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A timeshare is a form of vacation property ownership. With timeshares, the
use and costs of running the resort are shared among the owners. While the
majority of timeshares are condominium vacation resorts, developers have applied
the timeshare model to houseboats, yachts, campgrounds, motor homes and cruises.
The notion of a timeshare was originally created in Europe in the 1960s. A ski
resort developer in the French Alps innovatively marketed his resort by
encouraging guests to "stop renting a room" and instead "buy the hotel". The
developer was successful in increasing occupancy and the idea spread worldwide.
While a useful tool for many, the timeshare industry has also become a magnet
for attracting illegal and barely legal methods for the sale and resale of
property.
Methods of use
Timeshare is a business model whereby a company buys something and sells small
timeslices of it to customers. This concept is most frequently used for vacation
condominiums/homes, but it has also been used for high end private jets. In
general, "timeshare" refers to the former rather than the latter.
Timeshare owners may elect to:
Use their usage time
Rent out their owned usage
Give it as a gift
Exchange internally within the same resort or resort group
Exchange externally into thousands of other timeshare resorts
Recently, with most point systems, owners may elect to:
Assign their usage time to the point system to be exchanged for airline tickets,
hotels, travel packages, cruises, amusement park tickets;
Instead of renting all their actual usage time, rent part of their points
without actually getting any usage time and use the rest of the points;
Rent more points from either the internal exchange entity or another owner to
get a larger unit or more vacation time or at a better location;
Save or move points from one year to another.
Some developers, however, may limit which of these options are available at
their properties.
Timeshare owners can elect to stay at their resort during the prescribed period,
which varies depending on the nature of their ownership. In many resorts, they
can rent out their week or give it as a gift to friends and family.
Timeshares offer owners the possibility of exchanging their week, either
independently or through several exchange agencies, to stay at one of the
thousands of other resorts worldwide. There are many exchange agencies, of which
the three largest are Resort Condominiums International, Interval International
and Trading Places International. All three have resort affiliate programs and
members can only exchange to affiliate resorts. It is rare to find a dual
affiliate resort; it is more common for a resort to be affiliated with only one
of the larger exchange agencies. Together they have over 7,000 resorts. The
timeshare resort one purchases determines which of the major exchange companies
can be used to make exchanges. RCI, II & TPI all charge membership fees and
exchange fees. They also bar members from renting weeks for which they already
have exchanged.
Timeshare owners may also arrange a direct exchange. This requires locating a
timeshare owner with the location and weeks both mutually desire. This form of
exchange is rare but since it can save in exchange fees it is often sought
after. Several bulletin boards have been created to help timeshare owners meet
others and swap.
Timeshares take different forms depending on the seller. The vast majority
consist of one week of ownership, i.e. 1/52 year, but some developers sell point
based systems that are a different form of vacation currency that allow hotel
stays, car rentals, and stays at large networks of resorts.
