Can someone explain the weeks for me?

Hi everyone, I have been thinking for sometime to buy a time share in Florida and would rather buy from an owner then to go through a timeshare sales pitch. But the weeks are confusing me. The week I always travel south is the 3rd week in January. Would this be week 3 then? It doesn't seem like it works quite that way. Can someone clarify for me? Thanks Sharon

Sharon has stated / asked, quoted in pertinent part:

>>.... the weeks are confusing me. The week I always travel south is the 3rd week in January. Would this be week 3 then? It doesn't seem like it works quite that way. Can someone clarify for me? << =======================================

"Weeks" in the timeshare world are a bit different from weeks as we know them just by the calendar alone.

"Week 1" in the timeshare world is the first "whole" Saturday to Saturday week (some, fewer, resorts use Friday to Friday) occuring in any given calendar year.

In 2007, for example, timeshare week 1 began on Saturday, January 6. In 2008, timeshare week 1 will begin on Saturday, January 5. In 2009, timeshare week 1 will begin on Saturday, January 3. So, you see that timeshare weeks do not exactly or directly parallel weeks on the actual calendar of any given year. "Timeshare week 1" always begins, in ANY year, on the first Saturday (or Friday, for some resorts) in that particular calendar year.

I hope this adequately explains "timeshare week numbers" for you, to compare and contrast with the "calendar weeks" for any given year.

One way to see what week "number" best mirrors your annual travel for any given calendar year is to print out a multi year "timeshare calendar" from any one of the many timeshare related sites on the Internet which have such calendars incorporated right into their site. However, just remembering the "first whole week beginning on Saturday (or Friday)" explanation above for identifying "timeshare week 1" will allow you to easily figure out your January travel week for any given year with just a regular calendar, even without a printout of a "timeshare calendar". Good luck, regards.

Week 3 timeshare starting dates:

2008 - January 19

2009 - January 17

2010 - January 16

2011 - January 15

2012 - January 21

2013 - January 19

2014 - January 18

2015 - January 17

The above dates for week 3 were for Sat-Sat check-in.

To get a complete timeshare calendar (also with Fri-Fri and Sun-Sun check-in) you can access Dick Conklin's timeshare calendar at:

http://www.alltimeshare.com/calendar16year.html

Thank you to Ken1193 and JayJay for explaining this. Week 3 would be the week I am looking for. Thanks Sharon

sharonm241 wrote:

Hi everyone, I have been thinking for sometime to buy a time share in Florida and would rather buy from an owner then to go through a timeshare sales pitch. But the weeks are confusing me. The week I always travel south is the 3rd week in January. Would this be week 3 then? It doesn't seem like it works quite that way. Can someone clarify for me? Thanks Sharon

If she wants a specific week, it might be better to buy at a fixed week resort.

Sometimes, it might be impossible to get the desired week in a float period. (Ask a Marriott Owner).

Also, Sharon....where is this week? Some locations might have a slightly different week numbering system. ( Some on HHI)

Rob 81 states:

>>Just my suggestion. buy a week you can use all year round <<. ======================================

Easier said than done. This would mean purchasing a "float" week and Sharon very clearly indicated a desire to go "south" in January --- exactly when it's very difficult indeed to find and/or reserve a "float" week at many Florida resorts. In fact, numerous coastal Florida resorts actually PROHIBIT a "float" week owner from reserving their annual week during certain time periods (typically weeks 5-15, which is most of the winter). For what Sharon has specified, a fixed week 3 is likely her best bet, by far --- but that's of course her decision.

Could someone please explain to me the difference between floating weeks and a fixed week. I'm looking to purchase a Marriott resale timeshare in Florida for my first purchase. My holiday weeks leave moves every year, so i don't have a fixed date when i'm always off, therefore would the floating week option be better? Marriott tried to sell me the Grande Vista & the Horizons resorts, both double the price of resale. What would your advice be to a first timer looking to purchase, ideally I would need a lock off villa aswell.

Thanks for any replies

andrewg61 wrote:

Could someone please explain to me the difference between floating weeks and a fixed week. I'm looking to purchase a Marriott resale timeshare in Florida for my first purchase. My holiday weeks leave moves every year, so i don't have a fixed date when i'm always off, therefore would the floating week option be better? Marriott tried to sell me the Grande Vista & the Horizons resorts, both double the price of resale. What would your advice be to a first timer looking to purchase, ideally I would need a lock off villa aswell.

