timeshare blog

You’d think we would all just recognize that a we need to take time off, to plan a family vacation and reconnect. But the truth is, our daily demands blur our vision and cloud our decision making when it comes to finding the work-life balance we all crave.

First, let’s start with the fact that the “balance” everyone talks about doesn’t really exist. You will never have your personal life and your work life in a state of equilibrium. And trying to do so adds one more source of pressure to your life.

Your work life and your personal life are too multi-faceted and often even interwoven making the idea of segmenting them and then balancing them as challenging as that guy who spins plates around on long poles at the amusement park. You know him, he frantically runs from pole to pole to pole trying to ensure that each plate is spinning at the optimum rate and fully balanced. He hopes and prays his act ends before the plates, which slow and wobble, tumble to the pavement.

Forget balance. Look for a satisfying ebb and flow. Work hard today. Play hard tomorrow. Relax well the next day. Do whatever rhythm works in your life that doesn’t turn into a balancing act.

Nevertheless, even when you are living in the flow, you can get so distracted that you miss the warning signs of family vacation deprivation  Here are 5 ways to know that at your house, a family vacation is overdue:

1. You can’t remember the last time you took one. This warning sign is obvious. If you ask your children (or your spouse) about your last family vacation and no one remembers when or if you took one, then you are clearly in the red zone for needing another one.
2. Your back hurts. Okay, it may not be your back, perhaps it is your neck, your head, or even your left knee. Your spouse has similar complaints and the kids are drippy with yet another cold or holding their stomachs with a mystery tummy ache. You and your family aren’t sick. Your bodies are just flashing warning signs that they are in need of some down time.
3. You, or any other member of your family, struggle to fall asleep. Perhaps you put the kids to bed, over and over and over again at night. Or you go to bed, only to find yourself awake with your mind still buzzing. This is not “flow.”
4. The things that used to be fun, aren’t so much anymore. Your children now bicker when doing things they once looked forward to, whether its activities, sports, or family routines.
5. You realize that other people’s vacations annoy you. This not only applies to all your friends and relatives who are sharing details about their great family vacation, but to strangers. The Travel Channel starts to irritate you; Jimmy Buffet songs make you grouchy; or simply walking past the luggage store at the mall makes you cranky and resentful.

Do not wait until you show all five signs—you’ll be in the danger zone of vacation deprivation by then. Instead, find a way, to ensure that a fun, relaxing, and restorative family vacation becomes part of the natural flow in your life.

You know the position we typically take here at The Timeshare Authority; we are always the first to say that many of the critics and financial experts who lambast timeshares do so because of a lack of true understanding of the timeshare product, its purpose, and its real benefits. But www.ctwatchdog.com blogger, George Gombossy wrote an interesting article a few weeks back titled, “Manhattan Club Timeshare: Nice Place, If You Can Use it.”

In the article, Gombossy raised some very viable questions. He looks at the situation of a couple who purchase a Manhattan Club timeshare some 15 years ago. Their timeshare ownership was a little less common than the one-week annual usage, we all associate with timeshares or even the every-other-year biennial ownership. For their purchase price of $12,500, the couple received 7 nights of usage every third year.

In their, so far, 15 years of ownership, the couple has only been eligible to use their timeshare for 35 nights, that’s 7 nights per usage year x 5 years. This actually averages to just under $360 per night—a price that is practically a steal on luxury accommodations in Manhattan. And of course their ownership does not cap at 15 years. They still have a lifetime to use and enjoy New York nights at the Manhattan Club, with each time lowering the overall cost of their ownership.

So where’s the problem?

First, the dollars and cents are not quite this clear cut. The couple pays around $700 per year in annual maintenance fees and they did not purchase their timeshare ownership in cash, which means that they have paid interest on it over the years. This interest has added up to, thus far, $11,250 dollars. These additional costs bring their timeshare ownership to an average per night cost of almost $980. But remember, once the timeshare is paid for, the only on-going cost is maintenance, meaning that the per night cost average goes down, year by year. And have you priced luxury Manhattan hotel rooms lately?

Here’s the real rub.

Availability.

This couple, and according to the article, “hundreds of other timeshare owners,” find that the number of units available to them is few. In order to book nights, owners have to book a year in advance. Unless, an owner only owns every usage third year, and then their terms of ownership do not permit them to book more than six months in advance.

