The concept of timeshare was totally foreign to me when I bought it in 1996. I didn’t know anyone that owned one. No one told me to “look out” for those people peddling tours. We were visiting Hawaii on vacation (for the first time) and Marriott offered to fly us to Kauai for the day and buy us dinner if we took a tour of their resort on Kauai. “No problemo!” We had never been to the island of Kauai so we took them up on the offer.
We did the tour of the resort and were blown away. I hadn’t ever seen a place like that before. It was so gorgeous. The lobby, the palm trees, the pool, the beach…wow! So we bought it.
The next couple of years we returned to the Kauai Beach Club. It was just an awesome vacation for the family. The units are great and the service is the fantastic. The views of the mountains, beach, sunrise/set is just inspiring (it’s exactly the recharge you need from work). Since then, we have been back many times but one year we exchanged our unit for a new resort that was opening in Marbella, Spain; another year we exchanged for Orlando, FL; then Aruba; then Palm Desert. We have certainly had some great vacations and stayed at some really great places. We are very pleased. It’s allowed us some great memories and stories and we felt like we stayed in comfort each time.
The 3 things that I like about timeshare units vs. hotel rooms is:
- Having a kitchen in the unit is so convenient when you have a family. Having to eat out every meal on a vacation gets old and time consuming; it takes the joy out of it when you have to do it each meal. We like having snacks and fresh fruit too (if you are visiting an island, think of all that fresh fruit you can utilize). And the units come equipped with blenders so you can make fruit smoothies as well. And that goes for some great fresh margaritas on the balcony to enjoy the sunset (Those are the moments you relive in your mind when you’re back to work and sitting in your cubicle.)
- Condition of unit – the condition of the rooms and equipment is far better than a hotel room. The beds and couches are better. It’s more home-like. The bathroom is far more upscale than a hotel room. Sometimes you can get a Jacuzzi tub in the unit which is fun. Our unit has nice flat panel TVs with DVD player and also has a nice music system so you can crank some tunes as you prepare for the night out (that beats cranking the little clock radio that you get in hotel rooms to 10, right?).
- Lastly, I would have to say that size does matter. The units are much bigger which is important if you have 5 people in the family going on a vacation. A little extra space goes a long way. Our unit has a very unique feature called “lock-out”. There is a door that separates the 2 large rooms (think suite) essentially creating a 2 bedroom unit. This gives the kids a chance to maybe watch a movie at night and get some space from the parents. And it allows the parents a little space after a day at the amusement park. It also allows us to bring another couple on vacation and give them some space and privacy.
But I am not advocating that you buy a timeshare. There are challenges that owners face. Believe me, it’s not all “a box of chocolates”. There’s fees…and fine print…exchange companies…and more fees. I’ll be writing about the challenges in an upcoming blog. But I wanted to be honest about the upside first.
What are your thoughts on timeshare ownership? Has it been good to you?