Thanks for any replies

Andrew: A "fixed" week is the same week number each and every calendar year (although the actual dates will vary by a few days from one year to the next -- see example in a preceding post by jayjay).

A "floating" week (sometimes called a "flex" week) is variable from year to year. You make a reservation based upon your chosen week for any given year. HOWEVER ---- one VERY IMPORTANT thing to watch out for in the fine print is that some resorts "black out" (restrict) certain weeks from being reserved by "float" week owners. For example, at many resorts in coastal Florida, a "float" week owner cannot EVER make a reservation between weeks 5-15. That time period covers most of the winter! Just make sure that if you buy a "float" week, you know CLEARLY AND BEFORE PURCHASE what reservation restrictions exist for "float" week owners at the resort in question.

ken1193 wrote:

andrewg61 wrote:

Could someone please explain to me the difference between floating weeks and a fixed week. I'm looking to purchase a Marriott resale timeshare in Florida for my first purchase. My holiday weeks leave moves every year, so i don't have a fixed date when i'm always off, therefore would the floating week option be better? Marriott tried to sell me the Grande Vista & the Horizons resorts, both double the price of resale. What would your advice be to a first timer looking to purchase, ideally I would need a lock off villa aswell.

Thanks for any replies

Andrew: A "fixed" week is the same week number each and every calendar year (although the actual dates will vary by a few days from one year to the next -- see example in a preceding post by jayjay).

A "floating" week (sometimes called a "flex" week) is variable from year to year. You make a reservation based upon your chosen week for any given year. HOWEVER ---- one VERY IMPORTANT thing to watch out for in the fine print is that some resorts "black out" (restrict) certain weeks from being reserved by "float" week owners. For example, at many resorts in coastal Florida, a "float" week owner cannot EVER make a reservation between weeks 5-15. That time period covers most of the winter! Just make sure that if you buy a "float" week, you know CLEARLY AND BEFORE PURCHASE what reservation restrictions exist for "float" week owners at the resort in question.

However, float time is generally divided into three seasons. They go by many names but are basically High Time, Medium Time, and Low Time. (RCI calls them Red, White, and Blue time.) If you own a High float week, you may choose to vacation any week of the year, if you reserve far enough ahead. If you own Medium (white) time, you can go in medium or low seasons. If you own Low time (blue), you can only reserve low time. Quite a few resorts have NO blue time which can be a problem if you want to exchange through RCI. Some resort locations such a Sedona have nothing except High/Red time. Branson, for example, has no Low/blue time; Medium/white time is January to early March. The rest is High/Red. You need to understand the resort you are considering buying into BECAUSE NO GENERALITY IS UNIVERSALLY TRUE.

Personally, I much prefer resorts like Fairfield/Wyndham or Bluegreen that use a points system rather than a week system, but if you do buy a floating week, try to get it in a resort GROUP that will let you exchange among its members for little or no fee. MD

adahiscout states, quoted only in directly pertinent part:

>> If their float week owners can't use certain weeks in Florida, I'd assume they are already owned by fixed week owners. << =======================================

A reasonable assumption, but not necessarily correct. The "5-15 float reservation blackout rule" is standing policy right across the board at several different coastal FL resorts at which I own (and none of them are related to one another by either management or ownership affiliation). This policy exists (and has since initial construction, to the best of my knowledge), despite the fact that there are still owned units sitting empty during this very same time window. I can't understand or explain it, and won't pretend to, but it's a fact nonetheless. If I had to guess, that guess would be that it was /is a planned effort to maximize and stabilize the market dollar value of fixed weeks in prime winter season. Just a guess --- I don't claim to know. ======================================

>> BECAUSE NO GENERALITY IS UNIVERSALLY TRUE<<.

Absolutely. Different countries, corporate ownerships, points systems, assorted "internal upgrade" options, etc. virtually guarantee that there is no (and likely never will be) anything approaching "standardization" of practices in the timeshare industry. Each individual really must make the effort to FIRST figure out for themseleves THEIR OWN particular needs and goals (and budget), then research the available options fitting those clearly established parameters. Unfortunately, too many people adopt a "buy now, understand later" approach to timeshare, particularly with the ease and lure of "ten cent timeshares" offered on eBay every day. Like everything else, the intrepid purchaser later discovers that "the devil is in the details" (and those details might later be a real shock).

