There are several options when it comes to using your time share or selling it. One option you have is exchanging your time share.

Exchanging Your Time Share

Your home resort is the destination you return to year after year. Some people prefer to vacation only in their home resort with no variation. But for many other people, time share is especially attractive because of the exchange factor: You have the chance to stay in a different place in the world every year. Time share exchange companies allow time share owners to trade their week with a time share week in a different location. Keep in mind that exchange companies prefer that trades are generally “like for like,” and rank high demand/low demand destinations with devices like color codes and industry ratings. It may be hard to trade your week in a low-demand resort during the low season for a high demand resort in high season, although it can happen — and it’s all a matter of personal preference and flexibility anyway.

Orlando, Florida, may be as high demand as a destination can be (and it doesn’t get any hotter), but that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to vacation there. Even though you may be purchasing your time share with the express purpose of trading or exchanging, the mantra in timeshare is this:

The power of your exchange is dependent solely on what you put into the system, not what you take out.

In other words, the power of your exchange is dependent on how desirable your time share week is to other traders. For more on exchanging and the two major exchange companies, Resort Condominiums International
(RCI) and Interval International.

Your Time Share Options

One big determination for potential timeshare buyers is making sure the time share unit is large enough to accommodate your needs — or, paradoxically, making sure you don’t buy more space than you actually plan to use. Timeshare units range from efficiencies or studios that sleep two people to houses with four or more bedrooms that can comfortably sleep 12 or more people. The resort directories for both II and RCI exchange companies differentiate between private sleeping capacity and total sleeping capacity.

Another feature about time share unit size is whether the unit can be split up. The common term for a time share unit that can be split into separate usages is a lockout or a lock-off unit. Lock-off units are units that can be split into two or more separate units or combined into one large unit. For example, a two-bedroom unit can be used for either one week every year in a two-bedroom unit or two weeks every year each in a one bedroom unit. Some units are actual physical lockouts. For example, a two-bedroom unit may consist of two separate one-bedrooms, connected by a door that can be locked out (hence the terms lock-off or lockout). Other units are one unit consisting of two bedrooms (and generally two baths) and one living/eating area. Those units may not be physical lock-offs, but the resort may still allow you to convert a two-bedroom into two separate one-bedroom units. Always ask whether you’ll need to pay a fee to split up your weeks, no matter what the physical unit looks like. Make sure to also ask whether a two-bedroom unit will split or convert into two full one-bedrooms. Often, resorts will allow a split, but what the owner ends up with is a one-bedroom one week and a studio the next, not two weeks of full one bedroom units.

Sample Costs of a Time Share

Most resorts offer time share purchases on an annual or biannual (every other year) basis. Some resorts even offer triannual ownership. In most cases, the cost of a three-bedroom time share will be lower than the cost of buying three separate one-bedroom time share units, and the cost per week will be even lower if you have full lockout capabilities. For example, John and Sally vacation three weeks each year by themselves. If they purchase three separate one-bedroom time share units, their expenses might look like this:

• Time share #1: $9,000 + Annual maintenance and taxes ($350).
  
  
• Time share #2: $9,000 + Annual maintenance and taxes ($350)
  
  
• Time share #3: $9,000 + Annual maintenance and taxes ($350).

Effective cost per week: $9,350.

But if John and Sally purchase one three-bedroom time share unit with full lockout capability (meaning it could be used for three separate one bedroom stays each year), their expenses might look like this:

• Time share #1 $20,000 + Annual Maintenance and Taxes ($700).

Effective cost per week: $6,900.

Never buy more than you think you’re going to use, unless money is of no concern to you. The best value is often a three-bedroom lockout annual that can be used for three weeks each in a one-bedroom condo. But if you aren’t going to need three weeks a year, don’t buy it even if you are going to be using it only for a short while before you resell it.

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