Who Really Pays the Price When Timeshare Companies Step Up Big?

Buying new timeshare at the developer’s price is not always a day at the beach…

Singer Island, just north of Palm Beach, Florida, is home to the community of Riviera Beach. Marriott Vacation Club International has a splendid timeshare resort on the south shore of the island at Ocean Point Reef, but in recent months has been in negotiations with the city council of Riviera Beach to build a timeshare resort on the northern end of the island.

Marriott timeshare’s plan was to raze a beachside Crowne Plaza Hotel and replace it with two, 19-story timeshare towers. Because some area residents were opposed to the action, and several council members likewise had objections, a series of negotiations began. The result was council approval in a 3-2 vote for the construction of the Marriott timeshare towers, with certain “community benefits” to be thrown in as part of the deal.

The required community benefits call for Marriott timeshare to give the city of Rivera Beach $1.4 million in cash contributions, of which $1.2 million will go to the city’s minority housing trust fund, with $100 thousand going to the beautification of highway A1A, and another $100 thousand going to the Riviera Beach job-training fund. Marriott timeshares also agreed to give 25 percent of the hotel’s supply orders to minority or women-owned businesses and to hire 60 percent of its operational staff from minority groups.

Ocean Point Reef is a magnificent Marriott timeshare and I feel certain that the new Marriott Singer Island timeshare resort will be just as luxurious, with similar breathtaking ocean views. But when $1.4 million gets tacked on to a project, before the first shovel of dirt (or in this case, sugary-white sand) gets turned, who do you think absorbs this cost?

Timeshare resorts are expensive to build. But basic mathematics tells us that the number of units in a timeshare resort multiplied by the developer’s selling price per unit, and then multiplied by the fact that each timeshare unit is sold at that price, to 51 separate owners, yields a tidy sum of money, any way you figure it.

Buying timeshare from the developer often results in a net savings to the timeshare owner on the cost of vacation accommodations, over multiple years of usage. However, the timeshare resale market probably reflects the true market value of timeshare units or intervals more accurately than the prices developers charge for new timeshare. Yet, as long as people are willing to pay the prices developers charge, the mark-up on timeshares is not likely to go down.

If you are considering buying timeshare, I seriously recommend you shop the inventory of timeshare resales that are available to purchase directly from the person who actually owns the timeshare unit. The website for Sell My Timeshare NOW offers a great place to start your search.