The Cost of a Timeshare

One of the biggest things that sells people on timeshares is the alleged ‘savings’ they provide. Under the sales pitch an agent may say something along the lines of “you are getting deals not available to the public,” or “you will save so much money on yearly vacations.” They throw a bit of numbers at you and magically it ends up looking like a yearly savings. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Timeshares end up costing the owners 400%-1000% more money than just booking the hotel and resort online. Without hiding the ball, lets talk a bit about why that is and how the savings they allege in the salesroom are simply not real.

Talking Numbers

If you want to see if your timeshare is worth it there is a fairly easy way to calculate it that we will go through and you can do it for yourself.

• First: Look up the same hotel and week that you were allowed to stay at on google or use an open access site like Expedia.
• Second: Get the public price per night and add that up for the total amount of time you stayed there (6 nights is 1 week, because you do not stay the night of check out).
• Third: Add up your Mortgage payment (for your timeshare) + Interest + Maintenance Fees.
• Fourth: Divide that total by the amount of time you spent at your timeshare and you have your cost per night.
• Fifth: Compare those two costs by simply subtracting the public cost from your yearly cost.
• Sixth: Take your annual cost and divide it by the total for the week to the public to see how much more in terms of percentage (%) you are paying. Now you know what your timeshare is costing you.
• Example: It cost $150 a night to book online, it is a 6-night stay. Total cost online=$900. You pay $3000 in yearly fees (your total cost), you book a 6-night stay. It cost you $500 per night to stay at your timeshare as an owner. In this example you would be paying 333% more than the public for the same stay.

With booking restrictions (like an 11 month wait period) and non-availability, most people find that their annual timeshare contracts far exceed the cost of booking any room at that resort for the week they want. As high as ten times the online rate or a 1000% increase. You may be wondering why you would pay annual cost for a weeklong booking and that is a great question. It is also the exact question that the industry is hoping you do not figure out. The reason: most people are only getting 1 week out of their timeshare per year; however, they are paying for it throughout the entire year. The company wants to hide the ball because it may seem affordable to pay $250 per month for a timeshare, but that means you are paying $3000 plus maintenance fees for your weeklong stay in that year. Even a fantastic room at $400 a night is only $2400 for the week and you are paying $3000 and about a $1000 for fees: that is $4000 which (with extra fees like 250 for RCI) is almost double the public rate. Plus, there are still additional fees once you are there that are tacked onto your stay “room service” and these are typically charged to “owners”. It could be a lot worse, but you have the tools, you can do the math and see for yourself. The true cost is just an example of one of the deceptions timeshare owners face. If you want to learn more about how you may have been deceived visit our site and have a free consultation with a licensed attorney.