Considering buying a timeshare here

If you are an owner, is it hard to trade your week for a different week at Hacienda? Let's say you have week 8 and can't go in 2011 at that time. Is it pretty easy to get a different week - let's say a March week instead? From reading the forum messages, it sounds hard to even get a trade at the Haciendas.

Also, timeshare presenter said if we bought a timeshare and wanted to sell it later, Royal would pay us what we originally bought it for - I'm seriously doubting that but wanted t0 hear from owners. Wouldn't the value go down because there are less years in the RTU period the more years you own it?

Also, swimming area is very rocky. ARe there areas where its more sandy to swim?

Hi Carolyn, we are the owners of RH week 13 and this year I was trying to rent our unit through Interval as agreed in our contract. When I called them they declined justifying that due to the poor performance of US economy they can't. So much for the contract - Alicja

did you end up buying, wondering how your experience has been in trading weeks? Please reply to stacy@blackmanfamily.com

Rentals are easier if you deal directly with the resort - I own a number of weeks with Royal Resorts and their rental program is very good. Their commission is a bit high but you will at the very least recoup your maintenance fee. You can also try renting on Red Week.com or OMCancun.com (which are all rentals by other Royal Resort members. Exchanges through II are not bad but you have to start looking well ahead of time and keep looking. Royal Hacienda units go really fast. I have never had a problem doing an exchange.