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Timeshare Vacations For Dummies (Dummies Travel)

There are more than 5,400 timeshare resorts in destinations as diverse as England and Africa, Orlando and Shanghai. More than 3 million North Americans own timeshares around the world. Is timeshare ownership for you? Packed with information for current and prospective owners, this guide points out the plusses and the pitfalls and lets you in on the smartest ways to buy, sell, or swap timeshares. It covers:

Questions to ask yourself
Questions to ask timeshare sales representatives
An overview of the types of timeshare ownership
An update on variations on traditional timeshare vacations
Financing, maintenance fees, assessments, and other economic considerations

Like every For Dummies travel guide, Timeshare vacations For Dummies includes:

Down-to-earth trip-planning advice
What to look for—and what to look out for
Which options best fit your budget and your vacation style

Handy Post-it Flags to mark your favorite pages

Rating: (out of 23 reviews)

List Price: $ 19.99

Price: $ 29.98

This entry was posted by admin on September 5, 2010 at 4:24 pm, and is filed under Vacation Properties. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

Comments (5)
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#1 written by Meester Shack 1 year ago

Review by Meester Shack for Timeshare Vacations For Dummies (Dummies Travel)
Rating:
This book is not the place to start, but the place to bypass on your quest for good information about timeshare ownership. Points and recommendations in the book go against experienced conventional wisdom that can found at already mentioned sites such as timeshare users group. Get good information for free, don’t pay for the information found in this book.

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#2 written by E. Ballinger 1 year ago

Review by E. Ballinger for Timeshare Vacations For Dummies (Dummies Travel)
Rating:
I found the book fairly informative and basic for those of us completely new to timeshare. I have to think some of the reviewers here never read this book, because the author indeed goes out of her way to reference informative webpages (including tug2.net mentioned here and others) for further information.

Did a good job of breaking down the “lingo” that I had a hard time slogging through online. A good place to start, but not the be-all and end-all if you really need to learn about time shares, but I don’t think it was meant to be. But this book is certainly a good jumping-off place.

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#3 written by John Vitek 1 year ago

Review by John Vitek for Timeshare Vacations For Dummies (Dummies Travel)
Rating:
Another book on the topic, though well written, does not cover buyer’s point of view, as the author was/is involved in rendering services to the timeshare industry. It does not help the consumers in making a sound decision in buying or not buying a timeshare, and, like others have pointed out, it is biased towards buying from the developer. Most of the material in the book belongs to appendices, so only 30-40% of the book contains some advices. BTW, you get much more and accurate information on http://www.tug2.net.

What is missing is the buyer’s perspective: there is no counter arguments, no market analysis, no comparative analysis of different alternatives, no detailed info about timeshare scams or legal protection. Indeed, this book is a waste of $$$ and time. Though Ms. Scherier’s worked many years in the industry, her inexperience and little understanding of the economics is remarkable as she misrepresents the facts on many occasions. What is striking is the blindness of Wiley Publishing, especially the editors of this book; they checked the grammar, the syntax, the form, but obviously they did not check its content. Really a disappointing job.

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#4 written by J. Hansen 1 year ago

Review by J. Hansen for Timeshare Vacations For Dummies (Dummies Travel)
Rating:
For anyone who is looking for more info about timeshares, this book is the last place that you should look. Like others have pointed out, it is biased towards buying from the developer and mentions Orlando timeshares as being good buys, when Orlando is probably the most overbuilt area in the world. If there is anyone who really wants to learn about timeshares, spend some time researching online at good sites like tug2.net

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#5 written by Judith Shapiro 1 year ago

Review by Judith Shapiro for Timeshare Vacations For Dummies (Dummies Travel)
Rating:
This book has some good basic information on what timesharing is, and the different types of timeshares available (deeded versus right-to-use; fixed versus floating; etc.)

However, the advice about what to actually buy leaves a lot to be desired. For example, she specifically advises buyers that good deals may be had in developer (“new”) timeshares in overbuilt areas, that is, areas with many, many timeshares. In fact, overbuilt areas generally give very low trading power and are therefore a poor value. In particular, the author presents Orlando as the best place to buy a timeshare. In reality, Orlando timeshares are a glut on the market and (unless you own a Christmas or Spring Break week) rarely receive good trades. The author gives an example of how you can’t trade into a top Orlando resort with a non-Orlando timeshare that cost only $1,000 resale. Well, I’ve done it — repeatedly.

Some of the advice here makes me question how extensive the author’s knowledge of timeshares is. For example, she says it is often a good idea to buy a 3-bedroom unit that “locks off” into three 1-bedroom units. However, there are few, if any, timeshares that work this way; “lock-off” units almost always convert into two units, not three, and usually only one of the two units is a one-bedroom, rather than a studio. Also, the author says (p. 23) “Private sleeping capacity is just that: separate sleeping rooms.” This is misleading; private sleeping capacity is based on each couple sleeping privately, not each individual. So, if a timeshare unit sleeps six separately, that means it has three private sleeping areas that each hold two people, not six private sleeping areas.

The internet has an active timesharing community, full of people who respond very strongly when they feel that a timeshare salesperson — which this author is, or at least used to be — is giving out misleading information. That is why this book is getting criticism here. The criticism is coming from the online timeshare users’ community, not from timeshare salespeople.

My advice? This book is OK if you just want some info about timesharing, but before you plunk down serious money to actually buy a timeshare, [...]

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