If I wanted a week in Florida in January I would definitely buy a fixed week. That way you know that you own that week and it's there for you every year. If you buy a floating week, you would likely have to make reservations at least a year (lor more) in advance to get what you want in January in Florida as that's the month that most northern snowbirds (people) flock to that state by the thousands.

ken1193 adahiscout states, quoted only in directly pertinent part:

>> If their float week owners can't use certain weeks in Florida, I'd assume they are already owned by fixed week owners. << =======================================

A reasonable assumption, but not necessarily correct. The "5-15 float reservation blackout rule" is standing policy right across the board at several different coastal FL resorts at which I own (and none of them are related to one another by either management or ownership affiliation). This policy exists (and has since initial construction, to the best of my knowledge), despite the fact that there are still HOA owned units sitting empty during this very same time window. I can't understand or explain it, and won't pretend to, but it's a fact nonetheless. If I had to guess, that guess would be that it was /is a planned effort to maximize and stabilize the market dollar value of fixed weeks in prime winter season. Just a guess --- I don't claim to know. ====================================== Could you explain the "5-15" blackout rule? I've never heard of it. Actually, we have had pretty good luck using both exchanges and owned groups in Florida in January over the years. Gulf coast is harder to get than east coast. Most of the state is not really all that warm in January and many resorts don't have indoor pools. We've certainly been chilled in Orlando. As I said somewhere before, if you can get a fixed week in the perfect location for the perfect week, it's perfect! We just tend to move around to see new places ourselves. MD

adahiscout asks, quoted only in pertinent part:

>> Could you explain the "5-15" blackout rule? I've never heard of it. Actually, we have had pretty good luck using both exchanges and owned groups in Florida in January over the years << =====================================

January comprises weeks 1-4, and therefore is not within the "weeks 5-15 blackout" time period, so that's comparing apples to oranges. They're different.

The rule is very straightforward. At the resorts which implement this rule, a float week owner there simply cannot reserve a week between week 5 and week 15, inclusive --- even if space is available during that time frame. (Of course, if available at all, the "house" will simply rent out that unit at top dollar, either on behalf of the HOA or at a unit owner's request). I can think of at least a half dozen, maybe eight, SW Gulf Coast resorts which implement this practice as standard policy, without researching any further. I'm sure there are more resorts with this policy that I don't know about. However, at the risk of appearing to "bad mouth" any particular resorts (at some of which I also own weeks), I don't think it would be prudent for me to actually list the ones I know of individually. Suffice it to say that (as I stated previously), the prospective purchaser of any float week in coastal Florida should very clearly and specifically determine and KNOW on a case by case basis *BEFORE PURCHASE* whether or not the resort in question has any such reservation "blackout" period restrictions attached. Years ago, I learned this lesson (the hard way) myself. The seller was "less than forthcoming" about this little detail and I was, at that time, too inexperienced to ask ALL of the right questions before closing on the purchase (that restriction was not refleted anywhere within the deed either). I sold that week long ago, but live and learn --- and maybe try to prevent someone else from making that same mistake.....

I've never heard of the 'weeks 5-15 blackout' scenario either even though I've been reading timeshare related forums for many years. This seems to me to be outright wrong ethically. Although any resort has the right to do anything they choose, but if it's a TIMESHARE resort then these weeks should be available to anyone who wants to buy one. I hope the resorts with this rule will be named here on Redweek so people won't get into such a scenario as happened above. I would never buy into a resort with this rule simply due to the unethical nature of such.

jayjay notes:

>> I've never heard of the 'weeks 5-15 blackout' scenario either even though I've been reading timeshare related forums for many years. << =====================================

Well, I can assure you with the certainty of the sun rising in the morning that the practice is (and has been) firmly in place at numerous resorts on the southwest Florida coast for many years now. It exists in at least three different resorts in that geographic area at which I personally own (fixed) week(s) right now (and at which I have owned same for many years). It also exists in about half a dozen more relatively nearby places that I know of, but at which I don't actually own.

Re: >> This seems to me to be outright wrong ethically. Although any resort has the right to do anything they choose, but if it's a TIMESHARE resort then these weeks should be available to anyone who wants to buy one. I hope the resorts with this rule will be named here on Redweek so people won't get into such a scenario as happened above. I would never buy into a resort with this rule simply due to the unethical nature of such.<< ======================================

Well, I won't enter into a discussion on whether or not the practice is ethical, and I frankly don't even claim to know its' origins and/or reasons. My personal guess (and a "guess" is all it is) is that it may be a wily and contrived way to ensure that fixed winter weeks maintain a comparatively high monetary value.

