Buying a Timeshare vs. Timeshare Rental

Often, readers ask, “Is buying a timeshare better than timeshare rental? Isn’t it silly to have to pay maintenance fees every year when we could use that same money to rent in different places”?

The answer to those questions, to some extent, lies in your individual needs and wants.

For us, the answer has been “yes,” buying a timeshare is better than renting. Let’s look at the advantages of both options.

Advantages to Renting a Timeshare

• In most cases, you don’t have to plan ahead as far as you might when reserving a timeshare.
• Length of stay and unit size may be more flexible. For example, if you want to stay only 3 nights, you’re not paying the maintenance fees for a full week.
• Cancellation policies are usually more flexible.
• Managing timeshare fees and bookings requires some time commitment. Timeshare rental is quick and dirty.
• There is no initial purchase cost.
• If you like to do holiday travel sometimes, it can be more flexible to rent instead, because some years you might not want to travel.
• If you no longer wish to vacation, for whatever reason (health, inconvenience, etc.), you don’t need to dispose of a timeshare.

Advantages to Buying a Timeshare

• In most cases, property is deeded and can be passed down to children or friends.
• Your timeshare can be re-sold, if desired. If you purchased it resale, you can possibly break even or make a profit.
• Owning a timeshare forces you to take a vacation yearly or frequently.
• You can study and learn your timeshare system. This will allow you to manipulate points so that you can achieve even more vacation weeks with your purchase. (There will be a forthcoming post discussing this.)
• Being an owner, you have a say in the decisions made by the resort whether through a board of directors or a direct vote.
• You can join RCI, II, or another exchange company and trade into thousands of other resorts for various size units and time of the year.
• If you enjoy an area, by buying there you can lock in a vacation for your  unit and time of the year. For example, if you love Hawaii at Christmas and have been spending tons of money to rent every other year, you may consider buying a week at a resort in Hawaii.
• Maintenance fees may increase slightly each year (as do rental costs) but are a known cost and almost always cheaper than renting a hotel or timeshare. To illustrate, we pay $411 per year for maintenance fees for our one-bedroom condo in Traverse City, MI.   This is for one week.  If I rent that same unit, I would have to pay anywhere from $573-$1643 for a week’s stay at that resort , depending on the season.  And I would  have to pay taxes on top of it!
• Initial purchase cost of timeshare can be almost negligible if purchased resale, especially in the current economic climate.
• Part of your maintenance fees are real estate taxes and can possibly be used for deductions at tax time.
• Some resorts have a system in place to rent your week if you can’t use it, giving you a percentage of the rental fee.
• You can also rent the unit yourself, or allow family or friends to use it.

We own 13 weeks of timeshare, so obviously we believe in buying rather than renting. Does that mean we would never consider a timeshare rental? Of course we would, and we have. But not often, because we really believe that timesharing is best!

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Tagged as: Buying timeshares, purchasing timeshares, Renting Timeshares, Timeshare Rentals