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COOL TRAVEL MAIL'S
TRAVEL TIPS
Tips and Advice for the Seasoned and Armchair Traveler Alike!
http://www.CoolTravelMail.com

Tuesday, Oct. 1,  2002

They call around dinnertime with offers that sound too good
to believe.

Discounted hotel rooms!

Complimentary meals!

Cut-rate event tickets!

Free cash!!!!

All you need to do, the breathless salesperson at the other
end of the line says, is sit through a short sales pitch
for a timeshare condominium.

It's the kind of call I usually brush off with the same
polite efficiency I use with telemarketers and the guy
from the phone company who reminds me that my payment is
a day late.

This time, however, in the interest of research for this
newsletter, my wife and I decided to take up the offer and
see what timeshare vacation giveaways are really about.

We had a lot of fun, saved a chunk of money and got back
home without taking out another mortgage.

It was not, however, easy.

 

ONE-TIME-ONLY HAPPENS A LOT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First, for those of you who pooh-pooh the concept of
timeshare travel, don't dismiss it out of hand. Timesharing
is huge.

While the rest of the travel and hospitality industry are
still suffering the double-whammy of economic recession and
the war on terrorism, the timeshare industry continues to
grow. According to the American Resort Development
Association, timesharing is a $4 billion-a-year industry.

That said, there are a lot of pros and cons to weigh when
deciding if this is a travel option for you. The best way
to start a discussion of those is probably to share our
experience:

Our deal was with Fairfield Resorts, which bills itself as
the world's leading provider of resort and vacation
"products". It's a subsidiary of Cendant Corp., which owns
Resort Condominiums International (RCI), the largest
timeshare exchange company in the world.

This was the initial offer: Two nights in Williamsburg, Va.,
for $99, a complimentary breakfast, free dinner and $30
cash, just for sitting through a 90-minute sales
presentation. The catch - and the refrain that was to become
a theme for the whole experience - was that I had to decide
right then and there. That decision required giving them my
credit card number.

Yeah, right.

It's the basic law of haggling - never believe it when
they say one-time-only offer.

When I balked, the deal quickly changed to THREE nights
for $99 and a book of coupons for deals on Williamsburg
attractions like Busch Gardens and many of the nearby
historic plantations.

When I continued to hesitate, the caller agreed to put me
in touch with a manager and I got a one-day extension for
my "one-time-only" decision.

That was important, because it gave me time to do enough
research to determine that the company was legitimate. I
called Fairfield's headquarters in Tennesee and confirmed
that they were, in fact, running a promotion in line with
what my caller had described.

The next day, a sales manager called me back. I traded my
Visa number for a promise of a package of detailed
information and a 15-day window, during which I could
change my mind. They shuffled me to two more reservation
people who confirmed the information and helped convince
me that I wasn't dealing with a scam artist.

We took our trip a month later.

*********
 

OUR TIMESHARE TRAVAIL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we got to Williamsburg, we had to drive through one of
Fairfield's condominium resorts. It was pretty: ponds and
trees and ducks. But it also had the vinyl-siding
atmosphere of a suburban housing project.

They booked us at the Sheraton, which was nice, and located
across the street from Historic Williamsburg. For those
unfamiliar with the place, Historic Williamsburg is a
sprawling recreation of colonial-era  buildings populated
by interpreters who play the parts of long-dead original
residents. If you have any interest in history at all,
it's very cool.

Our timeshare talk was scheduled for 1 p.m. on our first
full day there. Having a commitment smack in the middle of
the day was a huge inconvenience, but Fairfield got lucky:
It rained. Because of that, I wasn't sullen and resentful
when my wife and I joined the room full of bargain-hunting
travelers in Fairfield's glass-walled headquarters.

It was a true melting pot. There were retirees in golf
shirts, young parents with squirming and screaming children,
couples talking quietly and glancing at their wristwatches.
Several folks told us from the start they were not
interested in buying and had erected mental blinders and
earplugs to protect them from the upcomming pitch. One
couple said they brought their twin babies so the sales
rep would want to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

But not us. We were on a fact-finding mission.

Our sales rep was an incredibly friendly, seemingly
genuine, instantly likeable young man named Bobby. 

