My Vacation Accommodations Cost $311 a Week this Year, Did Yours?

(The $0.99 introductory price on my new best-selling book ends today. Don’t miss out!)

Many people have told me they want to get rid of their timeshare because they don’t like paying the maintenance fees. When I hear this, I want to shout out to them DON’T GET RID OF YOUR GOLDEN GOOSE!

If one learns the hacks of using their timeshare, like I have over the last 30 years, they too can save a fortune. Those maintenance fees will feel insignificant when you learn how to get the most from your timeshare.

Other people mistakenly feel that since their kids have left the nest, they don’t need their timeshare any longer. But when the kids leave the nest, the timeshare becomes an even more powerful vacation tool. 

When our two kids were old enough to be on their own, our vacation options increased. Now there are more potential travel weeks available to take with our single week of timeshare ownership by including the vacation time of our extended family. We have the vacation weeks my wife and I will take, plus my oldest son’s two weeks of vacation and my youngest son’s two weeks. Plus, the kids can also choose to take unpaid time off as well, giving them even more time to use our timeshare. (Most people never think of asking for additional unpaid vacation weeks from work.) Now we have four+ extra weeks a year to utilize timeshare trades.

Let’s take a look at our actual hard costs for 2022. So far this year we have traded our single week of ownership for eight timeshare weeks yet we still have points available to trade. It’s hard to believe it only cost us $311 for each of our eight fabulous weeks of vacation. Since it’s hard to argue with the facts when it comes to money, let’s take a look at how we achieved this great price per week.

In 2022, thus far my wife and I have enjoyed vacationing, for one week each, at five different timeshare resorts: four around Lake Michigan, and one in Oregon. The timeshare in Oregon had extra bedrooms intended for our entire family to join us, but a scheduling conflict prevented our kids from coming. So, this timeshare became a week for just my wife and me. One son used a week to take some friends with him to a timeshare in Orlando to explore Disney and Universal Studios. My other son used a week to take his family on a mountain retreat just outside of Yosemite National Park in California. I used another week to trade into a week in Orlando, four miles from a conference I was attending. 

If you consider the price we paid to own our timeshare 30 years ago as a sunk cost and only look at the new hard costs which occurred this year, we spent the following on this year’s vacation accommodations:

Maintenance fee: $733

RCI Membership: $80

Trade Fees for eight weeks of travel: $1,494

Two Guest Certificates for the kids’ weeks: $188

Total expenses $2,495

Cost per week of vacation: $2,495 / 8 = $311 per week.

Where else can a family find great vacation housing for $311 a week? A Motel 6 in the Orlando area costs $66 a night. Which comes to $66 x 7 = $462 a week. The actual cost per week of using my timeshares in 2022 was less than a Motel 6 and we get multiple bedrooms, a living room, multiple bathrooms, a full kitchen, and wonderful amenities with the timeshares.

Don’t sell your timeshares folks, learn to use them for maximum vacation savings!

Keep the timeshare for your family and learn how to use it for great family fun at a bargain price.

Chapter four in my new book, A Guide to Loving Your Timeshare: How to Get the Most for Your Money in Family Fun and Experiences, is titled Getting the Most Value from Your Timeshare. This is the longest chapter of the book, spelling out 28 different ways to get more vacation time out of what you already own. This one chapter is what the book is all about. I own one week in New Orleans, but this year I traded it for eight weeks of fun filled vacations used by my entire family. By spreading the annual expenses over the eight vacations, instead of just one, our price per week was incredibly low.

Since I also show you how to acquire your timeshare for next to nothing, this year’s costs may become the total costs of ownership. For those who already own a timeshare, the purchase cost has already been paid. So get the book and learn the tips and hacks for getting great value for your ownership. I own one week and have traded it for eight weeks so far this year. If you aren’t getting what you would like out of your timeshare, now is the time to learn how to get the most out of your timeshare. Click on the link to purchase the book that will change your entire timeshare vacationing attitude. Begin using what you have learned and start hacking away.

Don’t forget that on Tuesday August 30th, the official launch date of the book, the eBook can be purchased for just $0.99. This sale will last through today. How can you lose at that price? 

Hope to see you at the pool at our next timeshare vacation. If you see me, please stop and say hi.

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