have this option. THIRD TIP: USE INTERVAL GETAWAY ALERTS: As discussed in this post (Getaway Alerts), I explained how to use Getaway Alerts on the Interval International App. I routinely populate various dates and times and become alerted when a desired resort and destination becomes available. As discussed, many times it is economically beneficial to reserve a week with cash instead of using your deposited weeks or points. In addition, there are some fabulous deals with Interval Getaways so a deal at a great resort may end up dictating the ultimate destination for your vacation. A great deal for accommodations may open up the budget for an increase in the price of airfare. FOURTH TIP: USE HOPPER TO TRACK AIRFARE The fourth tip is to populate the airfare searches using Hopper. Hopper was discussed in this post here and is a great way to easily monitor airfare. Since at this stage, you will not necessarily know the ultimate destination, you can put in multiple itineraries and Hopper will constantly monitor the cost for the flights. If one destination is significantly cheaper than another, you can opt in to booking the airfare at that time. Once you book airfare, you are generally locked in to the destination as change fees can be as high as $200-$300 per ticket so you need to make sure things are lined up with the timeshare or have a reasonable Plan B that you are prepared to use in the event that the timeshare availability does not become available. Once your airfare is locked in, I would revise the request first to make sure that only the resorts in your request are for the destination desired. While you will have 24 hours to cancel it free of charge, if you miss this window, it can be problematic. FIFTH TIP: USE SOUTHWEST AIRLINES IF POSSIBLE Alternatively, if you are in destination that is serviced by Southwest, I highly recommend booking tickets with Southwest. Southwest is the only airline left that allows changes and cancellations free of charge. Southwest even allows you to receive travel credits if the price of the airfare goes down. Southwest will give you travel credits to use at a later date in the event your flight cost went down from the date you originally booked. However, there are a few issues with Southwest that should be understood. Southwest only opens its flight schedule for approximately six months in the future. Therefore, if you confirm into a resort a year in advance, you may not be able to book airfare with Southwest until six months from the trip. You will also be subject to the price of the trip once it opens up. While Southwest is known for its low fares, the prices for some trips and high demand weeks can be extremely expensive. The second issue with Southwest is relating to cancellations. Southwest does allow cancellations but the do not provide refunds. They provide you with a travel credit that must be used within one year from the initial reservation date. They also require you to keep the reservation number in order to access those travel funds. This does require a bit of record keeping and organization. The best method for Southwest is to use their Rapid Reward Points. Instead of booking with cash, you can use Rapid Reward Points and if you needed to cancel or change destinations, the points are immediately redeposited to your account. I will explain this in later posts but for the purpose of this post, Southwest is a great airline to use when timeshare planning. SIXTH TIP: USE AUTOSLASH As discussed in this post here (autoslash), Autoslash is a great tool for rental cars. You can make reservations using Autoslash without any credit cards and they will track your rental to ensure that you receive the lowest price on your car rental. Since it is conceivable that you have many potential destinations for the trip, you can make multiple reservations for the same week. Do it as far in advance as possible and autoslash will do the rest to make sure that the cost of your rental car is the lowest. SEVENTH TIP: CONTINUE MONITORING AIRFARE, HOTELS AND TIMESHARES AFTER CONFIRMING Going through these various steps seem exhausting but once you get a system in place and have alerts set, it becomes on autopilot and just requires monitoring. The key is that once everything is booked, that you continue to monitor everything to make sure that there are no unintended surprises. I try to book my airfare 330 days in advance which is when most airlines open their schedules. When I book this far in advance, airlines continue to make schedule changes throughout the year. Many times, the reserved flight path changes, times are altered or non-stop flights all of sudden require a stop. These can completely derail all the travel planning put forth above and could require a complete re-do of everything above. This is why is is highly beneficial to continue to monitor all these items to make sure everything is on track. You do not want to be surprised on the check in date that your flight now requires an overnight stay. Also, while schedule changes with airlines can be problematic, most if not all airlines allow you to re-book or cancel your flights for no charge or fees if the airline make a schedule change that impacts the travel time by greater than two hours. In other posts, we can discuss schedule changes and how to use them for your advantage but for the purpose of this post, you need to monitor your airfare. Airlines will generally inform you of schedule changes but those e-mails may go to spam or simply be missed. In writing this post, I realize that travel planning can be daunting and difficult. Working with timeshares adds even more complexity. These tips are meant to allow my readers to begin using these tools and becoming informed on how these tools can help alleviate these issues and obtain the desired weeks and resorts within a reasonable budget. I highly recommend that you subscribe to my Guru Deals below so that you can be alerted to various exchange opportunities, travel deals, flight deals and other opportunities to allow you to travel to luxurious destinations for a fraction of the retail cost. Travel planning as described above may not be for everyone so when airfare deals become available, I will try to include some options for timeshares and see how you can easily book quality weeks for reasonable costs and avoid all the steps above! Subscribe below so you don't miss out! There are a ton of absolutely gorgeous timeshare properties that are very luxurious and provides amenities that can far surpass even the finest hotels. Many times, these timeshares are located on the grounds of a hotel so the timeshare occupants can have the best of both worlds, luxurious condo accommodations with the typical amenities of hotels. Other times, the timeshares themselves have typical high end amenities that you would expect from a five star hotel. I put together the following list of top five properties that I would like to visit in the next few years. These properties are highly sought after and can be difficult to exchange into. Some are also very new which creates even higher demand. Property One: Four Seasons Residences Club at Troon North: Scottsdale, Arizona
If you have had the opportunity to stay at any Four Seasons, you will understand why they have such a stellar reputation. Not only are the grounds and hotels usually stunning, the service is what truly shines. The Four Seasons in Scottsdale trades through Interval International. Units at this resort are very difficult to get back I have seen a few become available every now and again. If you have the opportunity to make a trade into the Four Seasons, grab it quickly. You will not regret it.