He sat us down, outlined the Fairfield patented "point
system" and showed us a brochure of hundreds of luxurious
units around the world we could exchange our Williamsburg
timeshare for. Then he penciled out how, over the course
of 10 years, it would be much cheaper to make monthly
payments on a timeshare than to pay for two weeks at a
hotel during an annual family vacation.

This is how it works: When you buy a Fairfield timeshare,
you get a deed entitling you to a certain amount of time
per year at a specific resort. Unlike traditional timeshare
arrangements, however, the unit you buy carries a certain
number of points. These points can be traded for time in
units in Orlando, Nashville, Myrtle Beach or dozens of
other Fairfield resort locations. For a fee, you can trade
for units in Europe and beyond.

He took us on a tour of their newest Williamsburg resort,
which was impressive. Big kitchens, big TVs, big beds,
privacy for adults, pools and playgrounds for the kids.
There were exercise rooms and massage rooms, bike trails
and a putting green.

During the whole thing, the conversation was relaxed and
without sales pressure. For travelers like us, who are
interested in visiting different places as often as
possible, the concept was intriguing.

The folks who'd made up their minds in the waiting room
walked by us on their way out. They escaped within the hour
and a half promised.

We, however, had shown interest.

Our conversation dragged on for two hours, then three.
Throughout the presentation, Bobby kept politely reminding
us that the deal was a one-time only thing. We had to commit
to the deal, sign a purchase agreement, TODAY, or the
special, super-duper, can't-believe-we're-letting-it-go-this-
cheap price he'd been quoting would vanish.

We kept saying, politely, that it wasn't the kind of
decision you make on a whim. As we refused to budge, the
downpayment required dropped from $3,000 to $600. In the
end, we cheerfully agreed to walk away from the bargain of
a lifetime, but promised to look into it as a possible
future investment.

Bobby shook our hands and took us down for our "exit
interview", after which we would receive the cash and
the coupons, etc.

That's when the tone changed.

Because we had sat through more than the minimum
presentation, we were treated to another, less pleasant,
salesperson, who was an expert in the art of the hard sell.
I don't remember her name. We'll just call her ... The
Dragon Lady. (For the rest of this newsletter, every time
you read that name, imagine a dramatic clap of thunder and
a lighting strike outside your window.)

The Dragon Lady started out nice, in an obviously fake sort
of way, and reduced the price of the condominium and the
monthly payments even further. The deal, she promised us,
was the absolute best anybody could do anywhere in the known
universe and we'd be foolish not to jump on it.

I mentioned wanting time to look at the payment as part of
the overall family budget. Dragon Lady scoffed at the idea
that we might not be able to afford it.

I mentioned other financial commitments and wanting to make
sure we had money for things like our oldest son's college
tuition and our younger kids' Christmas presents. Dragon
Lady assured us that giving them the legacy of a timeshare
would be more valuable, and more appreciated, than any
"crap" we could wrap up and put under the tree.

I started to get angry. I told her we were ready to go.

Dragon Lady, who mistakenly perceived that my wife was more
taken with the concept than I was, immediately pounced on
her.

"Your wife obviously thinks you should do this. How can you
do this to her?"

That was it. The high-pressure, divide-and-conquer tactic
backfired. We left in a huff, feeling used and angry. We
still got our cash and our coupons, but we were exhausted.

Luckily, it was nothing that a nice dinner and a few
glasses of wine - compliments of  Fairfield - couldn't cure.

***********
 

CALLING ALL CONDO OWNERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's our experience. All in all, I'd say it was worth it.

Our mistake was showing interest from the start. That
marked us for the professional sales hit men that the
nice guys on the floor were feeding. Had we kept our
heads down and just kept shaking them no, we would have
been out in time for Thomas Jefferson's 3:30 p.m.
address at the Kimball Theater.

Despite the hard sell, timeshareing as a travel option
remains an intriguing option. Next week, I'd like to
explore some of the pros and cons of seeing the world
through timeshare exchange programs and take a look at
what's available out there.

In the meantime, I'd like to hear about your timeshare
experiences.

Have you bought into the concept and found it's the best
investment you ever made? Or are you regretting the day
you signed on the dotted line? Let me know what you
think, the lessons you've learned, and what works and
what doesn't. I'll make sure we can all learn from it.

