Long time lurker now ready to jump onboard

My wife and I live in Central Maine, and are empty nesters now, and travel at least every other month but shoot for every month. Early retired (late fifties). We can afford decent “digs” and often spend $500+ per night. I’ve been shallow diving the concept of time shares for the past decade, and now I think it would make a good “tool” in our travel box, if nothing else. Here’s my back of the envelope thought process. PLEASE nudge me in the right direction and don’t be afraid to tell me where I’m way off!

We “staycation” 4-5 weeks mid coast Maine (Old Orchard Beach and my family’s Boothbay Harbor house that we’re lucky to get a couple weeks a year while it’s still standing!) Otherwise we do tend to end up visiting friends in St. Pete area and Key West. We love Florida, especially below the “coconut line” where we don’t get too many unexpected 45 degree weeks in winters. We also want to start traveling to Europe, Mexico, Central America. And definitely Aruba. TS may or may not be a useful tool in every travel instance, but I lay this all out to help you help me. My wife could be a travel agent. She’ spends an hour a day checking on all our booked hotel and airfare and rebooking when they go down. So we’re “cut out” for the complexities. In this regard I’m laying the foundation then once I assemble a “portfolio” I’ll turn it over to her!

1. First, I thought it might be good to have a cheap week in Maine (Samoset is supposedly the best TS system in Maine, though the one in Southwest Harbor, family owned, is supposed to great too. In fact they handle all the resales in house. THIS would serve two purposes: 1. Give us the choice of staycation OR trade, and gets us in “the door” so we can access deals via RCI (we’ll be members of one or both RCI/II)

2. Points strike me as a simpler, more versatile way … we REALLY love our home and find ourselves “ready to come home” after 4-5 days, so we often structure our trips for 5-6 days including travel days. Wyndham comes highly recommended from past forum inquiries but members cite steep learning curve.

3. What “limits” should I set or expect for fees? I’ve heard “try to keep it to .01 or less per RCI point?

4. Speaking of points…do all TS’s have an easy to find RCI/II point equivalent? (if not in listing)

5. I’ve read over and over that lockouts can be a great bargain, because when you split them up, you can use them as more points overall for trading? (i.e. 120,000 points for a 2BR LO, you “lock em out” and deposit them as 2 different units and you get 100K points for the bigger and 80K for the smaller? Just an example…but am I on the right track? Or sleep in the bigger half and always rent out the smaller?

6. Also read that one should buy TS’s in well established systems that are expanding. What’s an easy way to know this? I mean I know the “big guns” like Wyndham, Hyatt, Hilton, etc.

7. We like “nice” but we don’t want to be saddled with too much of a bill each year (i.e. we’d be ok with pretty **** nice for $700 MF per year vs I”ve died and gone to heaven for $2,500 MF) We do favor Hilton family for hotels, if that helps? I know they have a system, but if they’re super high end we’re happy opting for something four star vs five neighborhood if that makes sense.

Okay, I don’t want to write a book, so I’ll leave it at that! I suppose at this point I just need help narrowing down what to look for (points vs weeks, and what system?)

Having owned, used and enjoyed a few different timeshare intervals for several decades now, I can state with some confidence and certainty that the timeshare industry and the various timeshare systems have changed considerably over the years and will continue to do so — few (if any) of those changes being for the better from owner / user perspective.

It is clear from your post content that you are not “without means”. My brief but sincere advice to you is to forget about timeshares (other than renting them) and just go where and when you choose and can go, without timeshare ownership’s various constraints, gyrations, reservation uncertainties and ever-increasing mandatory annual fees (costs that are incurred whether or not in any given year you actually use what you purchased). Additionally, the “exchange game” and / or various “points systems” will both, by definition, always revolve around (uncertain) space availability, with absolutely no guarantees that you can actually book when and where you actually seek to go.

We enjoy our few remaining timeshare weeks (only fixed unit / weeks in prime locations and seasons, with no reservation gyrations or space availability uncertainties involved), but I would not choose today to have any part of becoming a new owner, entering the timeshare world as it currently exists and continues to change. I would instead choose to simply rent lodging of my location / season choice, without timeshare’s legal ownership responsibilities, annual fees and reservation uncertainty — in perpetuity.

Just my own personal viewpoint, opinion and $0.02 worth, since you asked. Your mileage may vary, as the saying goes.

I wanted to take a moment and personally thank you for such a well thought out reply. You may or may not have replied to my similar post five or six years ago when we still had a high school age a daughter living under our roof and our needs were a little different. I found your reply almost a relief. I say this because I recognize there's quite a lot to wrap one's mind around in making the most of these systems.

I may get my feet wet anyway, but would probably do so in such a way that if I find out you're 100% right, it won't have cost me very much! There's a unique situation in southwest harbor where the owners of the resort handle everything. They're super easy to rent, and years that we don't use it, we might at least be able to trade or rent and get most of all of our maintenance.

Thanks again, you've almost given me an excuse to take this off my plate haha!

Thank you for your considerate response; much appreciated.

You couldn’t go wrong with a fixed unit / week in prime season at Harbor Ridge (or Samoset), purchased resale at a reasonable price. If it’s a prime week, then even if you don’t want to use it in any given year, you already know that a prime week can be easily rented out (or maybe exchanged, given the uncertainties of “exchange game” space availability, as previously addressed). I know that Samoset in Rockport is dual affiliated (with both RCI and II), with reasonable annual fees, but I do not know the annual fees and / or current exchange company affiliation(s) of Harbor Ridge in Southwest Harbor.

Good luck, whatever you ultimately decide to do.