Donald, I'm with you on this one , the math has never worked out to me. Paying 7000 or more for membership is paying a lot to be able to get coconut shrimp at dinner lol. We have never paid more then 2200 for a 10 day trip all in but as long as they are happy and think they are getting a good deal. That's all that matters. I will add I have never seen a thing anywhere in my life when something is pushed on to you as a good deal they say it is
Next time we go we are going to sit down with a sales manager to run the numbers and report back the deal. Time-Shares are allowed to be resold so you can purchase one second-hand for a 30-50% discount pretty easily. That may make economic sense! What scares me about Premier is that you are buying from people who can change your plan and exclude things any time they want, you paid your money, so go pound sand if they make a change. It's Mexico. We loved Cabos, now Cabos is Desire - for those who were buying Premier last March & April, did they tell those folks the resort would be changing over? Nope, they change it and you have to accept it. The can exclude benefits, change rates, or just go belly up with zero repercussions. A lot of folks got stiffed by the RCI points they bought 5-yrs ago on the last Premier deal. No reason they can not do the same.
Just thought I would correct a common misconception about the Premier program - It's not a time share ! - all the usual checks and balances of a real registered time share ownership do not apply to the Premier program. You actually never have ownership(even fractional) of anything in the usual sense of a real time share. Has anyone tried to sell their Premier contract ? to what result ? The other major kicker is the AI fees - Premier can change and increase them to whatever level and whenever they wish - you as a Premier member can do nothing other than pay whatever they say if you as a Premier member wish to use your membership to vacation at one of their properties.
I ran a lot of numbers when we decided to purchase, plus haggled on the price. Our contract is new but I ran the numbers based on what we paid the previous years. Our contract is new and unarguably there is some risk at this point and our membership is in negative equity. However, I am keeping track of what the best deal of the moment is at the time of booking and comparing it to what we will be paying. I did the same math when we purchased based on previous years. There is a magic sweet spot of the number of nights before the contract starts "paying off". That number was 5 to 7 years, based on one week per year. That number will go down the more we go, for example this May we are staying 8 nights because it was advantageous for us to stay an extra day because of the air fare. This was a rough estimate because it is based only on hotel rate before taxes. Regarding the benefits, there are arguments either way if these have a tangible value. We get a lobster dinner, that has value for me, I love lobster, so for me, that is value add, while the counter argument is, well I just wouldn't get lobster. There were other things also on the premier menu that I enjoyed, again, for me value. The same rings true for nearly every other benefit as well. Last time we got a Ocean view room... Members are not going to be bumped... I like the top shelf booze... The yacht... etc...
Time share is not for everyone. For us the numbers worked out fine. We had a previous time share elsewhere with yearly maintenance fees (800/year ) We do not have those with Premier. We looked at what we paid last year at NY eve, this year we will pay half of that . We also get referral weeks that we rent out and that helps to offset our travel expenses even further. Within 5 years our initial investment will be paid off. If you are a repeater this makes alot of sense because you continually save money. This program works really well if you go back to TTR often. This works more if you go in the high season. The RCI may or may not work for every one . Also booking this takes all of 5 minutes. For us we are very happy!!!!! PS This also makes you go vacation
Yes, you have to love that aspect. Step 1. Send email with dates. Step 2. Send check 30 days prior to arrival
This will be our 6th trip. We sometimes get 2 rooms because we travel with another couple sometimes. After our trip in Feb. 2013 we figured the timeshare will have paid for itself with the savings we have made. We really don't use the RCI. Any trip we go on now will be all savings