As always, you can reach me by email at 
pierce@shagmail.com

Thanks again for reading. I've been wanting to spout off
about the Dragon Lady for some time now.

Your Tipmeister,

Pierce

 
 
Tuesday, Oct. 8,  2002

Last week, Tips readers helped me break a record.

My newletter on our timeshare travel experience in Williams-
burg drew more reader mail than any other Travel Tips news-
letter to date.

Many of you are long-time, satisfied owners who praised the
concept and recommended it as the best way to travel and
vacation.

Others of you are owners with regrets or fellow survivors of
the timeshare sales pitch with  tales of high-pressure tactics
similar to mine.

After sifting through all the pros and cons in my e-mail inbox,
I became convinced of at least one thing:

Timesharing really is as big as the resort owners say.

Whether or not that's a good thing depends on who's doing the
selling and who's doing the buying.

Today's topics include:

* VACATION INSURANCE

* THE DEVIL'S DETAILS

* (UN)DEAD AHEAD

                                                               
 
VACATION INSURANCE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part of the traditional sales pitch resonates with workaholics
and busy families: If you are finding room in your budget to
make monthly payments on a timeshare, you're going to make
darn sure you take time for an annual vacation.

This is how Louise, a Tips reader and Fairfield Resorts timeshare
owner, put it:

"We still debate whether or not our purchase was a 'value'
monitarily, but consider it vacation insurance. It forces us
to make a vacation decision/commitment, instead of procrast-
inating. We look forward to taking trips each year and owner-
ship of a timeshare makes the planning much easier. Some
things in life seem to be worth the extra expense. We can
only hope that we still feel that way for years to come."

Carl, a longtime Fairfield and Resort Condominiums Inter-
national owner, echoed those sentiments:

"We have been involved with them for at least 20 years. The
'sales pitch' that sold us in the beginning was, 'If you have
money invested in a week vacation, you will take it.' This was
true, as at the time both my wife and I were working, and we
did not take a 'real' vacation - a planned one of a week or
so. We just would take off on a long weekend, visit relatives,
etc."

I have to admit, that was one point made by the Fairfield Dragon
Lady (Remember, every time I mention that phrase, imagine a
dramatic clap of thunder and a lightning strike outside the
window) that helped keep us from stomping out of the office
sooner.

There are others. Based on your comments and some of my own
research, I've put together a list of reasons why buying a
timeshare with a good exchange policy might be a worthwhile
travel option for you:

* Quality digs. Based on what we saw and on reader's comments,
the quality of accomodations available from Fairfield and
other big companies seems to live up to their claim of nothing
below four star.

This is important, especially when you're alternative is
searching for affordable hotel deals. Professional web sites
and ads can make even the Bates Motel look attractive. As a
timeshare owner using an exchange program, you'll have a much
better guarantee of quality lodging than you get by rolling
the dice over the Internet. 

* Family travel. The larger your family, the better deal time-
sharing appears to be. That's because, once you start having
to rent more than one hotel room, fill more than a minimum
number of mouths at tourist-priced restaurants and - as
children turn into teen-agers - possibly bring a best friend
or two, traditional vacations get exhoritantly expensive
pretty quickly. 

With a timeshare, you can cook your own meals and cram as
many kids into a room as you want. There are no per-head
charges, and flexible plans let you trade timeshare points
for different configurations of rooms when the number of
people you're vacatining with goes up or down. Many families
use timeshare points to book several rooms for shorter
lengths of time and fill them with extended family members
during reunions or weddings.

Sharon, a Tips reader with timeshares in Orlando and Las
Vegas, said she and her husband combined and traded their two
weeks to give their daughter a two-week honeymoon last year.

* Exchanges. For a fee of $100 or so, you can get time in one
of hundreds of resorts, condominiums or hotels around the world.
This could give folks an opportunity to travel to places they
hadn't considered visiting without paying much more than they
had set aside in their annual vacation budget.

* Lasting value. Timeshares are basically property deeds.
Whether they increase in value over time the way regular
property does is a question of considerable debate, but one
thing does happen after a certain number of years: The time-
share gets paid off. Maintenance fees are still charged, but
after five or 10 years, timeshare owners have their vacation
lodgings paid for once and for all. This can be great for
people nearing retirement who can pay off the deal before
they shift into fixed income mode.