My objective was / is simply to point out that the practice does indeed exist out there and is alive and well, right now, so that the prospective buyer of a SW FL Gulf coast week can avoid the somewhat costly mistake which I made years ago, by ascertaining the nature of any reservation restrictions which may be associated with a "float" week ownership. The practice may exist elsewhere (i.e., other geographic areas) too, but I can / will only address that about which I have personal, direct and current first hand knowledge.

By the same token, it maybe warrants pointing out that fixed winter weeks at these particular resorts sell for big money (and, in fact, are rarely even available for sale at all). On the other hand, the float weeks at these same places sell (VERY slowly) for peanuts. In short, it's not as though people are paying anywhere near the same amount of money for each of these two very different timeshare products of different usage options.

It looks to me as though these resorts save weeks 5-15 to rent out at astronomically high rerntal rates or they push seliing fixed weeks at an astronomical price, which I can go along with .... nothing wrong with that if people are willing to pay what they're asking for a fixed week. My problem is why they would have floating weeks at all if one can't reserve weeks 5-15? I'd also be curious to know what a fixed week 5-15 costs at these resorts?

jayjay has stated /asked, quoted verbatim:

>> It looks to me as though these resorts save weeks 5-15 to rent out at astronomically high rerntal rates or they push seliing fixed weeks at an astronomical price, which I can go along with .... nothing wrong with that if people are willing to pay what they're asking for a fixed week. My problem is why they would have floating weeks at all if one can't reserve weeks 5-15? I'd also be curious to know what a fixed week 5-15 costs at these resorts?<< =======================================

My own observation, after 20+ years of ownership at these particular resorts, is that none of the weeks 5-15 are actually "saved", per se, since all were long since sold out and any which come up for resale are usually quickly resold without so much as any public advertising (more often than not to another current owner who wants an additional week). Rentals are generally (but not always) handled and accomplished directly by the unit / week owner, not by the "house". If the "house" handles the rental to the public on behalf of an owner, the rates are indeed "astronomical" (and the house then takes 30% off the top as commission as well).

As far as the "why have floating weeks at all", clearly many people don't feel that they HAVE to be able to go there ONLY in the dead of winter (although I personally am NOT among that group). Excluding those specific 11 weeks from "float" reservation still leaves another 41 weeks of the year in which to reserve a week. As I stated previously, I don't know the origins of the rule (and I never did). As a fixed week owner who usually just uses what he owns every year, without much interest in or concern for for rental value or "trading power", I haven't honestly cared much about those float week ownership restrictions. My view of the restrictions has largely been "if you find the float restrictions to be unacceptable, then don't buy the float week there." That said, I certainly do believe that folks should ALWAYS clearly know *BEFORE PURCHASE* that those restrictions do indeed exist and that they cannot ever be circumvented or avoided after purchase.

I also think some folks buy float weeks here (just as they do elsewhere) mostly to try "trade" (exchange) with them, since they can be purchased so inexpensively in the first place.

You asked about pricing. I don't follow the pricing regularly or routinely, but weeks 5-15 at these particular resorts, when they do come up for sale, are generally in the range of $8k -- $14k (actual selling price, with the "peak" of that pricing bell curve clearly being weeks 7, 8, and 9 and decreasing a bit during the 4 weeks before and after those particular three weeks). Floating weeks, on the other hand, can be purchased for not much more than about $1k. In short, I think that people pretty much get the value of what they pay for. I don't see any inequity or unfairness --- the resale market tends to find its own value and people decide on their own whether or not they are willing to pay that cost.

So it sounds like the resorts with a 5-15 rule have simply declared this time of year an "Ultra High Season" (Purple?) for which they sell no floating weeks. Folks who own a lesser season can't trade up to a higher season normally anyhow, so I guess it's OK if buyers understand this up front. Ken mentions south east Florida on the Gulf. This is, indeed, the only area where we have ever struck out when trying to make a reservation in February, but oddly, it seemed pretty "dead" when we were in the Tampa area. We wondered whether the resorts were actually closed for renovation at that season, but apparently not. MD