Property Two: Four Seasons Residence Club Aviara at Carlsbad, California
I do not want to populate the entire list with Four Seasons properties (even though I could), the Four Seasons in Carlsbad, California is another stunning property. Its location is gorgeous and for those families with children, this location is close to Legoland which my kids have been begging to go. When the opportunity arises, we will be sure to book into this property.
Property Three: Hyatt Ka'anapali Beach - Maui, a Hyatt Residence Club
Maui is a absolutely stunning destination. The beaches, food and atmosphere are all amazing. While Hyatt's Residence Club's have a small footprint (only 16 properties), the Hyatt Ka'anapali Beach is the newest addition to the Hyatt Residence Club. It has been open for a very short time and is located on Ka'anapali beach, one of the islands best beaches. All weeks at this property are categorized as Diamond which is the Hyatt Residence Club's highest season. As a result, Hyatt owners may have difficulty getting into this property. This does trade through Interval International but availability is practically non-existent at the moment due to the high demand for this property. However, if you see it, grab it as nightly rates for this property are sky high.
Property Four: The Westin St. John Villas; St. John Virgin Islands
The Westin St. John Villas are located on the tiny island of St. John which is located next to St. Thomas. The island is extremely small and secluded. The Westin St. John Villas are luxurious accommodations with an intimate setting. The beaches and grounds are beautiful. The Westin St. John Villas do also trade through Interval International. I am constantly on the lookout for this property and it sadly never becomes available. This is a very tough trade as it is popular, small and rates are extremely expensive which would make a trade a tremendous value.
Property Five: Marriott's Phuket Beach Club - Phuket, Thailand
Marriott's Phuket Beach Club is located in Phuket, Thailand is a very luxurious property located on stunning beaches. The distance to Thailand can be difficult to handle as it can be more than a 24 hour plane ride. However, once there, Thailand is a true asian paradise. Service is phenomenal as is the food, decor and amenities. Going for a week will definitely be too little but due to the distance, this property does come up for trade fairly often. This property also trades through Interval International.
The following list is not meant to be all inclusive and was truthfully presented in no particular order. These are some stunning properties around the world that can be available. I will detail in other posts how to search and find these properties and hopefully you can enjoy being a guest at one or more of them.
Make sure to subscribe to Guru Deals and follow me on Facebook and Twitter for up-to-date information including exchange opportunities to these properties. If I see them available for exchanging, I will be sure to let me reader know about it.
As I have mentioned before, timeshares definitely have a bad reputation. This is the result of pushing sales practices, scams, hidden or non-explained fees and a general misunderstanding of the general complexities of timeshare ownership. However, with some practice, insight and knowledge, timeshare ownership is very good way to vacation at very nice resorts around the world. The key is to understand the intricacies of the programs, planning ahead and being flexible.
Timeshare ownership is definitely not for everyone but a large portion of the population would immensely benefit from owning a timeshare. I think the following non-exclusive list gives my personal opinion on who should own a timeshare: 1. Couples who enjoy traveling and make it a primary objective to take one or two week long vacations per years. 2. Families who travel at least once per year for a week and want or need to have extra space. 3. Couples and/or families who like to have the comforts of home on vacation and enjoy making meals while on vacation instead of eating out all the time. 4. Couples and/or families who travel extensively for multiple weeks per year and want to have full kitchens at their disposal. 5. Budget conscious travelers who enjoy luxury accommodations but don't necessarily want to pay hundreds of dollars per night for a hotel room. 6. Families with children who want space for children to sleep separate from the parents. 7. Families who travel with extended family members and want to avoid having to have multiple hotel rooms. 8. Couples and/or families who travel in and out of the United States by plane. These are some general parameters where I think timeshare ownership can make sense. Conversely, I think the following are general characteristics where timeshare ownership will not make sense and renting can be more advantageous. 1. Vacations are not done annually. 2. Vacations are usually done for long weekends or only for a few nights away from home. 3. Vacations are usually done within driving distance of your home. I came across an interesting article put out by the American Resort Development Association that put out an updated overview of the demographics of a timeshare owner. My initial thought of the demographics of timeshare ownership usually consisted of retirees in their golden years who had purchased a timeshare decades ago. However, it appears that the demographics have significantly changed from my initial perception. According to ARDA, the demographics of timeshare owners are as follows: New owners are nearly 10 years younger 39% are Gen Xers 30% are Millennials Median age is 39 42% are African American or Hispanic 72% are college graduates 23% also have graduate degrees And this new owner has plenty of disposable income: Median household income is $94,800 47% made just a single payment to cover their timeshare purchase 57% spent $10,000 or more on their timeshare They are savvy consumers: 75% had some form of interaction with a timeshare resort before purchasing 44% initially stayed at the resort where they bought as a guest of another owner 42% experienced timeshare vacations through renting first 35% attended multiple sales presentations before buying In my opinion, this information is fascinating as timeshare owners are not being duped into purchasing timeshares with the lure of reasonable priced vacations. Rather, they are wealthy, educated and savvy consumers. I personally fit right into the demographics above and think that they accurately portray may unofficial assessment of timeshare owners that we have met throughout our travels. Here is the great depictions of the new demographics of timeshare owners. I highly encourage you to subscribe and to follow me on facebook at The Timeshare Guru and follow me on Twitter @thetsguru for more information. |
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