Once it's paid for, it can also generate additional income if
times get bad. My wife and I have rented a timeshare from a
private owner, and it's turned out to be a good deal all
around. And, once you own it, you can pass it on to your
relatives in your will.

Of course, all this assumes you didn't buy into any of the up-
grades or add-ons that timeshare owners are constantly urged to
purchase, or that the monthly or yearly maintenance fees don't
grow too big for your budget.

*********

 
THE DEVIL'S DETAILS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are plenty of happy timeshare owners out there in Travel
Tips land. But there are also quite a few readers who remind
me of the couple we rode in the elevator after escaping from
our marathon sales session with the Dragon Lady at Fairfield's
Williamsburg offices.

Sales people in the elevator were congratulating the couple
on their purchase. Instead of beaming with excitement, however,
the lucky new owners had the dazed look of patients who had
just gotten some very bad news from their doctors. It was shock;
disbelief that they'd committed themselves to the equivalent
of a second mortgage with only a couple hours of thought.

What should the stunned couple have considered?

* True costs. Any sales rep with a pencil can show you how
buying a timeshare will be cheaper, over time, than continuing
to spend what you normally spend on vacations. That's because
numbers, when presented quickly and changed often, can say
pretty much anything you want them to say.

The sales reps tend to leave some things out of the equation,
namely maintainance costs. All timeshare companies charge
owners maintenance fees to cover the cost of taxes, upkeep,
etc. These generally range from $300 to $600 a year.

Now think about it, that could be more than $31,000 a year -
PER UNIT - to cover things like mowing the lawn and cleaning
the pool. In popular resorts, this is clearly a profit center
for the companies. These charges rise with inflation over time
and continue to be an obligation long after your timeshare is
paid off.

The calculations used by the slick sales folk also tend to
compare apples with breadfruit. They compare your total annual
vacation costs - which includes airfare, meals, shopping and
the cost of Disney World passes - to your monthly payments on
a timeshare. What you should really be comparing is what you
normally spend on vacation hotels. Timeshare owners still have
to pay for their own transportation, food and everything else.

The Dragon Ladies of the world also don't like to talk about
what happens if you fall on hard times. If you become ill or
have a crisis, you can always rent your timeshare, they say.
That's true, but what happens if you lose your job or have
some other financial setback? When money is tight, travel and
vacations are the first things to go. That no longer is an
option, however, if you're locked into a timeshare. The monthly
payments still have to be made, even if it means clipping super-
market coupons or putting off your daughter's college education
for a year.

* Resale value. Timeshare salespeople are big on reminding
potential buyers that they are investing in real estate, and
that real estate will always grow in value, even as the stock
market dips and plunges.

Problem is, timeshares don't seem to get much more valuable
over time. In fact, the re-sale market is pretty tough, and
owners who need to get out can have a difficult time getting
back their investment.

Paul, a Tips reader who has a timeshare in Williamsburg and
has used it successfully to travel to Jamaica, made this observ-
ation on the buy-now-the-deal-will-never-be-better sales pitch:

"If you go downtown, you will find a real estate company that
is selling timeshares for the same resort for 50 percent to 60
percent off the asking price. These are units or shares that
people forfeited or decide they no longer want to timeshare and
are trying to dump. Unlike what the sales person tells you, it
is difficult selling time shares, and you never ever get more
than 40 percent back on what you bought it for."

* Flexibility. The thick, full-color book of 'exchangeable'
resorts given to every new timeshare owner is impressive. Ex-
changing your timeshare for something in a more popular or
expansive area, however, isn't always so easy.

The $100 or so exchange fee is reasonable, but for an exchange
to work, the company must both find someone willing to use
your timeshare unit as well as find an available unit in the
location you want at the time you want. As you might imagine,
booking vacations in places like Orlando or Las Vegas can be
difficult for someone with a timeshare in rural Tennessee.

Jennifer, a Tips reader who survived an excrutiating sales
pitch from RCI in Fort Lauderdale, had this to say about her
parents' experience trying to exchange time in their unit in
the sceneic wild west:

"My parents had previously purchased a timeshare with RCI,
but they have never been able to use it. They can't get through
on the phone line to them. They can't figure out how to work
it, and even though they thought they bought the highest up-
grade, they still can't seem to trade it due to the fact that
it's in Utah."

***********