Marriott Vacation Club - Palm Desert
 

Just heard the pitch at the new Shadow Ridge Vacation Club under contruction in Ranch Mirage (Palm Springs).
For 20K (Plus $600 maint or after everything about $850 a year), I get a two bedroom for one week or a one bedroom for two weeks or I can agree not to use and get 110,000 points.
(or can trade through II).
Here their "nudge" to get me to buy now, since the property will not be finished until late 2001, if I pay this years maint they will give my 110,000 points plus a 7 day select marriott and a 3 day select marriot certificate. So if I don't use next year (since I now have 10 nights) I will end next year with the equivalent of 370,000 points plus a two weeks in palm springs (or trade).
Seems to me at worse I am buying Marriott miles 17 points = $1.
I would like to hear reasons not to do it.

You may be spending too much time with the micro confusion "they" like to "sell" with.

Sounds like the apartment will be selling for $1,000,000 plus maint. (assuming 2 weeks not sold each unit). If that is not 10 times the value...

Timeshare can routinely be purchase for 5-25% of the original price after a year or two into the project. Resales are highly illiquid and can cost commissions of up to 50% on the lower value mentioned above.

Be also aware that trades often can cost $50-125 each (do not know the Marriott charge). Note that seasons are very impactive on costs and trade availability.

I have read on this board of one person who is happy with their timeshare and know several people with horror stories. You figure....then run!

RTHB, I started a thread on Marriott time share the last week of Dec. The good members of this board provided me with all sorts of thoughtful and useful info. You will be amazed at the helpfulness of the answers I received. You might want to do a search and read that thread.

RANLES is right in that many time shares are only worth a fraction in resale. The research I did supported this.

I came to my senses and decided not to purchase the new time share in Park City. It may have made sense for others to purchase but didn't for my situation. Hope this helps.

I guess what I'm seeing here is $20,000 plus for around 370,000 points.

$20,000 @ 13 points for Plat = 260,000 points. Good deal there.

BUT, most of us get our hotel dollars reimbursed, either by our company, or by our clients in the billing rate.

So, 260K points for free, versus 370K points which you pay for, every nickel, does not sound like a good deal to me.

Of course, if you pay for this number of stays out of your own, after-tax dollars anyway, it ain't too bad.

We own two Marriott time shares, one in Kauai bought in 1997 and one in Williamsburg bought in 1994. We have been pleased so far. We have traded several times for Hilton Head in summer months. We have also traded for points and taken a week's vacation in San Francisco, London and Kauai. This year we traded our Kauai for Marriott Aruba time share and while we had to wait 6 months for the trade to come through we finally got it. We have never not gotten the trade we wanted. I do think that the fees Marriott charges to trade your week for points are highway robbery (currently $104.00. Can't talk about resale since haven't tried it. I know Marriott charges a 25% commission if you resell thru them. You can also sell outside of Marriott but then your purchaser cannot exchange for points. For more info you may want to try www.timesharingtoday.com. Click on Message Boards on the left of the home page and then click on Marriott.

Hello Kathy P,

Thanks for the info. on Marriott timeshares.

Do you have a more current web address than "Timesharing today.com", when I tried the link it did not connect.

Thanks,

Va.SquireFlyer

I love Marriot properties, especially the one in Palm Desert, but I wouldn't spend that kind of money. There is a great resale market, and I have bought a very cheap 5 star resort which can be exchanged, and I have used it to exchange into Desert Springs several times. If you want to get into timesharing - which can be a very cheap way to travel if you buy right, do it cheaply at first. Then if you find a place you want to return to year after year, and want the guarantee of that place year after year, you might decide it is worth spending 20 times what you have to spend to own a timeshare.

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DtG

timsharingtoday.com should work. (All one word - no space).

To Va Squire Flyer,
Try www.timesharing-today.com. I have it bookmarked and my site comes up as one word without the dash between timesharing and today but when I searched on Yahoo under timesharing today the site came up with the dash so who knows. Try again.

I would say that the best site out there is the Timeshare Users Group--www.tug2.net. It's loaded with faq's on buying and selling, trading and exchanging, bulletin boards, and resort reviews from timeshare owners.