Appreciating Timeshare Ownership for What It Is Intended To Be

Don’t criticize timeshares because they are not something they were never intended to be.

Last week, the blogsite http://www.channel4.com/, an independent news agency based in Belfast, Ireland, published a post titled, “Timeshare Properties ‘Worthless’“. Channel 4’s blog posting was based on a PA News release that came on the eve of the European Commission issuing proposals to tighten legal protections for consumers who buy or resell timeshare vacation properties.

But the loud banging noise you hear as you read this, is the sound of me, jumping up and down on my soapbox.

The Channel 4 blog posting frustrates me because it depicts the timeshare resales industry as a floundering failure. The blog describes a situation that has come about, in their words, because of the, “apparent market slump in timeshare second-hand prices…now so poor that ‘existing timeshare owners are having very great difficulty getting rid of their ownership.'” The post goes on to say, “Far from keeping pace with house price inflations, the value of a partial stake in a holiday home has slumped in parts of Europe.” Channel 4 also quotes Sandy Grey, of the Timeshare Consumers Association, who says, “…timeshare owners who thought they were making an investment are now finding there is no residual value in something they may have spent £10,000 on.”

My frustrated response to this is: wrong, wrong, wrong! The timeshare resales industry is far from floundering. In 2006, timeshare owners who advertised their timeshares units or timeshare intervals for sale or rent with Sell My Timeshare NOW received $229,962,492 in offers to buy or rent their resale timeshares. And while Sell My Timeshare NOW is the best timeshare resales and timeshare rental advertising company in the business, we are certainly not the only company. Think about it—that’s a quarter billion dollars in offers generated by one timeshare resales company alone. You just can’t put timeshare resellers on a list of failed or failing industries.

Now let’s look at the second part of this misunderstanding. Timeshares have never been intended to be an investment for financial return. No one should buy a timeshare with the idea that it will appreciate in the same way a residential or commercial property may appreciate. As I have often said, even implying that a timeshare is an investment vehicle, is a breach of Security and Exchange Commission law.

Timeshares are an investment in quality vacations, an investment in a lifestyle. Timeshares greatly encourage holiday time enjoyed with your family and friends or as a much-needed quiet getaway. Because timeshares afford you the opportunity to lock-in the price of vacation accommodations, they may even net you a savings on the cost of vacationing over your years of timeshare ownership. And timeshare vacation ownership is one of the easiest ways for busy people to plan and book vacation accommodations. But the fact that something does not appreciate doesn’t, and shouldn’t, stop you from enjoying ownership of it. If that were the case, who would ever purchase an automobile? Criticizing timeshare ownership or lambasting the timeshare resales industry because timeshares do not typically increase in value is pretty much like saying a thoroughbred horse is a worthless animal because it doesn’t have wings and fly around the stable.

Understand and enjoy timeshares for what they are. And to help keep timeshare depreciation to a minimum, don’t pay the developer’s price for new timeshare. Buy resale timeshares that accurately reflect the market value of the property.