It’s Totally Arbitrary

If you’ve been a timeshare owner for any length of time, you’ve inevitably been on the receiving end of upgrade sales pitches. 

Whether it’s because the once week based timeshare is now selling points, or the resort has been acquired by another, change is a fact of life in most cases. 

What unsuspecting owners don’t know is that the offers they receive are totally arbitrary. 

Let me explain. 

If a resort transitions from selling RCI affiliated weeks to RCI affiliated points, there’s nothing that prevents the resort from merely converting your week into the correct number of points that RCI has assigned. But, inevitably, you’ll be told that’s not possible. You must first buy more in order to make the conversion. And how much more?  Again, arbitrary. Whatever you’ll accept as ‘the rules.’

Current Diamond Resorts owners are being fed this right now due to Hilton’s acquisition. Every day, I read social media posts and emails from people who were told varying stories about how much more they’d have to purchase in order to become an HGV member. 

Besides the fact that no one should be relying on anything that a salesperson says, and they’re all salespeople, regarding the Hilton/Diamond deal until after official word comes down from Mount Hilton, the very fact that just about everyone gets a different story and a different number of points that they ‘have to buy in order to stay part of Hilton’ is again, indication that it’s all arbitrary. Made up. 

Because for some strange reason, consumers see things clearly when talking about anything other than timeshare, let me put this into an iPhone analogy. 

Each time Apple comes out with an iOS upgrade, people who own Apple devices can simply hit a button and download it. The exception, there usually is, is if you own a much older device that won’t support the new iOS. If you’re still using an iPhone 6, you’ll understand. 

Apple doesn’t require you to purchase a new iPhone or iPad in order to be ‘eligible’ for the new operating system. 

My point is that timeshare owners need to know this before listening to the spiel. Just as there’s no MSRP or Kelly Blue Book value for a timeshare, the ‘required’ figure is arbitrary. 

The industry has so much to gain by making things, starting with prices, more transparent. 

(My apologies if this post was a bit muddy. I’m blaming a week plus of COVID fog 😵‍💫)