Obligatory; in b4 leather corner sofa, barratt home, rented BMW, live laugh love sign etc. As no doubt timeshares have typically been associated with "Deano" type for a few decades now.
Context:
Anyway I went down a YouTube rabbit hole yesterday and watched a thing about "Goldfinger" or John Palmer a wealthy British criminal who helped fence some of the gold from the famous Brink's-Mat robbery, he later ended up setting up a massive timeshare operation in the Canary islands that was running into the 00s. (This guy ended up with a super yacht, a Learjet, a couple of helicopters, supercars etc.. and then was eventually shot dead in his garden when it became apparent he was about to become an informant to reduce a likely lengthy Spanish prison sentence.) This was quite interesting as I remember seeing this scam in person on some of the first lads holidays I went on to the Canary Isles - it was kind of the notorious thing you'd get warned about, tales about unsuspecting tourists being taken up to a resort in the mountains and being left there if they didn't buy one. Sales presentations with cheap bubbly, high-pressure pitches from staff and "gifts" of fake Rolexes etc.. when deals were closed.
Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look online at some timeshares, in particular, I figured perhaps there are a few timeshare re-sales that offer a bit of value and it looks quite interesting. the idea of a timeshare in itself isn't inherently a scam but it's the industry itself that has been vulnerable to scammers, in part because of scumbags like John Palmer. For example, I found one resort where there were a few weeks up for sale for between £2000 - £3000 (studio vs 1 bedroom) with just under a decade left on the "lease"(?) and as it was also a hotel I checked how much it would cost to just book the equivalent room - it was more like £1500 or £2000 for a single week. So the timeshare seems like it could be pretty good value - for say a maintenance fee of £400 or so you'd save thousands over the course of just under a decade vs booking as a hotel room.
Obviously, there is a bit of a catch there - that's all assuming you wanted to go back to that same exact hotel, for the same week, every year for the next 8 years... you'd be paying just under 6k or so vs 12k+ (or more with inflation as you're only exposed to inflation with the maintenance fee)... and that's obviously a big catch/assumption as unless you're perhaps some retired boomer who really, really likes that one hotel/locaiton then that could get a bit boring and isn't flexible...
... but there is an exchange scene where you can swap your week for others around the world and if you're otherwise able to save £6k+ vs the equivalent holiday over say 8 years then it seems that even with some additional fees to swap the timeshare for a week at another location there's still scope for it to offer some value? But that's where there is some uncertainty as that part isn't so transparent... thus the reason for me posting the thread.
I'd be interested to hear from current timeshare owners re: both general things re: if you're happy with your timeshare (did you buy it new or buy a re-sale) and the subject of swapping them - what are the fees like there and did you typically have a good alternate property when you swapped?
(I did once go on holiday with a friend whose parents had a timeshare and it was a pretty nice resort but am not in contact much anymore + no idea what they had to pay for it in order to ascertain whether it was good value.. for us it was a nice cheap holiday as we just paid for the flights + contribution to the cleaning/service fee. (I guess that's the other nice thing, you can just gift the week to friends & family if not using or swapping it one year).)
Context:
Anyway I went down a YouTube rabbit hole yesterday and watched a thing about "Goldfinger" or John Palmer a wealthy British criminal who helped fence some of the gold from the famous Brink's-Mat robbery, he later ended up setting up a massive timeshare operation in the Canary islands that was running into the 00s. (This guy ended up with a super yacht, a Learjet, a couple of helicopters, supercars etc.. and then was eventually shot dead in his garden when it became apparent he was about to become an informant to reduce a likely lengthy Spanish prison sentence.) This was quite interesting as I remember seeing this scam in person on some of the first lads holidays I went on to the Canary Isles - it was kind of the notorious thing you'd get warned about, tales about unsuspecting tourists being taken up to a resort in the mountains and being left there if they didn't buy one. Sales presentations with cheap bubbly, high-pressure pitches from staff and "gifts" of fake Rolexes etc.. when deals were closed.
Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look online at some timeshares, in particular, I figured perhaps there are a few timeshare re-sales that offer a bit of value and it looks quite interesting. the idea of a timeshare in itself isn't inherently a scam but it's the industry itself that has been vulnerable to scammers, in part because of scumbags like John Palmer. For example, I found one resort where there were a few weeks up for sale for between £2000 - £3000 (studio vs 1 bedroom) with just under a decade left on the "lease"(?) and as it was also a hotel I checked how much it would cost to just book the equivalent room - it was more like £1500 or £2000 for a single week. So the timeshare seems like it could be pretty good value - for say a maintenance fee of £400 or so you'd save thousands over the course of just under a decade vs booking as a hotel room.
Obviously, there is a bit of a catch there - that's all assuming you wanted to go back to that same exact hotel, for the same week, every year for the next 8 years... you'd be paying just under 6k or so vs 12k+ (or more with inflation as you're only exposed to inflation with the maintenance fee)... and that's obviously a big catch/assumption as unless you're perhaps some retired boomer who really, really likes that one hotel/locaiton then that could get a bit boring and isn't flexible...
... but there is an exchange scene where you can swap your week for others around the world and if you're otherwise able to save £6k+ vs the equivalent holiday over say 8 years then it seems that even with some additional fees to swap the timeshare for a week at another location there's still scope for it to offer some value? But that's where there is some uncertainty as that part isn't so transparent... thus the reason for me posting the thread.
I'd be interested to hear from current timeshare owners re: both general things re: if you're happy with your timeshare (did you buy it new or buy a re-sale) and the subject of swapping them - what are the fees like there and did you typically have a good alternate property when you swapped?
(I did once go on holiday with a friend whose parents had a timeshare and it was a pretty nice resort but am not in contact much anymore + no idea what they had to pay for it in order to ascertain whether it was good value.. for us it was a nice cheap holiday as we just paid for the flights + contribution to the cleaning/service fee. (I guess that's the other nice thing, you can just gift the week to friends & family if not using or swapping it one year).)
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