Read all our Timeshare Hell Posts … if you dare.
I bought a timeshare. There. I admitted my mortal sin to the whole world. Or at least my mom and the three people who receive our blog.
I’ve told many people never to do it. I write here about taking the time to be a Smart Travel Consumer. I’ve warned you in these same pages to be very afraid of resort tours, which have their own circle of hell. And then I pull the same shit and do it myself. Not a proud moment.
I could say that I did it in the name of science. To go through the full process from tour to owner to unit manager so that I could have personal experience, be better educated (expensive lesson!), and more effectively warn you. I have sinned. Learn from my bad example. But that’s not true.
The impetus for the purchase was simple. I’ve been vacationing in Mexico for a decade at all-inclusive 4* resorts for a week, spending $2,500-$3,500 each time. So this was just doing more of the same. It would be nice to not have to think about it anymore, to know that I’d pay something upfront and in exchange get more for less. I’d get more - an even better resort. I’d get it for less - I would save several hundred dollars per year. I’d break even on the purchase and annual maintenance fees after several years of savings. Logical, right?
Of course this is exactly what they sell and why 95% of buyers buy.
I’ve been to 20 such resort tours. But this time certain personal factors converged to fan this idea into a flame. And I bought.
Days later … “No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” which in this case is reality.
I count the purchase as the worst decision of my life. Now I know I’ll savage something so that it’s not a huge loss. Meanwhile, I’m starting this series to show the hundreds — if not thousands — of ways these deals are evil and why you should, seriously, stay away, even if I ultimately didn’t.