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What is Timeshare?Timeshare is a great way to secure a good, if not excellent, standard of annual holiday accommodation. The accommodation is usually referred to as a unit. Essentially, it is a right to use occupancy agreement between the purchaser and a Resort Developer, or a community of freehold owners. The purchaser buys the right to use a unit for a fixed period at a resort. The right to occupy can be for a fixed number of years, or indefinitely. Accommodation is usually available in units of one week for up to six people, but some resorts have units that can accommodate more or less.The timeshare unit is normally secured in Trust for owner's long-term security. Every year the owners of the timeshare unit pay a maintenance fee to a Management Company. This pays for upkeep of the resort on such things as entertainment, reception and cleaning staff, grounds, local rates and such like. A good management company will have significant representation from the owners. It will ensure that the resort is kept to top specifications, for the enjoyment of all visitors to the resort. Failure by the purchaser to keep up the maintenance payments can result in forfeiture of the right to use agreement. As an owner, you are not necessarily restricted to the same period of holiday year after year. Many resorts allow owners to internally exchange the time period they own with other owners who also wish to exchange. Perhaps the best thing about owning a timeshare unit is the ability to exchange the unit owned with other owners who own at thousands of resorts around the world, and they don't need to want the week and place that you have to swop. Swopping is accomplished through an exchange organisation. Exchange organisations claim fees from owners who belong to the exchange system, and from developers who wish their owners to be affliated to a particular exchange scheme. Exchange organisations have an interest in monitoring the standards of resorts, to ensure their exchangees are satisfied. In turn, this helps to keep overall standards at the resorts very high. Membership fees of the exchange organisations vary, and further administration fees are normally payable to effect the actual exchange. Your opinion of fairness in exchange pricing is likely to be influenced by your personal circumstances. Through the Internet, it is also possible to exchange with other owners to avoid the exchange organisations costs. Owners of RED time can exchange into RED time, WHITE (Mid Season) time or BLUE time (Low Season). Owners of WHITE time can exchange into WHITE or BLUE time. Owners of BLUE time can exchange into BLUE time. All can exchange into any other category when there is just a few weeks or days to go before the selected holiday week is due. It is therefore obviously better to own RED time. This gives you all year round opportunity of exchanging. However if deposit of units into the exchange schemes is delayed, the opportunity to get the resort you wish to exchange into, is greatly diminished. Costs to consider:
At first these items may seem costly. However, if the total cost is divided by the number of people who could be accommodated, time-sharing can be a great alternative to the package deal. It also has the added assurance that the standard of accommodation will be extremely high. Our travel help pages will help you to make your travel arrangements. If you prefer, the exchange organisations, or owner clubs can usually make all the travel arrangements for you, and at competitve prices. |