Some Students Are Planning to Holiday in Timeshares

Check with your resort before your college student heads for spring break at your timeshare.

If you own or have exchanged your timeshare week for one during the March to early May vacation season, you may be thinking of letting your college student put your timeshare to use during the Spring Break holidays. Before your son or daughter loads the car with luggage and friends and heads south, you should first contact your resort. Most timeshares do not permit underage youths to occupy a timeshare unit without an adult chaperone. And underage sometimes means 25, not 21, however in some places (Nassau in the Bahamas, for example) it can mean 18.

Another problem you may face is that college spring breakers are notorious for loading hotel rooms with as many bodies as can fit on the beds, couches, or floor to sleep. Your timeshare will not permit you to house more guests than the maximum number for which the unit is rated. In other words, if your timeshare sleeps six to eight people, then eight is the total number of guests who can stay overnight.

You should also consider your liability should your college student or his guests cause damage to property during their vacation days and nights. Even the most responsible young adult cannot control the actions of others during the high-energy, high-alcohol consumption activities that are typically associated with spring break holidays.

Cities including Ft. Lauderdale and Daytona Beach, along with many others, have tried to change their image as a spring break destination for college students. They have a justifiable reason for seeking to shed the reputation and lose this segment of business. Hoteliers have learned the hard way that the revenue associated with “breakers” just doesn’t justify the clean-up and repairs that follow.