Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Timesharing, But Were Afraid to Attend a Sales Presentation to Ask

Part 4: Confessions of an Ex-Timeshare Salesperson

Timesharing involves both hard and soft factors. While Lesson Three showed you how to evaluate the hard factors of unit type, resort location and amenities/activities, Lesson Four makes you an expert in how to look at the soft factors that determine your membership’s timeshare usage.

While many of you are familiar with the seasonal factor, there are two other considerations that can dramatically affect the cost of your timeshare purchase. Let’s start with those.

Annual or Biennial Membership
While most salespeople giving a timeshare presentation won’t even mention this option, it is a factor than can basically cut the cost of your timeshare in half. And it’s called the biennial membership, which means your membership entitles you to use the resort every other year, as opposed to an annual membership that gives you access to the resort every year.

Biennial membership gives either even-year ownership (timeshare use is allowed during years ending in an even number) or odd-year ownership (years ending in an odd number).

Timeshare IQ: What’s your preference, annual or biennial?

Fixed or Floating Week
While the membership factor gives you two choices, annual or biennial, the weekly factor gives you 52 choices! But first, you need to decide if you want a floating week or a fixed week. What’s this all about?

A fixed week gives you the right to occupy a unit at your resort during a specific numbered week (1 to 52) each year. A floating week gives you the right to occupy a unit at your resort anytime during the whole year or within a specific season.

With a fixed week, planning vacations is easy because your week is the same each year. A disadvantage of a fixed week is its inflexibility with regards to vacationing at your home resort. However, please note that space banking your week gives you the opportunity to choose a different week number at the exchange resort. Also, fixed weeks are easier to deposit with RCI or II than floating weeks, as covered below.

Floating weeks offer you greater flexibility to vacation at different times every year. One disadvantage of floating weeks, though, can be finding availability at the resort. As floating weeks are reserved on a space-available basis, owners need to make reservations as far ahead as the resort allows. Another disadvantage is that in order to space bank a floating week, owners must first call their resort and turn it into a specific week before depositing. This second step creates a bit more hassle than with fixed weeks.

The bottom line? Fixed weeks are ideal for owners who have a pre-determined vacation schedule, as with families who need to abide by their children’s school schedules. Floating weeks are a good choice for people who have more flexibility with their vacation plans. A best case scenario in terms of usage and space banking, however, is a fixed use option during a popular week at a highly rated resort in a desirable location.

Timeshare IQ: What’s your preference, fixed or floating?

All About Season
Just as with many hotels, the cost of a timeshare week at a resort fluctuates with the season. The more popular the season, the higher the cost. A high demand week at one resort (the second week in January at Vail, for example) can be a low demand week at another resort (the same week in Atlantic City). Some destination resorts, such as those in Las Vegas or Hawaii may be in high demand year-round.

Season is an important consideration when purchasing a timeshare in regards to your own personal schedule and to your trading power. The higher the season owned, the more trading power you will enjoy when space banking a week with either RCI or II.

RCI and II use color-coded designations in their exchange catalogs to indicate High-, Mid-, and Low-Season. While RCI and II both use Red to indicate High-Season weeks, RCI uses White for Mid-Season weeks (II uses Yellow), and Blue for Low-Season weeks (II used Green for Low-Season).

Timeshare IQ: What time of year you will want to use your timeshare (winter/spring/summer/fall)?

Next week, in Part Five, you’ll learn the five factors that determine a timeshare’s trading power to give you premium exchange opportunities worldwide.

–Gillian Armstrong

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