What Vacation Time-Sharing Can Mean To You - Brief Article

THE children are out of,school, work has slowed down at the office, and it s time for a much-needed summer vacation. But you don't want to spend all of your hard-earned cash on a great getaway each year. With what travel experts call "vacation inflation," it's best to plan ahead to get as much for your money as possible, buying into what experts say is the fastest-growing segment of the travel and tourism industry--time-sharing.

An alternative to staying in hotels or buying a second vacation home, a time-share, literally, is shared time at a particular vacation destination, and it's a good way to lock in today's vacation prices. Owning a time-share should not be considered an investment, says David Matheson, public relations chairman for the American Resort Development Association, or ARDA, a trade organization in Washington, D.C. It's a pre-paid vacation.

"Time-sharing has evolved tremendously over the years," says Matheson, who is vice president of public relations for Vistana, the company that developed the first time-share in Orlando. "It started about 25 years ago and is still a relatively young product."

Time-shares at golf, seaside, or ski resorts range in price from about $5,000 to roughly $15,000 depending on the season, the location and the quality of the accommodation, according to the Better Business Bureau. For the low-end time-shares, expect a studio apartment. At the higher prices, you may find yourself staying in a luxury two-bedroom condominium.

The two basic types of time-shares are "fee simple," where the buyer gets title to a fraction of the unit, and "right-to-use," where the purchaser is entitled to use the unit for a specific period of time, but does not have an ownership interest. The biggest industry advancement of the past 10 years is that major hotel chains are beginning to sell time-shares at their resort locations. And with that growth comes increased accessibility. More families are beginning to purchase time-shares or are taking shorter vacations more often.

There are several factors to consider when buying a time-share--location, price, flexibility, and lifestyle and recreational preferences. If you like the beach, it may be a bad idea to buy a time-share in the mountains. If you have children or pets that travel with you, and the resort is for "adults only" and doesn't allow pets, you've probably made a big mistake. Purchasers buy into time-shares either all at once or through payment plans for a specified stay or interval, generally one week. Once you buy your time-share, it's yours until you decide to sell it. You can rent it or make a gift of your stay there to family or friends.

Experts say you should never buy a time-share without seeing it, because you don't want to be unpleasantly surprised. Likewise, it may be risky to buy a time-share at an uncompleted, unproven resort, unless your contract clearly stipulates that you can recover losses. Shop around before you buy and take advantage of promotional offers by developers that allow you to visit certain resorts with inexpensive or free "tryout" vacations where you actually visit the time-share site. In other cases, you may already be visiting a trendy tourist spot when a salesperson invites you to an informational session.

When considering the purchase of a time-share, you must determine how flexible your resort is. Most time-shares are affiliated with Resort Condominiums International or Interval International, two companies that organize vacation exchanges for locations throughout the world. While it's best to buy a time-share in a place you want to visit year after year, it's important to have the option to change. Through an "external" exchange, you can swap vacation intervals with someone else in another location. An "internal" exchange means you can swap weeks with someone else in your time-share. Most time-share resorts now have floating time, where you can arrange your stay within a certain time frame. If you have children, get their vacation schedules early and clear your desk calendar to avoid last-minute snags.

Chicagoan Grace Evans couldn't pass up the opportunity to purchase a time-share in St. Thomas. The 27-year-old telecommunications analyst says her purchase was a great bargain because it was a new development. Hotel accommodations in St. Thomas can be expensive, and are in high demand, so there's also a bit more flexibility.

"Because it [St. Thomas is] so popular, I can exchange it for anywhere I want to travel in the world," says Evans, referring to what the industry calls an "external" exchange. "After I finish paying it off, that's a free vacation for me. I'll only have to pay airfare."

According to statistics from ARDA, a total of nearly 1.8 million households own time-shares in the United States, a rate that is growing by roughly 9 percent each year. Worldwide, the number jumps to nearly 5 million time-share owners. For Americans, the most popular state for buying recreational property is Florida, followed by California, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas and Arizona. Other popular destinations include Hawaii, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. The key to getting to these spots with as few hassles as possible is starting early.