The couple, who also owns a Stowe, Vermont timeshare and a Maui timeshare, says they have never had this problem at other properties.

The owners explain, “When checking the website www.booking.com/hotel/us/the-manhattan-club, units identical to ours are being offered to the nonmember general public on many dates, including the one(s) we had requested. This is inexcusable since dues-paying members should have first choice of units and dates.”

The Other Side of the Story: from the Manhattan Club

In comments made to the Better Business Bureau, Louise Church, director of inventory management at the Manhattan Club, has written to the BBB. Church states that the pool of available timeshare units for Manhattan Club owners is not the same pool of units made available to the public and that rental to the public is used as a way to keep the maintenance fees of the owners lower.

She also adds that the couple in question is seeking reservations at the highest demand season of the year and that the couple has been placed on a waiting list. Which Church adds is a process that works.

Sadly….

The blogger wraps up his post by drawing the conclusion that you can’t even give away timeshare for a $1.

Every time I hear this I wonder how, if this were accurate, any individual or company makes money as timeshare brokers of resales? … If you can’t resell, then why do people choose real estate brokerage of timeshares as a profession and more importantly, why do they stay in it? If the myth of the $1 timeshare were true, how have successful timeshare brokerages like ours stayed in business all these years?

In the end, the truest principle of business is that the customer is always right. Even if the customer isn’t. While you can’t please all of the people, all of the time, timeshare has to find a way to be even more flexible and accommodating. This is the only way to diffuse its critics once and for all.

Important Footnote: The Manhattan Club consistently remains one of the most in-demand timeshare resales and rentals on our Timeshare Demand Index. 

We’re sorry! In recent weeks some changes at The Timeshare Authority blog wrecked havoc with our subscribers list. If you WERE subscribing to receive The Timeshare Authority blog updates directly into your e-mail, you may no longer be receiving them. 

The updates made here on the blog were all beneficial, and will help make our blog better, more functional for us and for you, and were a great plan… except for that little detail about our subscribers list no longer working properly for all subscribers.

If you were previously subscribing to and receiving daily updates of  The Timeshare Authority blog in your email, we ask you to please, take a moment and sign up again. It really does just take a moment. Go to the right-hand side of the blog’s homepage and look for the “Subscribe to Blog via Email” box just like you see circled in red in the picture below.  You’ll get an email immediately to confirm your subscription (we don’t do this to nag, it is best practices for email delivery). Reply to the email by clicking on the box to confirm and you are DONE! The Timeshare Authority blog will begin showing up in your email daily.

Now what about everyone who wasn’t already a subscriber?  Please consider this your invitation to become a blog subscriber. We’d love to have you join our subscribers list… which by the way, we share with NO ONE.

So, please allow us to apologize one more time that our list broke (yes, that’s what happened) and to encourage and welcome all new subscribers and renewing subscribers to email delivery.

The upscale condo-hotel, Residence Waterfront, located in Alagoas, Brazil, has now become another vacation exchange option for members of Interval International. A very special property from its inception, Residence Waterfront is situated overlooking the ocean near Maceió.

To make the vacation experience even more amazing is the fact that this purpose-built property includes a white sand, private beach for guests. Phase I on Residence waterfront offers 20 one- or two-bedroom units and six penthouse units, that feature covered roof terraces and dramatic views of Ipioca Beach.

“Maceió is such a sweet spot on the coast of Brazil that we have already begun expanding Residence Waterfront. The 20 one-bedroom apartments in the second phase will sit just behind the current building, still only 65 feet (20 meters) from the white sand,” said Gian Piero Berneri, managing director of Havengrid do Brasil Ltda., developers of the resort. “Our partnership with Interval International is an important aspect of our vision for Waterfront and we look forward to welcoming its members who visit on exchanges.”

Marcos Agostini, the Interval International senior vice president of resort sales and business development for Latin America, adds,“Waterfront is the brainchild of several Italian real estate and tourism professionals, who are extending their successful operations into shared ownership. We are delighted to add this impressive resort to our worldwide network.”

… No doubt Interval International timeshare exchange members are delighted the beautiful beachfront property is part of the Interval network of vacation exchange, too.